I rarely have problems with jet lag. Madrid is 7 hours ahead of my time zone, and I find that my sleep patterns in Madrid are off by 7 hours anyway (¡viva la marcha!)so besides being bored/stiff/groggy from the flight, I'm good to go.

I do the same as kelar419 - sleep as much on the plane as possible and then stay up until my normal bed time. This works for me going to anywhere in this general longitude (Europe/Middle East). I am up and ready to work the next day. Going back is easier for me.

I find it impossible to sleep on airplanes. I have made the trip from California to Madrid three times and each one was a killer (9 hours of jet lag). The best I could do is get plenty of sleep the night before, dress as light as possible,take off my shoes during the flight and drink plenty of bottled water.Then it takes my body about 5 days to adjust to Madrid time. So I'm a night owl for the first 5 days or so. Yeap,jet lag is a terrible thing.

I fly to Madrid on a weekly basis from Atlanta and it takes about 7 and half hours. I work for an airline so I am only there for 24 hours. This is how I cope with the time difference...I change my watch to Madrid time as soon as I get on the airplane and I drink lots of water, sometimes with Emergen-C. When I get to the hotel I take a 2 to 3 hour nap and I force myself to get up around 1 or 2 pm and I walk all over the city until 6 or 7 pm. then I go to Casa Mingo for dinner. That restaurant does not close between lunch and dinner so I can get a decent chicken dinner without having to wait until 9 or 10 pm. Then I either walk back to the hotel or I subway it. I try not to have too much in the alcohol dept. Obviously because I have to get up early the next day and work my way back across the atlantic. By the time I get home I am so tired that even if I had jet lag it would not matter. I sleep well the night thru and I wake up in Cleveland Ohio the next day and I am ready to face what ever may come my way. 4 days later I am back in Madrid.