I will be making my first overnight flight from Chicago to London then on to Germany this week and I am a bit nervous. I do not like to fly but love to travel. Does anyone have any hints on how to make this as comfortable as possible? I have never had much success sleeping on shorter flights even with sleep medicine but hopefully on this long overnight flight it will be different.
Thanks!

Ambien is the drug of choice (not mine) and melatonin (over the counter) seems to work for many.

However if you're really opposed to flying at night, American has a morning departure from ORD that arrives in London around dinner time. You can get a cheap hotel (Priceline) at Heathrow, then continue to Germany the next day. It won't increase the price of the trip, and many people (us included) find that the daytime flights over the Atlantic really reduce jetlag the following days.

Edited to add - I missed that you're flying this week, so changing your flights is probably out of the question.

I'd mention that overnight transatlantic flights this week are going to have very little "night" as the combination of the northern flight track (probably over Greenland) plus the summer solstice will make for short/no night in high latitudes.

I took an Excedrin PM after eating a small amount of the meal that was served on my last flight across the Atlantic (ORD to ZRH on Swiss). I did manage to sleep for at least several hours. I'm going to do that again on my next night-flight. Tylenol PM would also propbably work, if you don't like Excedrin. I never used to sleep on planes, and I mean NEVER. But over the years, I've gotten more used to air travel and the turbulance that used to bother me.

Good luck to you. I hope you have a pleasant flight.

I expected the two drugs to have the same contents and in the same amounts, but Excedrin actually has 50% more of the sleep med than the other.

Tylenol PM:
Acetaminophen 500 mg in each gelcap
Diphenhydramine citrate 25 mg in each gelcap

Excedrin PM
Acetaminophen 500 mg in each gelcap
Diphenhydramine citrate 38 mg

And advice for OP: get an eye-mask and a neck pillow, esp. the eye-mask. Take off your shoes and maybe put on a second pair of socks.

Most airlines these days are almost Nazi about insisting blinds stay closed on overnight flights - and about opening them somewhere over Ireland

So although on a 6 pm flight from Chicago to London this week you'll be in daylight the entire journey, the blinds will almost certainly ensure the cabin will be dark for the 5-6 hours from the time they stop serving dinner till landfall.

Different people react differently, and you really just have to accept there's a high chance you'll get no sleep. The good news is you'll understand how your body reacts to all this so it'll be better next time

FWIW, my formula for transatlantic overnight eastbounds:
- Get up absurdly early (4 am is not too early: 2.30 is just fine)
- Do as much physical exercise during the day and at the airport as possible
- If you've got to check in early, eat a really heavy meal at the airport before boarding. I once found a place at ORD doing meatloaf, mash and gravy. Absolutely perfect - and better yet with half a bottle of red.
- Grab a glass or two of hooch on the plane, and don't bother with their food. If you've managed a mile or two walking round the airport as well, you'll just drift off.

My personal best, following this formula, has been to fall off to sleep as the plane was taxi-ing for take-off and to wake up as it was circling LHR (a quiet word with the staff saying I didn't want breakfast, either, helped).

if you are using a blanket while sleeping or trying to sleep, then fasten your belt OVER the blanket, so that you will not be disturbed and woken up by FAs in case of turbolences.

Diphenhydramine (i.e., Benadryl) is not really a sleep aid, and it makes some people just jittery, not sleepy. If you want to use that as a sleep aid, then just buy some generic Benadryl. It's a fraction of the cost of the Excedrin or Tylenol PM and doesn't have the unnecessary pain reliever.

However, if you really want to sleep, then take a prescription sleeping aid, though I can't recommend Ambien, which has side effects in a small minority of people. Lunesta seems to be as effective without the side effects for me at least. Do not drink alcohol at all if you take any kind of prescription or non-prescription sleep aid.

I take a couple of the blow up neck pillows -- one for my neck, one for my back, maybe even another for my ribs. They are cheap and take up very little room in my luggage. They can make the lack of padding in those seats a whole lot better.

I try to get a window seat so I can curl up "in the corner" rather than accidentally on a stranger's shoulder.

Tylenol PM works well for me. The Tylenol part alleviates the aches and pains of sleeping while sitting up and the PM puts my mind a rest.

An eye mask is essential and I do take my IPod. I have one section of my IPod loaded with <i>nature sounds</i>. Not the sappy nature/new age music stuff, but things like waves rolling onto a beach, a gentle summer rain storm, a woodland stream and bird sounds, a waterfall and frog sounds, etc. I find these cancel out all the ambient noise of the plane and help me sleep better than music.

The "Echoes of Nature" series is good:
http://www.last.fm/music/Echoes+Of+Nature

If I am flying overnight in economy I have resigned myself that I will get no sleep. It is more restful as I don't fret about not sleeping. I then nap for a couple of hours on arrival at my hotel or home as the case may be. Lots of people can sleep sitting up and you might be one of them. I know people who count on sleeping for 15 minutes of a 30 minute train trip to work.