tylenol pm is also benedryl, and of course, tylenol.

Day time flight when possible!

I only have two flights to Europe to draw from, and I was probably lucky on the first one. It left BHM at around 5PM and left Detroit to CDG at 9:30PM. Our eventual destination was BUD and we landed there around 3PM. I managed the aisle in the middle trick because the plane wasn't full and managed a couple of hours with the help of Ambien.

This year, I was in DC for a couple of weeks before I went to Europe and I took a 6AM flight from BWI to EWR, then the 9AM flight from EWR to LHR. It landed around 9PM London time. I got luggage, transferred to an airport hotel and went to bed around midnight local time. While it was only 7PM to my body, I had been up since 2AM to shower and then catch the shuttle from DC to BWI. I was plenty tired at that point, it was dark and I slept great. No jet lag whatsoever on this trip. I highly recommend a daytime flight when you can get it....even if you have to fly to the East coast the night before and Priceline a cheap hotel there first.

I've considered day flights many times, but what stops me is the idea of 6-7 hours on a plane in the daytime. This is why I hate the flight home. It seems like a LONGGGGGGG flight when the lights are all on, people are up and down the aisles, bathrooms getting used constantly, kids are awake, people are chatting...

Even when I'm unable to sleep, I enjoy it when they turn down the lights and most people go to sleep. It's restful and the time seems to go fast.

I think that paying for an upgrade to business or first class would work:

You could probably sleep there AND the cost would likely knock you out too!

A very short acting sleeping pill that works well for me is Sonata. Ambien CR (the longer lasting, time release kind) lasts a little longer. I only take about 3 MG (the 6.25 cut in half)

Actually, it amazed me, but many people slept on the day flight over, so it wasn't as disruptive as you might think. I thought that was incredibly short-sighted as they would then REALLY have a time with jet lag in my opinion, but to each his own. I made the deliberate effort to stay awake, even when I was tired. I watched movies, worked on my laptop a little, read and listened to my iPod....and ate all the food they seemed to bring me all the time. I also was lucky in that it wasn't a full flight and I got the window and aisle to myself so I could really stretch out. It was quite enjoyable actually.