My wife and I have a 24hr flight to Austrailia in january 2010,and we always have difficulty in sleeping on the plane. And we wondered if anyone had a none drug remedy for getting some sleep. Thanks Mike.

Alas no, are you flying Qantas? They often serve hot chocolate at "bed" time, that might be a tiny bit of help. Other than hot milk, maybe try valerian tablets, it's a herbal remedy that could be effective.

I also find getting my feet off the ground helps, my hand-luggage is sausage-shaped and doubles as a footstool for when the planes don't have the metal footrests.

There are a variety of tips here: http://tinyurl.com/d67tzy

We use Valerian occasionally at home if we are having trouble sleeping for some reason. It is herbal and it tends to relax you and does aid sleep. I think the engine noise and lights disturb me so think about wearing earplugs and an eye mask and pull a light rug around you. Good luck. I can never sleep on planes and if I doze I always end up with a sore neck. A blow up neck pillow can help a bit.

Kay

I sleep pretty well (relatively speaking!) on planes, and here are a few things that help me:

Getting on the plane exhausted: that can include no sleep the night before, scrubbing the whole house before I leave, whatevs; it helps.

I don't eat the meals. I eat at the airport before boarding the plane and at stopovers, usually something fairly light and carb-y.

Noise cancelling headphones, eye mask.

I take a faux pashmina for up around my face to cover up, rather than the airline blanket. It's come in useful in various locations anyway, and doesn't take much room. Same with my down-filled travel pillow. (from a Fodor's hint, by the way!)

My most recent experience was sleeping on a 16 hour flight from South Africa, where the guy next to me was 1/3 on my seat, so I guess really I'm fortunate to be able to sleep pretty much anywhere! (I'm planning on doing the Oz flight next July, so here's hoping I can sleep then, too.)