How can I handle jet lag?

I swear by this book listed below: I've used it a lot and I used to travel around the world by plane twice a year, meaning I would literally circle the globe in my travels.

It was hell but this book did help me arrive and function fairly well.

The system involves what to eat, when to drink caffeinated drinks, and when not to, when to sleep.

I got an eye mask and headphones with relaxation music in my cd player to sleep when I needed to on the plane. Carrying your own food is a good idea. You have to read this book, because what you eat and drink makes a huge difference.

Don't FLY

let it lag and take a nap

What I usually do is try to get on the time schedule from whatever country I'm going to. Try not to sleep until it's on their time frame, wait til' it's like 10 p.m. their time when your on the plane and then take a dramamine, that knocks you out, and helps you not feel so crappy when you land. Get on their schedule as soon as you can, if it's the middle of the day, don't go to sleep, stay up until it's your usual time to go to sleep.

To deal with it, try to build in a day at your arrival to adjust. Resist the temptation to nap on arrival. Stay outside, in sunlight, until the regular bedtime there. Drink lots of water.

I've had some success with No Jet Leg, a homeopathic herbal remedy.

When you get on the plane, adjust your watch to your arrival destination time, and do things (eat, sleep) according to that schedule.

Beating Jet Lag
Make the Most of Your Travels
By DeAnne Musolf Crouch


Happy trails to you without jet lag

You've planned your trip so you won't waste a moment of your vacation hunting down headlamp batteries or stove fuel. Yet you arrive on your long-awaited journey to Pakistan (or Thailand or Russia) and spend days in a haze of lethargy AND insomnia 鈥?the demons of jet leg.
The symptoms of this circadian-rhythm disruption are well known: exhaustion, headache, and dehydration (dry eyes, throat, nose, even skin), disorientation, anxiety, indigestion 鈥?even impaired coordination 鈥?all, according to NASA, requiring roughly a day of recovery for every time zone you crossed. (While north-south travelers may suffer from air travel, these journeys do not cause jet lag.) And the World Health Organization links jet lag with travelers' lowered resistance to infections such as those that cause diarrhea.

Potential remedies abound. The book Overcoming Jet Lag, by Dr. Charles F. Ehret and Lynne Waller Scanlon, calls for consuming caffeine and high-protein and high-carbohydrate meals at certain times of the day and in certain amounts, depending on the number of time zones you'll be crossing. Another remedy 鈥?the Jet Lag Light Visor 鈥?is designed around a light-exposure schedule specific to your itinerary. And those are only a few.

Despite the hype, the Mayo Clinic reports there is still no single pill or remedy for jet lag. Flying east is purportedly harder than flying west 鈥?but that fact too seems"up in the air"; just talk to countless westward travelers who've been wracked by lag. A major U.S. study showed that age and flying at night may exacerbate jet lag. The greatest sufferers may be people living in humid areas (airplane air is dry) or at low elevations (cabins are pressurized at 8,000 feet), people who have difficulty sleeping, are slaves to routine, or who are not fit or rested.

Move on to Prevent Jet Lag - Travel Tips

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Beating Jet Lag
Travel Tips
By DeAnne Musolf Crouch
So what's a lagging traveler to do? Experts agree that everyone can benefit from the following:

In-flight tips



Don't depart exhausted 鈥?or hungover 鈥?then plan to"catch up on the plane."


Bring water on the plane and drink it (WATER 鈥?not tea, juice, coffee, soda, or alcohol).


Onboard, set your watch to destination time.


Remove your shoes; get your feet up if you can.


To maximize rest time, go to sleep immediately 鈥?as soon as the plane pulls away from the terminal and cuts off fresh air until takeoff (a natural sleep-inducer).


Don't wait for the in-flight drinks or meal 鈥?that could take hours; eat lightly if you do eat at all.


Use earplugs, a blindfold, blanket, neck rest 鈥?whatever it takes.


Don't use sleeping pills: A report in England's Lancet medical journal blames 18 percent of long-haul deaths on blood clots to the lungs 鈥?and sleeping pills induce a comatose state with little natural body movement (thus reducing circulation, thus increasing the chance of clotting).


Exercise and stretch 鈥?in your seat, in the aisles, and during stopovers (pilots swear by stopover showers, for circulation).


Ask the flight attendant to turn up the fresh air 鈥?seriously. (Vernon Ansdell, of the University of Hawaii, pointed out at a recent Wilderness Medical Society meeting that newer aircraft circulate more air.)




On the Ground
Upon landing, start eating and sleeping on the new schedule. Studies prove that circadian rhythms can also be shifted with exposure to bright light; Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, professor at Harvard Medical School, recommends you expose yourself to bright daylight, without sunglasses, for at least fifteen minutes as soon as you can. Meanwhile, the Mayo Clinic recommends early-morning and late-afternoon exercise to help resynchronize your clock. Melatonin has also been proven in studies to reset the internal clock to nighttime, though it makes some people groggy upon waking and its long-term effects are unknown. Consult your physician.

Besides taking good care of yourself, other harmless ideas abound: walk barefoot on the ground at your destination; swim in the ocean; or take an Epsom-salt bath (all reportedly to ground your electromagnetic system). Another idea is having a massage; another, to begin living on the schedule of your destination days before you get there. Does it work? A friend who tried it said,"I was so exhausted when I got to Europe I couldn't tell."

My humble, unscientific opinion? Jet lag is a hangover (look again at the symptoms), so I sleep every spare minute I can 鈥?on the plane and the day I arrive. That way I'm fresh for my true objective while others who killed time exploring in town are fading 鈥?or bailing 鈥?at the trailhead. To knock me out on the plane, I take nothing more serious than generic diphenhydramine (the active ingredient in Benadryl, Tylenol Nighttime, and Dramamine 鈥?but be forewarned: it dries your sinuses). And I use eye drops en route, and pound Emer'gen-C vitamin packets (found at health food stores) to rehydrate and replenish electrolytes.

Because, after all, I can always be tired and cranky when I get home.

i take a mild sedative when the flight begins, try to get comfortable & sleep as long as I can.

I treat jet lag the same as I do a hang-over.....

coffee with 2 tylenol....more coffee....2 hours later an energy drink with 2 motrin (jet lag gives me monster headaches) & after that water only to drink and grains to eat.......to stabilize all of the caffeine i ingested.

good luck!

if you have to fly, fly only 2Pi

Best result I've ever had was with taking short naps on the flight. When you get where you are going, stay up until it gets near your normal bedtime there. Following the directions on the label, take a dose of melatonin before you go to bed, at least for the first two or three nights. The melatonin will help you sleep, and after a few nights of artificial melatonin cycles, your body will usually be on the proper natural night cycle for where you are.

Don't know, never suffered from it. I just stay awake when I get to my destination until it's the normal time (for`that location) to go to bed, and get a good eight hours. Wake up, and bingo, it's just like normal.

I think it helps if you're a night owl rather than a morning owl, as it were.

Depends if you're travelling west or east. But generally, drink plenty of water, get up and walk around occasionally, set your watch to your arrival time zone and sleep when it's time to sleep there, stay awake when you should be awake there. Avoid alcohol and caffeine.


Another travel tip for long flights is to bring a washcloth or hankee with you and ocassionally, get it wet and breathe through it. (I would put it over my face when I slept on international flights). This will add humidity to the air you breathe and help prevent sinus problems and headaches from the dry, recycled air.

Go to local health food store & buy supplement called "Melatonin". This helps the body recover & return to natural sleep cycle when it's messed up by jet lag. It restores the body's circadian rhythms.

sleep if you can

Besides give up going on jets: try this:-

Jet Lag

Here are some tips about how to handle jet lag.

Eat before you get on the plane. This way you can get some sleep in without the distractions of your growling stomach or a dinner-wielding flight attendant.

Reset your watch to your destination's time as soon as you get on the plane. Follow the time as your would at home. If it is daytime, stay awake by walking around the cabin. If it is nighttime, try to sleep. A sleeping mask and ear plugs will block some of the light and noise from the plane.

If you use a blanket, buckle your seat belt over the blanket so the flight attendant will not have to wake you in the event of turbulence. The attendant will provide you with a pillow if you need one.

Avoid caffeine and alcohol, which can disrupt sleep patterns.

If it's daylight when you arrive but nighttime at home, you may be tempted to sleep. Instead, try going for a walk outside. The exercise may revive you. Also, daylight should help convince your body to stop producing sleep-inducing hormones. Plus, you wouldn't want to sleep away the first day of your vacation.

smoke a fat spliff and go to sleep lol

dont listen to their advice thats all crap!!! lol

smoke a big fat spliff joint whatever u wanna call it in the airport toilet eat it if u dont smoke get on board have some thing to eat and i bet half way thru the in flight film u will be asleep (the films are always wack) trust me it works a treat !!!!

Go by boat