Best practice for avoiding jet lag?

What's the current "best practice" for avoiding jet lag?

The last time I went to Europe, I was 20 years old and could stay up for
days and still function if I needed to; now, I can hardly make it
through a day at work without a nap :-)

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
...
What's the current "best practice" for avoiding jet lag?

The last time I went to Europe, I was 20 years old and could stay up for
days and still function if I needed to; now, I can hardly make it
through a day at work without a nap :-)


1) Take a day flight not a night flight.
2) Take a day flight not a night flight.
3) Take a day flight not a night flight.
4) Take a day flight not a night flight.
5) Take a day flight not a night flight.
6) Take a day flight not a night flight.
7) Take a day flight not a night flight.
8) Take a day flight not a night flight.
9) Take a day flight not a night flight.


10) Trying to adjust your body to destination time zone before you go can
help.

A lot of the other advice will come from knowing the time/duration of your
flight and the flexibility in your plans for the destination.

(Miss L. Toe) wrote in
enews.net:


"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
...
What's the current "best practice" for avoiding jet lag?

The last time I went to Europe, I was 20 years old and could stay
up for days and still function if I needed to; now, I can hardly
make it through a day at work without a nap :-)


1) Take a day flight not a night flight.
...

Well, not much choice on that one; we depart MSP at 3:25 PM, arrive
at Amsterdam - Schiphol at 6:30 AM the next day, make a connection to
a flight to Vienna which leaves at 8:10 AM, arriving at 10:10 AM.

So, that's 8 hours for the first leg, 1.5 hours for the connection,
then two hours for the second leg.


10) Trying to adjust your body to destination time zone before you
go can help.

A lot of the other advice will come from knowing the time/duration
of your flight and the flexibility in your plans for the
destination.

Well, there's the time/duration info. No flexibility at either end,
since we have to make the connection in Amsterdam and hook up with
ground transport in Vienna.

Maybe I'm just turning into a squeamish traveler in my dotage; up
'til now, all our travel has been strictly north-south to Mexico and
the Caribbean.

I'm primarily concerned about being lucid enough to traverse Schiphol
to make my connection; we should be met by friendlies in Vienna, and
once we're picked up we should have no worries for the next two weeks
:-)

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

Bert Hyman wrote:
What's the current "best practice" for avoiding jet lag?

The last time I went to Europe, I was 20 years old and could stay up
for days and still function if I needed to; now, I can hardly make it
through a day at work without a nap :-)

Just don't plan on doing &*)(% the first day. Try not to sleep until
close to local bed time.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

I'm primarily concerned about being lucid enough to traverse Schiphol
to make my connection; we should be met by friendlies in Vienna, and
once we're picked up we should have no worries for the next two weeks
:-)

Don't worry about that, Schiphol is easy to get around, and it's not
like you'll be the only drooling zombie changing planes there.

As far as avoiding jet lag, I have three related suggestions:

First, adjust your schedule ahead of time as much as you can. Austria
is seven hours ahead of CDT, so ideally you'll be getting up at 1 AM
and going to bed around 5 PM. You can't do that of course, but you
can probably move your internal time zone two or three hours east.

Second, you want the NO section on the plane as in no movie, no food, no
lights, no nothing. What you want to do on the plane is sleep, since if
you have done step 1, it'll be close to bedtime when the plane leaves.
Even though they offer dinner, you might consider taking a bag supper you
can eat soon after take off and then put on your eyeshades and sleep.

Third, when you get there, stay up until bedtime. You will be tired,
and the urge to take an afternoon nap will be great, but if you do, you
will wake up at 2 AM and be unable to get back to sleep and it'll take
the entire two weeks to get your clock in sync.

Westbound trips are much easier, and a nap on the plane is OK so you stay
awake long enough upon return to go to bed at a normal time in Minneapolis.

Have fun in Austria, eat lots of pastries and drink lots of wine for us.

"John R. Levine" wrote in message
...
I'm primarily concerned about being lucid enough to traverse Schiphol
to make my connection; we should be met by friendlies in Vienna, and
once we're picked up we should have no worries for the next two weeks
:-)

Don't worry about that, Schiphol is easy to get around, and it's not
like you'll be the only drooling zombie changing planes there.


Agreed - Schipol is easy

As far as avoiding jet lag, I have three related suggestions:

First, adjust your schedule ahead of time as much as you can. Austria
is seven hours ahead of CDT, so ideally you'll be getting up at 1 AM
and going to bed around 5 PM. You can't do that of course, but you
can probably move your internal time zone two or three hours east.

Second, you want the NO section on the plane as in no movie, no food, no
lights, no nothing. What you want to do on the plane is sleep, since if
you have done step 1, it'll be close to bedtime when the plane leaves.
Even though they offer dinner, you might consider taking a bag supper you
can eat soon after take off and then put on your eyeshades and sleep.


That only really applies to those lucky people who can sleep on planes, if
you can;t sleep on planes don't both trying - you will definately sleep on
the second leg.

Third, when you get there, stay up until bedtime. You will be tired,
and the urge to take an afternoon nap will be great, but if you do, you
will wake up at 2 AM and be unable to get back to sleep and it'll take
the entire two weeks to get your clock in sync.


I sort of agree and sort of don't on the afternoon nap thing.

I have found that taking a short-as possible afternoon nap during the first
few days as well as a shortened night sleep can help adjust - My theory is
that your body will get used to two sleeps per 24 hours and doesn't really
care which is afternoon and which is night. However be aware that if you do
this your night sleeps will be shorter than normal.

So take some melatonin with you (you cant buy it in the UK I don't know
about Austria) and and good book for the evenings/early mornings.

Rest and/or sleep before your trip to the airport, and then rest and/or
sleep after you have arrived at Vienna.

At 1000~1100 morning in Vienna, it might be better to rest or just take
a short nap (a few hours or so) until it's time for bedtime.



The problem isn't just the difference in time zones.

Since long range flights (more than four hours) are very exhausting,
one need to take a suefficient amount of time to rest.

Personally, all of your work to adjust into your destination's time
zone before going in a trip probably wouldn't matter anyway, since by
the time you arrive at your destination, you probably will be quite
exhausted by your long journey that you will immediately fall asleep
anyway.


I guess that maybe that the best way would be to rest and/or sleep
first before starting your journey.

Then after finishing your long journey, you take another rest and/or
sleep before continuing with your activities.

The rest and/or sleep doesn't need to be timed or anything like, just
enough to make you feel that you can continue on with your activities
without feeling very tired. The best thing to do is not to
over-stressed both your mind and body, if they ask you to sleep, it
might best to follow their suggestion.



As for sleeping in the aircraft.

Sleeping in an aircraft seat is not very recommended, and probably will
make you more tired. Just do things leisurely in the aircraft, eat
leisurely, talk leisurely, take a leisure stroll from time to time,
take a short nap, and so on. In other words, relax. Being stuck inside
a metal tube for a long time is quite a very stressful experience, no
matter on which class you're in.



As for setting the internal time clock of your body.

Personally, I find that humans seems to be quite capable of staying up
24 hours a day as long as they like, though they have the tendency to
sleep and rest if they are tired. Just because you're willing, that
doesn't mean that your mind and body will comply.

Setting the internal time clock is easy, just stay up until it's bed
time.

Coping with your exhaustion, that's hard.

What's the current "best practice" for avoiding jet lag?
The last time I went to Europe, I was 20 years old and could stay
up for days and still function if I needed to; now, I can hardly make
it through a day at work without a nap :-)

I'm glad you admitted the truth about jet lag, that it is much more
about sleep deprivation than about changed time zones. I suggest:
- have your bags packed a few days before your flight so you
won't worry during your sleep the night before
- get a great night sleep the day before, even to the point of going
to bed too early
- get a seat that allows you to take a nap, whether that means a
business class seat, exit row seat, etc.
- no booze the day before or during the flight
- go to bed early on your first night overseas


Pete

As for sleeping in the aircraft.

Sleeping in an aircraft seat is not very recommended, and probably will
make you more tired.

I guess it varies a lot from person to person. I can sleep reasonably
well on a plane even though I'm 6'4". On a flight from the US to
Australia about 10 years ago (when I was 40) I was in the nice quiet
upstairs Qantas business cabin, I slept almost the whole way from LAX
to SYD, and when I got there, I asked them what time it was, they said
morning, and to my surprise, that was that, no jet lag at all.

spamfree wrote:
What's the current "best practice" for avoiding jet lag?
The last time I went to Europe, I was 20 years old and could stay
up for days and still function if I needed to; now, I can hardly make
it through a day at work without a nap :-)

I'm glad you admitted the truth about jet lag, that it is much more
about sleep deprivation than about changed time zones. I suggest:
- have your bags packed a few days before your flight so you
won't worry during your sleep the night before
- get a great night sleep the day before, even to the point of going
to bed too early
- get a seat that allows you to take a nap, whether that means a
business class seat, exit row seat, etc.
- no booze the day before or during the flight

Heresy.

However, I would add to this list:

Exercise upon arrival. Don't particularly mean go to
the gym, but walk as much as you can and be active, don't
sit and eat alot. Then:

- go to bed

a little bit

early on your first night overseas