Transatlantic jetlag

Which direction and what time do you depart?

Observe your regular sleeping hours locally for the first day. Meaning, if it's 9 p.m. but it's 3 a.m. back home, don't go to sleep until 11 p.m. which is your normal bedtime. Or if it's 11 p.m. there but 6 p.m. back home, go to bed anyway (maybe take a sleeping aid if you really can't sleep). After that first night, you should be fine. Works every time for me.

It usually is worse going EAST. I have no trouble with jet lag when I go west, even to Asia. But when I come back eastward, that's when I have trouble. But the above method helped me every time.

If you're going to be on a plane that long it's important to get out of your seat and stretch. If you have enough room to do deep kneebends, it helps a lot.

What Maestro said.

It's harder flying east but I've never had any problem heading west.

Perks said:

I'll be going from DC to Ireland in the evening, arriving first thing in the morning.

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If you're arriving in the morning, you'll be okay... just find ways to keep yourself awake through the day and then go to bed the same time you would at home. You should be fine for the rest of the trip. The hardest thing is to keep yourself awake the first day. Drink coffee or energy drink or something. If you have slept and got enough rest on the plane, you would be fine. DO NOT take a nap, though, because they would mess up your internal clock.

And Ireland! How envious should I be?

firedrake said:

It's harder flying east but I've never had any problem heading west.

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Oh, that's offensive.

Perks said:

Huge. We have a cottage in the Ring of Kerry.

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I officially hate you now.

ooh, blackmail. after i gave u such stellar jet lag advice, i should at least get something.

I'm jealous! I love Ireland.

Make sure you drink water on the plane. Stay hydrated. Usually when I go overseas, I try to sleep on the plane and drink at least a liter of water. I end up going through a period in which I'm so tired I would love for someone to put me out of my misery, but then I get to my destination and all the new things give me energy. I've never been jet lagged going to or from Europe.

P.S. You can send me Ray's postcard!

Perks said:

Then you shan't get a postcard.

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Better cross me off that list too..

Perks said:

Oh, you'll get something alright. I remember those who profess their hatred for me - out loud.

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Uh-oh!

I don't get jet lag either way, so I doubt I can help. I make sure to sleep on long plane rides as well as get up and walk around, stretch, etc. On transatlantic flights, the flight crew usually doesn't mind you walking around or even conversing with them as long as you aren't a PITA.

Best way to avoid jet lag: take a boat instead of a plane. They change the clocks one hour each night, and you arrive already on time, with no jet lag.

Since that's not actually an option, I agree with the advice to stay up all day. Make sure you get exercise--walk around outside in natural light. Avoid too much caffeine and alcohol.

Where I differ is, if you find your inner clock hard to reset (like when the time changes in the spring and fall), go inside when it gets to be dusk, do something calm and quiet for a while, and then go to bed as soon as you feel sleepy. I find that I can stay up on the new time, but my clock wakes me up on the old time, so I get pretty much no sleep at all. Going to bed early evening can help you catch up on the sleep you missed while flying overnight, so you feel better the next day, even if you do wake up early.

you're already one step ahead by taking a night flight, matey. what i would do, is sleep the entire way there, then stay up until it's evening in ayeland, then go to sleep all prim and proper like and wake up fresh and rejuvenated the next day.

problem solved.

you're very welcome.

that's what they do in ireland!

i saw it on a tv special about the famine.

they were all wearing flannel.

When I fly home from D.C. to the Czech Republic to party with my uncles, I always stay up as long as I can the first night there, fight the urge to sleep like I'm pulling an all-nighter back at college, then hit the sack when they do (or maybe 3-4 hours earlier) and I end up sleeping like a log and waking up refreshed, on the right time schedule.

When I come back, I never seem to have trouble re-adjusting because, by the time I wind my way home from the airport, it's usually 2-3 pm anyway, and I fight it until 6-7 and then crash.

I can never seem to get good sleep on the plane, but those few minutes of dozing off before my head rolls rown my chest and the neck snaps keep me up long enough so that I can fight it and stay away upon landing in both instances.

Perks said:

You hate me, too?

Hmmm, I can't tell if I'm doing something right or I'm doing something wrong.

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My dream if I were to be published, is to take whatever money there is and come home to the motherland to write a book. Those photos are exactly as I've pictured it in my mond.

My family is here too short of a time to feel so far from my heritage.