In the end, I watched five movies, catching sleep in between when I could. Sometimes, I find it’s worth finding a long, boring film to help me nod off, so it’s no real loss if I miss chunks of it. Rom-coms are good, too.

I’ve been astonished at the number of times I’ve been seated next to couples or singles who never once get up during a journey.

My greatest fear is that the audiovisual system will break down (it has happened) and that I’ll finish my book early, with hours of staring blankly at a black screen ahead of me.

Funnily enough, there are really weird people who like to do this.

They call themselves “raw-doggers” or “barebackers” and they abstain from all in-flight entertainment, books or podcasts, choosing instead to stare blankly at a black seatback screen or a flight map, refusing all food and even water for the duration of the flight.

Some even refuse toilet breaks.

Why? Beats me.

It’s supposed to be an Alpha male thing, a challenge that’s about mental resilience and self-discipline. In places on social media where I don’t go, it’s a competitive sport, an assertion of qualities that are supposedly masculine, such as endurance and toughness.

I say “ha” to that! I challenge any man to sit through a long-haul flight with menstrual cramps or a wriggling toddler on their lap.

There’s another group of raw-doggers who see it more as a Zen thing. For them, it’s a digital detox, a way to practise mindfulness.

Frankly, I couldn’t imagine a worse place to meditate than on a plane, what with the crying babies, coughing passengers, turbulence, announcements and the flight attendants flashing you with bright torches in the dark.

But maybe that’s the point of it. If you can empty your mind in these adverse circumstances, you may, in fact, obtain a kind of nirvana.

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Sensible people would heed the advice of doctors who say raw-dogging is downright dangerous on a long-haul flight, leading to dehydration or possibly deep vein thrombosis.

While I haven’t found myself sitting next to anyone who stares at the flight path for a whole flight, I’ve been astonished at the number of times I’ve been seated next to couples or singles who never once get up during a journey.

Maybe I’m the freak. Doing leg exercises in my seat, getting up regularly to walk the aisle, drinking lots of water, pulling on compression socks. Headphones, earbuds, neck pillow, books, downloaded podcasts and relaxation music, wrap to keep me warm.

It’s a lot. But I suppose it gives me the sense I can control some elements of the flight.

I imagine that’s what some raw-doggers are doing, too. Taking back some control. Each to their own.

I now, belatedly, can join in conversations about A Complete Unknown or The Room Next Door. But no one ever, to my knowledge at least, has had a water cooler conversation about a flight map.