Long haul and jetlag

[wiffin]

We are taking the long haul plunge this year, which is very exciting, and am thinking how to manage jetlag.

We leave at breakfast, arrive at breakfast the next day. 14 hour flight. So will probably feel like we miss a nights sleep.

Any top tips? DC are teenagers so in-flight entertainment will mainly be screens.

And I've been to about 40 countries (lived in three) and taken countless flights and I do. Different people are affected differently. I have ADHD so I struggle to sleep anyway and melatonin is the only thing that works.

Do you think maybe people who become cabin crew are those who aren't that affected by jet lag? Not exactly a sample selected at random.

Starting a multi-time zone trip with sleep deprivation is the worst strategy for me, so I'm shuddering at that plan. However, obviously, some people don't get jetlag at all or shrug it off easily, or easily nap on the plane. You may be so lucky.

I hate driving with jetlag, so recommend you plan not to do that in 1st 2 days, or only very minimally. If I have to drive with jetlag, I have a cup of tea about an hour before landing. I'm quite sensitive to caffeine so That makes me a lot more alert for about 4 hours so maybe up to 2 hours safe enough to drive. It can also delay me getting any nap or sleep for another few hours afterwards, too.

I have often wondered about flight crew. How they cope. Hang out in bars & don't do much during turn around, I suppose. I suspect most of them don't jump in cars after long haul, too !!

Boots sleepeaze over the counter for the first 2-3 nights. Didn't work for me on the plane.
Have a couple of hours kip mid afternoon on the day you get there, but do wake up again and try to stay up until at least 8 if you can.

Have very short a nap when you get to your hotel if you don’t think to you’ll make it to the evening.

Try and stay up until 9pm.

A couple of months ago I flew to Singapore, had a six hour layover with a one hour sleep
in a lounge and then flew to Cambodia. I was actually fine. I think the holiday excitement helped.

13-14 hours long haul and losing 7 hours sounds like me travelling home to SE Asia. I concur with others that flying Eastwards gives me much worse jetlag than flying back Westwards to the UK.

I've never tried melatonin or other medications, I just go for the "powering through until bedtime" method. Usually I try to get a night flight, more chance of catching a bit of sleep on the flight and also fewer hours to endure on arrival until I can crawl into bed.

Plus I often find that I sleep fine the first night when I get there because I'm tired from travelling, and the proper sleep disruption happens over the following few days.

Only advice is do not be tempted to nap when you arrive. Do not sleep until bedtime!
THIS
Never needed melatonin but it’s perfectly safe if you want to try it, it’s just a weird British thing that it’s not for sale out on the shelf next to the vitamins.

As soon as I get on the plane. I adjust myself to the current time of the destination we are flying to and then stick to that. Sleep mask, neck pillow and ear plugs help with sleeping during a day flight. I take my own food so that it doesn't matter if I miss meals

Try to sleep on plane, adjust immediately to new time zone for sleeping and eating. I find this works well. I'm a bit tired obviously but otherwise no issues

I don't really think about jet lag to be honest, we might be tired or have trouble sleeping for the first couple days but we just get on with it, have a couple early nights if we need to.

Anyone any tips flying London to San Fran? I forgot what we did last time on the flight, i think we had an hours nap on arrival. Have a 7yr old with us. Will be getting eye masks and neck pillows.

They normally land afternoon don’t they? So I would say ideally stay awake on the flight, brief nap if you must. Then by the you time you get through the airport, to your hotel and have something to eat it’ll be a reasonable enough time to sleep. So it’ll be like an early night, you’ll probably be up at 5 but that’s alright for day 1.

Yep, we depart around lunchtime UK and land 3pm SF time. Thank you, sounds like a good plan. 7yr old might nap out of boredom but if she does will try and keep it short.
Early start the next day isn't too bad as will be in Monterey and need to great breakfast before the boat trip.

Not eating on the flight is an advantage as your body can become neutral with its natural schedule, studies have shown this is one of the things you can do to overcome jet lag. Then have breakfast as you arrive on the flight just before 7am or wait until you get to where you're going to stay. So fasting but drinking plenty of water

Children. I found don't seem to get jet lag in the same way in either direction.

I always find travelling east is easier than coming west.

By coincidence, our last trip to SF was the same - landed early afternoon, picked up hire car, drove to Monterey! We were totally fine apart from being tired from the flight (as I said, I find going West much easier on the body clock).

I agree with others that the most important thing is to try and put yourself onto the local time at your destination at soon as possible, at least from when you're on the plane, so if it's say 6pm local time on take off and 8am local time when you land, it's important to try and rest for the second half of the flight, even if you don't feel remotely tired and the plane isn't being helpful by dimming the lights etc and you really struggle to fall asleep - take an eye mask and ear plugs and force yourself to at least close your eyes and lie still and relax, hopefully you'll doze a bit and your body will semi-acknowledge it's then daytime on arrival, helped by the fact it will hopefully be nice bright sunshine and you'll be active getting yourself to your hotel etc (I will admit despite the likely flaming to using sleeping pills on the plane to help with the changeover, obviously don't if you react badly to them or they would interact with other medications or you need to look after a small child or whatever). Then on arrival try and keep yourself going as long as you can, coffee, activities, brisk walk etc., maybe a brief nap in the afternoon but don't sleep properly until the evening in local time, an early night and therefore an early wake up the next day is OK but don't go fully to bed in the middle of the day local time or you'll be still groggy and out of sync for days afterwards.

It's the opposite if it's daytime at destination while flying, then you need to keep yourself awake until you get there however you can, lots of coffee and maybe a brief nap but don't sleep at all on the plane if you can help it...

Crew developed different tactics over the years, but in most places crew only get one or two (local) nights off so it often paid to stay on time at base (epecially if you were into a sequence of trips close together going east /west/east etc, so a different problem to the one most of the public have to deal with.

Hanging out in bars to any great degree, certainly within 24 hours of flying, was shall we say somewhat problematic/risks illegality.

Given house prices around Heathrow I can promise you crew did hop into cars on return to base...(and did some frankly not very clever long drives)

I love the idea somebody came up with upthread of somehow crew are selected for tolerance to jet lag or are somehow get immune ...... In the olden days when flight deck visits were a thing it was funny (not) when you got asked "why don't you lot get tired.."🙄..if I had a pound...............

Anyhow FWIW my advice for going east would be try and push through/stay on local time ASAP..but if you have to have an emergency nap the medical advice was no more than 45 minutes (to avoid getting into REM stage sleep?)..though god I do remember how it was hard to actually respond to the alarm clock if you did nod off...

Don't know about melatonin, it was not something we supposed to take when working..

Here’s a couple of ideas from CN Traveller staff. Some others had very fancy routines! Some were go sightseeing. Have a full on day! Even what clothes to wear etc! These two were easy to follow.

I love the idea somebody came up with upthread of somehow crew are selected for tolerance to jet lag or are somehow get immune

That wasn't what I said.

I agree with trying to get onto destination time once on the plane. It won’t always be possible to sleep when you want to, but it helps just to think that it’s x am and I’m awake etc.

When I arrive I never, ever nap. It is so hard to wake up and then I’m a grump for the rest of the day. I power through and go to bed at an early reasonable time.

The following days I sometimes end up going to sleep ok but waking up at 2/3/4 am. If so, I’ll take a nytol for a couple of nights and it helps me stay asleep.

Jetlag is a pain, but it means you’re somewhere exciting so I quite like it in a way.

Haha op are you so famous that saying where you're going will out you

Fair enough…..

People say don't nap but I find a 1-2 hour maximum power nap the best. Just after lunch time then you can continue your afternoon/evening a bit fresher. Just set an alarm and get up right away and out in the sunshine.

Also lots of water/fluids to avoid dehydration.

Thanks all for the info and insights. Not famous in the slightest, I just try to minimise how much personal information I post.

Plan is eye masks/water. Comfy clothes and socks. Shift timezones as soon as possible. No booze or caffeine on the flight (😨). Stay awake day 1 if possible, with lots of sunlight.

And Enjoy!

I fly a lot (as in, 75 flights a year!)

my top tips are:

melatonin, you will wake up at random hours and they do help get you back to sleep. Though you can be groggy.

if you are arriving early then take a nap on arrival but you have to be very strict about not sleeping half the day away.

coffee during the day…but not too much when it’s time to sleep or if you are very sensitive to it.

set your watch to the time zone soon as possible, night before or when you get on the plane. Try and keep to this schedule.

fly business or upgrade if you can to get the bed.

jet lag will last for a few days, and you’ll have one amazing sleep about 2.5/3 days in and think you’ve cracked it…but the next night it will be back to haunt you.

plan for being awake at random times during the night. Try to stay off your phone but don’t stress about not sleeping. Read a book or listen to a podcast and try to drift off.

and you’ll be randomly hungry at strange times so keep some snacks or cereal bars in your hotel room. 😂