I can't ever sleep on planes. I've never tried anything but a couple glasses of wine to help me, which is no help at all!

When my husband and I went to Ireland in our mid-thirties we checked in to our hotel, went to lunch, wandered a little, and then took a nap. Worst mistake ever! We set the alarm for 2 hours later and felt HORRIBLE. It was if we were sleepwalking the rest of that evening, and then ended up wide awake at 2 am local time. It took days for us to adjust.

When we went to Greece in our late thirties, we had a layover in Athens before a flight to Santorini. I was 6 months pregnant at the time, and really did not sleep on the plane because I had to walk the aisles every hour to prevent DVT. During our layover, we walked the streets of Athens at a leisurely pace, got some lunch and headed back to the airport, where I nodded off for maybe 15 minutes. We caught a second wind once we arrived in Santorini at 8 pm that night, had a quick dinner, and slept soundly until the next morning. The next day we were on Greece time.

As painful as it was to stay awake, I am now a believer in pressing through. The second wind does come, and that night was the best, deepest sleep I've ever experienced!

I try to barrel through, but sometimes that is very hard - especially if you land early.

If I do have to nap (and often I do) I set the alarm and force myself to wake up after an hour or so.

There is no rhyme or reason. Sometimes I get whacked hard with the jet lag and sometimes it is just sleeping in to 10am for a couple of days. Coming home is way worse though. :)

colduphere said:

"If we feel like napping we nap.

If we feel like staying awake we stay awake."

That's only three syllables more than a haiku. Let me try:

To nap can be good.

To stay awake can be good.

colduphere is smart.


colduphere is my favorite travel forum poster. ;)

Going to Europe from the western US, we always push through. Sometimes I sleep a little on the flight. I never can sleep if leaving from the east coast as the flight is shorter and by the time we have dinner there isn't enough time left to really get relaxed to try to sleep. We are both fine the next day.
I like Cold's Haiku too.

Flying west to east (from Oregon to Paris), we never pushed through the first day -- always took a nap. We don't sleep well on planes, period, even in business class. It never screwed up our timing. A three-hour mid-afternoon nap left us refreshed and ready for a pre-dinner stroll. We'd then go to bed around 11 pm and sleep like logs til the following morning.

That's still our pattern. For our trip to Singapore, our flight gets in very early in the morning (around 6 am on a Sunday). We've pre-booked a room at the Changi Crowne Plaza so that we can check in as soon as we arrive (we're going to pay for Saturday night with a late checkout Sunday). We plan to have breakfast, then shower, take a leisurely morning swim, nap for a few hours, check out early afternoon, and catch a cab to our hotel in the city.

We love an arrival day snooze. Esp if it's raining.

We live on the West Coast and we always "push through". You need to get in the sunlight. The hard part is coming home. It usually takes me a few days.

When we return home from the US, we usually land in Rome, Munich, or Milan, but then we have another trip, either by plane or train, followed by a drive, to get to our home. We're usually not home until mid-afternoon. We take a nap on the train or plane, and if we arrive home before lunch, we take our usual Italian postprandial nap. However, I never allow myself to sleep more than an hour. If I sleep long enough to fall into a really deep sleep, I feel very groggy and out of sorts when I wake up.

In the eastern direction, it doesn't have much to do with your internal clock, because it's earlier where you came from that it is where you've landed. It's more exhaustion from the trip than jet lag.

What I do notice, and this is probably jet lag, is that for the next few days I have a tendency to wake up at 4 AM and have a bit of trouble falling asleep again. Unlike Flanner, any tendency I have to jet lag has got worse as I get older. I used to travel often from New Jersey to China, 11 (or 13) hours difference, and never had the least sign of jet lag in either direction. I wonder if it's because I keep more regular hours than I did when I was young. I used to say, "I don't even have an internal clock." I sometimes went to bed early, and sometimes stayed up all night.

FMT you've inspired the writing of my next trip report re cycling up Alpe d'Huez (summer 2016 or much later):

Started up the hill
Died before Fausto Coppi
Flew home and sold bike

fmt and cold--impressive! Maybe a new thread/challenge---My TR as Haiku! I will have to return to that idea.

For now--to OP--what Cold said! We used to NEVER nap, then DH began to need to, on trip last fall to Spain we both napped (after very early arrival, dropping of luggage, 3 or so hour walk including lunch)--he more than I. With us we figure it's age changing our stamina. I'd say in general LONG naps would be inadvisable, and as much time in whatever the outside light is available (even if it's raining) would be a good thing.

>>There are four of us and it's likely that each of us will react differently.<<

When you travel with more than one person, the differing reactions to jet lag can affect trip plans if you make any. I'm an early riser, and my sister is not. No nap works for me. She requires a nap, otherwise she's miserable. I've learned to not involve my sister on any early morning activity, especially on the morning after the day of arrival.

My sister and I travel from East Coast U.S. airports. On arrival day, I'm usually in bed by 10pm. Sometimes, my body can't make it past 9pm. I set my alarm for 6am the following morning, and I go out for a quick run. When my sister naps, she usually doesn't get to sleep until midnight, and there's no point trying to wake her before 9am. We never eat breakfast together. Typically, she's not ready to hit the streets until 11am, so I often make plans to meet her somewhere.

Thanks. A few of you mentioned jet lag on the return trip...weirdly enough, that's never bothered us. We're near the East Coast, though, which may be why. Daytime return flight means we're usually home by supper time and then it's just another few hours 'til bedtime anyhow.

For the outbound trip, I'm thinking that we'll try the suggestions offered here and keep the first couple days light to accommodate everyone's transition.

When I lived on the East Coast of the USA, traveling home was an absolute bear for me. No matter what I did, my head was on my desk by 3 pm every afternoon, and then I was up all night. For several days. Probably because I was really, really bummed to have to be back in what was "home" then, but it was not fun!

StCirq, I can relate (at least to the mental aspect of jet lag). There's only one time I've been ready to come home from my travels, and that was only because I was getting married soon. All the other times, I was devastated to be leaving Europe behind. It's a shame that EU citizenship is so complicated and expensive.

Cold - See you at the top of the hill. ;)

I sleep as soon as I can on arrival. I can't sleep on planes, it's more of a cat nap. Only once did I not have to nap on arrival and went to bed at a reasonable time and was ok. I find if I can go until I just have to sleep, I will still get up at a decent hour at my destination for dinner. My flights usually get in early am hrs and only once in the early evening which really messed with my plans. For me the arrival day is a wash so I don't make big plans. It's also sometimes hard when you can't get your room yet and ready to fall asleep anywhere.

I tried a great tip I received prior to my last European trip. Before you fly out, set your watch to the current time in your destination, then do whatever it is you would normally be doing at that time. So, if you are leaving the west coast on an 8 AM flight and the time in your destination is 5 PM, get on the plane, eat, have a cocktail and take sleeping pill to fall asleep by what would be 9 PM in your destination (or whatever time you typically go to sleep.) That way you are already getting acclimated to your destination time zone! It actually worked for me!

Srianda, I guess that works for some people, but I was always acutely aware that I was fooling myself and knew better, so...did not work, at all. I always did set my watch to the correct time, but since I hardly ever look at my watch, that was close to meaningless.

Take a short nap after morning arrival - get up and be out for lunch by noon, and you're ready for sleep by 9 or 10 pm. The second day starts off at your usual time. Always worked for me and I've been flying those overnight Atlantic crossings for 25 years now.

If I am tired, I can't force myself to stay awake. If I am not tired, I can't force myself to go to sleep. If I am on vacation, I enjoy my time and nap when it seems like that would feel good and stay up late when that feels like fun.

Most often, I do exactly what the original poster was considering: go out for a short time, because it is exciting to be in the new place, then nap for a while. That way, for the first couple of days I am awake later than usual in the evenings and can enjoy late dinners and evening activities.

I find it encouraging to see how these threads have evolved over the years. The "you have to stay awake or you'll be sorry" camp used to have the most adherents. Now, perhaps with aging, the "everyone is different" camp is increasing. There are just a couple of holdouts who think their way is the only way despite the overwhelming number of people who are happy with a different routine.

Nikki, so true. These threads used to be overwhelmingly "stay awake" and that has never worked for me.

Sure, I'd love to stay awake on arrival, but when my body says sleep, I have to sleep. No choice. Even though I'm excited to be in one of my favorite places in France, when I'm tired I fall sound asleep.

So I sleep, but I'm still in France and enjoying myself!

Good news - With aging the "everyone is different" camp is increasing.

Bad news - With aging the "slow down, less is more" camp is increasing.

An interesting phenomenon is that some of the same people are in the "stay awake or be sorry" camp as well as the "slow down, less is more" camp, which appear to the untrained eye to be incompatible.

Nikki, stay awake, but take it easy? I don't have a choice, because after every overnight flight I have a long drive home around the M25. Staying awake is essential!

I thought that Red Bull was invented to keep people going.

I never sleep on the plane, I am afraid I will miss my stop.

The day we land, we just go until we drop.

My body must be very smart. I can't trick it with changing my watch to the new time. I just pay attention and do what feels right, resting when my body calls for it. Pushing thru (been there tried that) only makes me miserable.

Arriving early in the morning sometimes means the choice as to whether to nap or not is moot - many hotels don't have a room ready until afternoon.

I remember a trip to Madrid about eight years ago - I flew solo from San Francisco to Amsterdam to Madrid, arriving at 7 a.m. Little decent sleep on the planes, and when I arrived at my hotel near Plaza Mayor, I was welcomed to leave my bags, but there was no available room for me until mid-afternoon.

I decided to walk around the city - was doing pretty well until about one o'clock when I was exhausted and stopped to rest at a park near the Palace. Sat down on a bench under some trees, where there were quite a few office workers apparently enjoying their lunch breaks.

Much to my horror, try as I might, I could NOT keep myself from drifting into sleep. That awful stupor where you jerk yourself back to consciousness just as you are about to fall over. I was afraid that I would slip off my perch and be arrested for public drunkenness!

I forced myself up and walked (stumbled) about a mile back to my hotel, where I was able to get into my room and pass out for a few hours.

Oh, the joys of travel!

I think this is one thing you just have to discover for yourself which works best. I am in the camp of do not nap the first day upon arrival or it will ruin your trip for days (and no, I cannot hardly sleep on the plane, either). If I nap, I cannot sleep well that night and then I'm messed up for days. I feel worse if I nap for 1-2 hours, actually. I used to do that as I was so tired, but then tried to force myself to stay awake one time (which I can do, especially if you are walking around and outside) once, and I adapted within one day to the time change, so that's all I do now. Previously, I took maybe 4-5 days to adapt if I napped upon arrival.

I never nap at home, either, I might add, as it also makes me feel terrible and then I can't sleep at night (unless I'm sick).

I don't do anything super important the first day, though, but walk around, maybe a little shopping, get tickets or info, etc. Might do a museum if small and free or something like that, or something outdoors like a monument or park.

But the OP has already experienced this and said it works for her to take a nap (that it all sorts itself out within one day), so if so, I'd go with that. I usually arrive at the hotel around 10-11 am, I guess, if in Western Europe t (later if going to central Europe) and can usually check in to my hotel about 75 percent of the time, it seems to me.

Everybody's different.

I know it is recommended to push through, but we always are exhausted by about 3 pm, so we check into our hotel, unpack, and then nap for about an hour. Then we shower and change clothes, take a little walk, and then head out to a relatively early (for Europe) dinner. This works fairly well for us.

I have never tried Ambien...my major flying issue is back pain, so I take a Vicodin (and maybe another half-tab six hours into the flight. It does not make me drowsy as it does for some folks -- I wish it did, because I basically get only a few hours of off/on sleep...unless I am lucky enough to snag a middle-four or three on the A300's that fly from PHL. (That doesn't happen very often, sadly.)

ssander

Our routine:
No napping after arrival
Push forward
Early dinner and early to bed
Sleep in first morning if needed
Use No Jet Lag..can find online

Maybe yet another reason to travel solo - sleep when I want, as long as I want. Turn on the lights when I wake from my nap at 2am, make myself a cup of soup with my heating coil and go back to sleep. Not that I needed another reason.

I prefer to analyze it by taking the trip out of the equation.

Your sleep patterns and tendencies at home won't change much on the road. I personally cannot take a nap during the day and even remotely hope to go to be at the normal time. For me, a one or two hour nap doubles when it comes time to try to go to sleep. That means I've delayed the waking time for the next day, or I'm fighting sleep that day.

If napping at home doesn't affect your ability to sleep at regular bedtime while at home, then by all means take the nap. If you have difficulty sleeping the night after a nap during the day, then by all means, don't nap.

But how can you take "the trip out of the equation"?

At home I sure wouldn't just happen to find myself staying awake for 24+ hours straight & in a time zone 9 hours different than I am used to.

I agree that everyone is a snowflake on this issue, it depends upon each person how they will react.

In order to better analyze how this effects each individual, it seems to me that how each individual reacts to sleep pattern disruptions will give us a better prediction of what will happen to that person instead of how everyone BUT the individual reacts.

I think that each person has a similar sleep "habit" whether they are in Poughkeepsie or Prague, so that "habit" is a better predictor of what you will see when you try changing it.

I fall asleep as soon as the wheels lose contact with the ground.

Next month I'm going to China and I still don't know what to do : since I stay about 3 days there, I guess I'll try to stick as much as I can to my internal clock.

The problem comes with the kids : they sleep when they are tired and wake up when they feel like it. And it rarely corresponds to my own timing. And I don't remember a time I travelled without a small kid. Shouldn't have done so many I guess - my fault. My wife's ? Our fault !

The sequence "unload, have festive drinks & perhaps a nosh, then forty winks" sounded exciting. Alas, "nosh" doesn't mean what I was hoping.

Isn't a napery a tissue or napkin or something like that?

I don't really suffer from jet lag, so maybe I'm not the best person to give advice. I traveled often from the east coast of the US to China, which is 11 (or 13) hours different, depending on which direction you go. I always counted it as 13 hours, because then I didn't have to think about the International Date Line. Once I got to China, I always had an official committee welcoming me at the airport, and they always set a busy schedule for me the first day. It was never a problem.

I've often thought that one way to help with jet lag would be to try to get on the new time a week or so before leaving. When going east, this would mean going to bed an hour or two earlier and getting up an hour or two earlier. Then, when you arrive, try to go to bed an hour or two later than you usually do, and wake up an hour or two later. (After all, you're on holiday!)

<i> Before you fly out, set your watch to the current time in your destination, then do whatever it is you would normally be doing at that time. So, if you are leaving the west coast on an 8 AM flight and the time in your destination is 5 PM, get on the plane, eat, have a cocktail and take sleeping pill to fall asleep by what would be 9 PM in your destination </i>

This wouldn't work at all for flights from the east coast of the US. which usually leave later, when it's already bedtime or later in Europe. Then by the time the food service is over and everything settles down, you have about four hours to sleep before they wake you up again.

I agree, bvlenci, but practically speaking, that would never have worked for me. It was always far easier just to deal with one single day of "soldiering on" than an entire week of changing my schedule.

I can't sleep on the plane, it's the only time I get restless legs.

If I'm so tired I'm nauseous, then I nap for about 20 - 30 minutes and am good to go.

Last year we missed our connection and had a four hour wait. Perfect for a bite of lunch and short stretch out in the lounge.

One year we couldn't check in early, so found a nice bench and took turns resting our eyes.

For us, that's usually sufficient, early to bed and on schedule the next day.

Now coming home, that's the real problem, it takes about a week to really feel back on track.