CALlegacy

Alcohol tends to keep me awake later and causes stomach upset. A good single malt goes down pretty well, but wine is terrible. It is also unpleasant to deal with any travel challenges that might develop while a little woozy or having a headache, also a result of alcohol. As to Ambien, I just don't self medicate in general especially with things that may have an unpredictable effect. A better scheme is to not overdo it, stay hydrated, eat sparingly of easy to digest foods (low spice), and keep the Bose headphones at hand. Also reading on Kindle/iPAD and turning off or putting paper over any back of the seat IFE helps.

rruaco

Hard exercise the morning after arrival seems to work.

Sleep as much as you can on the plane then cycle up a mountain or two at 5am local time. It resets your body clock nicely.

NA-Flyer

I used Melatonin many times to combat jet lag. Instead of making my sleep long and deep at night it just make it short and made my body more alert afterwards

mikeyfly

I find the short flight time (7hrs~) plus two food services leaves little quote / dark time in the cabin

Jamier45

That's because you're weak

I only slept on LHR-SIN because I forced myself to.

mikeyfly

Ha!!

When are you going to finish your TR?!

BAGoldBoy

Every year we do LHR-SIN-SYD-HBA and probably start ex-EU so it's quite a lot of flying in just over a day.

LHR-SIN I normally stay awake, have a couple of drinks and a light meal. SIN-SYD I don't eat and try to sleep until just before landing. Then transfer to Domestic and go to the QF lounge for coffee and OJ and a shower. Short flight to HBA and then go to our friends house 15 minutes from the airport.

Then we take our friends dogs for a long walk on the beach, have a light supper and then bed about 8PM.

Always works for me. Unfortunately I can't find a remedy for jet lag on the return trip!

Jamier45

Oh that erm....next week?

nallison

Oh how I envy you! I don't think there is really any better/best scheme in this regard, everyone is very different in what works for them, so it's good to give all our different strategies and let someone figure out what will work best for them.

For example, I am the exact opposite of you, if I try to get through it all naturally, I'll be shot. But then I'm not a great sleeper in my own bed at home so I've got no chance in an economy seat!

Without aid I'll be sat upright bored out of my mind for the seemingly endless hours; if you can't sleep there's a special kind of misery at that point in the middle of a long haul flight when it seems like it will never end.

So for me, a couple of glasses of wine gets me nice and relaxed, and along with diazepam and I will be able to get some rest, and without feeling awful when I wake up. Certainly much better than if I don't sleep! (and yes I do discuss all this with my doctor before anyone gives me a lecture). It's no more 'self-medicating' than having a whisky, or taking a paracetamol for a headache.

As for jetlag, I'm in agreement wiht those saying it can be detrimental to be too focussed on 'forcing yourself into the timezone' if its at the expense of actually sleeping. Sleep-deprivation absolutely kills me. I can't get solid sleep on a plane anyway so I find it's best to get what rest I can so i'm not completely shattered, and it won't be so much as to leave me too bright and alert at destination. Trying to stay awake for en entire LHR - SIN sounds like something they'd come up with at a special interrogation site!

bibbju

I do pretty much the same minus the dog walking. I usually fly OSL-LHR-SIN-SYD-MEL in one go (with a positioning flight LHR-OSL the night before). I sleep/nap when I want but this tends to be on the SIN-SYD leg. Wine is definitely involved on the LHR-SIN leg. When I arrive in Melbourne, I stay active (don't stop moving as making the mistake of sitting down too long is a killer) until approx 8pm local time and then I pop 10mg of melatonin and go to bed. I usually wake up at 7am and am straight on Melbourne time and raring to go. It works exactly the same going back. The trick is definitely 10mg of melatonin (a smaller dose doesn't work the same magic).

The hardest thing I find with BA15 (plus my pre and post connecting flights) is that it seems like every meal on the flights is breakfast. I usually like an onboard breakfast but it starts to feel like eternal breakfast hell. I get over my jetlag much more quickly than I get over my ennui of breakfast.

konagirl2

I agree with 'sleep deprivation can be as detrimental as jet lag' sentiment. I can generally sleep anywhere and manage some sleep in economy. To those of you who can stay awake for over 24 hours (full day of work and then 13 hour flight LHR-SIN plus 2 hours in SIN), good for you, but it's not for me.

Last weekend, the tailwind meant the SIN-SYD leg was only 6:45 in the air. At least in CW/F you can eat in the lounge and lie flat asap although you will still get some disturbance from service. Economy was a nightmare - even though we were kept on stand for 40 minutes in SIN it still took 1:30 before meal service started; lights were off for less than 3 hours before 'breakfast' was served at 3:30AM AEST. And BA don't hand out eye shades and ear plugs in Y so for non-regular travellers it is truly hell.

I also agree with getting day light and some exercise once landed (though I am absolutely rubbish at this!). If you are staying in Sydney, I would consider a 3 hour sleep in the morning if you feel crap to try and get through to evening.

Ancient Observer

When I used to go dunnunder rather a lot, my formula was to sleep as much as possible on both legs. Melatonin may help some, it wasn't terribly effective for me. Then, when dunnunder, get in to the light and stay awake as long as poss on day 1.
If I was going to drink alcohol, it tended to be OTT on the first leg, and little if any on the second.

FlyWithKaeMarie

My suggestion is keep an eye on the local Sydney Time. For example, if your SIN > SYD flight is when it'll be night in Australia, sleep then. If it's going to be during the day, then force yourself to stay up on that leg and sleep on the leg that'll be nighttime in Sydney

sts603

I guess the real question on all of this is why take this flight? It's going to be horrific from a jet lag perspective and there are a million other schedule options on the kangaroo route, many that are better in every class. And I doubt BA is truly the price leader...

1010101

Christ thats a long way around it. Have you never tried QR or EK one stop, or even SQ/CX two stop? Cheaper and much better than that slog