Tips for avoiding Jetlag

[Run n Spread]

Have a quickie planned. And over 7 days lose 2 flying. Any tips on recovery and being able to land and enjoy rather than stress and sleep and lose a day. Getting back don't much care.

 

[Billy ray]

I always find landing at around 5pm works best. Get a second wind upon landing, check into hotel and gi grab some food and then get a good nights sleep and hit the ground running the next morning.
If you land in morning the nap you take that arvo will stuff things up for a few days.

 

[robbieando]

Just stay awake as long as you can into the evening doing something close to where your staying. I normally check in to where I'm staying, have a long shower to refresh and then go for a walk around the area I'm staying as a way to get to know the area and get some fresh(ish) air and then have something to eat. That way I tend to get a full nights sleep and into the timezone of where I'm at straight away.

 

[Hawk Dork]

Fly during the day is the best
Get off and wait for as close to regular bedtime as you can

 

[basashi]

I do a lot of round the world trips.

as soon as you get on flight get into landing country timeframe.

if you land in daytime get some sunlight and resist urge to nap.

instead, go to bed at the right time ... preferably exhausted.

take a 3mg melatonin 30 mins before bed for the first 5 nights in a new time zone

 

[stmookeyj]

Bit easier for me I suppose given I can sleep on planes more easily than others, and I've used connecting flights to get some shut eye, but upon landing the best thing to do is after checking into the motel to do something immediately like take a walk around town or do something like a tourist. Worst thing to do is to get into the motel and flop onto the bed.

 

[Great8]

Shell out for Business class especially on long haul or try to get an upgrade for any overnight legs. Nothing beats a decent bed on an overnight flight and I get zero sleep in Economy. When leaving Australia I prefer the evening flights. If I have flights after about 10pm I have a few drinks and a meal in the lounge and then pretty much go straight to bed after takeoff and wake up refreshed.

 

[raskolnikov]

I always try and book a flight that gets me at my destination in the late afternoon/evening then you don't have to try and stay awake all day. Just go straight to your hotel, crash and wake up ready to go.

 

[tangolikelama]

Just jumped off a 14hr flight from Doha this evening. Slept about 1hr during and will crash here at about 11pm and wake up 8am sharp.

 

[basashi]

Just jumped off a 14hr flight from Doha this evening. Slept about 1hr during and will crash here at about 11pm and wake up 8am sharp.

What to watch out for is in about three days time you might wake up at 2am and not be able to get back to sleep.

 

[tangolikelama]

What to watch out for is in about three days time you might wake up at 2am and not be able to get back to sleep.

Haha i've already cooked it.. just slept for 15 hours straight.

 

[basashi]

Haha i've already cooked it.. just slept for 15 hours straight.

It still sneaks up on you.

There are 2 imperatives to sleep: Actual tiredness and your body clock. You have slept well first up due to tiredness.

But the time of day your melatonin level rises is not yet reset. That is why you can think you have kciked it on day one, but day three comes back to bite you.

taking melatonin before bedtime on the first 5 days overcomes that body clock issue.

 

[juss]

With a small time difference e.g. <3 hours you can probably just make some minor sleep/wake time adjustments and be alright. Anything 4 hours or more you are going to feel a bit. The 7-12 hour differences are damn hard.

As soon as you get on the plane put your clock to your new time zone and use that as what you should be doing. Also try and arrive when you only have to be awake for a few more hours, you'll be tired from the plane most likely and better able to get a nights sleep to align the clock.

Whatever you do try and avoid landing in new destination early morning. I have done it twice landing in Athens and Houston before 9am and you are stuffed because you need to make it to at least 8pm to get some sort of appropriate time zone body clock sync. Those 2 days were both death, one of them in Houston I stuffed my pattern by napping for 3 hours and the other in Athens I only made it to 7pm at night.

Basically there isn't a real solution, you're going to feel a bit out of it for probably the first 24 hours regardless.

 

[tangolikelama]

What to watch out for is in about three days time you might wake up at 2am and not be able to get back to sleep.

haha fml i forgot about how bad this s**t is

 

[The Dice Man]

I cant sleep on planes at all, except that one time in Business from Brisbane to Dubai... Man what a treat. But I find Im ok at the other end even if its 28 hour flight. Unlucky I cant sleep, but lucky jetlag doesn't effect me.

 

[Angus Young]

yep get on plane... then adjust watch accordingly to landing country.

sleep when they sleep using sleeping pills.

or stay awake if u have to...coffee.

 

[juss]

The worst is coming back from Europe I've found for the first few days. At one point you'll randomly crash and sleep for like 15 hours and wake up in the middle of the day, then you'll have a night where your mind is buzzing at like 3 or 4am and you feel like you could run a marathon or solve a rubics cube at that point.

 

[juss]

I have to fly tonight with a really bad sinus/head cold and blocked ears. Now paranoid my eardrum is gonna burst because I always have ear pain when flying and I'm really congested. Just did the valsalva maneuver (popped my Ears) and it made me dizzy and head spin for like 30 seconds.

Anyone dealt with this before? It's a 2 hour flight so hoping I can just get through it.

 

[Billy ray]

I have to fly tonight with a really bad sinus/head cold and blocked ears. Now paranoid my eardrum is gonna burst because I always have ear pain when flying and I'm really congested. Just did the valsalva maneuver (popped my Ears) and it made me dizzy and head spin for like 30 seconds.

Anyone dealt with this before? It's a 2 hour flight so hoping I can just get through it.

Go buy over the counter nasal spray. The ones you can only do for a few days.

 

[robbieando]

The worst is coming back from Europe I've found for the first few days. At one point you'll randomly crash and sleep for like 15 hours and wake up in the middle of the day, then you'll have a night where your mind is buzzing at like 3 or 4am and you feel like you could run a marathon or solve a rubics cube at that point.

Had the worst jetlag coming back from Europe a few years back after not being effected before on previous return trips. I would sleep at random times, be fully awake at 3am and took nearly two weeks to get over it.

 

[tangolikelama]

I have to fly tonight with a really bad sinus/head cold and blocked ears. Now paranoid my eardrum is gonna burst because I always have ear pain when flying and I'm really congested. Just did the valsalva maneuver (popped my Ears) and it made me dizzy and head spin for like 30 seconds.

Anyone dealt with this before? It's a 2 hour flight so hoping I can just get through it.

Have had this twice and it's one of the most excruciating pains i've had, believe it's called ear barotrauma. I flew home sick with a cold this week and was terrified of this occurring but was able to pick up some pseudoephedrine in Europe which did the trick. Hope it all worked out for you.

 

[juss]

Have had this twice and it's one of the most excruciating pains i've had, believe it's called ear barotrauma. I flew home sick with a cold this week and was terrified of this occurring but was able to pick up some pseudoephedrine in Europe which did the trick. Hope it all worked out for you.

I took Sudafed, an antihistamine, Otrivin Spray and Nasonex spray through the day haha.

Probably massive overkill, and my head was really spaced out but I got through it!

 

[Macpotata]

Have Ben Cousins as your chauffeur upon arrival

 

[wadistance]

I'm the opposite to pretty much everyone here. Get your arrival flight to land no later than lunch time. Gives you minimum 4-6 hours to go out, get a coffee or two, do a bit of sightseeing, get dinner and be absolutely knackered by the time you crawl into bed at 8pm. You're not going to wake up till the morning with that in mind

 

[Run n Spread]

I'm the opposite to pretty much everyone here. Get your arrival flight to land no later than lunch time. Gives you minimum 4-6 hours to go out, get a coffee or two, do a bit of sightseeing, get dinner and be absolutely knackered by the time you crawl into bed at 8pm. You're not going to wake up till the morning with that in mind

Did this and was up and about next day. TBH I've always found coming back to Australia the problem. Combination of red eye flight, sitting for a long long period (long story) and the ******* freezing weather seizing the joints up. Otherwise like I never left.