You wanna hear something more tragic? I slept through dinner woke up and complained to my wife that flying economy class was getting really stingy when they don't serve meals on long haul flights. "They have served it and you slept through it" was her sleep deprived reply b(

suze, it's VERY hard for me to sleep, even in good conditions, so going to sleep earlier than normal is difficult, as well. However, getting up earlier each morning does tend to make me sleepier earlier - which is why I work on it the whole week before. By the time I leave, getting up at 3am means I am sleepy by 8pm :)

wow, who would have thought this would be such a controversial and interesting discussion.!

I will definitely try to get my husband on board with the go to bed earlier that week plan...we'll see, he hates to give up his nighttime TV :)

L- sky - cuddly doesn't seem silly to me at all, quite the contrary,

and I couldn't agree more with what you said so eloquently about your great grandparents. when one thinks of the hardships that people used to go through to travel one night of sleeplessness is a small price to pay. thanks for the perspective !

Can you stand one more comment on drugs? My poor husband tried it all - adjusting his clock starting a week before the trip, alcohol, no alcohol, business class flat seat, otc drugs and even my Xanax (I was a fearful flyer). NOTHING worked until he tried Ambien. It IS a sleeping pill but for him it doesn't knock him out cold so he can't wake up, but rather when he does wake up (go to the bathroom, etc.) he can fall right back asleep. The Xanax did nothing for him because his problem was never anxiety. Ambien has helped him immensely - he did try it out ahead of time and I also make him take it for 2 more nights after we arrive in Europe. He gets maybe 4 hours sleep on the plane but that is way better than 0 and taking it for a few more nights helps him to settle into the time zone. He's fine after that.

But with any drug - ask your doctor & try it ahead of time. Wish I had done that with the Exedrin PM so I would know it only makes me hyper!

Whether or not you need or like drugs, it can become an issue when you rent a car right after arrival on a red-eye flight.
Depending on the respective jurisdiction, you will void your insurance and be treated as DUI in case of a major accident if sleeping drugs (or any drug that impairs driving capabilities) can still be traced at relevant levels. Could be worth to ask your doctor about it before you pop the pill.

TG,
Adjusting sleep cycles is a good way to gently move your body to a new circadian rhythm...assuming you also include darkness when going to bed early AND light when you get up early. Just getting up early and staying in the dark...not ideal.

For a long trip, I don't do much other than sleep..sort of..on plane. I just got back Monday from 3 weeks in Africa.

On a short trip, much more important. I read somewhere that it takes your body one day to 'regain' 1 hour of time. So on a week long trip the 'pain and scarifice' of going to bed early is well worth the effort

I also read somewhere that NASA uses sleep time adjustment.

"There's no way on earth I could just go to bed "around 7-8pm" and actually fall asleep at that time the night before a flight (or any other night)."

Yeah - mostly because at 7pm, I may still be on the way home from work ;)

I understand completely how the week-long "easing into the new time zone" works, but it seems like an awful lot of hassle to go through when just one sleepless night and one day of toughing it out until 10 pm does the trick for me. Heck, it's not unknown for me to have a sleepless - or practically sleepless - night here at home when I'm not crossing time zones. It's no biggie - you're tired, you get through it, you're fine the next day. WAY easier, IMO, than a whole week of reorganizing my usual sleeping habits.

Start taking melatonin each night at bedtime the week before travel. When you start to roll down the runway for takeoff, take another. You should be awake long enough to enjoy your delicious gourmet inflight meal. You'll probably fall asleep right after that. No alcohol. Hit the ground running. No cat naps or booze until dinner that 1st night in Europe. By day two you'll be almost completely adjusted.

I take three trips to Europe each year and have been for the past ten years. This regime has worked perfectly for me and I was always a guy that couldn't sleep sitting upfright.

Laura, I don't think anyone suggested this , and it's not for everyone: Do NOt sleep the night before your flight. It works especially well if you have a morning flight.
The only way i can sleep on planes is if I've gone without sleep for at least the last 18 hours. If that happens, the minute the plane lifts off, I'm out like a light.

oh, I probably won't sleep the night before from nerves anyway, but not my favorite way to prepare - my fear is that then I'll land in Paris on two sleepless nights and be useless the first two days (:

For those who use medication to sleep on a flight, do you do so if you are in other than a window seat - that is, if your row neighbor will have to crawl over your probably unresponsive body to get to the aisle? How do you handle that?

worldinabag- the one time I used a sleep medication on a flight -it was Ambien and I had an aisle seat - when dinner came around DW says that I woke up and ate it. I have no recollection of that. Maybe amnesia is the way to mitigate bad airline food.

A while back, DD left JFK for a flight to Tel Aviv, a long haul, and promptly upon boarding took dramamine that always knocks her out. After the flight was airborn for an hour when it turned back. She was thrilled that she slept the entire way only to realize that she was back where she started and half out of it.

Basingstoke, I always manage a window seat if I can, for that very reason - I'm such a light sleeper, even with drugs it takes me very long to get to sleep, especially if I'm re-awakened lots.

This trip we're taking in May, I will be up at 3am to get to the airport, have a very long (12 hour!) layover in Newark. We are having a friend take us out and about NYC to exhaust us, and they fly out to Ireland at 9:30pm. I'm hoping that, combined with sleeping earlier before the trip, will be enough to exhaust me.

MMMM the minimal exhaustion is impossible I think... even if you were flying in 1st class in a bed... Is not the same as being home or in some real bed...

Just before the flight, i mean the day before... Do some sports, go partyin, get really tired before the flight... You'd be sleeping as a baby!!! :)

<i>even if you were flying in 1st class in a bed... Is not the same as being home or in some real bed...</i>

It isn't the same as being in a real bed, but I sleep pretty darn well in the flat bed seats.

If you really want the bed, and have a few thousand dollars to spare, then you can always travel like this:

http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_U...atfeatures.jsp

Laura~ I've figure that out from past travel. I know I will be "useless the first two days" from jet lag. So I just factor that into my trip planning. And allow a lot of flex time the first couple days in case I need to take a nap or take it easy to make the adjustment.

We travel abroad 2-3 times per year. We usually start by having a carb loaded meal before we board and don't wait for dinner on plane, we use a neck pillow, blind folds for eyes, ear plugs, loose clothing like a warm up, warm socks or even compression socks for circulation, and an over the counter sleeping aid like Tylenol pm or dramamine.( try these out at home to see how they work for you) No alcohol it is to dehydrating, drink plenty of water to stay hydrated as well. We also take aspirin to help prevent DVT's. Then when we land have some strong coffee, hit the ground running no cat naps stay awake, keep hydrated so no alcohol again, have dinner and turn in early and then we're usually successful at avoiding jet lag

Even thinking about jetlag and sleeplessness on a plane makes me want to travel. :D

I find I am less bothered by jet lag now that I am in my early 60s than I was a decade ago. (There are benefits to aging. I don't get migraines any more, either.)

I can pretty much sleep most anywhere, including planes, so I generally get three hours sleep on an eastbound trans-Atlantic flight. I try to get in as much outdoor activity as possible on the first day in Europe (sunlight does wonders) and then try to stay up until 9:30 or so the first evening.

Day two feels perfectly normal.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T SLEEP ON AN OVERNIGHT FLIGHT... I flew from Rome to Zurich to Boston and developed blood clots in my lungs and nearly lost my life!!!! I slept almost the entire time.. I am now suffering the consequences of this. If you have a companion with you have them get you up to walk around...four days in the Special Care Unit in a touch and go situation with Cardiologists Pulmonary M.D.s telling me I had a close call is enough for me. Next time I wear rubber stockings too.