Flew from Japan to Charleston, SC on 7/22. Woke up at 5:50 am on the 22nd in Japan and finally arrived in Charleston at 4 pm on the 22nd (5 am on the 23rd in Japan). I only took 2 or 3 catnaps of about 30 minutes on the flight from Nagoya to Detroit since I could not get anywhere close to comfortable. Stayed awake on my other flights. I wasn't feeling too bad when finally arriving in Charleston, which I attribute to adrenaline and excitement. Made myself stay up until about 10 pm, which is my normal bedtime. I woke up at 7 am my first morning here and felt fine the whole day. Even spent the better part of the day helping my friend build a deck in his backyard. I'd heard the 2nd and 3rd days were the worst so I was waiting to see how I slept last night. I was up until 11 pm and was feeling pretty wiped when I went to bed, but it was past my normal bedtime and I'd worked on building a deck in 90+ degree heat all day. Slept solid through the night and woke up this morning at 7:30, feeling fine again.

So, what gives? Is the worst still to come?

Sure sounds like you did. Nice!

I think you just did what alot of others can't do and that is powering thru your normal sleep-wake cycle when you stayed up all the way to the US (minus the catnaps). once you did this and slept at the normal hours of your destination, your body adjusted accordingly and reset your cycle. I do this all the time as I work 24h shifts every so often.

once I get on a plane I immediately set my watch to destination time (unless I'm connecting then it'll be set to the connecting airports time) and try to stay awake vs sleep according to the new time zone. flying biz+ aids in facilitating I can get decent sleep on the plane. actually I fly biz+ to ensure I don't get jetlag as I value my time in the countries I'm visiting moreso than the extra miles it takes to book over economy.

Best way to avoid jet lag. Have a few stiff drinks evening local time. Your body figures out what it needs to do.

I find that long trips from East Asia where your sleep cycle is so totally disrupted are the easiest from a jet lag perspective, because as huynhc suggests, your body is so confused that if you just apply the local wake/sleep cycle at your destination, your body just resets.

The worst for me are 7-8 hour time shifts, because they aren't enough to get my body to totally reset, but are enough to really throw off the wake/sleep schedule.

Yeah, I was pretty stoked to be back in the States for a bit after being gone for a year so it wasn't hard to make myself stay awake after landing.

+1. Even a simple Hawaii trip (a measly five hours) jacks me up worse than, say, Hong Kong.