mavine1

Hello chaps, my husband arrived in Brisbane 2 weeks ago and spent the 1st week in a hotel room suffering with extreme jetlag Says he felt like he had flu with insomnia and buggered eating patterns thrown in. Anyhow, I am due to follow my husband in a few weeks with my two children and am now dreading the journey. I haven't booked the flights yet and am thinking of breaking the journey up. Maybe a night in dubai and a night or two in Singapore...can anyone give me any advice? Does breaking up the trip make it less painful at the other end?

Mavine

DadAgain

Never done the stopover myself, I've always figured it just prolongs the agony. I want to reach my destination and get into 'normal' mode as soon as possible and not have a journey that lasts 3 days.

In terms of reduDucing jetlag there are a few rules:
- be rested before you start to travel
- don't get drunk on the plane
- wear good noise canceling headphones


Last one may seem weird - but cutting out that constant drone of the engine noise, and letting you hear the in flight entertainment without straining will HUGELY reduce your fatigue and help you arrive fresher. they are worth their weight in gold!

Savitar

In my experience, yes (and I am on my 2nd passport, as the other was full) with over 300 stamps in total.

The flight over to OZ is a tough one. Breaking up the trip can help you get on local time better as its a more gradual process (I.e. first night is only 4 hours different, then singapore with 6 etc etc).

My tips / thoughts for you for jet lag :

- Everyone is different, every trip is different. Some people never get jet lag, some only on the out / return leg etc. Some trips you get it, some you don't.....
- Take "travel calm" on the flight, it a motion sickness pill and changed my life when I discovered it. I arrive, even on the UK -> OZ legs feeling 1000% better than wiithout it and it helps keep me on local time as I can power though.
- Get on Local time immediately (on the flight is even better). Eat breakfast in the morning, lunch at lunch time, glass of wine with dinner (if that is your thing) at dinner time. You NEED to train your body that the local time is the right time, even if you don't particularly feel like it.
- Don't over think it, the more you worry, the more it will affect you.
- DO NOT sleep during the day no matter how tired you are. The body can survive on very little sleep (a few hours) for a rather long period (a week, two perhaps). So that "quick nap" at 4-6pm each day will most likley stop you from sleeping at night, that is one of the biggest causes (from my experience) of Jetlag. Quite often the flights into OZ land at 7am so staying away for the next 14 hours is TOUGH, but you MUST do it.
- Some mild, over the counter, sleeping pills can help you get to sleep at night, but they will probably not help keep you asleep, but its a good start.

Hope this helps.....

bcworld

I think stopovers are a great plus point of the long journey to / from Aus.

They don't prolong the agony - but you can do it wrong - say you have to check out of a hotel in the morning & the flight leaves late at night...never good! Be prepared to negotiate or pay extra for late checkouts or an extra day.

scrubbedexpat055

I normally try to get a flight arriving in the evening if possible so that I can get some sleep quickly after landing. Normally wake around 4 am for first couple of days, but ok after that.

Don't drink alot of alcohol on the flight, and as suggested, if you can get some noise cancelling headphones do so, they are great.

If you arrive early morning, and do need to sleep, restrict it to a couple of hours before midday. Do not snooze in the afternoon.

Generally just relax, it will be fine.

Have a good trip

quoll

I subscribe to the dont prolong the agony theory and always do it in one hit. I choose not to get jetlag (LOL) and I do it by taking a late night flight whichever direction I am going, wear myself out during the day so that I am usually asleep by wheels up. I dont eat much on the trip, drink quite a lot of water and certainly dont wake up to eat if I am asleep. I generally wake up with a couple of hours to go into Singapore (or wherever) then I walk the length of the terminal in the refuelling stop, have the next meal then sleep until landing in Aus. As I arrive in the early morning I deliberately keep going until at least 7pm and I havent had a problem yet with jet lag.

I have a friend who swears by Melatonin and another who has prescription sleeping pills and probably too much gin LOL. I suspect that my Avomine may also help with the sleeping thing but it works wonders for my travel sickness!

mavine1

I love the idea of crashing out at wheels up and waking a couple of hours to go. Sounds like bliss!

Bermudashorts

Arriving on a flight that reaches its destination in the evening works for me.

Then you arrive, spend a couple of hours getting yourself sorted out and then go to bed at a normal-ish time. You are tired because you have not slept properly on the flight, so hopefully will get a good night sleep and when you wake up it really is morning and your body clock has done a lot of adjusting.

If you arrive in the morning and then hve a nap during the first day, it takes longer to adjust to the new time zone.

Ozrible

I take Melatonin a couple of days before the flight, during travel and for a few days after. Seems to work well for me. Jet lag is apparently worse travelling east. Instead of a couple of stops, why not try a couple of nights in say, Singapore, to give your body time to adjust a bit.? P.S. Must admit , I had trouble buying Melatonin in London at Christmas. Luckily I had some on hand.

heldownunder

If flying emirates i would gave at least one night at airporthotel in Dubai - take a daytime flight to dubai and you arrive ready for sleep and children are entertained and happy on that 7 hour flight.
Then a straight through Dubai to oz over night arrive early morning- we always go to bed asap and set alarm for four hours (sleepcycles in4 hours). Then get up get out and try and stay up as late as possible- we did well on that and only woke up 4/5ish for a couple of days.
Havent tried melatonin /calms etc but at xmas we are using airmiles to fly back on own with kids so have to go straight through so need something for the children.... Return leg paid so stopping off in kl for 3 nights.

Good luck its easier than you imagine and the excitement/adrenalin keeps you going!!

bourbon-biscuit

I agree with Savitar's post.

Avoid alcohol on the flight and drink plenty of water. Take lip balm, eye drops etc to keep you feeling ok. Eat really lightly during the flight and just roll with it. Only drink caffeine during your target time zone's 'awake' times. Jetlag is worse when you over think it and prolonged by napping in the day. Get out in the bright light for as much as possible on arrival- don't stay inside.

Just accept you feel a bit rubbish for a couple of days but only go to bed during bedtime hours- including getting up at a decent time. From NZ/Oz to the UK it generally takes me about 3 days to feel chipper again and the other way less, sometimes just one night, despite that it ought to take more because of the direction of travel. I think this is because we get more bright sunshine in NZ/Oz and also we're coming "home" so can properly relax in our own home with our own routines, whereas on visits to Britain one is usually with the inlaws, which is enough to bring on jetlag-like symptoms even if one has only traveled for 20 mins in the car

Our first experience of it was dreadful, but then we were total novices backpacking with a pre-schooler and we did it all wrong. I felt like I had flu for days and experienced some perceptual disturbances that were quite weird- like the pavement seeming to ripple in front of me, etc.

bcworld

...works for me! I managed 6 hours on LHR-SIN...about as good as it gets for me on a plane!! BA helped...on my domestic connection from Aberdeen I was on one of those BA flights where every drinks order is doubled...ask for a G&T...2 miniatures and 2 tonics arrive...even in the descent she was trying to give me more!

Tramps_mate

I arrived back 3 weeks ago on the monday morning. Was back in work tuesday morning. Was a bit tired, but was over it by thurs-fri. I just stayed up as long as I could to go to bed early on monday night. Just try to get into the sleeping pattern as soon as you can. I also didnt sleep on the plane..

moneypenny20

Just because he had it really bad doesn't mean you or the kids will have it. We've never suffered it other than once for me and done long haul stacks of times. Lots of fluids - not alcohol :sneaky don't eat every time they bring food round, keep normal food times as much as poss. If dark try and sleep. I have no idea if stops help or not, I just like stopping and looking at places I've not seen before when I've got the chance.

macy

With you looking after the kids I would imgaine sleeping pills etc are going to be out of the question, we stopped over in Singapore for 5 days and it was the best thing ever, we did spend a day sleeping in at the hotel but we arrived in Brisbane refreshed and ready for the big adventure. With children I would always break up the journey where possible, I would highly recommend Singapore especially with young children, the hotel staff couldnt do enough to help.