PAXboy:
During dinner, I was debating this long flight with the man next to me in the 'B'. He offerred me a sleeping pill as he was taking one. Well, my mummy tought me not to take strange pills from strange men on aircraft!!! He told me that it was a barbiturate. I thought about it for another five seconds and accepted. I chugged it down with a brandy and coke.
After dinner, I settled down and woke up over Denmark with 90 minutes to go!!! So was out for about 12 hours.
It was a very silly thing to do, had we have had an emergency landing, I don't know how responsive I would have been and I don't plan to do it again.
I've heard of people who've taken knock-out sleeping tablets being carried off the aircraft when it's returned to origin an hour or so into the flight. One story I was told involved the man's wife having to carry the baby plus the collected cabin baggage for all three of them.
To clarify - the Sominex I take isn't a "proper" sleeping tablet, which is why you can get them over the counter. It's an antihistamine, from that generation that makes you feel really drowsy. But a kick of adrenaline can and will wake you up from it, if you need to be awake. As an added bonus, it's also a motion sickness suppressant.