Came back from Whistler on Friday (landed saturday) and try as i might I can’t seem to get back into normal UK time sleeping hours. Step dad who was with me seems to have dealt with it fine but I’m sat here still on Canadian time (8hrs behind) so knarkered, zombie like state from 8am-4pm, then normal til 10, sleep til 2 ish, then unable to sleep until its time to get up for work 🙁

Just MTFU or is there anything else that will help as the post holiday blues are being made all the worse!

Coffee, walks/rides and sunlight to keep you awake.

I subscribe to the bottle of wine cure for jetlag. Inbibe a bottle of wine making sure you finish it at normal bedtime.
Off to bed and then body clock is reset and hangover not withstanding all is good.
YMMV.

ive travelled all over and never suffered from this and im sure its a myth so yes MTFU! However if you are suffering I’d have thought just go back into your normal routine as soon as you can, i.e. don’t have little naps until its actually bedtime

i read the title as “getting over jet flaps” and was disappointed not to find your one from Gladiators present…

but see as i’m here, try your damnedest to stay awake until the local bed time then sleep, set an alarm and get up at local getting up time… not always that easy though

EDIT: is this a subtle way of telling us you’ve been to whistler?!? Validation denied if so!

Already on the high caffiene drinks (cant stand coffee…)
There has been precious little sunshine since ive been back which hasnt helped but its pretty nice now, will go for a ride this eve, see if that does the trick!

EDIT: is this a subtle way of telling us you’ve been to whistler?!? Validation denied if so!

I did enough bragging before I went 😉

Has taken me about a 5 days to get over the jet lag each time I’ve flown back from the East coast of the USA, can’t imagine how bad it is from Whistler.

It’s really hard because if you’re not tired, you can’t sleep until late on and then you don’t want to get up. Alcohol didn’t help with me, just reset me back on American time. No tips at all here other than you wait it out.

Try and get some Melotonin. It isn’t easy to get over here though, so if you ever do the trip again – buy it out there as you don’t need a prescription.

Amazing stuff.
Sleeping tablets may also be an idea.

Non-drug solution, go for a big ride and knacker yourself out and hope you sleep through the night.

ive travelled all over and never suffered from this and im sure its a myth

You’ve been lucky, or never had to travel in a way that hits you.

Melotonin can help. Unfortunately, eastabout is the worst for this and you just have to work at getting tired at the proper time and doing everything you can to promote your regular sleep.

A rough rule of thumb is that your body adjusts at about 1hr each day so 7 or 8 days after landing you should be back to normal.

Took me about 3 days after a trip to LA.

As with everything – practice.

Flying in any direction rarely bothers me, so long as i get enough hours of sleep.

But i fly two or three times a month in all directions

Getting used to shift work helps as well 🙂

I was doing lots of nz/uk travel and that was mostly ok. Same as you though, was in whistler and getting back it took me about 6 days to adjust.

Alarm clock. Plenty of fresh air and healthy food. But mostly the alarm clock. Usually I’m right after a couple of days as long as I get back to my normal routine immediately.

The blood of seven recently drowned kittens will most likely do the trick. If you can’t find kittens in your sleepy stupper then baby robins will suffice.

Lots of people have lots of theories about this. My own theory is you just need lots of sleep. Don’t over-do the coffee or booze – they will only make you feel worse. Exercise is good for tiring yourself out but not too close to bed time – better to do it in the morning or middy if possible. Other than that, plenty of sleep and patience. At least if you’re getting plenty of sleep, even if its at the wrong time of day, you will feel better when you are awake than if you have tried to push on through without sleep.

It takes a day to adjust for every hours time difference apparently.

I spend 2 months out of every 3 either 3 or 4 hours ahead of the UK and it’s always going forward in time that screws me up the most. Dunno why. Takes me a few days to get over it, but I find being in daylight and softer light at night helps.

The best thing is not to get it in the first place. I use a combination of sleep deprivation on the plane and strong sleeping pills. So I always get a good 6-8 hours at what should be sleeping time in the new location, works better if you land early in the morning.

Then when you land, stay up until at least 2100 local time the following night, no caffiene or other stimulants after 1400. Then go to bed.

Job done.

You need to start on the homeward trip IME. I used to travel a lot to California and Colorado, coming home always knocked me. I found it helpful to go for a decent run/ride/gym session before flying, then depending what time you get back to blighty either stay awake for the whole flight watching movies or get absolutely ****tted and sleep all the way back. I generally took a late afternoon/early evening flight home so a 9-10am ish landing here so after take off spent an hour or two necking whisky and watching a fillum and then I’d sleep for 6 hours or so.

As above also, try not to sleep until bed time once you’re home

Edit: hels has it, although I prefer whisky to tablets 🙂

I do a lot of flying, unfortunately. 27 loooong haul flights in the last 2 1/2 years.

By far the best way is to get straight back into the new routine asap. I flew from the UK to Thailand last Saturday. Arrived at 7pm Thai time (BST+7). I had a tough Sunday after almost no sleep but kept myself up until about 9pm on Sunday. Slept through and then felt fine on Monday.

A case of rule #5

I used to travel for work. As people have said, flying East is worse, and sunlight helps reset your clock. I wonder if being in the dark at night helps too when you’re back in the UK.

Melatonin is great! but it gives you heavy duty dreams.

Eating meals at the right time ie Breakfast in the morning etc helps reset the body clock 🙂

My SFO flight used to get into London at 11am and I was always expected to head straight to work from the airport.

That definitely helped beat the jet lag 🙂

The whole flying east/west is better/worse is a proper old wives tale, just for info.

The whole flying east/west is better/worse is a proper old wives tale, just for info.

I dunno, I’ve never had jet lag past the second morning flying east. flying west, I’m bushed for at least a week.

Make fists with your toes on carpet whilst barefoot. Don’t try this in a tower block owned by a Japanese corporation though.

I don’t tend to suffer too badly with jet lag and put it down to doing shift work for the last 25 years.

My 30 plus flights to the US says east is worse. Coming home I eat before the flight and just try and sleep on the plane. When back, sunlight and forcing a normal bed time helps. BA arrivals lounge is also a nice place 😉

Going west is seldom an issue.

In my experience jetlag affects everyone slightly differently and you can have good and bad trips however well practiced you are. I have a better routine travelling east as I do it more frequently. Travelling out to N/S/Central America always seems weird to me, but I only go that way 3-4 times per year. Being able to get decent sleep if you’re on a plane at the appropriate time also helps.

Travelling east I’d plan to:

1) leave the curtains open to encourage waking up more naturally (only works during the summer in the UK 😉 )
2) desperately avoiding trying to sleep during the day so that you have the maximum chance of sleeping when you actually go to bed
3) trying not to change too much in one go – generally I’ll go to bed 1am or 2am rather than any earlier, to try and maximise the chance of sleeping through when I do nod off
4) Always be wary of the “afternoon nap” sleep – i.e. if you go to bed at a time that could conceivably be an afternoon nap in the place you’ve just left then you’ll be wide awake an hour later and be stuffed for sleeping properly.

Generally, always try and live as far as humanly possible on the destination timezone (whether travelling east or west), albeit I may be going to bed a few hours earlier/later than I might normally. Be very careful if you’ve got to drive/operate machinery when you’re not really wide awake…

(I’m UK+7hrs since yesterday morning; back home Saturday for 5 days, then 2 weeks where I’m UK+4hrs for 4 days, UK-6hrs for 2 days, UK+4.5hrs for 1 day etc)

makecoldplayhistory – Member

I flew from the UK to Thailand last Saturday. Arrived at 7pm Thai time (BST+7). I had a tough Sunday after almost no sleep 😀 but kept myself up 😯 until about 9pm on Sunday.

That just sounds dodgy!

Cocaine. Always worked for me.

The east west thing is not a myth as far as I am concerned. Travelling west I’m fine after a day, but coming back home takes me a good few days to adjust.

Once you’re air side, set your watch and brain to the time at your arrival point. Work with that. It’s worked for me going both East and West.

Just got back from Atlanta at lunchtime after a brief visit. Not sure I was on the ground long enough to get jetlag though!

I have returned from a 26 hour trip yesterday and have no jet lag (went to bed at 10 last night) but i did as above and set my watch both there and back to the time of my destination and tried to condition my body to the new time zone. Seems to be working so far.

The east west thing happens to me. Top tip is stay awake for the entire flight then keep it going till normal night time where you arrive. Use caffeine to get there and alcohol if you’re not falling asleep. It’s strange that I can adjust well to 12 hr differences but 2-3 hrs kills me. Just done a week in Perth WA from the east coast and I wake up at 4-5am each day so now I take the road bike and try and stay off WA time till I get home – normally sync with WA on the last day. Same with NZ except thats not being able to sleep and waking up silly early.

I hate time differences, why can’t we all just get on with one time zone

Stay awake on the flight but don’t eat anything. As soon as you get home have whichever meal is appropriate for the time. Go to bed at normal time and you won’t suffer jet lag. No napping or snacking.

Too late for you and it’s been said already, but adopting destination time as soon as you get on the plane works for me. Have used that for a few long hauls in the last year, heading both east and west. Bit of booze on the plane always helps, plus a dose of MTFU and stay awake until normal bedtime when you land.

Just stepped of the whistler flight. Just gonna tough it out til 10/11 and see what happens tmrw.

It depends on how long I’m on a trip. over 3-4 days

adopting destination time as soon as you get on the plane works for me

works for me too. Under 3-4days I try to stay as much as possible on the home timezone. I average around 15trips to the USA a year. I also sleep on the plane whenever I can, in either direction.

yes not eating too much seemed to help (lots of water no alcohol) and lots of exercise before you fly (i did a lot of swimming).