We are doing JFK-DXB and picked the late morning from JFK to enjoy the earlier part in the "daytime" then sleep at night and wake up at "normal" time in DXB. We are staying over for 2 days in DXB and would suggest you look at that if possible.

As said, looks like most of the late afternoon into the evening to spend some time in Dubai. The first class lounge in DXB is of course awesome, or so the reviews say.

Award seat availability may have some bearing on this. Another reason we are going earlier.. in case there are some flight problems, we have more options out of there the same day.