Need advice on sleeping pills and long haul flight

[Falcon1]

I'm taking a long flight tomorrow for work at 4pm. 9hrs 45, then a 5 hour layover, followed by another 90 minutes. Will be getting in at 7/30am UK time which is 11.30pm local time. Can anyone advise me on when the hell I sleep?! I have sleeping pills prescribed (Zopliclone) but not sure if I should take one on the the first leg or not. Please help - I'm in a week long workshop starting the day after I arrive and I'm useless on no sleep!

You shouldn’t have sleeping tablets prescribed for plane travel. It’s against regulations now. I’m saying that, have you taken them before? If so you could take as soon as you can on first leg and pretend you’re in your new time zone.

I've not taken them before no.

Don't take sleeping pills when flying, especially if you're travelling alone. If there's an incident, you'll be too sleepy/drugged to respond.

Get your first flight, eat dinner, watch a movie and have a nap to take the edge of any tiredness. Then when you change flights, get some exercise walking in the airport. Arriving at 11.30pm local time means straight to your hotel and bed. You should sleep well as you'll be tired by then and hopefully you'll be straight on to local time the next morning.

Stop telling yourself you're useless on no sleep as that doesn't help!

As @HundredMilesAnHour says basically. Bit of a nap after dinner, keep active on the layover, straight to bed the other end. Don't take anything.

Thanks @HundredMilesAnHour that sounds like great advice.

I wouldnt. I took sleeping pills on a 15 or 16hr flight once (Dubai to NZ) and was out cold the whole time. My husband was with me thank god but you will be alone, you've never taken them before, what if you are still conked out at firsr stop?

Try to sleep for the last couple of hours of the flight.. assuming you're flying to the US you could pick up some melatonin during your layover and take that when you get to the hotel. A 5hr layover is a bit of a Killer when flying west.. any chance you could do the shorter flight early the next morning and then you'd be able to go to bed when you're still pretty sleepy rather than beginning to wake up?

Definitely can't do the shorter flight in the morning. The tickets were all booked by my client and the workshop starts that day. Going to be so tired!

Stop telling yourself you're going to be "so tired". You've got a whole day to rest and nap on the flight with a long leg stretch in the middle and when you arrive in California (presumably), you can get in to bed for a whole nights sleep 🤷🏽‍♀️