I am flying to France on a business trip in a few weeks, landing on sunday morning and leaving on thursday morning. I will have meetings tues and wed, and possibly monday. Any tips for not being a total zombie? I have never been to Europe with such a fast turn around before.
Melatonin is your very best friend. I start taking it when I'm still at the airport, and take it early at night every night I'm there.
My parents swear by scm's method, but for me the best thing to do (because I do not sleep on planes really -- if I get any sleep at all, it is because I drugged myself a LOT) is to take a 2 hour nap as soon as I can after landing. After that I feel way better and have no problems for the rest of the trip.
When I've had to power through for the whole day, I just do it, taking lots of melatonin at night to adjust to the time.
Usually I only have issues on the day I land -- after that, I'm fine.
I'm heading to Germany next week. I'll fly out on Monday (land on Tuesday morning), and have formal meetings on Wed-Fri, with what is sounding like an informal meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
Sleeping on the outbound flight helps, but I'll admit I suck at sleeping on planes. I nap as best I can, do my best to get in some relaxing time, etc.
And then the best thing is to make yourself stay up to something *close* to a normal bedtime your first night in Europe. You'll be pretty bagged by then, but if you can stay up past 8/9pm, you stand a really good chance of sleeping properly thru the night and doing much better the second day.
It can also be helpful to go out into the sunlight/daylight on the afternoon after arriving in Europe - go for a walk, check out the area near where you'll be staying, etc. Both the movement and the daylight helps reset your system.
And, yep, like the PP says, coming back to north America tends to be the easier adjustment - it basically becomes one big long day. Take a short nap on the flight home, get home relatively late in the day, crash for the night, and the day after feels *fairly* close to normal.
As tempting as it is, I avoid napping when I'm trying to adjust to the new timezone. It undermines my attempts to adjust to the new time, and ends up making my sleep overall just suck, and then I'm tired and sleepy for way longer than if I can power thru that first day.
Are you on the east coast, the west coast or somewhere in between? A 5 hour difference and an 8 hour difference would be treated differently. With the daylight savings switch on Sunday we'll be only 5 hours different from Paris on the East Coast which isn't a bad difference at all.
My strategy is generally to take a melatonin as soon as I get on the plane (or even just before boarding if it's a short transatlantic flight) so I can get almost a full sleep cycle in on the flight. On arrival if I don't have any meetings that day I shower and then typically map out a plan for the day--including meals and if possible time outside of the hotel. Ifi have work to do I try I schedule it for the morning hours while I'll still be sharp. I force myself to stay awake until at least 9 pm and then take another melatonin.
Unless it's a security risk sleep with your curtains open so the sun wakes you. Natural light is super important.
During the week I try to work out before breakfast and schedule my most important meetings during the morning (not always possible-but worth a try for the first 48 hours). I try I make evening plans (meeting people for dinner or drinks) on the first 2-3 nights so I'm not tempted to fall asleep immediately after the workday. For a 5 hour difference I usually force myself into a pretty comfortable routine by day 3. For an 8-12 hour difference it's usually 4-5 days before I'm not feeling a bit off at 2 pm. Another thing that really helps me in the first 48 hours is to eat high energy foods and not things that make me sleepy/lethargic. Ie if it's safe to do so eat salad, not pasta.
I am in the mountain time zone so 7 hour difference.
Sounds like trying to sleep on the long flight is the best idea. Thanks for mentioning melatonin, I never would have thought of that otherwise. I have a terrible time sleeping on planes so hopefully that will help!
Post by Shreddingbetty on Mar 6, 2015 13:53:01 GMT -5
We are never able to sleep much. We fly from CO and usually have a 6 am flight (and long layover either in Chicago or DC) and arrive the next morning around 7. We then go to my parents place visit and take a 2-3 hour nap around 12-1 pm. We set an alarm to get up because it is hard to wake up! That night we go to bed at usual time and get up at a decent time (around 8). That usually works well for us. Get back on a normal schedule ASAP (no naps after that first day). I remember one time when I was a teen I had been in the US for a month and when I came back I went to bed in the evening an my parents let me sleep until I woke up which was 1 or 2 pm the next day. It took forever to get back on track. I find it easier to fly east than west but DH prefers the other way. Coming back we always wake up around 330 or 4 am for 4 or 5 days even after we have traveled and slept very little for 24 hours. Of course DH is a crappy sleeper regardless so not sure how much that factors in to his difficulty
For me, I just change my watch to the new local time the second I get on the plane. That tells me if I should sleep or stay up. If it is too long to stay up, I will nap a bit. My body adjusts from there. Good luck!
I wish I would've seen this thread yesterday. H left for Switzerland today. They're 9 hours ahead of us here in the PNW. Had I known I would've sent him with our melatonin. I hope he's currently sleeping; that's what he said he'd try and do.