mvgirl100

Flying from Dallas to hong kong in a couple weeks .leaving dallas at 11:45 am and arriving the following day at 6:45 pm

when and how is the best way to structure the sleeping on a flight like this and for how long.

i imagine i want to be up for much of the last half of flight.
thanks

techgirl

I use the JetLag Rooster app to calculate what works best for me depending on whether I can adjust my sleep in the days before departure or not.

So much about adjusting to jet lag as to do with your normal sleep/wake times and what kind of schedule you need to be on when you land. That means what might work well for me could leave you horribly exhausted.

http://jetsettershomestead.boardinga...etlag-rooster/

mvgirl100

hi
i appreciate that tip and never heard of the rooster LOL
i will check it out
mvgirl100

FlyIgglesFly

I've done similarly times flights, namely the ~2pm departure JFK-HKG. I've generally have nothing to do when I land, So quite honestly I try to stay awake. For this arrival I'd get to a downtown hotel at between 8-9 pm, depending on immigration lines. Crash, and get a full night of sleep until 8am or whatever the following day. So, if you must sleep, nap earlier in the flight rather than later in order to assure you can fall right to sleep when you get to you hotel.

mvgirl100

thanks flyigglesfly

but seems like there would be a lot to do when landing in such a busy city that stays up all night…i was thinking sleep early part of the flight..because we land at 6:45pm and maybe i should be up the last 6 -7 hours of the flight….
I'm on the 777w and hoping for an upgrade but not sure thats going to happen.in the meantime i have an aisle seat in the extra legroom section bulkhead…hoping the earplugs and ambient help me sleep

FlyIgglesFly

Sure, it's a fun city. If you're planning on going out, then I'd avoid getting too much sleep the night before and try to get a nap in a few hours into the flight. The later you plan on staying out in Hong Kong, the later in the flight I'd sleep.

GadgetFreak

I used to do a similar flight, JFK-NRT, at least a few times a year. For a while I would have to go to Japan, business stuff the following morning and then back to the east coast that afternoon. I would generally do one of two things, usually the first of them. The most common would be to watch a movie, have the meal and maybe work a bit. Then sleep for 6-7 hours. When I arrived I would then try to stay up until 11 PM or so Japan time. The second approach would be to try to stay up the entire flight, usually when working. Then try to stay up until 8 or so in Japan before getting some sleep.

mvgirl100

thanks for the tip…i am thinking if i will sleep at all it should be at the beginning of the flight and be up of the last 8 hours so that when i arrive around 6 pm ish and get thru customs and finally to my hotel i would stay up a little while and be tired enough by 11pm ish and go to sleep
i have something to help me fall asleep for a little while so might use that route and hope for best..
what aircraft do you normally fly on and what seat? airline? curious
thanks

aztimm

I flew PHX-DFW-NRT-ICN a few weeks ago, and hardly slept at all the whole way over. I might have dozed a little toward the end of the DFW-NRT leg, but then they turned on the lights and served the final meal.

I arrived at ICN around 9:15pm, took about an hour to get through customs, and I was at my hotel (via train/subway) around 11:30. Went to bed and slept through until about 5:30am the following morning.

The return flight was much trickier. I flew on the ICN-DFW nonstop, left ICN around 5pm. After the first meal, I pretty much fell asleep, and slept most of that whole flight (woke here/there for meals). I felt pretty refreshed when I got to DFW, around 3pm the same day.
I was doing a mileage run, so flew DFW-SAN-PHX after that, and by the time I got home (around 9pm or so), my body was tired enough that I fell right asleep.

My seat was 31J on the long flights, AA 777-200, and I'd highly recommend it. Bulkhead nearly unlimited legroom.

dchristiva

I do my best to adjust to local time in the arrival city as soon as I depart. So, if it's daytime where I'm going, I try to stay up. If it's night, I try to sleep. And I definitely try to stay awake upon arrival until the "normal" bedtime. So, when I went to HKG a few years ago and landed first thing in the morning, I did everything I could to stay awake all day, hitting the sack at an early, but acceptable time that night. I find that this plan serves me well, regardless of which direction I travel.

JDiver

Forget the "following day" hooey. Your body deals with hours and sunshine, not dates on a calendar.

Stay active and awake, keep hydrated, eat lightly and eschew copious alcohol and airline food. Take a couple of naps. Arrive and go to bed at your usual time, get up the next morning ditto and have some protein for breakfast, coffee if you drink it.

Stay active (no day sleeping!) and if possible get some afternoon sun and outdoor time. Go to bed at your usual time. Rinse and repeat. You'll be just fine, and east to west is easier for adjustment for most of us.