Falling asleep and the meaning of life

I am falling asleep, but i need to keep myself awake, so that i'll be really sleepy tomorrow, and when i get on the plane to china late at night, i'll finally fall asleep like a baby.
That reminds me of my childhood, when my cousin and I, before our yearly trip to the Alps, tried to keep ourselves awake so that we would be able to sleep on the car the day after, and therefore avoid the boredom of a seven hour car trip. Of course, we kept ourselves awake, but didn't manage to sleep a minute on the car the day after.
I guess I didn't learn anything from my childhood.