V-Flyer

I am flying to HKG on Friday on VS200. Does anyone have any tips for jetlag avoidance on this route? I am there for a short business trip and I need to be functional pretty much straight away.

My plan was to try to sleep on the flight early on, but then be awake for the later stages -- to ensure that I can sleep on arrival.

Is that a good plan?

Thanks for any help.

That worked for me the past few times. Coming home (VS201), I stayed awake for as long as I could, maybe 4 or 5 hours and then slept the last 7 hours of the flight back. Everybody is different though.

Yes - I did this last week. Try and eat in the clubhouse and sleep straight after take off. I agree with Jamie on the way back - stay awake as long as possible. I also use melatonin, which really helps. Enjoy HK!

Thanks to both of you for the replies -- much appreciated.

I will follow your advice (have never tried melatonin, though).

I am not so worried about the return as I much prefer staggering through a long day than trying to fall asleep when you've lost time.

There are several threads on jet lag and tips on controlling it if you do a search.

Most concentrate on flights from the US back to the UK but as those are west to east journies (like yours) they still apply.

tontybear wrote:There are several threads on jet lag and tips on controlling it if you do a search.

Most concentrate on flights from the US back to the UK but as those are west to east journies (like yours) they still apply.

It depends. West coast flights from the US are the ones of similar length but you have to also look at the flight times. The west coast USA flights tend to leave late afternoon and get in mid morning although the late LAX flight defies this. Of all the flights I have taken in this direction it is the late LAX which has served me best considering jet lag.

With regard to the Asia flights I have done LHR to Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore - the first two on VS and the latter on SQ. The one I coped with best was the HKG one. We left late and arrived late afternoon. I slept after the meal service and when in our hotel slept well that night. However my son didn't nor did I following my flight to SIN. The flight times for departure and arrival were similar but my reaction to both were different. As for Japan, how can you be expected to sleep following an early afternoon departure?

You could always get a job that involves working shifts including nights :w

Having now worked shifts (6-2, 2-10, 10-6 as well as 12 hour days or nights) for almost 19 years, I'm very lucky in that I don't suffer much at all from jet lag when I fly in either direction thankfully. Even when I flew to/from SYD last year, I was OK at either end.

I can only guess this is down to me working shifts as I'm up at odd hours.

tontybear wrote:There are several threads on jet lag and tips on controlling it if you do a search.

Most concentrate on flights from the US back to the UK but as those are west to east journies (like yours) they still apply.

In fact I contributed to the most recent thread (about SYD), but I couldn't find anything specifically about HKG.

The US analogy is not a good one, really. The flight to HKG is longer than any flight back from America, and the flight times are very different. Also, I think a flight from your home time zone is different from a flight from a 'temporary' time zone.

I am not one of those people who can just sleep at any point, so I am quite anxious about the loss of time and late-afternoon arrival.

mitchja wrote:You could always get a job that involves working shifts including nights :w

Maybe that's the key, but it may be pushing it a bit to try to find a new job by Friday. Oh -- and I wouldn't then need to go on this trip... so problem solved, in a sense!