Suggestions for minimising the effects of jetlag from long haul flights .?

Question

Planning a trip from Australia to Europe and dread the jetlag that comes with crossing several time zones.Any suggestions to help minimize the effects most welcome.

Answer 1

Get into the same time zone sleeping hours as your arrival location. Find out the time of arrival of the host country.

If you are going to arrive in the morning, sleep on the plane. Make yourself sleep. when you arrive... go out and do stuff as per normal, staying awake till night and sleep in the sleeping hours of the location. Force yourself to do this if you cannot do it naturally.

If you are going to arrive at night, DO NOT SLEEP on the plane. Make yourself to stay awake at all costs... then when you arrive, you can naturally fall asleep at the sleeping hours of the location.

This makes you fall into the rythm of the arrival destination's timezone and helps you acclimatize REALLY fast!

If you don't do this, can you imagining you sleeping through the flight (because it is supposed to be night time in your home country) and then on arrival, it is 10PM at night and you are fresh as heck and wide awake?

That's gonna s***w up your next few days to a week trying to adjust your clock.

If you can acclimatise according to my advice, wave bye bye to jet lag.

No need for drugs and pills, etc. Totally natural way.

Answer 2

I read a simple plan long ago - divide ur flight time in 3 parts - in the first part, sleep, in the 2nd part, be alert and active, in the 3rd part, sleep again - this way, you will feel fresh in ur body and mind on arrival...

Answer 3

Sleep is the best cure, also take a good Multi Vitamin, avoid alcohol and when traveling get up and walk around for a while

Answer 4

I have made several long flights where jet lag was a factor, and I tried several methods that worked well.

1) When you first arrive at your destination, don't go to bed. Try follow your destinations time right from the get go. If you are really tired, try a power nap (less than an hour) or maybe an earlier than usual bedtime (9 instead of 11). The key to this tactic is that you sleep through the night and not make the mistake of going to bed at say 4 then waking up at 2.

2) When you get to your destination DON'T be thinking about the time in your host country. Example, I travelled to France and there was a 5 hour difference. Many people I was travelling with made the mistake of always saying " It's 12 o'clock here, so it's 7 back home". When you do this your brain begins to think that it should be tired, when it really isn't. Doing this will also throw off your meals.

3) There are several homeopathic remedies you can use.  I always take Arnica while travelling, and put it in my water bottle. My Homeopathic doctor told me that it helps to deal with the stress of travelling. There are also pre-made remedies that you can pick up at any health food store.

Also, there are drugs that some people use, but I have never tried them. I have also heard of people changing all the clocks in their house to the time of their destination a few days before they leave, and living as if they were already at their destination. I have heard that this works, but I have never tried it.

Answer 5

sleep on the plane, and try to change your sleep pattern to match that of where your going. Sleeping as soon as you get there usually helps too, so dont make big plans for that day/day after if you get there late. its always worked for me!! where abouts in australia are you going from? It wont really make much difference, a couple of hours at the most, but i was a couple of hours out for a week when i got back to australia right before school. sure, it wasnt a flight from europe, i know what thats like, but its the same thing. youre tired and usually a bit confused, drink lots of water and sleep as much as possible. get used to their time and dont worry about being confused in aussie before you leave, youd rathrt have fun there =D