This Tuesday, I’m leaving for Ireland, and I’m going to be there for a few months. I’m on an overnight flight, leaving Newark at 7:20 local and getting into Dublin at about 7 AM local time, which I believe is about 3 AM New Jersey time.
Problem: For the past few months I’ve been working nights, waking up at about 11 AM (3 pm Ireland), and going to bed at about 4 AM. I’m about as off-schedule as I could possibly be. So: what’s the best (or worst so I know what not to do) way to minimize jetlag and do this schedule-shifting?
getting over jet lag is like getting over a cold.
You know the old saying: If you cut off a lock of your hair and jump on one leg 3 times, the cold goes away in a week. If you do nothing, then it goes away in 7 days.
There are a million ways to have a bad day after a night of no sleep.If you work weird shifts,if you have a bad cold, if your baby cries all night, if you have to work New Years day after partying all night, if your teenage son is out till dawn, or if you have back pain and can’t sleep , etc. Jet lag is basically the same. Just decide to forget about it, live with the local schedule, and treat it like you would having a cold for a day. (well, 2 -3 days, actually). By the 3rd or 4th day you’ll feel fine.
On average your body adapts at around 1 to 1.5 hours per day to a new time zone.
You’ll adapt best if you are young, fit, an evening person, and travelling west. Obviously you don’t really have any control over any of these things. Best thing to do is just try and fit into the new schedule, your body should adapt in around 4 days.
1/ as soon as you get on the plane, start living the new timezone. Change your watch. Look at it. Live it. Stretch yourself to stay awake/sleep as your new time zone dictates. As I understand it, light and dark has something to do with it (or may do) so stay awake with your reading light or put on eyepatches as required.
2/ as soon as you get to your new destination, similarly.
The absolute worst thing you can do is allow yourself to stay up/have a nap as your body wants but against what your new time zone dictates. You are just confusing your body clock and prolonging the agony.
The worst jetlag I’ve ever had was on a flight like yours when I allowed myself a nap during the day (UK time) because I was tired when I arrived. I was absolutely *&$#@'ed for days, wandering like a zombie.
What’s always worked for me on long west-to-east flights is staying up all night before the flight and sleeping all the way through the flight. Since you work nights, I’d simply not sleep during the day before your flight.
Upon arrival I’m always dehydrated, but mostly awake and able to make it through the day. I might go to bed a little earlier than usual the first night (i.e., sleep by 9 pm local rather than 11 pm local). By the next day I’m usually more or less on track.
I actually considered drugging myself on the plane (I have a near-impossible time falling asleep on any flight, let alone one like this where I’m going to be extremely nervous/excited), but I know it’ll make me groggy when I do wake up, so I’m not really considering that as an option.
Your first day, stay up until 10pm. Force yourself to stay up if you have to. You won’t sleep the whole night, but try to get back to sleep when you wake up.
Hi NinjaChick, I have 2 profs come over monthly for only 3 days at a time, so they are true jet lag afficionadoes(sp?). One thing that seems to help is actually fairly simple: eat mass quantities of food (and drink lots of water for dry airplane recovery). Absolutely stuff yourself an hour or two before the local bedtime. You know that sleepiness people get after eating Thanksgiving dinner? Same effect, methinks. Even have seen that you can combine this with a nap in the middle of the day.
So for you I’d suggest checking into your hotel, take a shower, grab a few hours (4?) shut-eye, eat a large lunch and then make sure you gorge yourself at about 7pm to 9pm (with a pint or 3 of Guiness!). Forcing yourself to stay awake all day after arriving at 7am is just a pain - enjoy yourself! Sleep and eat and you will be fine.
Actually modafinil is a wakefulness promoting agent (super clean upper) and ephedrine is a more grungy (but over the counter) speedy pill. So I was suggesting that you use those to stay awake until the time that you want to adjust in Ireland, ala madmonk28’s suggestion.
GaryGnu’s father knows best. My rule is to stay up until midnight that first night. You’ll be tired that first day; I know because, like you, I can’t sleep on planes. According to Dave Barry, I have a rare physical anomoly that airlines didn’t take into effect when designing seating: “having both arms AND legs…”
So how do you stay up even though you’re bushed? How about a walking tour or exploring the area by foot. This’ll keep you awake and give you ideas on what to do during your trip. Maybe an hour’s nap about 5pm, then out to dinner. Walk to a bistro, not the hotel restaurant, spend a few hours there, then you’ll have just enough time to unpack and prepare for tomorrow before bedtime. I guess the bottom line is to stay active and out of the room to reduce the urge to sleep.
The midnight-bedtime-on-arrival-day works when you’re going from east to west, too.
Going across the pond for a few months? Why bother worrying about it! Sorry to sound dismissive, but you really only have to worry about jet lag if you have to be on your game immediately or soon after landing.
working night shift I’ve had plenty of practice at flipping my sleep pattern, what I’ve learned:
There’s no magic bullet, you’ll pay a price in sleep disruption, could be a few days could be a couple of weeks depending on how you play it.
The brain adapts much quicker to staying up later/sleeping in later than trying to sleep earlier, so push yourself forward not back.
A little chemistry can help, but won’t change #1, depending on your current use, caffeine and benadryl maybe enough, or modafinil (provigil) and ambien if you need more of a kick. disclaimer/As always seek professional assistance with any medication/disclaimer
Your sleep center uses light to calibrate itself so play to that, bright light upon waking, darkening in prep for bed, that sort of thing.
You are not going to sleep all that much on the plane anyhow so just stay up for a while. I would go to bed around 10 at night the first night there since you’ll be pretty sleep deprived and will sleep longer than 8 hours. That will get you on a pretty good sleep cycle.
I have lived over in Singapore, Indonesia, et al., and I learned the hard way that for long trips like that, the above method really is the best way to minimize jetlag. Of course, that promptly puts you out of phase with the meals being served on the flight, so make sure you’ve got some chow with you.