JandKS

Hi everyone

Yesterday I booked our validation trip out to Oz - we leave London for Brisbane on 30th Jan, for a whistle-stop 3-week tour of Brisbane, the NSW coast, Sydney and Perth. And to say I am excited is a bit of an understatement

However, I am not looking forward to 24 hours on a plane at all, the longest I have ever flown is 11 hours from San Fran and I was so zonked with jet lag when we got home that I could barely speak for the next 2 days. Has anyone got any tips on overcoming it? We leave London at 10pm Friday night and get to Brisbane at 6am Sunday morning , just at the time my body says its time to go to bed.

One thought we had was getting a hotel at Brisbane airport and crashing down as soon as we arrive, then we'll hopefully feel a bit fresher to do things in the afternoon. Will this work or are we best staying awake? Will a hotel be willing to let us have a room for 6 or so hours in the morning?

Thanks
KS

CROSSY

This tip from my brother in Adelaide.....as soon as you get on the plane set your watch to your destination time and stay awake till your normal bedtime comes around in your new timezone...then try and sleep(not easy on a plane, i know) if it works almost all of the second leg to oz will be spent asleep. When you arrive you will still feel like s**t but stay awake again till your normal bedtime, then one good sleep with a lie in and bobs your uncle works for me on long haul, hope it works for you.
Have a great time in Oz

JaneandJim

Might be a bit late for you now, but I've found the best thing is to get a morning flight. Then you arrive the next evening and go straight to bed. This way you feel fine during the day time, it just takes a while for your sleep pattern to settle down. Singapore Airlines will let you change your flight, don't know about other airlines though.

Jane

Billabong

JandKS,

We did a real whistle stop in April (only 10 days). The thing we did was exactly what crossy suggests. Set your watch for local time and then do not go to bed until it you would normally. This will allow you to adapt quicker.

Regards

Pollyana

Crossy's recipe is the one I try to follow. The only time I've felt awful after a flight (done it 7 times now) was after a flight which arrived late afternoon - couldn't sleep that night and felt dreadful all the next day. Arriving in the morning seems to work much better.

downunderpom

You've seen it in Die Hard - when you get where you're going, take off your socks and shoes and spend a minute or two making 'fists' of your toes, then releasing. Flex, then release. Don't ask me why it works, I just know that it does. I spent some years, in my mis-spent youth, as an Air Courier, flying to the States twice a week from the UK, all over Europe and out to the Middle and Far East. It works.

sassie

Gosh, I don't envy you, I've just done that flight a few weeks ago, and its a real killer arriving so early. And to top it off, we had a 5 hour connection wait in Tokyo, so we were shattered by the time we arrived. I suppose it depends on how much sleep you get on the plane. If the flight takes off at 10, by the time the bar and the meal service is over, it should be about midnight, and the lights will be turned off to allow people to get some rest, and they'll wake you up a couple of hours before landing for breakfast. Hopefully, you should be able to get a few hours sleep. Arriving at Brisbane at 6.00,should mean you are out of the airport by about 7.30 ish. You'll probably find that you don't feel too bad when you land at Brisbane. It usually hits me about 3.00, and then you wake up when the locals are going to bed. So if you can stay up for as long as possible the first day, that will certainly help.

Enjoy your trip. we won't be long behind you. planning on moving to the gold coast June 2004.

tiredwithtwins

Whenever I have flown long haul I do what I do when Im on my first night shift (ima nurse) - just stay awake until it is bedtime local time. When I start nights Im up 6am ish, awake all day, work all night, finish 8am ish, meet hubby and take kids to school, go shopping then go to bed 10am ish, sleep all day then up 6pmish for work! On longhaul I sleep on plane normal sleep time (usually get night flight), land their morning time, stay awake all day then go to bed their bedtime.
No probs!! works every time for me!
(But I have had 16 years practice)

sue

Wol

Everyone's different! From those who profess there's no such animal as jetlag to those - like me - who get crucified.

My own approach is just to give in to it while attempting to keep up during the daytime. It's usually after a couple more days that the "lid on top of the head" syndrome takes over from the real tiredness.

Sleeping pills taken at the local bedtime for a few days do help, too.

koala_mac

Or, as a natural alternative to sleeping pills, try melatonin, which I think you can get over the counter in Oz, though not in the UK. It works, I think, by resetting your body clock: melatonin occurs naturally in the brain and is produced around bedtime - so, if you give yourself some extra at the unnatural new bedtime, your brain is tricked into thinking it's time to go to sleep.

You take it half an hour before you go to bed *at the normal time for where you are* - so, if you can last out (and you really have to, to get over the jet lag) to 10pm, take a couple of pills at 9.30pm.

I have used this method in the past and in my opinion it works. The other thing is not to nap during the day. When I visited my parents when they were living in Brisbane, my mum would collect me from the airport, we'd dump my stuff at home and then it was non-stop activity - she would be dragging us round shopping, swimming, whatever, totally zombified and really cross - and wouldn't let us go to bed until a proper bedtime, dosed up with melatonin. It seemed to work, though we weren't great company for a day or two!!

K_M

claireg3

I'm a night nurse too so am hoping that the old jet lag doesn't affect me too much either.

Wol

Funnily enough, it was a nurse who was absolutely insistent that there's no such thing as jetlag!

I don't think that shiftworking has much to do with it myself. If you do suffer badly, it's just one of those things you have to put up with, although constant jet lag eventually causes you to go into a state of no timezone at all, from which some never emerge. Trust me.........

Simone

I've never had jet lag.
On the plane I just sleep a bit (not much at all) and when I'm there, just try and go to bed a a reasonably normal time. So maybe a bit earlier, and have a sleep in.
But I really think it depends on the person.
Because my boyfriend(oh, husband! ) did the same as me last time and he said he had it.

Maybe also, it depends how much it's worrying you and you're afraid of it? Im not sure.
Maybe I have it too, but I don't think about it, I just think, well, I'm a bit more tired than usual?
But maybe I've never had it, and it really is very bad? I don't know .......

JandKS

Thanks everyone for your advice. I think its a good idea to try and sleep at "Australia" time right from the off, but I can't imagine that I'll be able to stay awake on the first leg of the trip after a full day at work, as it would mean another 12-14 hours being awake! I only have a 1300-page book I guess I could do a couple of hours then followed by as many as I can get on the last leg - that might work.

But you're right Simone82, I am worrying about it too much - if I'm too anxious about when to sleep that won't be much fun either!

PeteY

I am not blessed with being able to sleep well. I rarely sleep on a plane etc.

When we went out last, I was up at 3 am every day for the first week!! Just could'nt get back to sleep when i woke up. The week after that i started to recover, but was still pretty nackered for the next week or so.

Somthing interesting....for the Olympics, the athletes are recommended to take one day to recover, for each hour of time difference. So an Olympic athlete would need to have 10 days in aus (from the uk), to get back up to full strength (in theory).

I....am NOT looking forward to the flight/jetlag either