Ash14297

Hi all,

Sorry if I'm not posting this in the correct place. I will be moving out to California in 3 weeks time and just wondering what everyone's experience with jet lag has been and tips to avoid it.

What is the best time of day to depart the UK... Morning/afternoon/evening?

Ash

coral11680

I can't comment on UK to LA but I find flying during the day easiest to adjust, rather than a night flight, as you never get much rest. Also jet lag always hits me worse coming from the USA to the UK

Pulaski

Ock Me too, the only time I feel bad after flying is when flying east, whether at the start or end of a trip.

Flying west, just stay up when you land until your usual bedtime locally. If you land and go to bed immediately/ early, your body clock will take longer to adjust.

jibsymalone

i tend to do a similar thing and it has always seemed to work for me, even to trips to Australia and NZ. Just stay up till you get to your regular bed time in whatever time zone you happen to be in at the time. Do this both ways and you will adjust a lot faster.

Sally Redux

It seems to vary between people, but I agree it's worse going back to the UK. Last time I went I just couldn't sleep at all for about 10 nights.

Speedwell

It takes eight days on average to get over that jet lag. You can minimize this a lot by "pre-adjusting" to the new time difference. If you can sleep on the flight, I highly recommend this as well. When I travel to Aberdeen from Houston, I take a flight that leaves in the late afternoon and arrives at Heathrow in the not particularly early morning. On the way back, I stay up the night before and take the earliest morning flight I can so I can get back to Houston in the evening, drive home, and then have a night's sleep.

ScousePete

Melatonin works for me going east as it is usually an overnight flight. Take one on take-off, sleep like a baby and wake up all refreshed around 7am in London.

markonline1

If you're flying to CA, I believe your fairly limited to what time you can fly out. The flights are designed to leave late morning and arrive late afternoon.
The best method I've found is just to battle through. If that means take a nap on the plane, fine, but no more than a nap. As soon as you arrive in the US force yourself to switch straight onto US time. That means have a proper meal in the evening and try to stay awake as long as possible. The sooner your body gets onto US time, the better.

BritInParis

You'll be flying the 'right' way round the world, chasing the sun, so the jet lag won't be as bad as, say, LHR-NRT.

Whatever time you leave make sure you adjust your sleep pattern to local time immediately i.e. if you arrive at midday but you want to go to sleep because your body thinks it's 10pm, don't, stay awake until your normal bedtime and then go to sleep waking up at the same time you do normally.

You might be tired the next day but you'll be over your jet lag after another normal night's sleep.

Hotscot

Are you coming for a visit or a job or?
I do London to LAX a lot. Jet lag isn't bad.

S Folinsky

The arrivals at LAX seem to be Asia in the morning and Europe in the afternoon and early evening.

As others have noted, traveling West is a lot easier than traveling East. I do suggest the advice of staying awake until your normal bed time.

I suggest you give it four days to get over it completely.

scrubbedexpat027

I never get jetlag going from LHR to LAX. I tend to arrive in the afternoon in LA, then stay up until my usual bedtime even though I'm a bit tired. The next day I'm back to normal.

Flying east however, LAX to LHR, seems to be getting worse for me lately. The last time I did this at Christmas, I went back for a week and was still all over the place by the end of it (not being able to sleep until around 4am).

Jerni

I used to fly between LHR and SFO frequently. As others mentioned going from the UK to the USA was not too bad, I usually ended up going to bed a little earlier the first night. The killer was going back to the UK, I used to fly Virgin which left SFO at 4:30pm and arrived the next morning at LHR. I found taking a quick 2 hour afternoon nap the first day back helped a great deal. I flew Economy and Upper Class and never managed to sleep very well so was always exhausted by early afternoon.

markonline1

Jeez, when I used to come here on my hols, the jet lag used to kill me! Shattered by 5 o'clock in the afternoon, wide awake at 4 in the morning. By the time I'd adjusted, it was time to go home LOL. The last time I flew to Vegas, I went out as soon as I arrived and had a proper evening meal and it was the quickest I ever adjusted. Mind you, flying business probably helped too.

civilservant

Never bothered me - west bound flying is easy since it is simply a longer day. East is the killer.