brentski:

I have found that for the really long flights where you cross so many time zones, that I do best when I stay awake for about the first half of the flight, and then sleep for the last portion of the flight. That way, when I wake up at my destination at 8:00 am, my body is rested as if I had just gone to sleep for the night. I definately don't try and sleep the whole flight as there is no way my body can sleep for 12 hours etc. Also, I drink a lot of fluids (no booze).

During that critical first day at my destination, I stay awake, go out running, excercise, sight see, (work ) etc. so that I will then be really tired and go to sleep at the regular time. If you take a nap (b/c your body is still on "home" time), it only delays the adjustment to your new local time.

On my recent trip to South Africa (Cape Town-MIA ~14.5 hours, JFK to Johannesburg ~ 15 hours) this worked perfectly for me. On my return home, I landed at LAX at 8:00 am, and was at work by 10:00 am w/o any jet lag.