The record-breaking Qantas Airways Ltd. flight touched down early Sunday morning in Australia. The Boeing Co. Dreamliner delivered its few dozen passengers — including yours truly — to their destination more or less intact, even if some of us were not quite sure what day it was.

Qantas wants to begin flying the time-saving route commercially as soon as 2022, so the airline used this test trip to explore ways to reduce its inevitable downside: Soul-crushing, body-buckling jet lag. Here's how my journey unfolded in real time.

Off the Ground

It's shortly after 9 p.m. in New York, our plane has just left JFK International Airport and it's already become a flying laboratory. Since the goal is to adapt to our destination's time zone as fast as possible, we click into the Sydney clock right off the bat. That means no snoozing. The lights stay up and we're under instructions to stay awake for at least six hours — until it's evening in Australia.

This immediately causes trouble for some passengers.

Down one side of the business-class section, six Qantas frequent flyers are following a pre-planned schedule for eating and drinking (including limiting alcohol), exercise and sleep. They wear movement and light readers on their wrists and have been asked to log their activities; they've already been under observation for a few days and will be monitored for 21 days in total. Most of them are bingeing on movies or reading books, but one of them is dozing within minutes. To be fair, I feel his pain. It may be the middle of the day in Sydney, but my body is telling me it's pushing midnight back in New York.