Jet Lag.

I always have problems going as it takes me about 4 days to stop waking up from 5am to 7am..I try to stay up as late as possible but still find myself waking up at 5am. Last year I fought it and got up about 6ish..but on the 3rd day everything starts to kick in the normal hours. I would say for the first two days not to push it and relax and enjoy the private pool and then on the 3rd or 4th day run straight for the parks and have a great time!

Going out will not be a problem just try to stay up a little while by maybe going for groceries or something, otherwise you will wake up at very early o'clock on your first morning in Florida.

Coming back to UK, try to get a good sleep on the plane, drink plenty of water, jet lagged and being dehydrated are not a good mix! Depending on how far away your home is from the airport, if you are quite close and arrive home early to mid morning then have a snooze (during the morning not afternoon) as opposed to a deep sleep, this will be enough to get you through the day and then have an early night. Try to eat at Uk times as soon as possible. If you live a bit further away from the airport then try to keep yourself awake, the worst thing to do is fall into a deep sleep in the middle of the afternoon, you'll never get back into UK time. A 20 minute cat nap in the afternoon, just to rest your eyes will get you through!!!

When you get home, have a nice shower, not a long soak in the bath, do your laundry, the grocery shopping, admire all of your purchases, drop films off to be deveolped etc anything to keep yourself busy and awake, you will feel worse the minute you sit down!!!!!

Hope this helps, it is the way I have coped with years of working on an aircraft!!!!!

Fully agree with Camilla & Neil, We usually arrive home about 8am, we then go to bed but set the alarm for noon, we then shop, unpack etc. and go to bed at the normal time. We tried staying up but that nearly ended in someone getting killed as we were so tired and tempers got very frayed. If you go to bed and stay there until you wake it will be tea time and you will never get back into a routine.

I am definately going to melatonin the boys and ourselves for the flight home. Hopefully the excitement of their hols will keep them going on the way out. Thanks for the advice. I have re read the thread as mentioned earlier.

I don't suffer from jet lag badly as I drink as much as I can when I get home, I do mean water no coffee. It's being dehydrated that causes the jet lag and thats because of the air con on the plane and the fact that you are trying to sleep on the plane so therefore not much time to drink the water.

Hope this helps. Cheers to a great holiday!!

All the best

I will have to get some Melatonin on my next visit, this is the first I have heard of it. The kids seem to bounce back when we come home, Hubby doesn't have too much of a problem with it but I felt awful for about a week after we returned. [|)]

We never suffer going to Florida (apart from getting up at 3-4am for the first few days)but coming home is awful. We have tried going to bed when we get home for a couple of hours and then going to bed at our normal time in the evening, we have tried staying up as long as possible then having an early night, but the only thing that made any difference was the Melatonin.
We took it for the flight home and for 2-3 nights after we got home when we went in February and I really noticed the difference. We normally fly on a Friday so that we arrive home on the Saturday and have Sunday to recover before we go back to work but last time we flew on a Saturday arrived back on the Sunday and went back to work on the Monday without any problems.

A couple of daft questions -

Melatonin - is that what you ask for or is it branded up under an over the counter name?

Where available - usual pharmacies presumably? - is it on the shelves or do you need to ask at the dispensing counter?

Sounds like it is definitely worth a go....(but bet it doesn't stop you feeling hungry at odd times when you are home.....or is that just me with a snack-attack!)


Andy

Andy,Melatonin is available at Walmart,Walgreens all the sort of places that you get over the counter medicines

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Mach 2
I spent years working on Concorde which meant doing 2 trips to New York a week, the best way to avoid jet lag is as soon as you get on the plane change your watch to the local time of your destination and do things at the times you should.

It is always worse coming east though and I often had a 2 am bed time after a trip but the more you do the more your body copes[msnsmile2]
[/quote]

Yes I agree with Lucy about setting your watch to US tima as soon as on the plane. Also drink plenty of water throughout the flight. Try to stay up as long as possible, although, I am always awake about 4am the next morning so we use that to do all our unpacking.[msnwink]

Steve & Dawn