combatting jetlag??

Has anyone any good tips on jow to avoid/combat jetlag and also falling ill when travelling? Am off to Oz soon and am dreading the flight and the jetlag upon arrival. Help!

When I have a trip coming up that involves a substantial time change, I start living according to my new time zone a couple days before I leave.

If you can't do that for work reasons or whatever another thing is to not sleep the night before you fly. If you are arriving at your destination in their morning time then get some sleep on the plane. If you are arriving at night, try not to sleep on the plane too much.

This has always worked for me, but some people can't sleep on planes.

Hi . . . .a few tips
1 - drink water only, and lots of it . . .
2 - take earplugs, will help you sleep on the plane
3 - try and get a emergency exit seat, you will have more leg room
4 - do exercise whilst you are flying, ie stretch legs, walk around a bit
5 - I have also been told that frequent travellers simply switch to destination time as they board the plane . . so if you cannot do what IMonaghan suggests, then maybe attempt this . . .you will need to advise the crew, so they do not bother you with food etc

Hope this helps

B

PS and to stay healthy whilst travelling, eat plenty of fruit & fibre, maintain your fluid intake and high standards of hygiene!

You can pick up in any health food shop these tablets which help fight jet lag. I cannot remember the name of them, but it something like "jet ease". They come in a blue & white packet.

I took them when I flew to NZ from the UK and I found them to be really helpful, along with what was suggested in the previous post.

-earplugs
-herbal sleeping tablets, and
-water (plenty of it!)

Good Luck!

I know this won't help in the slightest, but the easiest way to avoid jetlag is to travel overland and not to fly...

Jet lag? What is that?
Just think of it as a hang over, after a night drinking, or extra, free, benefit from your travel experience. It never really bother me. My only problem when I travel half way around the world is when ever the people there sleep, I stay up. My last trip to visit friends and relatives in Vietnam, they jokingly said that I was their guard at night. Because while they slept, I stayed up and watched their house for them. I eat and drink anything, on and off the planes, not just water. Although I don't drink alcohol, I bring along green tea bags, and after a meal I ask for hot water to go with my tea - quite refreshing. Got to do some packing soon though, I am going to Vietnam again in two weeks, for a ten day visit.

Forget all the advice that you've been given. Nothing works. Just resign yourself to the fact that you're gonna feel like crap after a long flight.

to iloveflyin

isn't jetlag when you aren't on the same time schedule as everyone else? kind of.... I think... Maybe we need a technical definition of jet lag...

my advice: Leave as rested as possible. Don't count on getting any quality sleep on the airplane.
When I flew to Africa over my Christmas break from college, my sister (also a student) and I were really tired the day we left for our trip (we had just finished exams the day before) but were going to be flying overnight, so we didn't take a nap or get a decent night's sleep the night before even though we were both exhausted.
The first 8 hour plane ride, overnight, ended up being miserable, the plane was really warm and stuffy and we both only got about 2 hours of sleep. Then we were up all day and then flew overnight again. When we got to Africa the people we stayed with made fun of us for sleeping so much the first day there but we couldn't help it.(I was at the point where I couldn't stay awake).

yeah, I tend to agree with Ian mainly.. although starting a few days before is a bit severe (that's almost like trying to suffer the jet lag BEFORE you start the trip!). Generally I plan my sleep the night before travelling according to the destination time as much as possible - I don't have much trouble sleeping on planes usually, so makes sure to sleep lots if I'm arriving early in the morning at the destination (and not sleep much if I'm arriving at night!). I'm not saying it's perfect, but it does seem to help..

The way I tried it was to score some valium. I took about 4 at one go. I think I slept for 6 hours straight, woke up and did another three. I think I then slept for about another 4 maybe 5 hours. Then I did another two, then slept for a few more hours. then I woke up and did two more waking up 10 minutes later for landing. Which made me feel Jet lagged and really really hung over. bugger.

Or, anoter time I went to Sydney to meet my brother. As soon as I got to his appartment he rolled a great big spliff, it was about 8 or 9 am. I smoked the thing and fell asleep till about 6 pm and was feeling fine and dandy, no jet lag