OskiBear

Agree with this. From the West Coast, I'm usually up fairly early the first few days in Asia (4-5am-ish). Even if I'm good about staying awake during the day, not going to bed too early, I still wake up fairly early (not middle-of-the-night, I-can't-sleep-at-all early, thought).
It's a good time to schedule early morning activities that you would otherwise be loath to plan - used to be great for the visits to Tsukiji Market upon arrival in Tokyo. Early tour pick-ups that I normally avoid are a snap to wake up for.
The only only downside I found is that many places don't have the 5am Starbucks/breakfast/coffee culture that we have in the US.

chipmaster

If you "believe" then of course it "works" Studies have shown that again and again, belief is powerful!

Toshbaf

Jet lag varies from person to person but SFO-SIN arriving in the evening won't be bad. You might be able to stay awake much of the flight, take a nap, arrive in the evening a little tired but then go to bed. Flying east (SIN - SFO) is harder.

ft101

Everyone's different as already said and my top two tactics are to think destination time from when I leave home and to sleep when I'm tired. For this flight, when you depart it's already after 2:00am so you should be sleeping. Get to the airport early and drink enough beer to put you to sleep after take off and you'll be well on the way to arriving aleady acclimatised to SIN time. You'll also still have time to recover from any hangover.

kaffir76

If it's your 1st time in SIN / SEA (SE Asia, not Seattle .. ) the heat & humidity will get to you pretty fast ...
I still get jet lagged every time I return from the US so I'd say take it easy the day after you arrive.
It takes me a couple of days to adjust but be prepared to wake up at 3am-4am on the first couple of nights ...

+1 on no caffeine, +2 on no wine/alcohol (if possible)
I find it hard to "adjust to local time" a few days before my flight - it's nearly impossible but do try to sleep less than usual the day before you fly so that you'll be sufficiently tired during the flight itself & hopefully be able to fall asleep easier/faster

meiji

I've got a 9-day (including travel) trip to Australia coming up and want to minimise the jetlag. A few months ago when I did the same trip I ended up going to bed at 7pm nearly every day as I was so slammed by the traveling. In terms of the current "best ideas" or at least the least dumb sounding ideas I'm sort of okay...

Fasting - I'm sort of onboard with fasting for the flight and resuming normal eating on landing (I mostly do this anyway on long haul, albeit because I don't enjoy inflight food). My habit is to usually get a lot of fresh fruit/veg at my first meal.
Adjusting sleep patterns - I'm using the Entrain app to shift my daylight patterns
Getting exercise/sunlight - going to have a bit of outdoor exercise on my layover at SIN and another load on arrival at my hotel

These are all pretty easily done (apart from the early morning alarm clock) but I was wondering if anyone had experience of taking melatonin or anything else that may help.

lhrsfo

I use Nytol (the herbal version) and melatonin. I take both when I wake up in the middle of the night and need to go back to sleep. Of the two, I find Nytol more effective but both are herbal rather than chemical so won't really do any harm.

gfunkdave

I am a fan of fasting, but it's not really "fasting". It's changing your mealtimes in the 24 hours prior to starting travel to match mealtimes in the destination time zone. So if you're going to Sydney (14 hours ahead of Eastern US time) then 24 hours before your flight you start eating as if you were in Sydney:

• "breakfast" at about 5pm eastern (7am Sydney)
• "lunch" at about 9-10pm eastern (11am-noon Sydney)
• "dinner" about 5-6am eastern (7-8pm Sydney)

This means you don't eat on that last day between 5am and 5pm - so that's the fasting. It also probably means you don't eat on the plane unless the timing works out.

I did this going to France last June and had just about no jetlag. Usually I arrive zonked out and useless for the first day or two. I have friends who do it every time they go to Asia and report the same thing. Besides, plane food is almost never worth it (unless you're in F on ANA or something like that).

meiji

Thanks. I've got the mealtimes more or less handled; the lunch meal on my MUC-SIN flight would be a very late dinner but in honesty, I'll eat lunch in the airport. Then I can sleep/watch TV and eat breakfast and lunch in SIN as normal. Early dinner in SIN which should link me up with Australia nicely then another breakfast on landing. I've booked my return legs similarly so I am more or less eating on European time. I'll report back on whether it works for me

thetaxman

I've found that trying to behave in the timezone I'm going to for 24-48 hours before also helps and then carrying on the same schedule on the plane. Eating, sleeping, working, relaxing time all shift when it's a material time zone change and when I need to be on the go Day 1 and Day 2. It's worked well ex-DFW for both Dubai (+9 hours) and Singapore (-11 hours).

Hipplewm

Anytime I go to Asia and arrive between 3pm and 10pm, I follow the same routine, At takeoff I shift my clock to SIN time and get as much sleep as i can as fast as i can. I try and wake up close to mid morning SIN time and gut it out the rest of the flight/day after arrival. Go to bed tired and wake up the next morning ready to go. By day 2 I am good to go. I am used to waking up at 5:30 typically, so that is generally about the time I wake up there, which really stinks because that city doesn't move real early LOL

Coming home is a different story, I usually have a hard time trying to sleep

Bandicoot

Melatonin only controls the timing of the circadian cycle. It is not a sleep inducer. You should take it once in the late evening (local time) before bedtime - taking it in the middle of the night might be counterproductive and actually hinder your adaptation to the local time zone since it will delay "entraining" your circadian cycle to match the local day-night pattern. Melatonin is not "herbal", it is a natural hormone produced by your body - called the "Dracula hormone" because its production peaks at night. I suppose you could argue whether or not it is "chemical", it is certainly a chemical substance like any other, but is generally considered safe (and therefore unregulated) for small doses. It controls the rhythm of the rest of your body's day-night processes.

Other than a small dose of melatonin before bed, I find exposure to light (sunlight, strong daylight) during the day really helps to speed up synchronization of my sleep cycle. If your travel forces you to spend a lot of time indoors (in an office, for instance), try to take breaks to walk outside and get some bright daylight. Exercise is helpful inasmuch as it might tire you and predispose you to sleep better at night. Lastly, caffeine is useful in the mornings, but cut out its use in the afternoon and evening as its half-life in your body is surprisingly long and any significant amount circulating in your body will result in poor quality of sleep at night, in turn delaying your adaptation to the local time zone.

synthkeys

I, like many, have way more problems when flying east than west. Has anyone figured that out?

When I go to Asia from NYC, usually arrive in the morning after hopefully getting 6 hours or more of sleep on the plane. I force myself to stay awake as long as I can, maybe 8 or 9PM then pass out. If I wake again at 3AM, I try to go back to sleep and usually this works. 1 or 2 days and I feel right again.

Coming back to NYC is just randomly awful and it can take a week or more to feel right again. I've done the 15 hour flights all different ways, don't sleep, sleep at the beginning, sleep at the end, it doesn't seem to make a difference. I typically arrive evening hours, 9-10PM, get back home around 11 or so. Stay awake for a few hours then I can sleep. But the following days can be crazy, sometimes feeling so tired at 1-2PM and needing to take a nap or passing out at 7PM and up at 4 or 5 AM. This usually goes on for a week or more and nothing I do seems to change the pattern. I've just become more accustomed to it. I don't drink alcohol or coffee and try to keep myself overly hydrated.

I don't try to play games on the plane anymore, if I'm tired then try and sleep. If I can't sleep, don't worry, start another movie maybe that one will put me to sleep. For a while, I've been bringing pajamas on the plane and change right after the lights go down. It really helps to max out the comfort level.