justineparis

Also , don't confuse travel fatique with jet lag. Jet lag gets me up at 5 am for first few mornings.. hate that, make myself lay in bed till about 6, get up , shower, and try and find a place for an early morning coffee, hard in some places since many places ( paris and spain) are not early morning places, many cafes in Paris don't open till 7 or 7:30!

The thing with jet lag is to live the local time, so it doesn't matter when you arrive, thats the time it is and you figure on staying up till a normal bedtime, at least 10 for me ( although at home I often stay up later , its hard to push yourself much later then that )

Pegontheroad

I know everyone handles jet lag differently, but I like to have a nap, if I can, and I do my best to get sleep on the plane.

When I went to Paris for the first time, I had no sleep on the plane and no nap when we arrived. I flew from Washington state, where the time difference with Paris is 9 hours. When we got on the bateau boat, I just couldn't stay awake. I kept falling asleep.

Never again will I do that. Now I take some benadryl and/or melatonin, put on my eyemask and my earplugs and do my best to get a little shuteye.

gertie3751

It's quite good not to have time for jetlag. I usually arrange to go out the first night which gets me sorted, then I'm on local time. I'm just back from Japan to Houston, which is a real killer: 15 hour time difference and no idea how many hours in transit. Not my favourite way to travel but well worth it.

Ackislander

I have the Kerouac problem -- east to west is more disruptive -- and follow his methods. I find in both directions that resetting my watch immediately after takeoff helps psychologically.

One of the privileges of being retired is a daily nap after lunch, and I do it after arriving in Europe as well, but not more than an hour and a half. Then early dinner, to bed at 9, and up the next morning, quite chipper.

Going west, the extended day without dark is a problem, and it takes me one day on the ground to recover for every hour of time change on route.

ticalinda1969

@ quokka >"Obviously when it's evening in Paris"<? really? LOL... no kidding! thanks but I meant to say what is the appropriate time so I wont suffer much with the time change. I do know "obvious", I don't know if my body would though!

@ StCirq thanks for your always so wise and nice advice...

sueciv

Adrenalin gets me through my first day pretty well. That said, my natural bedtime in the US is around 9 to 10...I just can't NOT get up early! So...I manage pretty well in Europe. I LOVE walking around before dawn. Very interesting. I've always managed to spot someplace open, usually a bakery that may be serving coffee as well.

But those first few days back in the US...yuck. Totally a price worth paying through.

BePrepared4Travel

Your reaction to jetlag will be dependent on your unique body and each person is different. What many feel the first day is not jet lag but lack of sleep and how you react depends on how your body handles lack of sleep.

Personally I have a greater chance of sleeping on flights leaving in the late evening and arriving later at my destination and on longer flights. I don't function very well having only a few hours of sleep.

On our last trip to Europe we flew on a day flight and with a reasonable night of sleep (in a real bed) we adjusted very quickly to the new time. Unfortunately there are only a few day flights and I don't know if any go directly to Paris from the US.

MarySteveChicago

We fly from Chicago too and i cannot sleep on a plane, ugh! I just know if I were to attempt a nap I would not awake until the middle of the night. What works for us is to prowl the city, have a nice lunch, buy our supplies for the apartment stay, dine in the apt on charcutterie, cheese, bread and wine. We go to bed about 7 pm and sleep a good 12-13 hours.