We have never traveled this far before. How bad is the jetlag. We flew to Alaska and on the third day home I went to bed at 5:30 or 6:00. Oops sorry we are flying to rome from Dallas.

In my experience, it's always different. For me it depends on whether or not I slept on the plane over and then sometimes I'm tired upon landing and other times I've made it for hours before needing to get a nap. Just go with the flow and once you've had enough take a short nap. At least it works for me.

Jetlag is usually manageable in Europe, but hits you at home. Don't plan anything requiring thinking for at least a week after vacation. Work is OK, no thinking needed there

Everyone is different. I get horrible jet lag and insomnia both (Seattle to Europe). I have learned to build in an extra 3-4 days at the beginning of every trip at my first city specifically to get over it (I take it easy, don't make any plans, sleep and eat when I feel like it, etc.)

Everyone is different – I can do flights westwards over the Atlantic pretty easily, going eastwards is a little more difficult and am usually ready for an early night on the first day. Really long distance (e.g. east coast North America to Australia, or vice versa) has also been pretty easy. But the long north/souths overnight are killers for me.

Having said that I have a colleague who swears that it takes one day for each hour f time zone for them to recover – so a London/NY trip takes 7-8 days recovery time.

A formula that's worked for us over many, many jaunts to Europe is to force ourselves to get up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning of departure. Stay busy packing and planning and tying up loose ends and then, in the airplane, have a drink before dinner and wine with, skip the movie and go right to sleep.

When the FAs come around with breakfast, we're on destination time. Works (for us) like a charm.

I'm good going west. But traveling to Europe from the east coast is getting worse as I get older. Feels like a bad case of the flu for me the first day, but I'm OK the 2nd day. But, Europe is worth it!

Going east is bad for me since I can't sleep on the plane but usually by the day after arrival I'm fairly OK. I take it easy the day I get there & the next day.

Coming back is very easy for me.

I find that when going to Europe (whether I have managed to get on their time beforehand or not) is "don't sleep" when you arrive, no matter how tired you are. Just try to resume a normal schedule for the country you are in. Stay up all day (don't nap), have dinner, then turn in when you are ready.

THEN, don't plan anything early for the first full day there. Sleep until you wake up on your own. Then, you'll be ready to go for the duration.

That has at least always worked for me, but my poor mom wouldn't listen to me on the napping when you arrive issue and she paid for it the following day or two. She was way more tired than sis and I were.

It's really just a matter of getting your internal clock adjusted to local time. I never have a problem upon coming home...it's just going over.

I found this advice the other day from "experts" at British Airways.
http://tinyurl.com/24mywb
For whatever its worth.

cannot sleep on the plain no matter what (even after a glass of wine AND a sleeping pill).
in Europe, it takes a day or two to adjust; Australia , on the other hand (16 hours time difference), was a killer - took us several days !

Contrary to lots I've read about what not to do re: jet lag, when we get to our hotel, we sleep for a couple of hours . You get to Europoe early AM, so the day won't be lost just taking a 2 hour nap (if your room is ready). Then we force ourselves to get up. It's tough to get up, but once up we can enjoy the rest of the day and still get to sleep that night by 11:00 and be ready for day 2. Otherwise, we're forcing ourselves the whole 1st day to stay awake and alert until Europe bed time. Yucky feeling.

Just went to the British Airways site about jet lag. Put in time difference between Europe and NY and got for arrival on Day 1 in Europe -" Avoid light between 8:30 and 11AM". Trouble with this is, 8:30 is usually when we get to Europe and we can't avoid the light - we have to get off the plane and go to the outside world!

I used the "no jet lag" homeopathic pills going from SF to Paris and did just great. I forgot to take them on the return and it took me a week to feel ok and sleep normally.

Statia, I am "talking" in a friendly voice right now. Not writing to rag you or offend you, but you really have no idea how jet lag will affect you when you are your mother's age. More tired than you and your sister? Well, that describes me when I travel with my daughters who are 26 and 31 years YOUNGER than I am...and I'm just as healthy as they.

Hamanchad, bottom line re jet lag: Who knows? In 2005 when I arrived in Amsterdam, I was so tired I threw up (prior to that, I think I owned the world's record for longest time gone without throwing up!) Yet, in 2006, when I arived in Paris, I was fine...but needed an hour nap to get me back up to speed.

Plan for the worse...then you can celebrate if it doesn't happen and take care of your very individual body if it does happen.

I can not sleep on the overnight trip to Europe, so by the time I get to my destination I have been up all night and have to sleep. I know that many advise forcing yourself to stay awake until a normal bedtime, but that is way too unpleasant for me to do on vacation.

So I nap for a couple hours and enjoy the fact that I haven't adjusted to the time change yet. I stay up late, going out to nightlife that would feel too late for me once I've adjusted to the local time. I wake up late for a day or two, that's OK, I'm on vacation.
I just don't plan any early morning excursions the first couple days.

sallyjane...yes, you have a valid point. Age is a definite factor in how jetlag affects everyone. I will add, however, that my sister and I flew in coach and did not sleep much on the trip over, whereas my mom was in first class and slept quite well with a fully reclining seat. But, yes....age does have a lot to do with it.

Also, I see that for many people napping on arrival does seem to work well. I was just trying to note what I've read often and what works well for my DH and I on numerous trips and several attempts at various methods.

Statia, I'd give you a smiley face right back but I have never learned how to access the pictures!! So, imagine one, please.....
sal

It really depends on the individual. I used to do the stay up all first day in Europe and did OK, but felt a little tired and disoriented for several days. The last few years I have started napping early on day of arrival if I feel tired. It works better for me.

After some stressful sleepless nights recently here at home, I have decided that my fatigue and disorientation on my first days in Europe is not due to jetlag/time difference, but to lack of sleep on the flight. I need 8 hours a night to function well, so even though I routinely put on my eyeshades and earplugs just after takeoff and try to relax in my coach seat the entire flight, I just don't get enough sleep.

Same thing for my recent trip to New Zealand. I fared much better than the time I refused to rest/nap my first day in Thailand. I was off balance for an entire week that time.

When we flew from the west coast to Munich, we had an early flight out of San Jose and then a layover in Chicago before our flight to Munich. We arrived in Munich mid-morning and were pretty tired. We had a quick bite, found our hotel, got settled, then overruled our desire to just sleep. We took a good walk and then found a beer garden and just hung out until dinner time. It was enjoyable because although we were tired, none of this took much brain power After dinner we went to bed and were up the next morning completely on local time.