Fighting Jet Lag by Flipping Time Zones Early

Elizabeth,

I've tried to change my schedule just prior to departure to more closely match Europe time, but so far haven't been too successful. There are always a huge number of arrangements to be made for the trip, and many of the items I'm dealing with have to be done on "home time" so I have no choice.

I can certainly appreciate the aspect of shift work. I worked a 12-hour night shift last night, and I won't be back to normal for a few days. Thank goodness only TWO more night shifts, and I'm done for life!

At one time I thought that being a shift worker and used to working at different hours, that jet lag wouldn't be much of a problem. However, I've learned that isn't true! Jet lag is like a really long night shift, and it often affects me to a greater degree. Each trip has been a bit different though. On some occasions I've been able to manage staying awake until around 21:00, but on others I've have to resort to a two-hour "power nap" so that I can keep going until bed time.

Happy travels!

Thank you Ken and Steve.

You two are a wealth of great info, always.

Appreciate it so much.

Now Ken, holy cow. Do you mind if I ask what you do?

Our goal is to be completely packed two to three days before we have to leave so that we can just coast, but you know how there's always something that can trip (pun intended) you up. Perhaps best rested is the best preparation.

adjusting your body clock ahead of time should work wonders in theory. Unfortunately, two things get in the way;

1) I'm excited about travel. Sometimes it's hard to get to sleep when you want to even at home.

2) Travel causes tiredness, no matter how you have arranged your nights. You are just sitting there, but it is exhausting. Despite your best efforts to hit the ground running, I suspect you are bound to feel fatigued no matter what you have attempted to train your body to do ahead of time.

I start work VERY early in the morning (3 am), so when I get to Europe, it's not bad....3 am back home is 9 am in Europe. But that first day still kills me, since I don't usually sleep well on the plane. I think that, as Randy says, getting a good rest on the plane flight over is the key to dealing with time zone changes from west to east.

Randy hit the nail on the head. There are actually two factors at work.

1) Jetlag - caused by moving across timezones
2) Travel fatigue - caused by traveling, even within the same timezone (i.e., north-south)

Both affect different people to varying degrees. The worst I ever had was actually a redeye flight Seattle - Orlando. We went to Perkins which offered a bottomless pot of coffee, and I think with 3 coffee drinkers, we went through 3 or 4 large carafes of coffee and still barely stayed awake!

My trips to Italy, I was generally better off. Like Steve, I try to sleep on the plane and sun and fresh air seems to be the best cure for me. My first trip, I landed at 7am and once I got to the hotel I ditched my bags and went for a really long walk. Around 1pm or so, I passed out cold for a 2 hour nap. I did ok the rest of the trip but had a hard time sleeping through the night and ended up relying on Tylenol PM to knock me out a few times.

Second trip, we landed around 1pm and did kind of the same thing--dropped the bags at the hotel and immediately went out sightseeing. We did casual things that didn't require reservations or brain power, such as visiting Trevi Fountain & the Pantheon. Went to dinner after our walk and then returned to the hotel around 10pm and crashed in bed about 11. Had pretty much no difficulties with adjusting to the time shift after that, so I think the later flight helped.

Overall, in my experience what you do prior to the trip--other than not stressing yourself out--is not going to have as much impact as what you do when you first arrive in Europe.

We live in VA but my husband works for a European company. We do flip time zones for a trip and it works great. Although, after 15 years of working for a company in a different time zone, we are used to getting up way before dawn in our house. The week before a trip to Europe, we just shift even more to match their time zone.

I have found that the return trip to VA is now a huge jolt to us.

Like Kim, I find I am bothered more by the return trip. I do know that drinking lots of water ahead of time helps me. I normally drink alot anyway to help control my asthma, but for a few days before a trip I trip to up my consumption of water by 2 or 3 extra 8oz glasses a day. I tend to sleep on the plane and usually get about 4 to 5 hours of sleep. I think going to Europe from the east coast is a good bit easier than from the west coast. Sunlight upon arrival does wonders, too- it really helps to reset your body clock.

In theory, this is possible (they've done experiments with pilots under very controlled conditions), but it is much harder to do in actuality. The trick is to progressively limit your exposure to ambient light starting at earlier hours in the evening and afternoon, and conversely to flood yourself with light gradually earlier in the morning. Taking a sleep aid may help, but it won't do anything by itself to adjust your internal clock if you don't limit your exposure to light. Having go to work in the weeks before your trip effectively makes this method impossible.

We've tried flipping before, my husband has been more successful than I since he's a)a morning person anyway, and b)can sleep soundly anywhere at anytime.

I have a hard time sleeping on a plane, and I'm afraid to try to take anything since usually when I do that at home I'm still foggy for the first couple of hours of the day even after sleeping 8 hours. So I don't try to shift my hours earlier, because, for me, that means I've gotten less sleep the day I leave since I've gotten up earlier and not slept on the plane.

The first day, I know I'm going to be a bit groggy, but we get outside and walk to get the "lay of the land" and try to stay up until 9pm local time. But now, with kids in tow, we do take a little nap (since they need one, we may as well take one, too) when we get to our hotel but still get up for as many daylight hours as we can. By day 2, I'm as right as rain.

The jet lag coming back was worse this time then I can remember it being before. It took a couple of weeks before we could stay awake past 8:30.

We leave for Munich on Thursday. For the past few days, I have been setting my alarm clock to wake me a half hour earlier each morning to overcome part of the seven-hour time difference between the time zones. This morning I arose at 3:30 a.m. (CST). By Thursday, I hope to be able to get up at 2 a.m., which, if I calculate this right, would be 9 a.m. in Munich. I know it is not for everyone, but getting up early like this makes it easier for me to get some sleep on the plane, and jet lag is less of a factor when I get there. My wife says she would rather deal with it there instead of gradually here, but she will take a nap in the car while I drive to our destination for the first night. Besides the traffic safety consideration, I don't want to waste any part of the first day.

I have done the get-up-earlier approach before and it did help, but now I arrange a flight that arrives in the morning and take a sleeping pill on the flight to get some sleep. It isn't perfect, but works for me.

Jetlag hits me hardest on the return trip. It has nothing to do with being sad to leave. I have found this even with flying back from Hawaii. I drink tons of water as well.