Excedrin is just a brand name, as is Tylenol & Benadryl. It is/was a combination of drugs: originally Acetaminophen, Aspirin and Caffeine. Great for headaches, but cause re-bound headaches. Any of the Excedrins with that combination will keep you awake, no matter what else you add. Some no longer have the combinations. You have to read the specific ingredients, not the brand name.

I believe the actual drug in Tylenol is also Acetaminophen.

The PM maybe Diphenhydramine, as someone else said. This, by itself, usually (not always) induces sleep. Being groggy the next day is a problem for some.

The drug in some of the others is Ibuphrofen.

Problems associated with:
Aspirin - stomach and kidney problems.
Acetaminophen - liver problems.
Ibuprofen - kidney problems.

There are also some problems associated with Ambien, mainly sleepwalking and headache, I think.

I have found ambien to work well with no grogginess. I have tended to take it AFTER dinner is served on the plane. I also put on an eye mask (helps a lot). I'm curious to know if the person who takes ambien on an empty stomach does so for a specific reason.

We have also adopted the 'sleep forward' method, and bring on two small blowup beach balls to lean into...

I'm the one who takes Ambien on an empty stomach, cmstraf, and here's why:

"A food-effect study in 30 healthy male subjects compared the pharmacokinetics of Ambien 10 mg when administered while fasting or 20 minutes after a meal. Results demonstrated that with food, mean AUC and Cmax were decreased by 15% and 25%, respectively, while mean Tmax was prolonged by 60% (from 1.4 to 2.2 hr). The half-life remained unchanged. These results suggest that, for faster sleep onset, Ambien should not be administered with or immediately after a meal."

This information is from this web site: http://www.rxlist.com/ambien-drug.htm

My goal is to fall soundly and quickly asleep, and this approach works very well for me. I wait until we're well on our way and the captain's turned off the seatbelt sign so that I can empty my bladder one last time, and then and only then do I take the Ambien. I do fall asleep pretty quickly, and since I sit in an aisle seat (claustrophobic) I do sometimes have to be pulled out of the way of the drinks cart. On one particularly memorable occasion the flight attendant managed to convince my daughter (who was probably about 12 at the time) to let her serve me my meal, not believing her when she said that I'd already eaten. My daughter took her advice to heart and actually tried to feed me. Her efforts met with failure, but I did have the strangest dream about lasagne, and it was only much later that I realized it wasn't a dream at all.

I do make a point of telling the person sitting next to me that I'll be sleeping very soundly and not to worry in the least if he/she needs to get up, but to just step right over me as if I were a pile of laundry.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, those of you who use an over-the-counter prep that contains a sleep med and Tylenol together should avoid adding alcohol to that mix. Much worse, for instance, than combining alcohol with something like Ambien because Tylenol (acetaminophen) is toxic to your liver in much lower doses than you might expect, and alcohol exacerbates the problem. And when I say toxic I mean "acute liver failure with ensuing death unless you get a liver transplant right away" kind of toxic.

I am another Ambien lover. Ty;lenol PM has a longer half life and I miss an entire day in Europe. Ambien works only on the sleep center in your brain and has a short half life. My husband can only take 5 mg, I require 10. Again, this should be attempted at home first.Ambien is not in the same class as Valium or other narcotic sleep agents or muscle relaxers. It doesn't have the same action on your central nervous system, Still, every person reacts differently to drugs. I just picked up my Ambien today, bte. Countdown is 6 days!!

I take benadryl - it seems to work without the after effects and I have sinus issues as well.

I also sleep forward. I have started to bring my own pillow on long haul flights when I am not in business class. I lean forward to sleep and the pillow helps a ton.

Try melatonin. It will make you sleepy. It is what your body makes naturally to sleep. It's an over the counter supplement. Many children take it to fall asleep. Non habit forming and won't hurt you.

Travelnut - love the beach ball idea!

Whatever it is YOU need to try it yourself.

I also am in the camp that the OTC sleep meds make me really REALLY "wired". It would be the WORST thing in the world for me on an overnight flight. My doctor let's me use Xanax for flights (a prescription anti-anxiety drug similar to Valium).

Also know that some people simply cannot sleep on planes. I never have. Not once, ever. Doesn't matter what I do, how long the flight, whether it's the day time or night time. My doctor mentioned some people simply cannot sleep sitting up, so that may be part of it. But I have learned to sit back, put on an eye mask, relax, and "pretend" to sleep... which is at least somewhat more relaxing than figiting around all night like I used to do on flights to Europe.

Nyquil also works.

And I wouldn't worry overly about the side effects. Should you make a habit of (over)using these drugs? No. But within the recommended dosages, they should be safe. All of these products have been used for years (including chasing Tylenol with booze) and you don't see people keeling over from them.

I am one of those who never sleeps on planes to Europe. And since the demise of the Air France plane over the water last week, I'll definitely not improve my record. I once took Tylenol PM and it had exactly the opposite effect it was supposed to have and made me totally hyper for about 24 hours - never again. I do sometimes use a wonderful French sleeping pill called Donormyl that allows me to sort of drift off and at least relax my normal tension about flying for 3-4 hours. But basically unless I am on a plane with 3 free seats in a row and a good dose of Donormyl, I'm not sleeping. And I've come to terms with that. I'm fine the first day over, just don't ever nap and go to sleep around 10 pm and am fine the next day. Coming home westward sometimes practically kills me, though my October flights - 6 of them total - back to DC from India were so good I felt no jetlag whatsoever, but I attribute that to the fact that I was in so many time zones in such a short time and flew for more than 40 hours (a full work week!) that my body didn't know WHAT the hell was going on and just coped.

Suze - my dd gets wired from benadryl so I really suggest as you do to try it out. My dd also has a VERY hard time sleeping on planes - she rarely does. I did give her tylenol PM for the flight to Europe in December - and it was a late flight (around 11:00 pm ) and she did manage to finally get some sleep. Come to find out she got very ill in Paris so she might have slept because she was sick.She is tall for her age (5'4 at 11 years old) and has long legs and it is very hard for her to get comfortable. :(

And one more Xanax (valium, etc.) story - when I first got this prescribed I didn't realize what I was taking. I had asked my doctor for something to help me sleep since I was SO fearful while flying and the thought of being awake and scared for so many hours was getting me even more anxious about our trip. So he gave me my Xanax Rx - 4 pills so both husband & I could take one on the way over and one on the way back. Well, since my husband's problem is sleep and not anxiety, the Xanax did basically nothing for him at all. He has had insomnia issues since he was 13 and the "relaxing" effect of the Xanax did nothing to help him stay asleep with all the noise, movement, etc. of the airplane. It took me a few years to realize that I was taking an anti-anxiety pill and that is when I started taking it for short domestic flights as well. Since it is NOT a sleeping pill it has helped me to overcome my fear of flying to the point where I still ask for an annual Rx, and I still carry some in my purse but haven't used them for the past several flights!

I took a valium on a flight to Japan last year. I didn't sleep at all. But for some reason the valium I took seemed to affect my wife more than me. She wasn't nearly as irritating as she usually is.

Whatever sleep aid you choose, do not take it until the plane is airborne. You do not want to be already conked out if an emergency occurs and you need to be able to follow the FA's safety announcement/instructions.

Be careful with melatonin. Several years ago someone suggested that I try it as I used to have trouble sleeping on airplanes. Fortunately I tried it at home first because it gave me awful night terrors.

After some research, I learned that natural melatonin levels are often low during flight because of the ambient light in the cabin and the constant motion and noise. Wearing a sleepmask will help keep your natural melatonin levels up without the jolt of melatonin you get from pills--coupled (tripled?) with Tylenol PM and earplugs, I now sleep well on airplanes with no problems when I wake up.

If you do take melatonin, the synthetic forms are probably safer than those from animal pineal tissue. There haven't been extensive tests of melatonin taken as a supplement, so it's not recommended for pregnant or breast feeding women.

Sorry to be dim, but what is the sleep forward method?

I haven't previously been able to sleep on planes, but I have discovered Nyquil in my regular life and will definitely try it on my next trip!

Sleeping forward involves leaning forward to sleep in your seat on the plane, rather then leaning back. Typically people bring a pillow or something like a beach ball to lean forward onto. There are also inflatable pillows specifically designed for the purpose.

I sleep on my back, so don't find sleeping forward to be very comfortable at all. It's also better to choose a window (rather than aisle) seat, as otherwise you block the window person into his seat.