Sleep
 

We have a tight 1st day travel itenerary.
We arrive in Germany from California at 10:15am. We have all day to kill and then we hop a night train at 11:30. Needless to say I am concerned about jet lag. The itenerary can not be changed. Any suggestions on how to manage jet lag in this scenario?

Unfortunately I'm not really sure if there is much you can do with the exception of maybe booking a hotel for that night and then just checking out early to catch your overnight train. I know that this isn't the greatest option but if you are concerned about jetlag or want to relax and shower after a long flight it may be a good idea.

I have heard of hotels, mainly airport hotels, that charge daily rates for a shorter stay but I don't really know much about them.

Hopefully someone on here will have a better idea!

Tracy

You're title may not get you many replies. There are lots of posts about managing jetlag, you should try to do a search. Many people have differing opinions because what works for one, doesn't work for another. Some like to take a shower or take a nap then stay up until a normal bedtime in the new timezone. I personally like to hit the ground running and don't stop until 10pm to midnight.

If your itinerary can't be changed you are sort of stuck. Did you plan it this way on purpose, or was there a schedule change??

How to manage - you'll just have to stay up until 11:30 and then hope you aren't so exhausted that you can't sleep on the train.

Having to stay awake until 23:30 after an overnight flight when you have already been awake more than 30 hours -- not my choice.

But do what you can on the flight - little alcohol, lots of water, sleep if you can manage. That will help a little . . . . .

begs the question: Why did you arrange such an itinerary?

I do mean 11:30 pm.
Sandi, thanks for the heads up on the title. I didn't know how to title it, however I did search jet lag and those posts led me to this uncertainty.

My solution that works for me....BEFORE I leave I start adjusting my sllep schedule, I'll go to bed earlier, get up earlier. I can "move" my clock by about 3-4 hours. When alarm goes off, get up, all light on,etc..

On the plane, I sleep, I don't drink coffee, no alcohol, I may/may not eat main meal, wake up for breakfast. I tune my entertainment centre on the plane for relaxing music...Yes, it's not perfect sleep. I haven't tried any sleep medications.

When I land, coffee. After hotel, out for day, walking a lot, dinner at regular time, and sleep like a log going to bed at regular hour. Also get up (this part is no problem!) at regular time.

My goal is NOT to spend time on my hotel during daylight hours, I usually don't have multi-week holidays, so I don't want to IMHO 'waste' time sleeping in the day. Last trip to Paris bit tired first day, second day almost there...

Arranged the schedule because of time and money. Enough to make a difference. Drugs will take care of sleeping on the plane, I am wondering if that should do it or if I should rent a room for a few hours nap.

My overseas flight usually land earlier than yours and I always stay up and keep walking until sometimes midnight. It would help if you could take a sleep-aid on the plane so you feel as refreshed as possible when you arrive.

Sometimes the night trains are at the platform way before they leave (if the train originates where you're getting on) so you might be able to get on earlier and go to bed.

We did that once and it was great to be sound asleep before the train even took off.

I will look to see when the train actually arrives, that's great!
We are excited enough about this trip to make it work. I am glad to hear that some can be awake all day and retire late. Thank you all for your help.

We flew to Germany from California and arrived about the same time you are arriving. By the time we got to Munich, we had been up about 20 hours (we had a connection rather than a direct flight) but were able to sleep a little bit on the plane. I was tired, but mostly just wanted a shower and a change of clothes. We checked into our hotel, showered up, and then headed out - spent the afternoon and early evenning walking around and in a beer garden. We went to bed about 9 that night.

So, I am thinking, based on my experience, if you can get a shower and change of clothes, you will be good to go - tired, but ok until your train.

I would check to see if your arrival airport has shower facilities. Then you could shower up and change, head to the train station to store your luggage, and then go sightseeing.

Fantastic! Frankfurt does have showers 6 euros each. Sounds like a plan.

There is a podcast on sleep that you can find on iTunes which talks about ways to minimize jet lag, etc. It is put out by BA interestingly. Supposedly you can also find it on the BA website. Do a search on iTunes. Looking at my iPod, it is called "British Airways Dr. Sleep podcasts" (might help you do a search). They had some info I found interesting on the physiology of sleep, lessening jet lag, etc. Good luck.

The BA sleep stuff is at:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_gb,

but there's a lot more on well being at http://www.britishairways.com/travel...h/public/en_gb

Personally, I don't take sleeping pills - and absolutely wouldn't in your case - because I can't control their effect once I'm off the plane. For me the crucial things are:
- get up very, very early on flight day and do lots of exercise. No caffeine. Get to the airport exhausted (not difficult at many airports of course)
- eat lots of stodgy food just before the flight, and a couple of glasses of wine on the plane. Or whatever else usually makes you drowsy. Make sure you've got an eyemask. Your sole job on the plane is sleep.
- Shower and preferably swim on arrival
- Live on caffeine and fruit on arrival day.
- In your case, try to rent a day hotel for a couple of hours. If you can't, try to avoid places you might get away with snoozing. Sit down in a cinema, for example, and you're almost certain to doze off and not wake up till your train's gone.

Coming from Australia we always have over 22 hours actual flying time, so longer still with connections etc and our flights always arrive in Europe very early in the morning, usually about 6am.

I never find it any trouble to stay up all day (despite the fact that I get hardly any sleep on the plane) as I am so excited about starting my holiday and there are so many things I want to see.

If the weather is good, try to do more outdoorsy activities as the fresh air will invigorate you. I avoid museums/art galleries on that day as they can sometimes be a bit more sleep inducive being quiet and somethimes a bit dark. I dont' mean that you should be rushing around all over the place, but generally pottering around and soaking up the atmosphere - do a bit of people watching at a cafe etc.

I too was going to suggest a shower and change at the airport is a good way to go. It simply makes you feel so much more refreshed. What are you doing with luggage, do you need to schlep it around with you all day? That indeed will make a difference.

Above all, think positively about this. If you approach the situation with the expectation that it will be dreadful than it is much more likely to be a self-fulfilling prophecy as you will be so stressed out about the issue. Assume it will work out and hopefully it will.

I sincerely hope, that once you hit the train you will sleep like a baby.

Hi T,

I suggest that you take your luggage to the train station and check it.

Then keep walking until dinner time (You may stop for lunch).

Have dinner.

Board train.

Crash.

In which city will you be?

((I))