How would you adjust your sleep preceding this flight to ensure you slept?

[Forgottenmyphone]

I’ve got a long haul flight, leaving the UK at 11am. I’d like to sleep for most of it for 2 reasons: to pass the time, but importantly to adjust to my new time zone, as it will be about 6am (at my destination) when I land.
Not sure whether to have just a couple hours of sleep the evening before and then try and stay up the rest of the night.
What would you do to ensure you fell asleep on this flight?

I would sleep the night before, as you can never be sure how easy it will be to sleep on the flight, and I would prefer not to be overtired when I get to my destination.
How long is the flight, and what is the time difference?

Flight is 11 hours (from memory without checking) and destination is 6 hours ahead. Not sure if GMT or BST makes a difference.

I’m not sure I would - I’d take earplugs in case I felt like napping, but just deal with it at the other end.

When I flew to Japan, I went to bed at my usual time, but woke up 4hrs earlier which let me sleep on the plane, however, even after a good sleep, I woke up feeling worse as we arrived at 9am in Japan which was midnight here and it just messed with my sleep for a few days.

You'll have to be up at 5 anyway, so I'd just get up a bit earlier and have a leisurely shower and coffee to really get up properly. Have a nap on the plane if you can, then power through at the other end and go to bed at 8ish their time. You should be exhausted enough to sleep then

I would go to bed at 9pm the previous evening and get up at 2 or 3 am, try to do some active moving for a few hours before it was time to leave. I think I would be then ready to sleep by about 12 noon (remember you don't want to go to sleep right away, you want to eat your meal then settle down)

Thanks, I think I’ll get an early night, get up early and then sleep for the latter half of the flight. Fingers crossed!

Our bodies aren’t great at coping with a time change of more than +/- 1 hour. The best way to avoid jet lag is to try to adjust your bedtime by 1 hour per day each day, if possible.

Would it fit with your routine in the run up to the flight to try and adjust your bedtime by 4 hours in the preceding 4 days so your are 4 hours ahead of BST on the day of the flight? You are going to be woken up at 5am probably if the flight lands at 6am. You would be pretty tired on the first day still, as you would be getting up early but, assuming you get up around 7am, you would only have to adjust by 2 hours. You should be fine by the second day if you stay up until your normal bedtime.

Based on doing a lot of time zone crossing in my working days TBH I don't think there's a guaranteed solution.

I'd agree with a pp that you can only really shift your body clock by maybe an hour a day, so you've either got to engage in a multi day process or failing that simply settle for early night the night B4.

Have to say if you try the latter there's nothing much worse than being in bed thinking you've got to get to sleep and then fretting when you don't ..

If you find that happening you might as well get up and stay up until normal bedtime and then accept you'll have to power through the time change on arrival.

Good luck

Yes I probably could start adjusting my sleep a few days before. I’m self employed so as long as I get the hours in, it doesn’t really matter when I do them!

I would just go with it

like others said, you will prob be up by 5am anyway for leaving for flight. So that already earlier wake

With just sitting around on plane you can probably easily fall asleep by 4/5pm and just nap on and off until you land. That will give you around 6hrs sleep. Tired first day but enough to get through, and just plan for early first night

Ok, I'd suggest if you are going to try to pre-adjust you'll need to find a really dark room at your new (early uk.time) bedtime.

Amongst other things your body clock is quite strongly anchored to daylight exposure..

There's apps that can give you a schedule and program to follow to avoid jetlag. I had a free trial for when I went to NZ last year, worked brilliantly and I would pay the next time I need it.

Adjust your eating, as well as your sleep time. If you can eat the right meals at the right time for your new time zone it can really help with the adjustments (but takes a bit of planning). If you don't want to be woken for meals during the flight let the air stewards know otherwise you might get disturbed.

I did a couple of long haul flights recently and what I did was:

Bought a high quality neck cushion
Stay up late the night before
Had a drink in the lounge before boarding
Had 2 drinks on the plane
Took a couple of nytol

I slept for 10 hours on the first flight and 13 hours on the return.

I was also in premium economy with good leg room and recline and that helped too.

I had a 13hr flight to somewhere 9 hours ahead. I was flying on a Monday morning and did this:
Fri up at 8am, sleep at 11pm
Sat up at 6am, sleep 9pm
Sun up at 4am, sleep 7pm
Mon up at 2am

It worked well. Wasn't jet lagged at all. I did try one of the apps but my plan was better than the one they suggested!

I would take 10mg of melatonin.

Download the Timeshifter app, it will tell you exactly when to sleep to minimise jetlag.

Thanks so much for all the tips. I feel I can make it work!

Why on earth would she have to be up at 5?

I agree. But I don't think I've ever really slept on a flight (even to NZ)... I have to be lying down to sleep 🤣

I'd just prepare to be exhausted and probably have a nap on arrival.

11am flight, arrive at airport 3 hours before for international=8am; 1h travel time to airport; 1h to get up and out, plus at least some contingency time in case of traffic or taxi/ train not arriving= 5.30am alarm

If it was me, it would be, for an 11am flight, get there 8/8:30ish, so taxi booked for 7:30am or aim to leave airport hotel at 7:45/8am, everything packed and ready and travelling clothes laid out night before, so get out of bed at 7am. 5am seems very extreme.

I try to be well rested before I get on the plane as poor sleep can trigger a migraine for me.

I also get overtired and struggle to sleep.

Ah, you're lucky living so close to an airport. For us we're 50 mins taxi ride away or 1h by public transport. The public transport has a change and the airport is on the highway to the capital so traffic can be a problem, which means extra emergency time. I never sleep in airport hotels so 5am gets me more sleep (plus we used to fly regularly in a long distance relationship so airport hotels added too much to the cost)