The worst jet lag you've ever had?

[ILikeDinosaurs]

Came back from the US over a week ago and I haven't been able to sleep normally at all. Surely it should be back to normal by now? It's been at least 5 days and I'm averaging about 3 hours a night. I literally am wide awake till 5am. Never had this before.

NYC to UK and back, never had a problem. Sleep on the flight and the time difference is ok.

nyc to CPH or Texas to UK and I have issues and have to manage my diet, sleep and hydration.

For me, for every hour on the flight I need half a liter of water. I never eat plane food but eat at the airport. From the UK to US it’s a morning flight so I get the porridge from pret as that makes me sleepy. I buy an egg sandwich, salad and banana for a 10 hour flight.

From the US to the UK it’s a nightmare as no US airport has good food. From Newark terminal B pizza and Cesar salad with no croutons and dressing on the side is best. In terminal C the wine bar has a nice hangar steak with salad. If I have time I have the steak and blue cheese salad delivered from Del Frisco to eat before I board. When I land I stop into pret as I walk through the airport for a coffee.

To sleep on the plane I need to be warm enough. I use the blanket around my upper body, put the tray down, rest my head using the pillow on the tray. I use an eye mask and I sleep once my children are sleeping or watching a movie until we land. It’s a 10
hour flight to/from Texas. I slept at least 9 hours of it. My kids got melatonin and slept a good 8 hours. For 10 hour flight I drink 3 liters before boarding and 2-3 liters after landing starting while waiting to disembark. I always wake up mid flight for a pee which I don’t mind as I have to check on the children anyway.

That’s how I felt. I almost felt like I was about to have hallucinations as I hadn’t slept in so long.

I flew back from west coast 5 days ago and I'm Not back to normal. This is my worst ever.

Didn't sleep on flight back, not the night after... had about 2 hours in 48 hours. Last few nights I've slept in til late and feel exhausted.

Have to get up for work tomorrow but am currently wide awake!

Basically this imo.

I watch a lot of travel vlogs and have observed that Americans flying to Europe have a terrible time with Jet Lag compared to Europeans flying to America. The latter group usually can crash straight away as it's evening. Whereas the Americans have to try to stay awake for almost 6+ hours, just to make it to the evening.

I travel quite a lot to the US. It's harder to adjust upon my return. I absolutely cannot sleep on planes, so I suffer from jet lag for around a week.

When I flew from South Korea to Atlanta a couple of years ago, it was a 16 1/2 hour flight, and I had to get off the plane and go to a conference… Didn’t sleep, and then fell asleep for many many hours mid afternoon. It took a long time to get used to the time difference and I missed a lot of the conference because I was asleep. I don’t sleep on planes, and I have a visual impairment so have trouble sleeping anyway.

Seattle to London just knocks me for six.
I can do London to Cape Town (11.5hrs) and vice versa and bounce off the plane dancing.
Seattle to London leaves me jumpy for days.

flying from Hawaii to Heathrow via Chicago. 12 hour time difference. Due to delays/rerouting it was two overnight flights in a row. Was a zombie for about 10 days after that. The PP pilot is right though - you need to be religious about bed times and meal times to get your body clock back in sync…