The topic about WN and red eye flights in this forum got me thinking. I have my first ever red-eye flight coming up next month. How do you prepare for them? Never being on one, not sure what to expect, and it may be even crazier for my body as I have an international flight before the red eye flight. I am hoping if I get enough sleep on my international flight that the red eye flight should be ok, but there is a wild card in my flight.

Saturday Dec 18
Depart Sydney at 21:55 and arrive in Los Angeles 11:14 (sleeping pill?)
nearly a 7 1/2 hour layover (that is the wild card)
Depart Los Angeles at 23:51 and arrive in Charlotte at 7:27 (melatonin??)
1 hour 44 minute layover (maybe wild card 2)
Sunday Dec 19
Depart Charlotte at 9:11 and arrive in Fort Myers at 11:14
Enter sleep/zombie state for a while

Those layovers are worrisome for me, I have fears of being in a deep sleep somewhere in the terminal and missing my flights.

You just have to try and catch as much shuteye whenever possible.

Are these on Y? Do you have access to a lounge?

I almost never have a problem sleeping on a shorter domestic flight after being so tired from an ultra long haul!

I mean, if your looking to sleep, I've found that even if you able to sleep on a plane, its never a sound enough sleep to make a difference I like to stay awake, read and watch TV

The interesting thing is that the OP has two red eye flights.

Does LAX have mini suite rooms at the airport?

Sleep is massively overrated. Most people can easily get by with just 3 or 4 hours in a night and function well at work the next day. I write this having flown from Sydney to London (about 22 hours) as well as multiple transatlantic red eyes, and done a proper day's work the next day each time
Plenty of caffeine will help get you through until 8 pm the next day

If you really struggle... find the disabled toilet in a quiet area of the building, wherever you will be - it usually has a big area of floor space and a lockable door in a completely separate area of its own. That means somewhere fairly quiet and enough space to lie flat on the floor and catch an hour's sleep at lunchtime

Keep your phone with you at all times and set multiple alarms on max volume AND vibrate - this should stop you missing a connecting flight. If you must sleep in a busy area, ensure your head rests on whatever cabin luggage you are carrying in the terminal - this prevents opportunistic theft

Also, look at this website - it's been going for over 20 years
https://www.sleepinginairports.net/

Take off my shoes and socks and make fist with my toes...

Awesome Christmas movie references aside, most folks would be well advised to avoid sleeping pills. They take you out of your natural element and may alter your ability to function both in an emergency and also as a decent human being on an airplane.

Melatonin is clinically proven to help both sleep and with jet lag.

I personally have found a moderate amount of alcohol that I know will help me sleep - like red wine - helps. Also, I try and be as comfortable as possible - flat bed if I can. The longer the flight the better.

Comfortable headphones/earphones (preferably noise cancelling) and ASMR. Spotify and YouTube both have ASMR content.

Thanks, I do plan on trying to get as much sleep as possible. I am booked in Y (Qantas 789 to LAX) but I have a request in for J, I usually get upgraded. I am Gold on QF (which is not much, but something at least) and I think that is One World Sapphire which should get me into the American lounges.

And the red wine is something I do, always one with dinner and then one with a movie as I try to drift off to sleep as well as the headphones.

It seems I am already doing many of these things, so hopefully this should be ok. Before Covid, I did fly SYD-LAX-MIA, but that was all "one day" and no red eyes, so this is for sure a first for me. These new departure times from Sydney are different for me, used to get into LAX early in the morning, now it is late afternoon. But nearly 2 years away from family, I'll take what I can get.

I just make myself as comfortable as possible and organize when I’m sleeping around the time zone I’ll be arriving in. Never got the hype with jet lag, it’s never happened to me.

7.5 hours in LAX, get a day hotel room. Sleep is hardly overrated, you’ll die from lack of sleep before dying from hunger. It’s a physical necessity.

I’m in Ft Myers now perfect weather!

Avoid alcohol, every few hours walk around and on the long flight get the aisle so you don't have to disturb anyone else.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

7.5 hours in LAX, get a day hotel room. Sleep is hardly overrated, you’ll die from lack of sleep before dying from hunger. It’s a physical necessity.

I’m in Ft Myers now perfect weather!

I'll in the Naples / Marco Island area, I cannot wait to go there, love that place. That area reminds me a bit of The Gold Coast (beaches) and Cairns (weather) here in Australia.

And the crowds haven’t arrived yet!! Yes, I’ve been to Cairns and the Gold, very similar

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Sleep is massively overrated. Most people can easily get by with just 3 or 4 hours in a night and function well at work the next day. I write this having flown from Sydney to London (about 22 hours) as well as multiple transatlantic red eyes, and done a proper day's work the next day each time
Plenty of caffeine will help get you through until 8 pm the next day

If you really struggle... find the disabled toilet in a quiet area of the building, wherever you will be - it usually has a big area of floor space and a lockable door in a completely separate area of its own. That means somewhere fairly quiet and enough space to lie flat on the floor and catch an hour's sleep at lunchtime

Keep your phone with you at all times and set multiple alarms on max volume AND vibrate - this should stop you missing a connecting flight. If you must sleep in a busy area, ensure your head rests on whatever cabin luggage you are carrying in the terminal - this prevents opportunistic theft

Also, look at this website - it's been going for over 20 years
https://www.sleepinginairports.net/

Seriously ?


Sleeping in a disabled toilet stall ?!


Quite apart from the hygiene issues of lying down in a public toilet stall do you have any idea how inconsiderate that is for disabled people who need to use those facilities for their intended purpose ?

Not napping !

Yes, absolutely serious.
I used to sleep in the disabled toilet area at work in my previous job - it meant you didn't get seen napping after a red-eye flight, and the security guards could turn a blind eye when they were doing their patrols of the building. The hygiene issue can be dealt with by knowing where the showers are in the building - just pull your towel and some dirty clothes out of your suitcase after the red-eye flight and use them when sleeping on the floor of the disabled toilet
Most modern commercial buildings in rich countries are required to cater for far more people with disabilities than typically use the building, so borrowing a disabled toilet for an hour after minimal sleep on an airplane, especially when the building is quiet, is rarely a problem.

Pop on the thunderstorm light, drink a bottle of water per hour.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Sleep is massively overrated. Most people can easily get by with just 3 or 4 hours in a night and function well at work the next day. I write this having flown from Sydney to London (about 22 hours) as well as multiple transatlantic red eyes, and done a proper day's work the next day each time
Plenty of caffeine will help get you through until 8 pm the next day

If you really struggle... find the disabled toilet in a quiet area of the building, wherever you will be - it usually has a big area of floor space and a lockable door in a completely separate area of its own. That means somewhere fairly quiet and enough space to lie flat on the floor and catch an hour's sleep at lunchtime

Keep your phone with you at all times and set multiple alarms on max volume AND vibrate - this should stop you missing a connecting flight. If you must sleep in a busy area, ensure your head rests on whatever cabin luggage you are carrying in the terminal - this prevents opportunistic theft

Also, look at this website - it's been going for over 20 years
https://www.sleepinginairports.net/

Medical science strongly disagrees with you:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6281147/

A sleep doc told me you’ll die faster from lack of sleep than lack of food.

Wait, if you arrive at 11:14 a.m. and don't depart until midnight, doesn't that mean you have almost a 12 hour layover, not 7.5 hours? For that length of time, I would try to get a hotel room at one of the numerous LAX-area hotels. You'll never be able to wander airport the airport for that long without going mad--just don't even try and attempt to get a day room somewhere.

I was also going to suggest that as a Oneworld Sapphire you should be able to qualify for same-day standby on AA, but given that it's the Saturday before Christmas, there may not be any empty seats. And that doesn't help you with your CLT-RSW connection, although spending the actual night at a CLT-area airport hotel would at least get you on U.S. time.

At least the new flight timings from Sydney should be somewhat 'easier' jetlag wise, being a 'natural' overnight flight.

A few years back, flew MEL-LAX, the flight left MEL at around 9.30am, and got into LAX around 6AM - was hard trying to get some sleep early afternoon MEL time knowing that I'd be arriving at LAX before I left MEL!

On the way back, flex IAH-AKL, left IAH at around 10.30pm, getting into AKL just before dawn, actually felt OK getting into AKL.

UALFAson wrote:

Wait, if you arrive at 11:14 a.m. and don't depart until midnight, doesn't that mean you have almost a 12 hour layover, not 7.5 hours? For that length of time, I would try to get a hotel room at one of the numerous LAX-area hotels. You'll never be able to wander airport the airport for that long without going mad--just don't even try and attempt to get a day room somewhere.

I was also going to suggest that as a Oneworld Sapphire you should be able to qualify for same-day standby on AA, but given that it's the Saturday before Christmas, there may not be any empty seats. And that doesn't help you with your CLT-RSW connection, although spending the actual night at a CLT-area airport hotel would at least get you on U.S. time.

d'oh! I was thinking ahead to when I get into RSW. The SYD-LAX flight gets in at 16:30 then the LAX-CLT departs at 23:51,

Have lots of red wine before departure of out Sydney...sleep for most of the flight, arrive in LAX

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Yes, absolutely serious.
I used to sleep in the disabled toilet area at work in my previous job - it meant you didn't get seen napping after a red-eye flight, and the security guards could turn a blind eye when they were doing their patrols of the building. The hygiene issue can be dealt with by knowing where the showers are in the building - just pull your towel and some dirty clothes out of your suitcase after the red-eye flight and use them when sleeping on the floor of the disabled toilet
Most modern commercial buildings in rich countries are required to cater for far more people with disabilities than typically use the building, so borrowing a disabled toilet for an hour after minimal sleep on an airplane, especially when the building is quiet, is rarely a problem.

Rarely a problem for you


Every public toilet I’ve gone into has one disabled stall and one only


If a disabled person wants to use that facility while you’re snoozing in their stall you’re subjecting then to a serious inconvenience and hardship


It’s very inconsiderate, selfish and probably illegal

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Yes, absolutely serious.
I used to sleep in the disabled toilet area at work in my previous job - it meant you didn't get seen napping after a red-eye flight, and the security guards could turn a blind eye when they were doing their patrols of the building. The hygiene issue can be dealt with by knowing where the showers are in the building - just pull your towel and some dirty clothes out of your suitcase after the red-eye flight and use them when sleeping on the floor of the disabled toilet
Most modern commercial buildings in rich countries are required to cater for far more people with disabilities than typically use the building, so borrowing a disabled toilet for an hour after minimal sleep on an airplane, especially when the building is quiet, is rarely a problem.

Come on man, disgusting for multiple reasons.

Max Q wrote:

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Yes, absolutely serious.
I used to sleep in the disabled toilet area at work in my previous job - it meant you didn't get seen napping after a red-eye flight, and the security guards could turn a blind eye when they were doing their patrols of the building. The hygiene issue can be dealt with by knowing where the showers are in the building - just pull your towel and some dirty clothes out of your suitcase after the red-eye flight and use them when sleeping on the floor of the disabled toilet
Most modern commercial buildings in rich countries are required to cater for far more people with disabilities than typically use the building, so borrowing a disabled toilet for an hour after minimal sleep on an airplane, especially when the building is quiet, is rarely a problem.

Rarely a problem for you


Every public toilet I’ve gone into has one disabled stall and one only


If a disabled person wants to use that facility while you’re snoozing in their stall you’re subjecting then to a serious inconvenience and hardship


It’s very inconsiderate, selfish and probably illegal

It’s amazingly inconsiderate. Talk about being a smelly part of the human anatomy.

I’ve only a couple of long haul red eyes.

In 2018 I flew QF with a redeye on SIN-LHR. Despite my best efforts I had no sleep at all on the flight. About an hour and a half before arrival I had two coffees and that was enough to get me through to the late afternoon when I was able to check into my hotel. I then went to bed in the early evening, got up a little earlier than usual. After that I was able to adjust to the new time zone fairly easily.

On the return I got no sleep on the LHR-PER leg, but slept almost the entire connecting PER-BNE flight, but then it took days to adjust to the new time zone.

A year latter I flew SQ to Japan it was completely the opposite, towards the very end of the BNE-SIN non redeye flight I was struggling to stay awake which made sense as arrival was around 2300 in my natural time zone. Then I dozed off with ease on the connecting SIN-NRT redeye sleeping almost the entire flight. On the way back with a double redeye. I slept about 3.5 hours of the 6 hour flight, had an extremely early arrival in SIN around 0300. I booked a room at the transit hotel. Woke up around around 0800 had breakfast at Wolfgang Puck then explored Singapore the whole day before going back to Changi for my redeye SIN-BNE flight which I slept for all but 2 hours of the 8 hour flight. Even on the domestic sectors in Japan I started dozing off.

BA84 YVR-LHR was my flight of choice for the very reason that it left so late (back when it left YVR around 2200). It was perfect, got to sleep in the day of, relax throughout the day, take the flight, get into LHR late afternoon with a quick connection to DUS, get into DUS right at dinner time, grab a bite and go to bed at a normal bedtime local time.

Its the shorter red eyes, like YYR-YYZ that suck. Leave around midnight and get to your destination first thing in the morning - yuck.

ACDC8 wrote:

BA84 YVR-LHR was my flight of choice for the very reason that it left so late (back when it left YVR around 2200). It was perfect, got to sleep in the day of, relax throughout the day, take the flight, get into LHR late afternoon with a quick connection to DUS, get into DUS right at dinner time, grab a bite and go to bed at a normal bedtime local time.

Its the shorter red eyes, like YYR-YYZ that suck. Leave around midnight and get to your destination first thing in the morning - yuck.

That’s my hate on red-eyes, domestic legs that have alternatives. I’ve done loads of International flights, they’re not red-eyes, they’re long flights that require overnights. When there’s a choice—yuck. I did LAX to JFK after a flight from PPT, just miserable even first class, then arriving like a zombie. I visit my brother on the west coast—something around an 8-9 am SAN departure is perfect, arrive home with a reasonable connection by 5-ish. My admin never booked me before 9am or after 5pm—the pilot schedulers would find all sorts of bizarro flights. Recently traveled on contract business—11:55 am, arrived at the event just in time for the cocktail party. She has a good memory.

vhqpa wrote:

I’ve only a couple of long haul red eyes.

In 2018 I flew QF with a redeye on SIN-LHR. Despite my best efforts I had no sleep at all on the flight. About an hour and a half before arrival I had two coffees and that was enough to get me through to the late afternoon when I was able to check into my hotel. I then went to bed in the early evening, got up a little earlier than usual. After that I was able to adjust to the new time zone fairly easily

My last international flight was early 2020 DFW- SYD. I got bumped up to business before the flight, which was great as I was so stressed as I was in the hospital emergency department not even 24 hours ago. Had a bit of red with dinner and then slept much of the flight home. Went to work the next day with no jetlag. Funny thing was once we landed in SYD and i was getting my bag out of the overhead, the guy behind me asked if I would be at work the next day. Confused, I said "Yeah, I'm used to these flights". Still confused, I wondered why he asked me. Wasn't until the next day at work when I saw him in one of the office kitchens getting a coffee and I put it together who he was.

Dude I'd change my LAX-CLT to as early as possible. Try to get in to RSW the night of the day that you arrive in LAX. Idk if that's possible, but that's a lot of layover time especially if you're planning on Ambien/melatonin. I'm not a high roller so a hotel for that would be out of the question. You do an LA side trip to help keep you stimulated along with some caffeine or B12 (Zip Fizz does it for me). By then you should be sufficiently tired enough to thoroughly (enough) sleep to CLT.

Lots of terrible advice here. For starters, do not get a room at LAX. You do not want to board a red-eye feeling well rested. 7.5h goes fast as it will take at least an hour to clear arrival formalities and you can check in for your flight to Charlotte at least 1.5h before departure, so that only leaves 5h to kill max. A walk to the famous In-n-Out or the Proud Bird for a meal and some spotting will take care of that.

My life hack for red-eyes is change into PJs, honest-to-blog pyjamas. As well as being incredibly comfortable, it also reminds your brain of sleep. Works for me!

Don’t overthink this. Just be as comfortable as you can be, sleep when possible. Day rooms and sleeping in toilet cubicles (blee!!) won’t help.

For those saying get a hotel room, keep in mind most hotels don’t allow you to check-in until 3 or 4pm. So, If you wanted to stay for a 6-7 hour stay and were arriving late morning, you’d probably have to pay for two nights as checkout its usually 11am for the previous night, with no check in for the following night until 3-4 pm.

I’ve often had to book two nights when I’m arriving somewhere in the wee early morning hours and only want to a place to crash few hours because I can’t check into my primary hotel until 4pm, like 12 plus hour after arriving.

You can reserve “day rooms” at a reduced rate at most hotels. I’ve done so dozens of times in cases just like this one or when having a long day wait. Specify it’s a day room you’re looking for, not a normal overnight stay. Nothing like a shower, light bite to eat and 2-hour nap. I’ve done this in AMS, LAX, CLE, DXB, Newcastle, UK, TEB, and many small cities. But, if you’re staying longer term, you have to book the night before to check-on early.

Fatigue science says a two-hour nap is perfect to get one thru a wakeful period before your next full 8- hours rest.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

You can reserve “day rooms” at a reduced rate at most hotels. I’ve done so dozens of times in cases just like this one or when having a long day wait. Specify it’s a day room you’re looking for, not a normal overnight stay. Nothing like a shower, light bite to eat and 2-hour nap. I’ve done this in AMS, LAX, CLE, DXB, Newcastle, UK, TEB, and many small cities. But, if you’re staying longer term, you have to book the night before to check-on early.

Fatigue science says a two-hour nap is perfect to get one thru a wakeful period before your next full 8- hours rest.

As somebody who’s done a fair amount of leisure travel, that’s interesting. I wasn’t aware hotels in the USA would book day rooms. What rate would I ask for if I called from an airport to inquire about a short half day stay or a few hours?

Usually if I need a room for a day or less near an airport, or I get stuck in a city, I just go on Hotwire and look at their “ Secret Deals” then find a 3.5 star or higher rated hotel near the airport area that’s showing 50% off the regular rate or higher and has 80% of higher guest approval. Usually unless there’s huge demand for rooms, hotels are always selling off unsold inventory for a discount on Hotwire Secret Deals or whatever Priceline calls their hidden deals where you don’t know exactly where you’re staying. Just the area, star level, and ammentities shown with the percent discount off regular rate.

In LAX for example, I usually can find rooms at the Century Blvd airport access road for $100 or less per night for the big 4 star selections with lots of unsold inventory that often charge twice that rate or more at full price. I’ve stayed at Westin, Hilton, Embassy Suites and Crown plaza at LAX for less than $100.

Exactly that—day room rate. It is subject to availability, usually unoccupied rooms from the night before. Usually, better hotels have availability because they have 24-hour housekeeping so getting the room ready for regular reservation is quick for the hotel.

I got stopped at ORD one winter’s day coming from ICT. A blizzard was hitting New England, we made a dash from the office to catch the UA flight to ORD only to be met by cancelled flights to BDL. UA, ever the obnoxious carrier, said they were booking us on later flights which kept rolling forward as the storm dumped over a foot on New England. The five of us (2 bizjet crews) went over the the O’Hare Hilton and managed to snag 3 or four day rooms to share, with two double beds. We did lunch, slept, took showers, sat down for dinner. The manager kept the rooms for us, but at dinner we were now down to two rooms, as they needed rooms for overnight reservations. At 9pm, UA had us on flights leaving around 1030, so we left. Having done PEK-ANC-ICT-ORD, I would have happily stayed the night in ORD, but the rooms made it survivable.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

That’s my hate on red-eyes, domestic legs that have alternatives. I’ve done loads of International flights, they’re not red-eyes, they’re long flights that require overnights. When there’s a choice—yuck. I did LAX to JFK after a flight from PPT, just miserable even first class, then arriving like a zombie. I visit my brother on the west coast—something around an 8-9 am SAN departure is perfect, arrive home with a reasonable connection by 5-ish. My admin never booked me before 9am or after 5pm—the pilot schedulers would find all sorts of bizarro flights. Recently traveled on contract business—11:55 am, arrived at the event just in time for the cocktail party. She has a good memory.

Yeah, I wouldn't really call an overnight TA flight a "red eye" either, but given the alternatives from YVR leave in the afternoon, leaving on a 2100-2200 departure makes a world of difference.

If I could leave at 1600 to arrive on the east coast at midnight, I’d think it better than leaving at 2200 to arrive at 0600; no hotel room, wait around for things to open up.

cedarjet wrote:

Lots of terrible advice here. For starters, do not get a room at LAX. You do not want to board a red-eye feeling well rested. 7.5h goes fast as it will take at least an hour to clear arrival formalities and you can check in for your flight to Charlotte at least 1.5h before departure, so that only leaves 5h to kill max. A walk to the famous In-n-Out or the Proud Bird for a meal and some spotting will take care of that.

My life hack for red-eyes is change into PJs, honest-to-blog pyjamas. As well as being incredibly comfortable, it also reminds your brain of sleep. Works for me!

Don’t overthink this. Just be as comfortable as you can be, sleep when possible. Day rooms and sleeping in toilet cubicles (blee!!) won’t help.

I would rather not leave the airport and go through security again. I can always do some In-n-Out, even though I do not buy into the hype of it, it is still good. Side note, there was a burger place here in Sydney called Down-n-Out and had a clearly ripped-off menu, and In-n-Out sued them. I was hoping they would've sued them as they were going to open up here, but no. Now the place is called a Bar With No Name and basically has the same menu but with different names.

csturdiv wrote:

I would rather not leave the airport and go through security again.

You would still have to clear security at LAX anyway as far as I'm aware, as your arrival from Sydney would require you to clear customs and claim your bags.

AirKevin wrote:

csturdiv wrote:

I would rather not leave the airport and go through security again.

You would still have to clear security at LAX anyway as far as I'm aware, as your arrival from Sydney would require you to clear customs and claim your bags.

What I meant to say, and it depends on the terminals and what is open, my first meal back on US soil will be Panda Express Orange Chicken. I can't get that in Sydney, but good burger places are a dime a dozen here.

Ask the cabin crew nicely if they will allow you to sleep in their crew compartment. :b

Otherwise, down a good chunk of alcohol before boarding and pass out. The crew may even extend you the courtesy of ducttaping you to your seat for free. xD

For me, a work out early evening, fairly large meal, benadryl before the flight and noise canceling headphones . Even then I struggle to get more than a couple of hours of "sleep" when flying. When I wake up I wouldn't say I am rested, but I can certainly feel more refreshed. After landing it's a lot of coffee

However, I can pretty easily power through the next day if it's a workday. Eventually the lack of sleep and changing time zones catch up.

I always had difficulties falling asleep on the plane. Melatonin helps a little, there are some natural drops which you can use. But yep, I would definitely pay for the lounge

Don't bother with sleeping pills. I presume you're acclimatised to SYD time? Sleep as you can manage on the SYD-LAX flight. You should manage a few hours even in Y on a long evening flight. Stay AWAKE during the LA layover. Go into town, do some sightseeing. You'll almost definitely be exhausted by the time you get on the LAX-CLT flight, and not need any sort of sleep aid. Try and stay awake for the short CLT layover (go and sit next to the gate). Sleep if you want to RSW. When you get home, try and stay awake until 8pm at least, then sleep solidly that night - the broken sleep over the journey, then a good night sleep when you arrive should help you get over the massive time difference.