jet lag

I drink a LOT of caffeine, and I am never really bothered by jet lag. Still, they have familiar soft drinks in Belgium, too. I wouldn't risk taking any.

I would not chance it. Why not try a lovely espresso at a cafe near your hotel? A just-as-good-tip: drink lots of water. Trust me. I'm a night shift RN. Water will do the trick better than any caffeinated beverage.

Not to tax you, but you might want to read a bit more about jet lag--specifically caffeine's effect on your circadian clock. According to the Jet Lag Diet book, caffeine on arrival is the last thing you should do--it may give you energy but will make your jet lag worse.

The area where checked luggage is kept is generally not pressurized. Thus it's a bad idea to put anything with contents under pressure - like a carbonated beverage - in checked luggage. It could be fine, or you could have a sticky mess. i haven't seen mountain dew in Europe but red bull is popular. drink that, if you must.

There's a convenience store located in the arrival hall of Brussels airport. It's straight ahead as you leave the secured area. You can buy a caffeinated beverage right there. As Sarah mentioned, I don't think Mountain Dew is sold in Europe (although I haven't looked...). There is also a small breakfast cafe, if you want some coffee. Alternatively, they will almost certainly serve coffee and tea before your flight lands.

The best thing, assuming you're arriving in the morning, is to get some good rest on the plane. Four hours of uninterrupted sleep was the minimum the US Marines decided you need to live on, go for at least that - six or more hours if you can get it, then power through the day by staying active, eating meals based on local time, and hang in there until a decent bed time. I normally take a sleep aid on the flight over. This time I couldn't find them in my bag so I went without. I think I had less jet lag this time than on other recent trips. If you normally drink a lot of caffienated products, you probably won't want to go without when you get to Europe. The withdrawel symptom is a pretty bad headache. I haven't seen Mt. Dew in Europe (though I haven't looked for it) but you can find energy drinks. Surprisingly, while colas are priced outrageously in Europe (usually 1.50 to 2.50 euros, or $2.50 to $3.25), energy drinks aren't much more than here (about 2.20 euros or $2.90).

My husband and I have always used "No Jet Lag" pills from Magellan, the travel store. You can buy them at one of their two stores in Santa Monica or Santa Barbara, Calif. or on-line They really work. They are a supplement type of pill. You take one pill on take-off, one every two hours during the flight and one at landing. If you fall asleep on the plane, you can wait four hours between pills. The pills are fabulous. You can find them at Magellan.com.

.......The area where checked luggage is kept is generally not pressurized...... This is one of the great urban myths - the whole plane is pressurized. Think about - the top half is flying along pressurized and bottom is not. The stresses on the plane would be very different. Look at the cargo doors. They have the big seals just like the passenger doors. Nothing is going to blow up in your luggage. But it is a craziness sometime encouraged by the airlines. When they transported bicycles the airlines insisted that the tires had to be deflated so that they would not blow up. What about the tires on the airplane? Since we now transport our bikes in a suitcase so that the airlines do not know we have a bike, we have never had a tire blow up.

Sheri,, I saw a show once about Mountain Dew.
You are an addict. ( ok joking, but seriously,, drink a coffee or tea,, mountain dew is so sugar filled and nasty)

Pat, you are never going to convince someone who loves Mountain Dew that it is "nasty". As for the sugar part, there is also Diet Mountain Dew with the same caffeine. The OP doesn't say anything about liking coffee, so that might not be an option for her. My parents actually checked Mountain Dew once when they were going on a cruise, and it traveled fine. But as I said, I wouldn't do it. I would just find something else. If it is really a problem, you could take caffeine tablets like Jet Awake or No Doz.

We traveled to Germany a few years ago with 12 bottles (not cans) of Moutain Dew and Dr Pepper in our checked luggage for a friend over there. We had no problems whatsoever with leakage. Now I am getting ready to fly to France soon and want to bring our German friend some more Mtn Dew. Instead of bringing bottles of pop, I am thinking about saving weight by bringing the Mtn Dew equivalent of Soda Stream syrup. This syrup can then be added to sparkling water for a Mountain Dew fix.

For me, 3-4 hrs. uninterrupted sleep on the plane really makes a difference. I can function just enough to get through the day until an early bedtime. This way I get closer to the local time. Haven't tried any medication or melantonin, but what really helps me is loose clothing, an eye mask, ear plugs, my hood on my head and my raincoat as a blanket. I admit I sometimes wake up with a crick in my neck because I don't want to carry a neck pillow because every ounce counts. Oh...and it helps to pack snacks, because despite the above planning, the first couple of nights I wake up around 3 am and starve until breakfast is served! Have a great trip!

I second Elaine's "No Jet Lag" pills - we use them every summer on our flight from Seattle to Europe and don't know if they work physically or mentally, they work for us. Also, every one here will tell you not to go to sleep when you first arrive but to stay up and go for a walk. I tried that for several years and had bad reactions so for the last 6 or 8 years I have checked into our place we are staying and I go to sleep for a couple of hours while my wife is out walking. I can sleep later that first night and am fine the next day.
I guess you will just have to experiment and see what works best for you. But, skip the caffein (sp?). Happy travels

I actually do get some sleep on the plane. I have a prescription for Xanax which helps me. I do, however, use a neck pillow and found that it helps tremendously. I find that is doesn't add much to my packing light. If you can afford to purchase Economy Plus for the extra leg room, that is also helpful. When we arrive at our destination, I usually have a coffee or cappuccino and not take a nap. I don't usually consume a lot of caffeine, but find it does help me with jet lag. I tried once to nap for a couple of hours and it totally threw me off. So no sleeping for me. I find that by 9 pm local time I am ready for a good night's sleep and am ready to go by 8 am the next morning. Of course, everyone is different and you have to find the best solution for your body's rhythm. About your Mountain Dew. Would think you cannot find that in Brussels, but you can probably find Coke or some other carbonated beverage.

For the person who is bringing Mountain Dew to Germany, you can leave it at home. It is available here now in selected stores. Just saw both the regular and the red Mountain Dew at the Frankfurt train station, sitting in the regular refrigerated section in the Tschibo store. They had diet Dr. Pepper too.

Ikea carries Mtn Dew

I don't know about Europe, but here and in the US, Ikea stores are out in the sticks. I would try to get as much sleep on the plane as possible, as others have suggested. Take earplugs, some kind of relaxant, prescription, OTC or herbal, War and Peace . . .

Yes to trying to getting as much sleep as possible on the plane but everything else is'nt much use. Jet lag is like a hangover, only time cures it. Just try not to be too ambitious on your first day or two. Symptoms of jet lag can also very subtle. Last year in Germany my debit card at the ATM kept getting rejected and after giving up on it and walking away I realized that I was transposing the numbers on my password. Duh!

If No Jet Lag works for you it is totally the placebo effect. Read what is in it. Ipecac!!! Do you know what that is? It is used to induce vomiting. Parents are supposed to keep it on hand in the poison control kit in case of accidental poisoning. There are some other herbs there too, and one is toxic. Lucky for you they are all so diluted there is nothing left. No Jet Lag is a homeopathic remedy, NOT a supplement. The ipecac is prepared 30X, which means the stuff is diluted 1 to 30 with water, and then that is diluted again, 100 times. So really all you are taking is the magnesium stereate and other fillers. But once someone pays that $12.00 and commits to taking it every two hours, it has to work. You might just try without it and see how it goes.

And if you're serving said coffee to the passenger who places it twixt her legs, just make sure you're not serving it 50 degrees hotter than normal, which would, of course, cause third degree burns if spilled. And for God's sake, please don't have any company policy or prior knowledge about the hazardous nature of keeping your coffee 50 degrees hotter than normal, even if 700 previous passengers were also burned by your hotter than normal coffee and complained about it. BTW, Ikea stores aren't always out in the sticks...there's one very close to Mall of America/MSP area in Minneapolis.

I stand corrected about pressurized cabins...maybe this means I can convince my friends to bring me some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale next time they visit from the states! That said, I still don't think it's a great idea to travel with liquids in your checked luggage unless you really have to. They toss those bags around pretty crazily, the chance of a puncture would be high enough that I wouldn't want to worry about it.

I just went and read up on |No Jet Lag,, it sounds bit like snake water,, in other words,,a placebo.

Pressurized or not, a soda can is not going to explode. An air carrier flies at around thirty-five thousand. I've drunk coke out of cans that have been unpressurized at well above fourty k. A fully inflated kid's ballon will pop somewhere around ten k, one with a couple of puffs will be fine at twenty-five. On a realted note, what you don't want to do is clamp a thermos of coffee twixt your legs and open it with your free hand, even at a modest altitude increase.

Ok Ed you got me laughing! Thanks.

Err.....fed regs say cabin pressure can't get above eight grand on an air carrier so there won't be much bubbling over due to pressure reduction, plus the deals on airliners have vents (like a pressure cooker), so it's a non-issue. Where I kept teaching myself the lesson was in spiffy, one-person machines. Which is also about the only way you can get cokes to fourty grand plus and have cockpit pressure go to pot.

I've read all the replies over carefully and have come to one conclusion. We are all different! Thank your lucky stars for that. Each person has to experiment and find out what helps them overcome jet lag. We find that a modest amount of alcohol on the flight, and a nap work well. Then, on the ground we unpack and head for a cafe and have a couple beers with lunch. Then go to bed at our regular time in the new time zone.

Some other person on this site agreed with the No Jet Lag pills. It even worked for our trip to Australia. Magellan Travel Stores would not offer a full money back refund, if they didn't think it was worth selling.

Hi, I've always flown from the west coast, mostly from SFO, to either FRA or Heathrow or Paris. True, you experiment as to which way is best to eliminate jet lag or minimize its effects. The most recent trips I had no jet lag compared to 10-20 years ago. At dinner I do have some red wine and coffee afterwards, no sugar. Then I make it point to sleep, which I didn't consciously do in the past, watched the movies, listened to music, etc. None of that now...just sleep without pills. I've used those No Jet Lag pills, they do work but can sleep without them. Out of a ten hour flight, roughly, I aim for six hours of sleep, which should be the case by the time they wake you for the breakfast snack, ca. two hrs before landing, which usually is somewhere between 10:00 to noon, local time. I'm good to go having slept that amount of time. Landing in the morning probably helps too...never landed in the late afternoon or at night.

I have used the Argonne National Laboratory anti-jet-lag diet with great success, and have not had to resort to drugs. This can be found at http://www.netlib.org/misc/jet-lag-diet

MY first time to Europe was a tour to England when I was 20. I had never been on a plane overnight and was too excited to sleep (still a problem for menow I fall asleep but even the neck pillow turned forwards does not stop my head from sagging so much that I wake myself up). I took a sleeping pill, but I STILL only slept for 30 seconds. Then, the next day the tour guide dumped us all in the British Museum until our hotel was ready, and I was literally falling asleep on my feet. Like "Oh look, the Rosetta St.....zzzzz" It was bad. We were all outside sitting and waiting for the tour guide at least an hour before she came back. She was probably better off dumping us in an outdoor location like a park, since it was a sunny June daygoing to a museum jet lagged is a bad idea, it seems. Now I try to stay outdoors, drink caffeine liberally, and eat a lot. I am too afraid to take a sleeping pill again. HAs anyone found anything aside from the neck pillow to keep their heads straight? That now seems to be my number one barrier to sleep. I have a white noise app on my iPhone that almost gets me there.

Uh Lynne, taking a shower may refresh you, but it won't re-hydrate you. Only drinking liquids can do that. People do not absorb water through their skin. Otherwise, you could just sit in a tub of water all day and never get thirsty. Imagine what would happen if it rained. Swimming? Wouldn't we then sink to the bottom once we filled up with water?

We very seldom have jet lag if we follow these steps: 1. Go on the Jet Lag Diet (developed for President Reagan) three days before your trip. http://www.netlib.org/misc/jet-lag-diet A quick summaryeat high protein breakfasts and lunches and high carb dinners. 2. Use the No-Jet Lag pills. We always use these. Either these or the diet work. Not sure which because we are afraid to drop on and try the other alone. 3. As soon as possible when you arrive, take a shower to re-hydrate yourself. 4. Try to stay awake until bedtime at your destination, but if you are getting older (we are early 70's), if you can check into your hotel when you arrive, take a one hour nap. Especially if you can't sleep on the plane, which I can't no matter what remedies/drugs I try. 5. Try to arrive a day early if you are going on an organized tour. This gives you a little time to adapt. 6. Try to avoid warm, dark places. We were on a cruise where there were lectures in a dark warm theater. I could not keep my eyes open. If we were outside on deck, I had no trouble at all.

I would not risk it personally. Best thing I know to do is sleep on the flight. I try my best not to sleep to early the day I arrive,but thats not so easy. I so agree about drinking loads of water. Hope you enjoy your trip. I shall take a trip in October to London. Been there a few other times,but just love it.

I don't sleep much on planes at all. Short cat naps here and there, but no solid sleep. However, I've found the Brookstone neck pillows to help a ton along with a Bose headset to not only cancel the "plane" noise, but also conversations around you. Once we are off the plane, we strap the pillows to the carry-on, and the headphones go into the small backpacks.
Echo previous travelers to stay outside leisurely walking and exploring. If you are extremely exhausted and are to the point of not functioning, if room is available early, take a quick 1-2 hour powernap. Be sure to set an alarm or a wakeup call.

Original dramamine on the US-Europe leg.
I sleep like a rock. I slept from DC to Munich and didn't wake up until final approach. I missed dinner and breakfast. By the time I picked up the rental car I was ready for a full day. I have also had some success with Tylenol PM on the Miami-Sao Paulo or Lima trips.

Before you take the No-Jet-Lag pills or any other OTC drugs, try them at home two or three times before your flight. I had a severe reaction to a commercial product the second time I tried it. I do not remember the name, but my pharmacist recommended it and said it contained melatonin. The first time, there seemed to be no effect, neither good nor bad. But the second night, I had a severe headache and awful nightmares. I am so glad that happened at home and not on a plane! After that, I gave up on any kind of drugs for a flight. Getting up a couple of hours earlier that day to make sure I am tired by the time of the flight, plus a glass of wine with the evening "meal" seems to work better for me.

Have you ever had headaches before Roy, cause they are normal for me,, about once every few weeks anyways,, so I wouldn't be able to assume it was from any one thing.. perhaps it was just a coincidence that you got a headache on second time after pill ,,especially since you didnot get one after first time. I don't think one is supposed to drink on a plane are they, I have always heard it is very dehrydrating,, and its a drug too.

Pat, headaches are pretty rare for me, and when they do occur, they are usually easy to trace. All I am saying, is try any sleep-aid at home before you leave. As for alcohol, a glass of wine with the evening meal is not a problem for me, but if you are taking pills of any kind, it might not be a good idea. I have found that a late departure makes it easier to get some sleep on the plane. It is hard to force yourself to sleep if your regular bedtime is not until the plane is halfway to your destination.

Roy ,, absolutely agree that one should make sure anything they plan on taking for flying they have taken at home first,,no one wants to find out they react badly to something while 10 hours from landing anywhere !