Jet Lag

Lee gave a good description of the issues. The answers are a bit different for each person and also depend on the length of the journey. I have found that the basics such as preventing dehydration and taking a few Airbornes really helps. The other thing that helps me is adjusting my watch, sleep, etc. to the destination time as early as possible on the journey. (Just don't change your watch until AFTER getting the last flight!)

This is a very good and popular question. Just do a quick search using the upper right hand box and you will discover a plethora of information.

Ambien CR

Think in Greenwich Mean Time when I get to my US airport. Arrive in the morning GMT, sleep on the plane (I take one Excedrin PM) and stay active first day to a decent bed time. Next day I'm in pretty good shape. I also try to adjust my schedule by an hour or two in the weeks before my trip. I haven't needed or tried any of the new jet lag products that are out.

There are really TWO factors here - jetlag and travel fatigue. True jetlag is desynchronization. That's when your body clock, and all the resultant body rhythms such as heart rate, breathing, metabolysm, mental accuity, are out of synch with the local time. Travel fatigue is the result of long time sitting in a cramped space, lack of sleep, dehydration, etc. If you fly from Montreal to Buenos Aires, the trip would take over nine hours and you would definitely have travel fatique, but there would only be an hour's change in the time zone, so you would not have desynchronization. On the other hand, if Scotty could instantly transport you to Paris, you wouldn't have any travel fatique, but you would still have jetlag.

Unfortunately, most "old wives" remedies for jetlag, lots of liquids, no alcohol, sleep on the plane, only fight travel fatique, which might exacerbate the effects of jetlag, but they do nothing for jetlag itself.

The best way to fight jetlag is to try to reset your clock. If you arrive in the morning, get out in the sunlight. Do it while your body still expects dark, not after it is light at home. After that, get up every morning around dawn. A short walk in the daylight does wonders.

There are so many variables, but here's what I'd observe. It is important to be all ready to go a few days ahead so you can be as rested as possible before you go (no up late packing the night before).

I wish we could arrive from west coast US around mid-afternoon so that we could just collapse after eating and getting to the hotel, but we haven't been able to get that to work.

The other thing I learned from an Aussie friend who came to visit regularly was to use food consumption to help affect your body rhythm -- don't endlessly snack on the flight and try to simulate the meal times on Europe time. It is supposed to cue your body as to when to eat and when to sleep.

That said, these things only help -- there's no way around jet lag completely.

Search on "jet lag", box upper right, to find a hundred different methods of coping from extensive prior discussions of this.

I've had really good luck with melatonin, beginning 3 days before departure. This is potent stuff--it's a hormone--and I would never recommend it to someone else as I am not a doctor. But you asked, what do I do.

I also find the anti-jetlag diet helpful. Both the diet and melatonin shift your circadian clock--addressing what Lee calls desynchronization. And both entail some inconvenience, so you might decide they are not worth the effort.

On my last trip I had some travel fatigue but nearly no jet lag--hit the ground running in the morning and did not stop sightseeing until bedtime at 10 p.m. local time. It was like getting an extra day on my trip.

If you have jet lag after arriving in Europe, make yourself stay up all day and avoid the temptation to take a nap. Get outdoors in the sunshine and exercise! Try to stay up as late as you can that evening--at least until 9 or 10 p.m. If you do these things, you will probably be able to sleep through that first night, your internal clock will reset, and you'll feel pretty good the next day.

I just get up and walk around the neighborhood early in the morning for the first few days. Then bring coffee and croissants back.

I agree, Doug! I can only fight the demand for sleep until around dinner time. We've usually gone to sleep shortly after dinner and slept through until early morning. Then we're up and going while the locals are heading for work and have had some of our best memories and sightseeing in the early morning hours. And the coffee and croissants taste the very best that first morning!

My best advice is to think in terms on what time it is in the city that you are currently in. Forget that you did not get any sleep last night and forget what time it is in Lewiston. One word of caution though - if you start seeing double - it's time to head back to the hotel for a one hour nap.
Fran.