ijgordon

Anyone have any strategies as how to best minimize jetlag on QF108 one-stop JFK-SYD service?
Right now my plan is to (1) stay awake on the JFK-LAX leg, and enjoy dinner and IFE, (2) since we depart LAX at close to 3am NY time, I'll pop an ambien and try and sleep most of the 14 hour flight to SYD.
However, I'm afraid I'll only be able to sleep 7-8 hours max, and so then I'll wake up 6 hours out of SYD, and it'll be 3am Sydney time, which will make it seem like a VERY long day in SYD when we finally arrive.
Should I pop another ambien and try and sleep longer on the LAX-SYD leg?
Other suggestions?

qasr

I have done a similar trip quite a few times BOS-LAX-SYD. Your strategy is pretty much spot on. Stay awake on the first leg. I usually eat dinner on the second leg (since first is AA and pretty poor meal offering), and watch one movie. Then pop an ambien or 3 with a few drinks, and am usually awoken by the FA for breakfast about 90mins from SYD.

Waking up any earlier usually makes a very long day in SYD, as you guessed. Try staying awake for the first movie out of LAX and sleep for the rest would be my advice.

Ysardine

Just stay awake for your first day on arrival - resist the temptation to have a nap during the day and get as much sunshine as you can. As you are travelling west, you will find it much easier. The return flight will be harder.

YS

nonce

Hi,

There is a really good document on Jetlag from the nice people at BA here:.

My favourite trick is to have a cup of coffee and then take a 20 minute nap. This seems to trick the body into thinking it's had more sleep than it actually has. It takes 10 - 20 minutes for the caffiene to kick in, so you wake up feeling fresh and ready to go.

ijgordon

Not a problem -- this is leg 1 of an RTW, so I'll be perpetually flying west...

Dave Noble

My technique would have involved avoiding QF108 from LAX-SYD and rather spending a night in LAX and continuing on on QF8 ( the daytime service which leaves at lunchtime and arrives in the evening )

For the trip you're doing, it's long enough that it'll probably screw you up bodyclockwise regardless

Dave

Poker Professor

I must confirm the thoughts of the others. The plan you have is the best you can come up with. Sleep as much as you can after dinner and stay up as late as you can (past dark) when you get to SYD. Believe it or not you may feel fatigued but since you are traveling west you may get a "second wind" after a rest on the plane and a morning landing. I feel much more lag going US to Europe/UK with only 5-6hr difference and a 9hr flight and eastern travel than a trip to OZ, comming home will be a different story.

ozstamps

I have made about 50 USA east coast to SYD flights, and my usual method is simple.

Stay awake for the transcon. Eat and drink just as you feel comfy doing.

You'll get into LAX late evening for the flight to oz.

Flight LAX-SYD is ~14 hours.

They rattle around for first 2 hours with drinks and food and then hope you'll go to sleep and turn off all lights, and it is dark outside anyway. I always have 4 or 5 champagnes in this period.

So sleep.

I usually get about 4-5 hours in. Then start to wake up. THEN I pop 2 x Temazepan tablets I have in my pocket, and get 5 hours more sleep.

THEN, 2 hours before landing they rattle the breakfast carts and no-one alive can sleep thru that.

All this is predicated on being upstairs in a 747 in the peace and quiet. In coach double the booze intake and double the Temazepan dose, get good ear plugs, and a mask.

ijgordon

Just an update -- From SYD. Thanks for the suggestions, everything worked like a charm, and being in F didn't hurt either!
Service was very good on both flights, food was excellent, seat was comfortable. I slept the first 6-7 hours out of LAX (partly because I was so exhausted at that time), had a midnight snack, went back to sleep for another few hours and then woke up for breakfast and a movie.

I know there have been comments here about the lack of a fast-track immigration line at SYD, but interestingly, the 3 US-citizens in F (myself included) were greeted on the jetway by a woman who escorted us through the crew line to bypass the main lines. They weren't that long anyway, although she said it was really backed up about a half hour earlier. Anyway, it was nice service, and our bags were among the first few off the belt. Thumbs up for my first QF experience!

PS, I felt bad for those in J, as there were no skybeds on this plane, even though the seatmap about a week before indicated that configuration. Pitch looked like a measly 50".

HeyAussie

Lol......

After a long day, I once fell asleep on BKK - LHR before the plane even took off and I was in a middle seat in coach (ecomony). About 4-5 hrs into the flight one of my seat mates woke me up because I was snoring

clifford

Doesn't the Temazepam make you feel worse than if you hadn't taken anything?

I took Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) for several years and always felt like sh*t in the morning.

goosegreen

No wonder.....that's the "date rape" drug.

channa

The late departure time of most US-Oz flights make it a natural for sleeping. Much easier than a US-Europe flight that leaves at say 4pm.

ozstamps

I am no chemist.

However I do believe Normison or Eupypnos (oz sold brands of Temazepan) are quite different to Rohypnol.

'Old school' sleeping tabs like Mogadon (Nitrazepam) DID make me wake up feeling like sh!t however. That one is still sold. Amazingly.

I find I am alert whenever waking up after a few Normies ..... but each person will differ I am sure. A number of travel partners have found it really good on mega flights, I can only offer that first hand info.

I always have several alcoholic drinks before taking them, which again for many is a total "no no" but it has always worked for me and whomever I travel with.

I've done literally 100s of very long 10 hour+ type flights over the past 30 years, and these things work for ME.

NM

I use Temaxapan when I get to the hotel at the other end. I don't tend to use them on the flight like ozstamps, but that is just my personal choice. I find 2 x Normison (or other generic Temazapan) gives me 4 to 5 hours sleep. So when jetlag keeps me from getting to sleep, those things certainly help. And I wake up feeling just fine.

I am sure IainF or some other experts can chime in with the good advice on what works and why.

But, as I have posted before, the best advice I can offer to American's traveling to Australia is to get yourself a dual-time watch. Set it to the metric time option before you leave so you can get used to the different way of reading the time. Note that many USA watch sellers are so geographically challenged that they don't realise that places beyond the USA exist and they don't know about dual (imperial/metric) time watches. So if you visit a watch seller that looks blankly at you when you ask for a metric time watch, just politely excuse yourself and look for a better educated shop assistant. It will take you a little while to adjust to metric time, but it is really very simple - much easier than trying to divide a day onto 24 hours and each hour into 60 mins etc. (Sorry, Willyroo, I could not hold back ).