Jet Lag!!!!!!

[SCT]

In the last year or two my department has been flying alot more European trips. Usually London and Paris areas six or seven times a year average. The trips consist of 3 to 4 days.
I now have six Atlantic crossings (5- 604 and 1-X). My problem is every time we fly back to the states, I am a zombie for a couple of days trying to recover from the jet lag. From you guys/gals that do this all the time, do you have any suggestions to dampen the effects of jet lag? Do you try to stay on your normal "US" time? Or force yourself to sleep?
Also, if we leave in the morning east coast time, it's no big deal. But when we lfly all night and land in the morning.....that kicks my butt. Same on the return.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
SCT

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Lose the skirt...

no really..

DO NOT try and stay on US time.

Simply sleep when you are tired. land a LFPB at 0900 and tired?....sleep. (you wont sleep all day) then get up and do something.... When you force yourself to stay up you miss the sleep cycle and wind up more beat.

Another VERY important aspect. Stay at top notch hotels - large quiet cool rooms, competent staff (No Disturb), good gyms, and 24hr quality room service. All this makes a difference too.

Drink plenty of water, exercise....and (dreaded) avoid alcohol. A glass or two of wine...fine...but avoid the 0800 beer/scotch and eggs arrivals to europe.

Others seem to like Tylenol PM, Melatonin (sp) etc...

Our company Drs also will give you presciption sleep pills.


Having tried a million things, I simply sleep when I can and it works fine - and been doing about 25 crossings/yr lately....

 

[banned username 2]

On the short Europe trips 2-4 days, if the flight times allow I stay on my home US time (or close)... I do just fine and come home and am back to "normal" the very next day... My first Europe trip years ago I forced myself to adjust to the local Europe time and was a zombie most of the trip, when I got home I was dead for 2-3 days afterwards...

For me personally, if I can stay on my home time, I do great... The trips that would out best for me are the ones that arrive in Europe around 6-7am (I go to the hotel and go to sleep) and then depart Europe for the States in the early evening (Europe Time) I will sleep in until 2pm or so local time and will be ready to go...

Don't worry about what the clock on the wall says, you can only move your body clock about 1 hours per day... So for a 6-7 hour time change it will take you about a week to fully adjust... If the trip is much shorter than that, I wouldn't try to move your clock much... He!!, I don't even reset my watch on International trips (even the 2 weeks in Asia I spent)... Keeps the mind sharp having to do weird math problems on the backside of the clock!

 

[Fly BI]

Sleep aid

My wife and I use a product called sleepeaze. It's really amazing, fast acting and we feel great when we wake up. I ordered it from www.jetsethealth.com
It's hard to fight a body clock, but sleepeaze puts the smack into your body's clock and lets you get some sleep. Hope this helps!

 

[norskman2]

Much has been written about jet lag, but there has been very little good scientific analysis. Some folks swear by melatonin.

About the only (or best) scientific study has been by Argonne National Labs.

http://www.antijetlagdiet.com/docs/mmarticle.pdf

 

[mobie]

I have flown international for the last 16 years and jet lag has not been a problem, unless I have been off for awhile. Flying 5 trips per month you get in an eat, sleep habit. Going to EU I hit the bed for about 4 hours and then MAKE myself get up and do something, eat dinner as late as I can and then stay up as to get 8 hrs. sleep on local time (GMT). Have done 3 trips back to back and no problem.

The problem is when you do not do it all the time and your body clock gets a shock.

Works for me after over 50 crossing per year.

Mobie

 

[caseyd]

Western Europe advise, I never go the other way.
On short trips or long, grab three hours sleep and get up. Stay awake till 8 local ( midnight or so EST) Then sleep again. This sets you up for another day in Europe or primes you for a return. When you get home stay up till bedtime, then go to bed. You just gotta tough it out. It's hard but there's gots to do over there. Make a plan and GO.

 

[METARMan]

Although I haven't done any European crossings, I've been doing a lot of red-eye's, changing time zones, long duty days, etc.

Maybe it is possible some people can't adapt to jet-lag? The reason I say this is because I haven't found a way to deal with it effectively. I'm a very health conscious person.

I haven't tried any medication or sleep aides, but I haven't been able to find away to effectively combat jet-lag. I frequently come home and it takes me one to two days to adjust, much like what you have experienced.

I've tried sleeping when I'm tired, forcing my self to stay up, a combination of the two, etc...nothing has worked.

METARMan

 

[Flyinjunk]

Lose the skirt...

no really..

DO NOT try and stay on US time.

Simply sleep when you are tired. land a LFPB at 0900 and tired?....sleep. (you wont sleep all day) then get up and do something.... When you force yourself to stay up you miss the sleep cycle and wind up more beat.

Another VERY important aspect. Stay at top notch hotels - large quiet cool rooms, competent staff (No Disturb), good gyms, and 24hr quality room service. All this makes a difference too.

Drink plenty of water, exercise....and (dreaded) avoid alcohol. A glass or two of wine...fine...but avoid the 0800 beer/scotch and eggs arrivals to europe.

Others seem to like Tylenol PM, Melatonin (sp) etc...

Our company Drs also will give you presciption sleep pills.


Having tried a million things, I simply sleep when I can and it works fine - and been doing about 25 crossings/yr lately....

"but avoid the 0800 beer/scotch and eggs arrivals to europe.

Others seem to like Tylenol PM, Melatonin (sp) etc...

Our company Drs also will give you presciption sleep pills."


Dude you just gave away trade secrets !
I got two words for ya .......temazopan cocktail......


1 part temazopan pill

4 shots of Knob Creek


Best ingested after your Eurotrash din din of sh!t on a Sh!ngle.
Commence medication in 3 ....2.......1....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[misty_brewer]

Jet lag used to bother me until I put in about two years at an on demand freight operation. You never knew when you would be called out...up all day taking care of errands only to get called out that night for a 14 hour shift...followed by ten hours and another 14 hour shift...This would continue until they could not sell you out of a location and it screwed your schedule up again...nights one week and days the next, never knew what you were gonna get! On several occasions I counted 30 hours no sleep...

In the end, I learned to just suck it up and go with it.

 

[duct tape]

I have also been using the sleepeaze product from jetsethealth for a while now if you are a flight crew they also have a 20% discount link set up so pretty cheap, and it works incredibly well. www.jetsethealth.com/creworder1.htm So with exercise, water all day long, I try not to drink soda's and stay away from sugars late in the day and then one of those pills when I want to go to sleep it has really helped. here is the link for the discount if needed

DUCT