Ways to avoid jetlag on 9 hour flight?

When I went to Japan, I'd land at 9am local time, which was 1am body time. So I was already "up late", having done two flights starting at 10am - on which I have no chance of sleeping - and then had a whole day ahead of me. I went 4 times, and all of them I was asleep by 7pm on that first day. You feel pretty grim for the first day or so but you quickly recover after that once you're acting in cycle with the local times, and most importantly, the daylight cycle there.
 
Melatonin helps for me, but I fly to NZ which is proper long haul.

I had jet lag for like 3 days when i went to NZ, it was horrible, but then, i couldn't sleep at all on the plane so was up for almost 2 days straight. I've got it to look forward to again in January.

Flying back i didn't suffer though.
 
Best tip is to fly due south, that way your on the same time zone and don't get any jet lag.

Sleeping on flights i really struggle with too, only time i've properly managed it either involve red wine and melatonin (get it in the US, don't sell it over here) or staying up partying all night the night before :D Slept the whole way back from Vegas to London after a weeks conference and a weekend in Vegas...
 
Ways to avoid jetlag on 9 hour flight?

Do not eat or drink alcohol completely even if that is 24hours. (due to hours changes).
Water only, go to bed when you feel up to it even middle of the day.

And travel business class, not cattle class if possible.
 
Never could get over it really. The three tours to the Falklands where bad enough but almost 24 hours in a Hercules coming back from the Gulf was much worse.
 
go to bed when you feel up to it even middle of the day.
No no no. Just no.

People that complain about jetlag are the ones that fly west and are "so tired" they fall asleep at 4pm, wake at 3am and wonder why their body clock is screwed up for 3 days. As long as you find something moderately active to do (i.e. go for a walk) on the day of arrival then it's surprisingly easy to stay up for very long periods of time. If it's 4pm in the afternoon and light outside, you should be able to stay awake!

Going the other way is obviously harder, but the same applies.

Going all the way to NZ/Aus is tough, but the same applies. I flew to Brisbane with my girlfriend over Christmas, we landed at 6am and managed to stay awake until 7-8pm. You know what, besides getting an extra-harsh post-lunch slump for the first few days, we were basically fine.
 
The most important thing is to reset your body clock, go to sleep when they sleep, and I've heard it's really important to eat at the correct times.
 
I can't say I have a major problem flying east or west. I go to Hong Kong quite often and it's a 13 hour flight. I normally do a 6pm take off and lands at 2pm local time. I get about 3 to 4 hours sleep and I can power through the 7 hours or so after I landed before going to bed around 10pm then I am perfectly wide awake after a 10 or so hours sleep by morning.

Coming back, I normally get a later flight like 11pm and land in the morning at around 5am. I do the same thing, and when I get home I just stay awake and power through.

When I went to the states a few months ago I left the UK around 2pm and got to my hotel room at midnight (after a connection light in Chicago), the most difficult bit was sitting at O'Hare between 8pm to 10pm waiting for my connection as I was falling asleep because my body clock was in UK time but just power through that, coffee and food, got to my room at 12 and went to bed and had a great night sleep.

So my advice is…man up, when you land, go to bed in local time, not what your body want you to do.
 
Never understood the concept of jet lag, never had it, flown all over the world.

Simply drink some energy drinks when you arrive, or drink some hot chocolate if you need to sleep. Your body will adjust.

People flying to Spain and coming home saying 'oh, terrible jet lag' are just absolute idiots.

9 hours by the way is not enough time to suffer from jet lag even if it is a thing. I have flown to India multiple times and it's around 9.5 hours. Each time arriving/leaving different times. I've arrived mid afternoon, crack of dawn, late at night. Always adjusted within an hour and been a bit awake/tired more than I should but being an adult and able to put your head on a pillow and sleep or to grab a coffee and continue on your day is more than possible.

Silly thread is silly. Man up.

Don't blame laziness on jet lag.
 
Never understood the concept of jet lag, never had it, flown all over the world.

Simply drink some energy drinks when you arrive, or drink some hot chocolate if you need to sleep. Your body will adjust.

People flying to Spain and coming home saying 'oh, terrible jet lag' are just absolute idiots.

9 hours by the way is not enough time to suffer from jet lag even if it is a thing. I have flown to India multiple times and it's around 9.5 hours. Each time arriving/leaving different times. I've arrived mid afternoon, crack of dawn, late at night. Always adjusted within an hour and been a bit awake/tired more than I should but being an adult and able to put your head on a pillow and sleep or to grab a coffee and continue on your day is more than possible.

Silly thread is silly. Man up.

Don't blame laziness on jet lag.

It's alright everyone, agnes hasn't had jet lag so it doesn't exist. :p
 
Never understood the concept of jet lag, never had it, flown all over the world.

Simply drink some energy drinks when you arrive, or drink some hot chocolate if you need to sleep. Your body will adjust.

People flying to Spain and coming home saying 'oh, terrible jet lag' are just absolute idiots.

9 hours by the way is not enough time to suffer from jet lag even if it is a thing. I have flown to India multiple times and it's around 9.5 hours. Each time arriving/leaving different times. I've arrived mid afternoon, crack of dawn, late at night. Always adjusted within an hour and been a bit awake/tired more than I should but being an adult and able to put your head on a pillow and sleep or to grab a coffee and continue on your day is more than possible.

Silly thread is silly. Man up.

Don't blame laziness on jet lag.


It's not the length of the flight that causes jet lag, it's the change of timezones and therefore the interruption to the body's natural rhythms. If you don't feel it, bully for you, but most other people do feel it.

I read a couple of studies that reckon 6-9 timezones east is the worst "window" for jet lag.



Couple of sentences from Wiki:

The speed at which the body adjusts to the new schedule depends on the individual as well as the direction of travel; some people may require several days to adjust to a new time zone, while others experience little disruption

Travelling east causes more problems than travelling west because the body clock has to be advanced, which is more difficult for the majority of humans than delaying it. Most people have an endogenous circadian rhythm that is longer than 24 hours, so lengthening a day is less troublesome than shortening it. Equally important, the necessary exposure to light to realign the body clock does not tie in with the day/night cycle at the destination.[8]

Travelling east by six to nine time zones causes the biggest problems, as it is desirable to avoid light in the mornings.
 
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Never understood the concept of jet lag, never had it, flown all over the world.

Simply drink some energy drinks when you arrive, or drink some hot chocolate if you need to sleep. Your body will adjust.

People flying to Spain and coming home saying 'oh, terrible jet lag' are just absolute idiots.

9 hours by the way is not enough time to suffer from jet lag even if it is a thing. I have flown to India multiple times and it's around 9.5 hours. Each time arriving/leaving different times. I've arrived mid afternoon, crack of dawn, late at night. Always adjusted within an hour and been a bit awake/tired more than I should but being an adult and able to put your head on a pillow and sleep or to grab a coffee and continue on your day is more than possible.

Silly thread is silly. Man up.

Don't blame laziness on jet lag.
You know it's the time zones and not the length, right? :p

Edit: beaten
 
It's not the length of the flight that causes jet lag, it's the change of timezones and therefore the interruption to the body's natural rhythms. If you don't feel it, bully for you, but most other people do feel it.

I read a couple of studies that reckon 6-9 timezones east is the worst "window" for jet lag.



Couple of sentences from Wiki:

On the way back from the states I was a little worried because my flight was at night, and I land in the morning and then faced with a 4 hours drive home. Having already been up a full day before the flight I was faced with the possibility of having to drive home after been up for 24 hours...not good. Luckily I managed to get 6 hours sleep and woke up quite fresh from it. Didn't notice any jet lag at all that day or the next.
 
Sleep and don't get drunk. Two glasses of wine max is fine. I do this kind of trip (or longer) frequently and this is my way of getting through it.
 
I imagine everyone will have their own way of dealing with it. I took diazepam on my flight from Dubai to Brisbane and it had absolutely no effect on me, i was still wide awake the whole flight, even after being up over 24 hours before taking off. I was awake all the way to Auckland, then as soon as i got in my wifes' parent's car, i just wanted to sleep, but they wanted to show us around wedding venues they had looked at on our way to their place. I just wanted a bed, it took me about 4 days to get over the jet lag. Never had any on the way back though.

anyway, here's a question i thought of before...

They say you feel less jet lag flying east to west, however, would that be the case if you flew to NZ east to west rather than west to east, assuming total travelling time was ~ 28 to 30 hours? I'd be inclined to say you'd still be jetlagged, however, flying west to east, you'd see 2 nights whereas, east to west, you might not even see night depending on your flight time.
 
Jetlag per se is not the problem going east to west, it's avoiding the temptation of turning in at 8 or 9pm then finding you're wide awake at 3am. That worked to our advantage once in the States where we had a 500 mile drive planned the day after arrival. On the road by 6am (alleluia for Dennys and 24hr service) and the resulting long day reset any slightly out of whack body clock.

Coming back from the USA, must admit I've rarely slept more than a couple of hours on a night flight across the Pond. Getting home from the airport can be a challenge especially if driving but once home, don't go to bed if you can avoid it. Burn the candle, take meals at your normal time, perhaps a walk to the shops to buy essentials and go to bed at or near your normal time.

I work night shift some weeks which tends to induce a kind of mini-jetlag anyway, when you start and generally are up 24 hours before going back to bed and when you finish, with maybe 3 - 4 hours sleep in the morning followed by a return to normal routine in the evening. For that reason I probably suffer less from timezone movement than others might.
 
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