Jet lag. How to deal with it?

I was surprised to learn recently that you can now get Melatonin tablets in the UK - supposed to be good for jet lag and sleep problems.

My daughter's 'cure' was to take me on an 11km stiff walk to see a waterfall, the day after my 35 hour flight to New Zealand. It worked. My family appear to think I am invincible!

I was fine when we got there, just stayed up but it is since I returned I just can't get my body to understand it is no longer in Vancouver.

Anagram unfortunately I cannot take them with my other meds.

It takes us about a week to get round it , but have to say it"s part and parcel. You have take the bitter with the better.

I used Melatonin some years ago which I got from the US. It made me feel really ill and I disposed of the remaining tablets. I find travelling 'west' is worse than travelling 'east'. When I arrived here (Sydney) it took well over 10 days to get over the jet lag, which was odd as it usually takes 2/3 days. I eventually got something called Restavit - a form of sleeping pill - from the pharmacist who told me to take a half; on reading the dosage, it said take 2, so I went for the middle option and took 1! Should have listened to the pharmacist as I slept all night and most of the following day!! Think on the return journey I will take half on the second leg and hope someone wakes me up at Heathrow . As Nonu says it all depends and there's really no recipy for jet lag.

I slept a little better last night but that might have been due to the party I went to! Will see tonight.

Perhaps age has something to do with it? About 10 years ago we came back from St Lucia at about 0600, had a shower and went into work and I don't remember that being a problem.

I never have any trouble when we go to the west coast of the US, but it takes me about a week to recover when we come home. The day we travel out we try to stay up as late as possible and don't really have much trouble (although we might wake up in the middle of the night feeling hungry!). I must admit it was great when we came back from New York on the Queen Mary - no jet lag at all.

The time I went to NZ by way of a week in San Francisco meant that the jet lag was shared between the two destinations - if you follow me!

Gillie sorry, couldn't do it in style like you! Annobel wish I could follow you on that trip.

It was a super trip. I was free to do 'my own thing' in SF. I may not have seen everything, but the city pass, for around 50 dollars, gave me unlimited rides on all public transport including the famous cable cars and I took full advantage. It also gave me access to museums, the aquarium of the Bay and the gallery of modern art, oh, and a boat trip round the Bay. I visited wineries and the Muir Woods redwoods too.

When flying to the UK from the USA it is usually an overnight flight. I got into the habit of having a light meal at the airport then cleaning my face and teeth before boarding. Once the seatbelt light went off I put on eye mask, ear plugs and wrapped myself in a blanket (seatbelt on top) and just "switched off". No food or drink other than the water I had brought with me or the breakfast if I wakened in time. The downside was that often the smell of the meal being served would waken me and there's not much you can do about that.
By doing this I found I could get through the next day reasonably normally and would go to bed a little earlier than usual and was only minimally affected by jet lag.
For serious long-haul I believe the theory is that it takes 1 day for every time zone crossed to acclimatise.

Melatonin can help but in small doses only. If you take a large dose you are likely to have a bad night broken with odd dreams!

Gosh AlisonMA, thats a long time to suffer. No great tips, just sympathy. I suffer really badly going out to the US yet thats supposed to be the easier journey. I get a huge headache and am very sick for a day or so afterwards. Its happened three times now - hence the cruising.
The last time I did not eat any food on the plane and was not so bad, only sick for half a day!
Just getting back into old routine when I get home helps, light meals and gentle walks in fresh air to help get to sleep at night.
Hope you are feeling better soon.

Thanks Hilda I'm fine now but it took ages.

I travel to Australia every year and found that I suffered bad jet lag after the long flight which took me about 10 days to get over. Now I break my journey in either Singapore or Hong Kong and immediately go on their time. It seems to work for me. Now I've got a problem in that my daughter has moved to Brazil so I'm traveling there next month and don't know if I'm going to have a problem with jet lag then.

Strictly speaking, it shouldn't be so bad going westward, Barbs because you are going with rather than against the sun. I found that breaking my last trip to New Zealand in San Francisco made the jet lag less severe than when I went eastward, though I was tired because I find it hard to sleep on aircraft. If I were you I'd try for a daytime flight. Brazil sounds exciting. Hope you have some fun there.

I travel to Australia every year and I can't honestly say that I suffer terribly from jetlag, I'm tired of course but just like any kind of travel. I guess I'm lucky as I'm able to sleep easily anywhere, obviously not as well as in my own bed, but still manage to get that vital rest that makes all the difference to being exhausted. Breaking up the journey could help but only if you are able to stay a minimum of 2 nights, otherwise for just one night is too much of a rush, you are better off carrying on to destination.

I don't get that eastward westward logic.
I think one thing that helps is the time of flight. Ideally fly early evening, have something to eat and then try to get some sleep at the time you normally sleep.
Otherwise airline meal times tend to sabotage.
Then when you get there, try to stay awake until bed time and try to get natural light.
I have a theory that coming back to UK from NZ in the spring or summer a darn sight easier than returning when the days are short.
But coming home, jet lag always worse than going