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This applies to long flights. A three hour east west coast time difference is negligible.
From eastern part of Canada, I find that it is very easy to deal with the jet lag to Europe, which is normally 5-7 hours.
I usually take night flights to west Europe and arrive in the morning. Due to the excitement of being in a foreign country, I normally don't feel any fatigue although the sleep quality in air is usually not that great. I will check in as fast as I can and be immediately on my way to explore things. At the end of the day, after walking for a whole I am usually exhausted and sleep like a baby and experience minimum jetlag (for example, feeling sleepy at 8pm instead of 11, which is nothing).
Cross Pacific travel is a lot worse. The 12-13 hour jetlag is so much worse. On my way to Asia, I usually wake up at 2 or 3 am, and try desperate to fall asleep again, but chances are that at 5 am I couldn't sleep any more, and at 6 or 7 pm, I feel very drowsy again. It doesn't help if you hold on and don't sleep until 11pm, I will still wake up quite early, and this usually last 3-5 days before it gets better.
Coming back to North America from Asia is the worst. Same experience as going, waking up at 2-3am every night. What's worse is that the fatigue in the afternoon is far more serious. At 5 pm or 7pm the latest, I normally simply can't stay awake, my entire body completely devoid of enery and HAD to take a nap. It is said to make your night sleep worse but I simply can't help it. Coffee etc simply doesn't help at all. And this cycle lasts a week, every time. No matter what actions I take - melatonin, sleeping pills, exercise, coffee, it doesn't work.
Yes, people suggest one shouldn't sleep on the plane, and after you arrive, you are so tired and will sleep nicely. For me, that strategy doesn't work. It actually make things worse as it will take longer to recover from that.
How do you deal with long jetlag? Is there any efficient way to reduce it?
I sleep on the plane, spend my first day busy, get to sleep by around 9:00 pm and wake the next morning with no jet lag.
I've had problems with jet lag going westbound, although my last flight from Europe I had no jet lag. Maybe because it was a fairly relaxing vacation and I spent my last full day sleeping in and doing not much of anything except getting packed and wasn't dead tired by the time I boarded the plane.
Stay hydrated, and well rested before the flight. Get some sleep on the flight, melatonin helps. Go to bed at the local time the first night is a must, even if you are struggling to stay awake.
This site can help you figure out the best way to avoid jet lag by either adjusting your sleep schedule before your trip or let you know how to adjust your sleep and daylight exposure upon arrival to reduce any effects
This applies to long flights. A three hour east west coast time difference is negligible.
From eastern part of Canada, I find that it is very easy to deal with the jet lag to Europe, which is normally 5-7 hours.
I usually take night flights to west Europe and arrive in the morning. Due to the excitement of being in a foreign country, I normally don't feel any fatigue although the sleep quality in air is usually not that great. I will check in as fast as I can and be immediately on my way to explore things. At the end of the day, after walking for a whole I am usually exhausted and sleep like a baby and experience minimum jetlag (for example, feeling sleepy at 8pm instead of 11, which is nothing).
Cross Pacific travel is a lot worse. The 12-13 hour jetlag is so much worse. On my way to Asia, I usually wake up at 2 or 3 am, and try desperate to fall asleep again, but chances are that at 5 am I couldn't sleep any more, and at 6 or 7 pm, I feel very drowsy again. It doesn't help if you hold on and don't sleep until 11pm, I will still wake up quite early, and this usually last 3-5 days before it gets better.
Coming back to North America from Asia is the worst. Same experience as going, waking up at 2-3am every night. What's worse is that the fatigue in the afternoon is far more serious. At 5 pm or 7pm the latest, I normally simply can't stay awake, my entire body completely devoid of enery and HAD to take a nap. It is said to make your night sleep worse but I simply can't help it. Coffee etc simply doesn't help at all. And this cycle lasts a week, every time. No matter what actions I take - melatonin, sleeping pills, exercise, coffee, it doesn't work.
Yes, people suggest one shouldn't sleep on the plane, and after you arrive, you are so tired and will sleep nicely. For me, that strategy doesn't work. It actually make things worse as it will take longer to recover from that.
How do you deal with long jetlag? Is there any efficient way to reduce it?
For us it works best when flying east acroos the Atlantic or wherever to take a quick 2 hour nap when we arrive. Then we try to go to bed at the new destinations time but the same as if we were home. Example; if we go to bed a 10pm at home we do the same in the new location. Usually within a day or so we are fine. Returning from the other direction it is a little harder, but we do about the same. We usually wake up in the middle of the night but after about 4 or 5 days we are fine. The older we get, the more problems we have. This is one reason we have pretty much cut out over the ocean trips.
I sleep very little on the plane and never take any meds to help me sleep. All they do for me is put me to sleep for about 4 hours and then I am wide awake. I hate them.
When you do nothing special it only lasts three nights (first night exhausted so you sleep, second night hell, third night tolerable and fourth night within a few hours of local schedule).
I used to swear by all sorts of tricks, until I started flying with kids. With them there is nothing to do but sleep when they do, be awake when they are, make sure you're in sunlight when the sun is up (even if asleep) and try and get through. And guess what, it lasts no longer than when I used to have all my rules and tricks.
So anytrick has to reduce jetlag to fewer than three nights or it's placebo.
The only way to do it is to switch to whatever schedule you need right as soon as you land. If it's daytime, suck it up and do the day. Night, force yourself to bed/rest, even if you don't sleep soundly.
Upon my arrival at my destination, I try to go to sleep according to my new time zone even it means staying awake when I am extremely tired. Probably had my worst jetlag going back and fore between the East Coast (USA) to the Eastern part of China. In both directions it took me nearly a week to get fully adjusted to the local time.
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