My husband and I will be making our first trip to California and Japan in January. We are from Philadelphia and flying to LA, spending a few days and then flying to Tokyo. We leave at 11:30am PST (4:30am Tokyo time) and arrive 4:30pm Tokyo time (9:30pm PST time). I have no idea when to sleep... this will be the longest time I have ever flown and worst jet lag I will ever have. I am wondering if I try to just nap or get minimal sleep the night before so I can sleep a little in the beginning of the flight. Any suggestions?

I've spoken to people who have a scientific approach to depriving themselves of sleep in a certain way and eating in a certain way before the flight. It might work for them, but I seem to do best when I am well rested and well hydrated before the trip. So - If possible I get a full night's sleep and I drink a lot of water.

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.

For your flight from LA, I'd probably aim to sleep early in the flight (its 4am in Tokyo, after all). HOwever, that can be challenging with all the nonsense that goes on at the start of flights.

+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.

Makes me wonder how much we'll be able to actually enjoy our San Francisco trip on the way back to the east coast. We're departing Japan at 17:25, arriving at 09:30 to San Fran. I just thought maybe I could try to sleep after a couple of hours on the plane and attempt to sleep a good 6 hours. It'll be like Groundhog's Day - even though I left at 17:25 on Tuesday I get to repeat Tuesday all over again in California!

I've never been able to sleep more than an hour or two on a plane, but I've also never been in Business class with lie flat seats like we get to have for this trip. Hoping that will make all of the difference.

Yes. That day is very tough. I used to do it four or five times a year. I would sleep on the plane, shower at SFO, plan a very active day and meet friends for dinner to ensure I didn't fade. After a day like that I can get a good night's sleep and the next day is bearable.

I think you will find this makes a huge difference.

Eat on the schedule of the next place going to. Don't take a nap, it turns into several hours and whacks you out. Drink lots of water. Ambien. After a week, you'll feel great.

How long is the OP going to stay in Japan?

I find that if you are only staying for a week, it really doesn't matter. You will have jet lag but the excitement of seeing new things will keep you running.

We do the YVR - KIX / WNZ route regularly. We arrive late afternoonish and we struggle to stay awake until about 9 pm when we crash. We find that keeping hydrated really helps and on the plane we refrain from any form of caffine. If we fall asleep on the plane, we are great but if we don't we don't fret about it.

Just have a good time - keep active during the day and you will be fine.

We'll be there for a week, so enough time to feel better and less jet lagged just as we leave to go back to the US lol

Since you're flying in from the US, feel free to pick up a small bottle of synthetic melatonin (usually 3mg doses) from a pharmacy before you set off. Of course, consult your physician if you think this might be a problem.

In my case, I use this for faster adjustment after transcon flights, usually takes only one day to recover. For Japan, it takes about two days to recover. The first day you might get some awful sleep (like 4 hours continuous) - try to go back to sleep anyway until the morning, and then take a dose again at night.

Definitely try to sleep regularly in Tokyo the first night. The day after will benefit immensely. It means to arrive at the hotel pretty much destroyed. Your afternoon arrival is good. By the time you transfer and check into room, have to kill just a couple of hours before crashing. As said, the day after the excitement will work as 5 energy drinks.