Just One Extra Inch of Seat Width Can Double Flyer Comfort

Turns out just one tiny inch can make the difference between spending a long flight in comfortable slumber or awake and in agony. A new study from The London Sleep Centre finds that people who slept in airplane seats that were 18-inches wide had a 53 percent improvement in passenger sleep quality compared to those who slept in 17-inch seats (which is the standard coach class allowance for most airlines.)

The Daily Mail reports that the participants in the study fell asleep faster in the bigger seats, woke up less often, and went through a sleep cycle that ‘mimicked’ resting in a bed.

It’s interesting to see that just one extra inch of width can make such a big difference in comfort, even if the legroom between seats stays the same.

Although we’d love to see airlines figure out a way give us an extra inch in coach class, we imagine they’re harder at work trying to find away to take one away, and cram in even more passengers. What do you think? Tell us in the comments.

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