Jet lag--how long does it last?
 

I am curious to hear other travellers' experiences with jetlag, specifically, how long does it last? I arrived back on June 11 after an 8 hour flight from Heathrow ; the time difference is 7 hours. I am still finding myself combatting fatigue, although it does seem to hit later and later each day but still before my normal going to bed time. I have been sleeping very well. Can age have something to do with ongoing jetlag ; I do not recall feeling like this after the same types of flights taken a few years ago. <BR> <BR>Kay

This last time it took me a good week before I stopped waking up at 3:00 am feeling ready to jump out of bed and start the day. Forcing myself to stay awake later than I wanted to was hard, but I found that going out to dinner with or having over friends and family helped counteract that because I was too "up" to feel tired. Gradually, over a full week, I got back on schedule. I'm 42, but I don't think the recovery time has anything to do with my age. I actually have more energy now than I did when I was younger. I'm just less willing to go around at less than optimum functional capacity (i.e., I take better care of myself, get my rest and take my vitamins!).

Add some B Vitamins, potassium (bananas do very nicely), and more water to your diet. Traveling is stressful, which chews up Bs, and planes are dehydrating (which is where the potassium went). See if it helps...

Lots of things that can be tried to minimize jet lag. Some work, for some. Some don't. In our experience, though, while we do a little better if we follow some of the sensible suggestions, it still takes about a day per time zone crossed, going and coming. Yes, it's a bit more of a struggle as we've gotten older, but still, it's about a day per hour of difference ... for us.

Most bodies are on a 25 hour day--thus if you are on vacation you tend to stay up one hour more each day. If you travel westward, the rule of thumb is the number of time zones minus 1; traveling eastward it is the number of time zones. Traveling to Europe I will take a light sleeping pill (OTC) on the plane and try to go to sleep about at my regular bedtime. Once there, I stay up (no naps) until my regular bedtime (but on Paris time not US), take another light sleeping pill and try to sleep through the night. I have found this work great for me, but I'm sure will be marginal for others.

I travel from California to Europe and always take the evening flight across the pond. I'm able to sleep going and am in good shape when I get there. Coming back, we seem to follow the Sun and it is a very long day. I try to nap on the plane and stay up when I get home. It usually takes me a couple of days to adjust back to normal. <BR>Regards <BR>Art <BR>

Our rule of thumb is similar to Tony's - allow 24 hours for each hour of time change, i.e., a week in your case. Even so, be careful for a few days more when it's 3 AM in the place where you became acclimated, because your own clock will still think it's the middle of the night and your reflexes, etc., will not be as sharp as you think, even if it's 8 PM where you happen to be. And yes, we find that when you're older the rebound time seems longer. My 80 y.o. mother in law got back (west coast) from Prague last week, and she's still wobbling around 8 days later. (Of course she was on an Elderhostel tour, with the usual Bataan-march discipline they seem to prefer.)

On a recent trip from London to New Zealand (travelling West) to South Africa to London I kept to the following practice, which seemed to help dramatically. Luckily we always seemed to arrive early morning, having flown through the night - but being one of those people who don't sleep on planes I always landed feeling pretty tired. We would steel a quick sleep every time we landed of 2 to 3 hours and then get up, usually early afternoon and "force" our bodies into the new time zone. I found that this enabled us to adjust to large time differences within a day or two. Also, adapt your meal-times to those of your destination as soon as possible - even if it means carrying some snacks on the plance.