I will be flying to Hong Kong in two weeks and since this will be my first long daytime flight, I'm not sure how I should prepare for it. My flight leaves at around 3pm and arrives the next day in Hong Kong at around 7pm. I already have enough trouble sleeping on overnight flights, I can't imagine how I will survive a 15 hour long daytime flight. Should I stay up the night before so that I can possibly sleep on the flight or would that be a bad idea since I will arrive in Hong Kong in the evening? Any tips?

I will be flying in economy which makes things even more difficult. It should be an interesting experience to say the least!

I have a ten hour long daytime flight (CDG-GIG) roughly 6-7 times per year, and have had innumerable CX daytime flights YVR-HKG. As a rule I try to stay awake as much as possible, drink zero alcohol and avoid heavy foods. I try to have some very interesting reading and attempt to walk around a bit every time I start to doze off.

That gets me to Hong Kong/Rio de Janeiro absolutely exhausted and I usually cannot sleep for a couple of hours, then have a very long and excellent sleep after which I'm jet-lag free, more or less.

My choice is not a popular one since most passengers seem to drink alcohol, eat pasta and red meat and them sleep. Still, I've been doing this for many years and it has always worked well. Obviously it is easier to keep the discipline if you're on a lousy airline or in Y than if you're, say. in F on CX.

Good luck!

I don't like taking real sleeping pills (e.g., the light stuff you can buy in the drugstore or prescription meds), but I do take melatonin. I find that melatonin (which our bodies produce naturally) doesn't knock me out, but just seems to accelerate the natural nighttime sleepiness one normally feels as the evening progresses.

I don't bother trying to reset my clock with melatonin before I fly. I just take it while I fly, and then I take it for a few nights when I arrive at my destination when I go to bed, because I find that it helps me stay asleep (or fall back asleep quickly if I do wake up). And when I travel, if I take it on an overnight flight and have to change plans part way through the journey, I wake up easily and don't feel groggy during the transit period.

If you want to try it, you can buy it in the drugstore in the U.S. (not sure where you are) - usually in the "natural" vitamin section. Take it one night at home before your trip, so you know how you feel (don't experiment on the plane). There is a small percentage of people who end up feeling woozy or who have wild dreams.

My usual strategy on a long daytime flight is to try to get some sleep but not to try to pretend that I'm operating on my destination's time zone. So if I were flying 12 hours non-stop to Asia, I'd probably try to get at least 4 hours sleep (all at once, or in the form of a nap or two). I focus more on trying to get a few good nights' sleep on arrival. If I didn't feel tired but wanted to get some rest, I would take two melatonin about an hour before I wanted to fall asleep. For example, you might take the tablets when they start the dinner service. (I take them when I board the flight on overnight flights to Europe from North America.) Then I eat a meal and read or watch a movie, and generally find that I slide into sleep after an hour or so. Use earplugs and/or sleep mask if you need to block out light and sound in order to sleep.

On arrival, if I'm tired, I will take a nap almost immediately after I arrive. Some people don't do this, preferring to stay up for the whole day and then go to bed at a moderately early hour. This approach gives me migraines, so you have to see what works for you. I'll usually take a melatonin and nap for anywhere between 1 and 3 hours - more than that and I do get groggy and have difficulty adjusting to the time zone. Then I get up, go for a walk or go to the gym, and then try to stay up until 9-10 pm, and take another melatonin before I go to bed.

Since the flight leaves at 3pm ET (3am HK time), I normally try to nap a bit after the first meal service to get my body clock somewhat oriented to HK time. Then I stay up the rest of the way, and am sufficiently tired to fall asleep at 10-11pm the evening I arrive. In order to be able to fall asleep on the flight I normally sleep a little less the night before.

I assume you are taking CX from JFK or CO from EWR, both of which have flights at that time. Both airlines have AVOD (I'm partial to CX here in saying CX is better, but IIRC CO's wasn't too bad either), so that should make the passing of time much easier.

I'm actually flying on Delta, leaving from Detroit. I think they have AVOD too. I'll also bring my iPad loaded with movies/tv shows just in case.

I like your suggestion! ^

I take similar trips every year coming back from Europe. I usually fly from the continent to LHR, then from LHR to LAX.

I just pretend it's a very long day. I take my iPod, Kindle and a Sudoku book. Usually I load an interesting audio book in my iPod, so I can close my eyes and just listen.

And, yes, I always fly Coach. I am too cheap to pay for an upgrade.

Don't stay up the night before. Just keep to your normal schedule.

Keep the shades open during the flight -- that will help enormously with jet lag when you arrive. Your body will think it's just one very long day, you'll be exhausted when you arrive. Have a light dinner jump into bed, get your 8 hours and you'll be ready to go the next day. This is what I do when I take that flight.

As for getting through the flight, napping is fine if you can, but if you can't, no big deal. I like to drink (yes, alcohol -- as long as you stay hydrated, it's not a problem), listen to my iPod with my Bose headphones (noise canceling phones are an absolute MUST on long flights), maybe watch a movie or two on my laptop.

Are you in business or coach? If the latter, I always bring my own food on-board. A couple of carefully chosen tasty sandwiches are ideal: nothing smelly, and nothing that tastes worse at room temperature. I favor things like chicken, turkey or ham. First, the food on-board will be vial. Second, the sandwiches give you something to do.

The part about the shades, though, is key to avoiding jet lag. I always book a window seat and, if the FA asks me to lower it, I refuse. The most I might do is put it down halfway. If another pax asks me, I'll refuse and, depending on how they ask, I might put it down half-way.

Woops, I don't even know how I got that you were flying from NYC. My bad. But yes, the 77L that Delta flies does have AVOD. Enjoy!

The best advice I can give you is NOT to go full sleep mode - take a nap or two, but keep busy with IFE, reading book or Kindle or iPad, etc. etc. The flight will pass, eat lightly in the last hours (not full meal) and you will arrive sleepy; stay up until 9 or 10 PM, THEN go into full sleep mode. I do this and awake the next day in the morning ready to go - some protein for breakfast and coffee, and make a FULL day of it, no full sleep (I may permit myself a 15 minute power nap) until bed time and I am adapted to the new zone.

The return, normally a redeye, I stay up, enjoy IFE and a meal (but not everything there is to eat!) and then try to sleep a full night for the return, making it easier to adapt to the new eastern time zone. Try to adapt to the destination time zone as soon as possible - even before boarding, if you can begin changing sleep and activity patterns.

I have to say, I have been using this method for decades and it has always worked for me; the only times I have troubles is when I fly such oddities as ORD-DEL (Lv ORD 7:35p Ar DEL 9:45p+1 after 14:40 flight) on American, which is a real clock stopper.

Nonetheless, I attempt using as much natural forces as possible - I do not use alcohol and medications to try to induce sleep. (Those who have experienced anterograde amnesia when taking Halcyon or Zolpidem if the aircraft must land early for mechanical or refueling problems can well attest to exactly why they may not try medication-induced sleep again).

General rule for me is that as soon as I sit down I set my watch to destination time and then do whatever it is that I am supposed to be doing. So if flt leaves at 3pm EST (3am HKG) take a few hour nap...and then stay awake till you land.

I firmly believe in the medicated approach to travel. Generally a few glasses of wine at 3pm and Xanex will knock you out for a cpl of hrs (ie the nap) or Halcion and a few classes of wine for the long overnights. The advice about not eating anything heavy is a good one. Even when flying J/F I bring some of my own snacks or a nice salad from the airport b/c the really heavy food will just sit in your stomach and make you generally miserable.

I love the day flights to HKG. Though I usually take CX879 from SFO in F, which BTW I just did again on Wednesday. But my sleeping pattern on that flight usually is only limited to just 2-3 hours and usually during the early to mid stages of the flight, which more or less is a nap as oppose to an extensive sleep. This is key for me to ensure that I'll be tired enough to just crash into bed in upon the evening HKG arrival.

Ever since I arrived Thursday evening, I never felt any jet lag effects. That's why I prefer the daytime departure as oppose to those late night departure.