We are leaving for London on Monday (arrive Tuesday) and I don't want to spend all day Tuesday recovering from jet lag, I want to discover London! Does anyone have hints or suggestions on overcoming jet lag? <BR>Thanks, Lee.

The only thing I can recommend is to not go to sleep at any point during the day and stay active! Right now the weather is bracing so you should take advantage of all the walking you can do. By all means get an early night on Tuesday (say 10pm) but do not take a nap during the day!!! You will regret it. If you can take a couple of showers in your hotel to perk yourself up, that helps too. I have just come back from a 2 week trip to Oz and didn't suffer badly from jet lag. I just kept on going....

You can find loads of tips by searching here for 'jet lag'... We use an herbal product called 'No Jet Lag' that we buy from Magellan's - just a citrus-flavored tablet that you eat every couple of hours, supposed to ward off effects on your body caused by air-pressure changes, etc.<BR>However, the usual tips are:<BR>Do not drink alcohol<BR>Take eyeshades and earplugs, get a pillow and blanket immediately upon boarding.<BR>Try to sleep/nap, instead of watching any TV or the movie. It may not seem like it but you can nap a good 2-4 hours, which will help a lot.<BR>Upon waking, eat and drink everything you can for the on-board breakfast, wash your face, etc to tell your body it is 'morning' now.<BR>Set your watch to the destination time upon boarding the plane - think in those terms, not 'gee right now, it's 3:00 in the morning back home'.<BR>Check in at your hotel, shower, do NOT NAP. Go WALKING - get fresh air, another cup of coffee, don't try to sightsee something 'brainy' like the British Museum; walk thru the parks, window-shop, take a bus tour, get your bearings.<BR>Eat early dinner and go to bed.<BR>Next day, you should be rarin' to go.<BR><BR>p.s. I wouldn't hang around that US Embassy or any other 'icons' of the US (ie McDonalds, etc). Otherwise, pickpockets are probably your biggest security concern; use a money belt, don't carry a lot of valuables, just be alert in crowds...<BR>Have a great time!

One thing I've found good is melatonin - take it at nighttime (in your new timezone) and it does help reset your body clock. <BR><BR>Ultimately, there's a limit to what you can do to avoid it, but agree with Ally Pally on not sleeping in the daytime if you can help it - it'll just prolong the agony.

I've taken 'No Jet Lag', and it does seem to help rejuvinate you to some extent - it is not a sleep aid like melatonin. I know a lot of people will disagree (including my wife), but for me, crashing for 45 minutes upon reaching our hotel room really helps, especially if I then get up and go out in the daylight.

we did london last spring for the first time after studying other fodorites advice. here's what helped us - get a couple hours sleep on the flight over; use a pill if you have to; we prefer 'calm' to melatonin because the latter has a hangover effect on us; you can find 'calm' in the vitamin/supplement section of larger retailers (brands like sundown, pilgrim's pride). then, buy tickets for the hop-on, hop-off busses (there are two lines; we chose &quot;the big red bus&quot;; uniformed staff will swipe your credit card at designated stops) and ride around all day; great way to orient yourself to the city and rest up. otherwise, follow travelnut's advice!

What are the &quot;No Jet Lag&quot; pills? My husband got some as a gift (along with other travel items) for an upcoming trip and I don't know if we should take them because don't know what they are. Any help?<BR>

They are a homeopathic jet lag &quot;remedy&quot;. Many people (including myself) have used them with some success. I think there is a web address on the box if you want more info.<BR>BTW, Trader Joe's stores here in Southern California sell them for $3-$4 cheaper than Magellan's and you don't have to pay for S&amp;H!

Thanks for the information. Are there any potential side effects? Has anyone had a bad experience with this stuff? Just want to be able to make an informed decision. Thanks.

For the all-natural way:<BR><BR>1) Sleep as late as you can the day of departure (hard, I know. I usually have to get into work early that day so I can leave early).<BR><BR>2) Try to sleep on the plane (also difficult for many, including me).<BR><BR>3) No caffeine or alcohol on the plane. Drink plenty of water.<BR><BR>4) Try to stay up until at least 8 or 9 on your day of arrival. As others have said, try to avoid napping. You'll find you won't be able to sleep later, and just prolong the whole jet lag thing.<BR><BR>5) Exercise after you arrive. The best I've ever felt is when I went for a run on the beach after arriving in Ireland. It wasn't a long run, but it woke me up.

Thanks for your info. I was actually planning on sleeping for 4-5 hours on arrival, but am reconsidering that plan.<BR>We are really looking forward to this trip and thank you Fodorites for your input.<BR>Lee

This will be seem to be a repeat of pedantic opinions I have expressed here before.. oh well...<BR><BR>Jet lag - - as originally described - - occurs not on arrival (day one), but rather on day, two, three or beyond and sometimes lsats for 4-6 days. Its definition is the inability to adjust to a new zone, &quot;lagged behind&quot; others who have adjusted, and it can exhibit in physical, cognitive and mood problems.<BR><BR>Lee seems to be asking about how to tackle the normal fatigue that comes from sleep deprivation, and it can seem aggravated by the change in time zone. The key is to not get sleep deprived, and to do that, efforts to get 6-7 hours of sleep on the plane are at the top of the list.<BR><BR>I quite disagree with sleeping late on the day of departure. Rather, the ideal time to get up would be 7 or 8 am - - EUROPE TIME. Impractical for a lot of people, but you can get up 1 hour early, then 2 hours early the next day, then 3 hours early on the day of departure. There are advocates of not eating all day departure (or fruit only), until you see daylight in Europe. Airline staff will leave you alone during the serving of the &quot;supper meal&quot; and even bring it to you WITH the breakfast meal if you ask (I've always made it clear that I do not expect it heated at that hour).<BR><BR>I do agree with &quot;pushing through&quot; that first (arrival) day, keeping yourself from giving in to a nap until some bed time after dark. Even then, you may find yourself awaking in 8 hours (i.e., 4 am), if you go to bed at 8.<BR><BR>Three is no single established best scientific way to handle this, but I have found modest success with some of these approaches. And I have not always been able to follow them.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>[email protected]<BR>

I was actually planning on sleeping for 4-5 hours on arrival, but am reconsidering that plan.<BR><BR>That would be a huge mistake. No matter how tired you are, suck it up and try to last until at least 9pm on that first night. Your body will thank you the rest of the trip. I took a 3 week trip with my brother-in-law in the late 80s. I told him not to take a nap the first day, but he did anyway. It took him more than a week to recover.

I've tried the No Jet Lag tablets on my last two trips to Europe and they *seem* to have helped. <BR><BR>I've also done what Zootsi does, crash for around an hour in the hotel room upon arrival. It's enough to shake off the intense tiredness, but not enough to keep me from sleeping that night.

I read some time ago a theory that much of what we term &quot;jet lag&quot; is simple dehydration aggravated by long flights, consumption of alcohol on board and disruption of normal eating and drinking habits.<BR><BR>Now, Rex is a physician and he did not mention dehydrationt in his considered response so perhaps that theory has already been discarded.<BR><BR>However, last trip to Rome we made we just went with the flow sleep-wise, too excited to sleep on the overnight flight, even had that nap on arrival that so many seem to feel is a big no-no.No pills or herbals but we drank as much water as possible on the plane (no alcohol, no carbonated beverages) and more water on arrival.<BR><BR>It was our best arrival yet with none of that sluggish disoriented feeling.<BR><BR>Yes, we woke up absurdly early on Day Two. Frankly, a dawn stroll through a foreign city like Rome, Paris or London that is just waking up seems less like a burden than a gift.

Dehydration is surely not a good thing in adjusting to either sleep deprivation, nor to time zone adjustment - - so the suggestion to eat little or nothing on departure day, did not mean curb fluid intake. Probably wise to over-compensate on fluid intake, at least prior to boarding, and once you see the sun over Europe.<BR><BR>I agree that no caffeine intake and no alcohol intake are probably equally good ideas.<BR><BR>And last of all, I agree that the 4 am awakening on day two can indeed be turned into a gift. I will remember forever seeing the Pantheon for the first time ever in the 4 am moonlight. Awesome.<BR><BR>Might be a good idea though, to try to fit in a 1-2 hr nap, say at 6 am, after a pre-dawn stroll. To help make sure that you don't repeat the cycle by going to bed at or before 8 pm on day two!<BR>

As suggested in this forum, I got a prescription for Ambien which is a very gentle sleep aid. I have never taken a sleeping pill in my life, but after taking 1 5mg pill I was sound asleep in about half an hour. I slept very well for 4-5 hours and woke up with no after-effects at all. We landed in Paris at about 10:30am and we hit the ground running. We were up till 11:30p that night. I highly recommend it.

I travel three to four times a year between Italy and the U.S. I think jet lag is so individualistic and depends on several factors. Luckily I have never had a lot of problems--certainly not enough to do the rotating hours thing. <BR><BR>Anyway, what works for me are a combination of things. The best is to commandeer three seats in a row. I have traveled business class (not that many times, unfortunately) and coach, and truly three free seats are more comfortable to me than business class as far as my particular back aches.<BR><BR>Second and from other ex-pats, I learned about Ambien (Steelnox). Great stuff, not only for sleeping on the plane but also for helping you get over jet lag.<BR><BR>And third. I had always adhered to and believed in the &quot;not napping after you disembark in Europe&quot; rule. The last time I came from the U.S. to Europe, I had a business meeting that evening. So I got to London at 10 a.m., went straight to my hotel and took a nap from about 2 to 4. This did more good than anything. I was ready to go, and didn't subsequently suffer jet leg the following days.

Lee,<BR><BR>I guess in my experience I would have to say, do everything everyone suggests and wait 5 days... then, voila! it will be gone.

I found that sleeping late on my day of departure is the best thing for fighting jet lag. I'm going to be up all night with the overnight flight, and getting a few extra hours the night before makes it easier for me to stay up, and get on a normal sleep schedule as quickly as possible. If I can hold on until at least 9 p.m., then I can wake up at a decent hour and go on with a normal day.<BR><BR>Of course, 5 pints also helps me get to sleep that first that.