Quote:
Originally Posted by Z-man
I find this works for me too - I'm usually switched over to 'local time' within 24 hours. Best thing to counter jet lag is to force your body to switch over to the new time zone ASAP.
I travel to Germany from NJ about once a year (6 hour difference), and what I do is switch over to local time as soon as the plane lands. This includes eating -- I may not be hungry when I land, but I have a normal breakfast at around 8am, a lunch around noon, and dinner around 6-7pm.
As far as going to bed -- I will push myself and go to bed LATER than I normally do at home - around midnight or so. This assures me that I will sleep through the night. Next morning, I can wake up at 7am and I'm ready to go, and I'll be only slightly tired by day's end.
On one trip, I missed my connecting flight from Amsterdam to Stuttgart, and was stuck in the airport all day - instead of trying to sleep, I kept myself away by walking around, window shopping, eating...etc. When I finally got to Stuttgart, it was around 10pm. That night, I slept soundly, and was ready for work the next day.
-Z
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Travel to Europe and Asia regularly. Z Man has it right....only addition I can make is if you have a very early arrival in your destination (say 8 am), then if you get desperately tired and cannot stay awake until the evening bedtime, take a 1 hour maximum nap early in the afternoon, say 1 pm. Force yourself to get up afterwards and move, go have dinner etc. You will feel like crap, but if you make the mistake of sleeping longer than the 1 hour max, you will do dastardly things to your internal clock and it will be a bad jet lag recovery.
I deliberately do not go to bed for the nap, rather sit in my comfy chair so I don't go to sleep too soundly (its not that comfy).
Dennis