--- title: British Airways Happiness Blanket Senses Your Mood In-Flight description: British Airways 'happiness blanket' detects passengers' moods. canonical: https://time.com/2949354/british-airways-happiness-blanket/ author: Anita Hamilton article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-02T14:56:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:11:20.225Z og:title: This Blanket Will Tell Your Flight Attendant Exactly How Unhappy You Are og:description: British Airways has tested the wearable tech on select flights og:url: https://time.com/2949354/british-airways-happiness-blanket/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1550e94d34e4668e/69869a42cd68481dbc095818/happiness-blanket-british-airways.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: Happiness blanket - British airways og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Blanket Will Tell Your Flight Attendant Exactly How Unhappy You Are twitter:description: British Airways has tested the wearable tech on select flights twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1550e94d34e4668e/69869a42cd68481dbc095818/happiness-blanket-british-airways.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Blanket Will Tell Your Flight Attendant Precisely How Unhappy You Are > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Anita Hamilton](https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/) ## Anita Hamilton Jul 2, 2014 2:56 PM UTC  Courtesy British Airways by [Anita Hamilton](https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/) ## Anita Hamilton Jul 2, 2014 2:56 PM UTC British Airways wants to make its planes your happy place. To help take your mind off the alarming air turbulence, the hundreds of strangers you’re sardined in with, and the full-body stop-and-frisk you may have endured for flying with them, they’re testing a “happiness blanket” that will convey your “meditative state” throughout the trip. The blanket doesn’t magically make you happy. (If only …) Instead, it helps the airline figure out what makes you happy other than copious amounts of bloody Marys and a double-dose of Xanax. It works in conjunction with a headband, which measures your brain wave activity, then wirelessly conveys it to the blanket, which is embedded with red and blue LED lights. They flash red when you’re miserable or blue when you’re in “a Zen-like state of mind.” Not surprisingly, flyers’ moods fluctuate the most when using in-flight entertainment or eating. “What we found was that the blankets turned bluer when people were relaxing, such as sleeping, listening to relaxing music, or eating, as that created a feeling of well-being. However, eating cheese for example can often turn the blankets red, as that releases a chemical in the brain which increases brain activity,” says the airlines’ consumer PR manager, Michael Johnson, who adds that the blankets will not be made available to paying customers. No word on how flyers reacted to arrival delays, abrupt [changes in elevation](http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/cabin-pressurization/) or news that they’re out of the chicken entrée but the vegetarian meal is still available. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2949354/british-airways-happiness-blanket/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2949354/british-airways-happiness-blanket/"},"headline":"This Blanket Will Tell Your Flight Attendant Precisely How Unhappy You Are","datePublished":"2014-07-02T14:56:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:11:20.225Z","description":"LED lights in British Airways' \"happiness blanket\" turn red when you're on the verge of a panic attack and blue when you're too drunk to notice you're flying straight into a thunderstorm","url":"https://time.com/2949354/british-airways-happiness-blanket/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Brain","Technology","Air travel"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1550e94d34e4668e/69869a42cd68481dbc095818/happiness-blanket-british-airways.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Anita Hamilton","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/anita-hamilton/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1550e94d34e4668e/69869a42cd68481dbc095818/happiness-blanket-british-airways.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Happiness blanket - British airways","caption":"","creditText":"Courtesy British Airways","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2949354/british-airways-happiness-blanket/","name":"This Blanket Will Tell Your Flight Attendant Precisely How Unhappy You Are"}}]}] ```