The bunk is a cave
My first night on a night-liner, I thought I'd won the lottery. A bed! On wheels! In a moving hotel full of my friends!
By night four I hadn't slept more than three hours in a row. The bus braked, someone's phone lit up the hallway, the generator hummed, the drummer from the other band snored like a tuba. I played the worst show of the tour that week, and I'm a drummer. Nobody can hear the worst show of a drummer except the drummer. I could hear it.
Here's what I learned, and what I tell every musician I coach before their first bus tour: your bunk is a cave, and caves are dark, cool and quiet.
Dark
Get a proper eye mask. Not the free one from the airline, a contoured one that doesn't press on your eyes. It's the best five to fifteen dollars you'll spend on tour. Even with the curtain closed, the bus is full of light: phones, the lounge, the street lights rolling past. Your brain notices all of it.
Close the curtain every time, even for a nap. Make it a habit, like closing a road case.
Cool
Most people sleep better a little cool. Bunks get stuffy fast. A tiny clip-on fan helps (it also makes a gentle white noise, which brings us to...).
Quiet
Earplugs. The same musician's plugs you wear on stage work, or soft foam ones for sleeping. If plugs bug you, a white-noise track on low through flat sleep earbuds.
And then the part nobody wants to do: agree on bus rules on day one. Quiet hours after a set time. Headphones only. Phone screens dimmed in the hallway. Nobody eats in their bunk. It feels awkward to say on day one, and it feels like a war by day twelve if you don't.
The anchor
Even on the bus, try to keep a "core" sleep window that's roughly the same most nights. For a club tour with 1:30am bus call, that might be 3am to 8am. Nap around it on the drive, but protect those hours like they're the set.
Getting out of the cave
The other half of bunk life is getting out of it without feeling ninety years old. Before you climb down, do two minutes of easy movement: knees to chest, a slow twist, then on the floor of the bus hallway a few cat-cows. Then water, and daylight as soon as you're off the bus. Daylight in the morning tells your body clock what time it is, which makes the next night's sleep easier.
Your homework this week
- Buy a contoured eye mask.
- Put your plugs on the bunk shelf so they're always there.
- Write down your core sleep window and tell the people you share a bus or van with.
That's it. Small, boring, works. That's the whole Soundcheck philosophy.
See you on the road, Dani
Coaching, not medical advice. If you've had sleep problems for weeks, talk to a doctor.