Travelling from London to Sydney, what are the best flight timings to minimise jetlag??

Question

I'm flying from London to Sydney before Christmas. I have a choice of flights, some arrive Sydney first thing in the morning around 6am, some arrive Sydney in the evening around 8pm. Flights leave London between 12noon and 10pm. According to the airline chosen and the time waiting for a connecting flight, overall travel time varies between 23 and 32 hours. All flights I'm considering only have one stop. So my question is, what are the best flight timings (departure and arrival) to minimise jetlag? Thanks

Answer 1

The main tip I've heard about beating jet-lag is to set your watch to your destination time before you leave home.

Using this principle,
If you leave London at midday, you'll have to tell yourself its 10pm and go to sleep ASAP.
If you leave at 10pm, you'll have to tell yourself its 8am and NOT sleep until an appropriate time.

What you need to decide, is what is the easiest to do? When looking for flights from Brisbane to London I put the times into a quick spreadsheet to see what the correlation is.

If you find it relatively easy to sleep on a plane, go for the 12noon flight. Make yourself tired from the night before (get up early) so you can sleep right away. The closer you can set your sleep cycle to what it would need to be in Sydney, the better you'll be for jetlag.

In addition, you mention the varying times for stopovers. The same rule will apply, if you in Singapore (I'm assuming) relate that time to Sydney time and do the appropriate activity. You probably don't want the stopover to be too long as the general process of flying is tiring and lengthening it is bad.

So, an example. (Using British Airways, Flight 15 Sept 28th) If you fly out of London at 9:35pm local time (DST), you will arrive in Singapore at 5:35pm local time, with a 2 hour 10 min stopover, then arrive in Sydney at 5:15am.

Reading those in Sydney time, you leave London at 6;35, are in Singapore from 7:35pm until 9:45pm, then arrive in Sydney at 5:15am. So for that flight, you would get on the plane in London, stay awake for the trip until Singapore. Then sleep from Singapore to Sydney.

Another example, (Thai flight 991 Sept 28th).
Depart London - 12:30pm (local DST) [Sydney time - 9:30pm]
Arrive Bangkok - 6:05am local [Sydney - 9:05am]
Leave Bangkok - 11am local [Sydney - 11am]
Arrive Sydney 8pm

On that flight, you'd sleep for the middle part of the first leg, then stay awake until you arrived in Sydney. The second flight would probably be easier to fight against Jetlag as you force yourself to sleep more at the start, rather than force yourself to stay awake for longer. Sleeping can be assisted with melatonin or sleeping pills.

So my advice is to leave in the middle of the London day, but only if you have a short stopover time (something like 11hours will make everything a mess).

Good luck with choosing :)

Answer 2

IF you don't sleep well on long flights, choose the flight that arrives at 8pm. Have something to eat on arrival ASAP (no matter if you're hungry or not - just a sandwich or salad is OK, but no caffeine and NO alcohol. (Don't worry - you can make up for it later LOL). Stay awake until around 11pm at least, then hit the sack and sleep for 8 hours if possible.
Eat & drink sparingly the next day & you should be fine. Drink Lots & lots of water.

If you CAN sleep well on planes, choose the 6am arrival & try to sleep most of the way. Eat a little fruit when you get here, get some exericise, go easy on the booze and don['t give in to the fatigue that will hit you mid-afternoon. Go to bed any time from 9pm onwards. You should be fine next day. Again, drink lots of water.

Answer 3

You are going to be tired after the flight so arrive in time to go to bed with the country you arrive in. An 8pm arrival will get you off the plane and into your hotel by 10pm and you can then have a good night's sleep. When you wake in the morning, you will already be fitting into the routine in Sydney. If you arrive at dawn, you have a whole day to get through before you can start lining up with the locals.

If jet lag bothers you, arrive in the evening.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

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Answer 6

The plane that arrives at 6am will wake you at 4 am local time to have breakfast so they have time to clear away dishes before making sure seats are upright for landing.
If you can't get into your hotel straight away since the last people don't want to check out till 10 am, you will be numbed with jetlag for a while before you can retire.

Pity there are none arriving about lunch time. That would give you a bit of time to settle into your hotel, grab a short nap, and get about before most shops close at 5 pm.

Answer 7

Singapore To Sydney Time

Answer 8

Take the one that takes the least amount of time. The 23-hour one seems best. Treat long flights going west as a very long day (or a very long night, depending on when you leave). If it’s a long day flight, take enough of a nap to take the edge off and to be able to stay awake until bedtime at your destination. If it’s a night flight going west, sleep as much as you can, knowing you will likely have a full day at the destination. Of course, it’s also advisable to be fully caught-up on your sleep at home the days prior to your departure.