Sleeping in coach class on an overnight Amtrak train is hard. For me, dealing with this discomfort (as required when maximizing a USA Rail Pass) was an intentional part of my trip experience, the closest thing I would get to the hardship of a long day's walk on the Camino de Santiago. During my trip, which featured five overnight legs, I experimented with several methods. In short, I wasn’t able to get a great night’s sleep, but it was kind of enjoyable testing out different options.

The seat of a coach Superliner seat goes down maybe 60 percent of the way, which is better than coach on an airplane, but still considerably short of laying fully flat, a la first class, or, you know, a bed. For that, one should purchase a sleeper class ticket, which is considerably more than a coach ticket (on longer routes that I checked, a roomette would cost around $400, whereas a single coach seat was around $70). 


But beyond your assigned chair, unlike a plane or other mode of transit, the train presents a variety of options for the creative sleep seeker. You can move around. You have some choices and an opportunity to get creative, which is one of the reasons I find train travel so fun. It became a problem for me to solve: “How can I get a good night’s sleep in coach class on an overnight trip?”


Here are the various methods I tried out, scored from 1 to 10 (10 being as good a sleep as your favorite bed): 

Method 1: The Semi-Recline 

This is the most obvious method, and probably the one Amtrak would suggest going with. It’s the missionary of coach sleep positions. There is a leg rest that comes up underneath your legs and a foot rest that folks down from the seat in front of you.


For this to work, I find it infinitely easier when in the window and not the aisle seat. With a window seat, you can snuggle against the window/side of the car for support, ideally using a pillow or cushion. Stuck with an aisle seat (and presumably a seatmate who you cannot appropriately lean against), you’re forced to balance your sleeping self tenuously within the seat. Walking through the carriages in the evening was like witnessing a series of slow-motion Jenga towers, as aisle seat sleepers drifted closer and closer to falling out of their chairs and into the aisle.


This is the best picture I could find showing what its like to sleep semi-reclined in coach. Image source: Dave Shute, Your First Visit 

I used this semi-reclined method primarily, shifting between lying straight back and a semi-sideways twist. At best, such as on an overnight leg from Chicago to Denver, I was able to sleep largely through the night, although not particularly restfully. I posit that even if one is asleep in such a position, it’s much harder to get to deep (REM, I believe) sleep cycles. Given how unusual the position is, it felt like my body was much more easily awakened--particularly the case, given the motion and sounds of a train. Still, I fared better than others. My brother slept poorly both of his stints in the aisle seat. At an early morning stop, I asked another coach passenger how he slept: “Barely at all. Managed to snatch 10 minutes every once in a while before waking up again.”


Sleep score: 5


Method 2: The Face Plant

This method involves sleeping forward, with your head resting on the tray table in front of you, often using your crossed arms as a pillow. I saw some passengers use this method, and so tried it myself, with little success. Even when I managed to fall asleep in this position, I would wake not long after, with my hands gone totally numb. Perhaps this position works better for those with better circulation, or one of those specially designed travel pillows. 


Sleep score: 2


I might have had more luck with the face plant if I had one of these fancy pillows. Image source: Woolip


Method 3: The Fetal/Seat Sneak

If one is lucky enough to get two seats to themselves, it’s possible to lie across both of them in a scrunched up fetal position. This position works much better for children and shorter folks, but for most adults, it’s a tight fit, as you still have to squish your body in order to fit into the relatively tight space. I've had much better luck in this position sleeping across three economy seats on long plane flights.


Think this position, but lying across two coach seats, so way more squished. Image source: Greatist 

So how do you nab a full two seats for yourself? On my leg from Chicago to Denver, the train was a lot emptier, and so I saw more folks going fetal. We would move to claim empty seats to acquire more space. However, depending on how strict the train conductor is--and more specifically, how full the train is--this might not fly. While traveling from San Francisco to Portland, I tried this move again. But I and some fellow squatters were nabbed by the conductor and told to go back to our assigned seats. I suppose I could have moved the little slip of paper with me that the conductors use to keep track of where passengers are getting off, but I didn’t. As such, I had to return to my seat, where my seatmate had taken the liberty of going fetal across my seat (he probably thought I’d moved for the night), and had to wake the poor fellow up. Ultimately, I never actually got to sleep with this method, but even when I was trying, I found it difficult in such a scrunched up position.


Sleep score: 0

Method 4: The "Human Bridge"

This is one of the more original sleep improvisations that I came up with, and even if I wasn’t able to make it work, I’m still quite proud of myself for even trying it. First of all, an Amtrak vet (Dave, from the second Zephyr leg) told me that you can sleep in the observation cars, and indeed, I saw quite a few people do it during my trip. In the observation cars of Superliner trains are several four-top style table booths, with two seats facing one another. By slumping down in your seat, so that your weight is basically held up by your upper back and shoulders, and then resting your legs on the seat across from you, you can enter a horizontal position. The only problem? There’s no ‘mattress’ for your butt and lower back. It’s like sleeping in a bed, except that the entire middle of the mattress has been cut out, leaving only the top and bottom portions of your body supported, like a suspended human bridge. Sadly, the position is better suited for a lower ab exercise--it’s a bit like a reverse plank--than for restful sleep.


I'm not much of an artist but I sketched this picture to try and illustrate the position better:


Note the lack of support for lower back, butt, upper legs, etc.

I tried sticking my backpack under my lower back as a sort of supportive island, but it was obviously not strong enough to carry my weight. If I’d lugged my (much sturdier) suitcase to the car and found a way to squeeze it under the table, I imagine I could have created enough support for my floating bed to work. I would love to have seen the expressions of passengers the next morning, returning to the observation car to find me asleep across my strange tri-cushioned suspension bed.


Sleep score: 0

Method 5: The Observation Car Footbed 

On that restless overnight train from Portland to Seattle, I witnessed someone who had achieved that most dreamt of and elusive of goals for the coach class sleep aspirant: they were fully horizontal, and better yet, they weren’t super squished! They seemed to have come with this plan in mind, as they’d brought a sleeping bag. Their location? The footbed of the window-facing seat pod. Genius! See image below for a better sense of their position:


Note: Yellow man represents where you lie down to sleep. 

That night, I tried it myself (in a different pod), using my travel pillow and blanket. I’m not sure if my sleep mentor had brought a mattress, but it sure would have helped. It turns out that a constantly rocking, hard and cold train floor is not the easiest thing to sleep on. But I spent the night there, waking regularly, getting in some but never much truly restful slumber. Although I’d hoped it would beat the semi-recline, overall it ended up being a slightly worse night’s sleep.


Sleep score: 4   

Tools for Entering ‘Sleep Mode’

In preparation for the trip, I had packed a little sleep kit, including an eye mask, ear plugs, an inflatable neck pillow, a travel cushion (more for back/butt support), and a blanket. When fully kitted out--including the mask requirement--there was so much crap attached to my head and neck that I felt a little ridiculous. But each item served a purpose, and probably allowed me to deal better on various legs with the light, noise, temperature (which ranged from hot to frigid) and rigid surfaces I was attempting to sleep on. There’s also something quite satisfying about going into the bathroom looking relatively normal and coming out fully transformed into “Sleepman”--it was my take on the superhero/fireman's uniform, except it featured sweatpants, and far less ambition.


On the California Zephyr, a passenger in Sleeper Class was nice enough to let me tour their roomette, and I decided to upgrade a leg of my forthcoming trip on the Empire Builder from Seattle to Glacier National Park, as my wife was joining for that leg. However, due to a death in the family, I had to cancel the remainder of my train journey eastward back home from Seattle, and so never got the chance to experience sleeper class on this trip. Ultimately, given my bad back and middle age, I think I’ll opt for sleeper class on future Amtrak trips. In addition to the lack of sleep and stiffness, one has to account for the impact it has on your ability to enjoy the next day. But if you’re on a tight budget or don’t mind the constraints, sleeping in coach is doable. Heck, you might even find it fun, as I sometimes did.


Not for Rail Pass passengers! Some day I hope to sleep as soundly as this lady on the train. Image source: Amtrak

Note: I stumbled across this hilarious guide to sleeping on planes from the Washington Post while browsing for pictures.