Should I bother with sleep tonight?

[Shi Huangdi]

At 4:45 AM Teusday(tommorow) I will have to be awake to catch a cab over the airport for my family vacation to Britain. I think I will be getting into Britain out 8 PM local time(not compltely sure), with some extra time then needed to get from Heathrow to our hotel. My goal for the purposes of adjusting to jet lag is to be able to not fall asleep at any time during the day tommorow, so I can get to sleep as early as possible Teusday Night. Given my normal sleep schedule over the summer, I am thinking the earliest I could possibly get to sleep is maybe 1:30 AM.

Now, my question is, for the purposes of being able to stay up during the whole daytime of Teusday(and not fading into a nap on the plane or something), is it better to squeeze out what few hours of sleep I can tonight, or will those few hours simply make my body want to sleep more during the day, making it better to simply pull an all nighter and not bother with sleep at all tonight?

Any knowledgable people have opinions on which works better?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Sleep now, dammit! Staying awake all night and all day tomorrow won't work, you'll fall asleep on the plane, no doubt!

[Asher]

Sleep on the plane.

[Adam Smith]

Go to sleep now. Stay up all day tomorrow (short nap if you really have to) and you will be fine.

Also, set your watch to UK time as soon as you get up tomorrow...helps with the adjustment.

[DRoseDARs]

Assuming it's a 747:
If your seat is anywhere near the rear of the plane past the engines, especially next to the fusilage, you should probably try to get what sleep you can now. The engine noise will be difficult to keep from rattling your brain about through your earholes.

The 16 hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was the most miserable experiance I've had. My seat = very last row, window seat.

[Dinner]

No, you should just stop sleeping all together. Instead you can become a drooling, hallucinating maniac who runs around screaming incoherently.

[Shi Huangdi]

"Sleep now, dammit! "

Don't think I could. I'm used to staying up to 3 AM, especially since the summer class I took earlier in the summer had it's earliest recitation at noon, and the spring semester before that had my earlier class on 11, allowing me to keep this crazy sleep schedule for a while. 1:30 AM would be a challenge for falling asleep as it is.

[Al B. Sure!]

yo i've debated this same thing a couple times... never thought to ask here...

see the thing that i'm always worried about is that after a full day of ****, if i go to sleep intending to wake up after only 3 hours or so, i'm not going to get up or i'll have to push myself to get up and i'll be tired as ****... i've always decided just to get the sleep but this has caused me to over-sleep and miss **** and all that.

another thing to keep in mind is how disorienting it is when you stay up all night. and what with the plane and the time difference... ****, you going to be waaaaay out of it. that **** might mess you up for days.

[Jon Miller]

go to sleep on the plane

I always do

Jon Miller

[ajbera]

On a night flight returning to NY from London, the plane was less than half full. Almost all the passengers wento to sleep during the flight, and because the passengers were undemanding, the service staff more or less dozed off as well.

I napped, but woke up and had to pee. Exiting the bathroom, I saw that the galley/food prep area was in the immediate vicinity, off the aisle and out of view. I ducked in there, poked around, grabbed a couple of handfuls of mini-liquor bottles, and helped myself to 7 or 8 small apple pie pastries from the stacks of uneaten dinners (planes carry a full load of meals even if the flight is less than full). I took my time too, musta spent 10 or more minutes back there poking around and eating. Then I went back to sleep.

On-topic: sleep a little on the plane, maybe 3 or so hours, and take a sleeping pill the night you arrive. Do a lot of stuff the next day to tire you out, try to sleep normally that night, and you should be fine.

[Alexander's Horse]

This is a home alone scenario.

I've always suspected you were Kevin.

[st_swithin]

Valerian root tea is good for insomnia. So are warm milk, cold turkey, Ambien, Sonata, and any movie with Any Culkin.

[Agathon]

Why, I didn't.

[Agathon]

Actually, I've discovered that drinking six pints of Guinness at the aiport bar is a sure fire way to sleep the whole journey.

[August Borms]

Sleep before you leave

I didn't before I took the plane to Italy and it was one of the worst days of my life. ( partially because I had to listen to the German version of the Knightrider theme song for 3 hours at the airport... Knightrider.... ein kompjoetah, ein auto, ein machine... HONK! HONK! )