Are you someone that barely gets touched by a movie? Do your friends think you are an impassive person for not weeping over romantic movies with them? Well, then you should let them see you on a plane watching inflight entertainment movies and notice the waterworks starting. 

In this article we will discuss more about this highly emotional state passengers get into while flying, why we get emotionally sensitive and what the science thinks of that.

Little oxygen, little control

There are not many studies that have explicitly defined the reasons behind our odd behavior while we’re on a plane, yet common hypotheses do exist to clarify this emotional shift in the state of our minds, and it goes between the plane environment conditions and the way our bodies and minds respond to these altered conditions.

The high altitudes

With the plane getting high in the skies, the air pressure gets lower in the airplane which in return reduces the oxygen levels in our blood than normal, and this results in fatigue, confusion and an inability to control our emotions and behaviours.

The air-conditioning system

The air-conditioning system on planes dry the air causing dehydration, and dehydration negatively affects the mood, attention and therefore our behavior gets affected as well, and that’s when you face a problem with regulating your emotions.

We simply lose control over everything on a plane, so no wonder how we grasp at crying by then, considering it to be our only recourse of showing control or ability of taking an action, and this is exactly when the sob-fest gets started over a ridiculous movie that barely could get you smiling on ground.

What’s the best thing to do when crying on an airplane?

We see much advice that explains to passengers how to deal with their weeping, and many tricks on how to eliminate this weird habit of crying, but isn’t it just more pressuring someone who feels fragile already?

If you are a crying person in planes, you don’t really have to feel bad about that. It’s totally okay to give yourself permission to cry during your flight, and maybe next time try not to feel embarrassed about shedding tears while you are surrounded by strangers and embrace this behavior instead, consider it as a safe and calm zone to express your feelings after your long stressful day.

Sources

• https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/why-we-cry-on-planes/280143/
• https://time.com/5274209/airplane-cry-emotion/
• https://www.npr.org/2019/07/14/741619152/cool-your-jets-science-might-explain-your-weird-and-emotional-airplane-behavior
• https://gettyimages.com (Cover Image)