Flying to Italy

I would advise staying with your normal sleep schedule the night before your flight. Sleeping on the plane is fitful at best, and you will want to be as fresh as possible when you arrive. Try your best to sleep on the Charlotte-Germany (overnight) leg. Most likely you will arrive in Europe in the morning (their time), so get out, walk and get some fresh air. LOTS of fresh air. Try to get on Europe time sleep wise as soon as possible. There is a great video on this site from Rick about jet lag, and there are probably not many folks around who have had more experience.

I'm assuming that your Charlotte to Germany flight will depart in the early evening and fly through the night to Germany. If you sleep OK on the plane, you should be fine. We usually arrive at our destination in the afternoon. We get to our hotel, check in and then begin touring into the evening. We were a bit wiped on our recent trip to Barcelona. We did walk around La Rambla into the early eveing but we did get tired. We were fine the next day.

There really are two issues on a flight ... "travel fatigue" (from lack of sleep) and jet lag (from the time zone change). I find the travel fatigue to be far worse than the jet lag. I'd try to get whatever sleep you can before heading to the airport.

Since you don't know how well you will sleep on the plane(s), you should try to be well rested before starting your endurance test flights. I don't sleep well on planes, so trying to stay up the night before would be a disaster for me. Sleeping between connections is not easy, with the stimulation at the airport and the worry about missing the plane (the flight staff won't let you stay asleep once the plane lands, but no one on the ground is going to find you if you sleep through the boarding announcements). What time is your arrival at your final destination? And what is your final destination (I see from your thread title that it's in Italy). While there is debate about using melatonin, Ambien, or other things, I'm not aware of any debate that it's very helpful to stay outdoors in the light as much as possible on your first day, and to not go to sleep too early, so you can try to reset your internal clock to local time. I know that for me personally, jet lag varies tremendously from trip to trip, but it's always much worse if I go indoors for too long on that first day. I also am sure to set my alarm (on my cell phone) for the first few mornings, after an embarrassing incident when I slept until noon and was awakened only by the cleaning staff!

I did that on my first international flight to London. It worked fine but I was only 20 but the reasoning behind it was more about my it being easier to stay up all night than to get up at 4 in the morning rather than to aid sleeping on the plane. Now, nearly 20 years later, I don't intend to try it on my upcoming trip. Whether or not I'll be able to sleep for excitement is a different story.

I agree with the posts that suggest get a good sleep in before leaving, since 'sleeping on the plane' is hit or miss! BUT, one way that helps to sleep better on the plane is to use wax earplugs (usually sold in the travel section of a drug store) and a sleeping mask. This was advice given to me from business travelers, and it helps to shut off the stimulation that's on planes (people walking the aisles, reading w/ light on, talking, eating, etc.). Happy Travels :)

Definitely take along a sleeping mask and earplugs. The RS stores carry a kind that won't leave you with a Lone Ranger mask outline on your face, unlike the cheap ones. (I'm reminded of this corny joke: "Have you heard about the new corduroy pillows? They're making headlines.") As for earplugs, the problem with the wax ones is that they can't be quickly taken out and put back in (e.g. the flight attendant needs to ask you something). Plus they feel really weird (to me.) The foam earplugs work very well (but not as well as wax) and are easier to put in and take out.

You asked about Melatonin - I take on my first couple of nights in Europe, just seems to help my body get on to European time. I find coming back is more of a problem.......I usually make it to around 8 pm at night and then sleep until 3 am.....I usually get up and putter, answer e-mail and so on. It takes about a week to get back to my normal sleep pattern.