I am about to fly back to Europe in August and as always I freak out because jetlag is my ennemy. Anyone here as trouble with it and did you find a good way to deal with it? without drugs or alchool of course.
I can’t sleep in airplanes, so usually after a 12/13 hours flight it takes me 5 days to recover, it’s plain awful, I need help!
Drugs and alc… oh. Dunno.
Last time I did a long-haul flight I took melatonin. It’s a hormone, not a sleeping pill. It worked pretty well – got some good sleep on the flight west and didn’t feel as rubbish as normal once I’d got there. (I continued to take melatonin at bedtime for a couple of days more.)
It didn’t seem to work so well on the journey back east though.
I believe that the melatonin that you can buy over the counter here is derived from pig’s brains. I think that synthetic melatonin may only be available in the States.
It would be interesting to read about sleep cycles. You could start with stuff like polyphasic sleep.
Or just look into the anti-jet-lag diet. It exists.
Drink two litres of pure carrot juice each day for the two days before your flight. In other words, if you fly on Saturday, drink 2 litres on Thursday and 2 on Friday. It is a trick high altitude climbers use to help prevent them suffering from the effects of low oxygen levels. It helps with fatigue and dizziness, lack of focus, etc. I do it every time I fly back. I tell it to everyone and those smart enough to try always report positive results.
I hear maple syrop works wonder too. But where would you get that? 
I usually only get Jet lag going back west not coming here, but what I do is just force my self to stay up that first day (no naps no matter how much I want to die), and I usually just collaps in bed when I gett he chance (the first nightfall there) and so on for a day or two and then I’m usually fine 
, another alternitive is to try kepping silly hours (more matching home) for a day or two before you go if you can, of course that is just a theory, I’ve never tried it my self, but if you do 
let me know if it works
I support the “silly hours” theory - the only problem is how your work-hours will be affected when you gradually adjust your wake-up time to lunch-time instead of breakfast time.
Another method is to not sleep at all the night before departure, so you get tired enough to sleep most of the way on the plane. That has worked for me, but most of the time in combination with alcohol.
I can’t understand why you would want to suffer for 5 days when you could take sleeping tablets for the first few days. As far as I understand it sleep deprivation has far worse side effects than a little chemical help. Still, if melatonin or something would help then take that. I have to go with more heavy help and take Stilnox for 2 days when I do a huge time change and a 3rd day if I absolutely have to and then nature has to take its course.
First night.
Usually I am so damned tired as you mention with lack of sleep on the plane that I can sleep the first night from sheer exhaustion.
Second night.
Stilnox next to the bed and I try to sleep. Worst case of 2am I take one Stilnox. To wait later would mean waking up groggy at 7am.
Third night.
Same.
Fourth night.
Really try to have nothing. Worst case I have a Stilnox for a third night. Then noway I would take one again.
Usually settled in by then and sleeping okay.
Return to Taiwan/ home.
As above but 2 nights max of Stilnox and really try to have none at all.
Alternative for me is to be non functional during working hours and suffer badly. People who can catnap seem to travel much better. Lucky bastards.
[quote=“joesax”]Last time I did a long-haul flight I took melatonin. It’s a hormone, not a sleeping pill. It worked pretty well – got some good sleep on the flight west and didn’t feel as rubbish as normal once I’d got there. (I continued to take melatonin at bedtime for a couple of days more.)
It didn’t seem to work so well on the journey back east though.
I believe that the melatonin that you can buy over the counter here is derived from pig’s brains. I think that synthetic melatonin may only be available in the States.[/quote]
I heard of Melatonin but read that only synthetic melatonin was safe. I am gonna still try to find some here in Taipei.
Oh, I don’t know about that, I hate carrots to start with, but if it really works, I might give it a try.
Stop teasing me! Do you still have it?
[quote=“igorveni”]I heard of Melatonin but read that only synthetic melatonin was safe.[/quote]I think I read up on it and if I remember rightly there had been a very few cases of some kind of disease somewhere. I think they fixed the problem. Anyway, whatever it was, I was confident enough to take it, even though the idea of ingesting bits of pigs brains is a bit disturbing.
I go the Stilnox route as well… works like a charm… get a good solid 7-8 hours of sleep and never wake up feeling dopey or groggy. It’s quite a good sleeping-aid.
maybe timing the flight would also help. If you can’t sleep on the plane but then you are a zombie on arrival then try to arrive at your final destination at night. I usually can’t sleep on the planes at all, expecially if they have great onboard entertainment systems like Singapore Airlines. Last time I flew to the USA I stayed up the whole flight and then packed in alot of activites for the day (I arrived in the morning) and I hardly experienced any jet lag.
I got my Melatonin from a GNC in Hong Kong… says “Made in the USA” on the bottle so I’m guessing no pig brains 
I did this for five days before coming to Taiwan and didn’t suffer any jetlag at all. I pretty much stayed up until 7am everyday and then took a one or two hour nap during the day when I could. Of course, it wasn’t my plan to do this–I just couldn’t finish packing and shopping in time. And I had a lot of goodbye parties–sans alcohol 
I arrived in Taiwan in the morning and stayed up until 10pm. Then I slept until 9am the next day. I was fine.
So, yes, keeping “silly hours” does work. At least, it did for me. 
Oh, yeah–I made sure to stay hydrated during the flight.
Try to get a daytime flight (e.g. with Thai Airways and/or Lufthansa). Usually they start here at around 9:00AM and you arrive at around 7:00PM in Europe. Then drink a beer and take a good night sleep. It’s the same as when you go out to party at the weekend. No jet lag next morning.
[quote=“Muzha Man”]
I hear maple syrop works wonder too. But where would you get that? [/quote]
Maple syrop? Haven’t a clue where you could find that. But you can find maple syrup at the Welcome.
As for dealing with the whole jet lag thing, I just stay up as long as possible the night before travelling so I can sleep on the plane. Works fine for me. Although using some sleep aids after arriving wouldn’t hurt either.
Control your sleep makes it much easier:
A few days before the flight, shift your sleeping times a few hours towards the destination time. Control your sleep on the flight day:
When you fly to Europe (6 hours difference is actually not so much of a problem), you probably leave Taiwan in the evening. Try to get a good sleep in the airplane (ear pops, inflatable neck pillow and eye cover helps really good). When you arrive in the early morning, do not go to sleep again, instead wait until the evening, even if it’s hard.
Coming back, it’s more difficult, because you have 6 hours taken away. If your flight e.g. leaving at lunch time, get up very early this morning, then you can get sleep in the afternoon. You arrive Taiwan in the morning, again, wait for the evening to get sleep.
And, of course, drink lots of water and not too much alcohol (doesn’t work always)
Thanks everyone, good advice.
I have 2 more weeks to get ready.
Cheers
A frequent-flyer friend recommended “No-Jet-Lag” to me (a dietary supplement made by Miers Laboratories, Wellington, New Zealand; nojetlag.com/ ).
It’d always taken me a week to 10 days to get over jetlag. The last time I traveled between Taiwan and the US, this product seemed to help a little.
Good luck and have a nice trip!
That stuff is “homeopathic”, which essentially means “worthless”. Those are essentially nothing more than sugar pills.