Originally Posted by
jib71
... My aim on arrival is to stay awake until a sensible bed time - If the ETA is at 9am, I'll generally try to sleep for some time on the flight because I'll have to stay awake for 12 hours or more on arrival. OTOH, if the flight ETA is late evening, I might avoid sleeping in flight to ensure I can get a good night's sleep on arrival...
+1. Those 4:30 pm arrivals are pretty common for my flights to Japan from the west coast. I try to arrive at LAX or SFO rested, hydrated and ready to go. I avoid caffeine and alcohol on the flight and nap a bit after the meal as I feel it but try not to sleep through the whole flight. Upon arrival, I force myself to stay busy, have a light meal, get checked into my hotel and go for a walk or something to keep myself up, staying awake until a normal local bedtime between 10:00 pm and midnight. Doing all the above pretty much gets me up and going the next day at a normal time with minimal jet lag. The problem of jet lag coming back eastbound is another matter. That is a multi-day struggle after getting home every time.