The 41-year-old actor, who was travelling from Los Angeles to London, had borrowed the pill from a friend thinking it was sedative Ambien, the Daily Mail reported.
"A lot of times when I'm on the plane, I have to sleep. And I'm not a good sleeper on the plane. I had to fly from London to Los Angeles for dinner, and then get right back on a plane to London. That's 10 to 12 hours. I had to get off the plane go to work, so I had to sleep on the plane," Renner told Jimmy Kimmel.
"So I took a little sleeping pill, popped it and realised nothing's happening... But something else was happening! I realised very quickly that the 'A' was actually a little 'V' on the pill. Not only did I not sleep the entire flight, but there was 'camping' happening," the actor joked.
Renner said he was really embarrassed by the episode but said fortunately most of the other passengers were asleep and didn't notice.
"The flight attendants were sort of in on the joke. They were like, 'Can we get you anything, Mr Renner?"
The actor said he asked for an aspirin to help with the pain but was denied one "because they don't want the responsibility if you're allergic".