recommended sleep pattern on plane?
 

Hi,

I know that people react different to long haul flights and time zone changes but I'm looking for your tipps and hints how to best beat the jet lag on a flight to Japan. When flying to the US I usually take a plan that arrives late in the afternoon, then try to stay awake til 10pm and that usually works very well.
But I've never been to Japan and the only Option for my flight was leaving London at 13:45, arriving in Tokyo at 9:30am. So that'll be a very long day... I'm flying VS Upper Class so sleeping might even be possible.

How do you "survive" flights to Japan?

In your case I'd recommend staying up very late the night before (packing or other physical activity is good for this) so that you are totally exhausted when you get on the plane. Then you will fall asleep quickly and awake close to a proper destination time.

I would also recommend spending some time outside once you land. NRT itself is not great for this, but you could go to the town of Narita (short train ride from the airport) and walk around there, then head to the city and check in to your hotel. The train ride from Narita to Tokyo is very likely to make you sleepy since it's long and not particularly interesting (think LGW to Victoria).

I usually set my watch to the destination timezone upon takeoff and follow it from there. (but not to forget checking out the movies and food of course)
Staying up overnight also helps and saves me from missing a flight due to sleeping through my wake-up alarm :p