V-Flyer

We are due to travel to LAS in a few months for my wifes 40th, Upper of course ii). Has anyone any tips on how to avoid jet lag and get into local time quickly.We are only there for four nights and the last time we went to Vegas we were up at around 4am for the the first few days!!

Thanks,

danny

I am in no way as experienced as most with jet lag, but the best thing to do is as soon as you get on the plane go with their time, eg. if you took off at 10am and they were what 6 hours behind? (I don't know the time difference!) say to yourself that it's 5am and just go along with whatever time it is when you get there however tired you are!

I really suffer with jet lag, especially when flying to Oz and have tried almost everything. For American trips I find eating and dozing wherever possible in line with local time on the day of travel is sound advice and taking Melatonin (you can get it on the internet but it doesn't work for everyone and read the instructions as there are contraindications) has helped in the past.

If I arrive early I try to keep busy and/or if I suddenly "hit the wall" the next day its important to just work through it.

Good luck, I am sure you will have a fabulous time.

If you arrive on the VS7 it will be mid afternoon.

It will probbaly take a couple of hours to get to hotel, check-in get to room and unpack and freshen up etc. Then go for a wander round and have a light dinner etc before bed.

The VS23 gets in about 7.00 PM so taking the above into account it will be getting close to 'normal' bedtime too so maybe just a light snack / dinner.

I find it best to treat the outbound as a 'long day' and go to bed at my normal(ish) time and then get a good nights sleep then wake up at normal time the next day.

I have found that if I have a nap on arrival then that really messes up my sleep for that night so try not to !

Oh and hope you and Mrs Danny have a good flight and holiday

I really suffer with jet lag, especially when flying to Oz and have tried almost everything. For American trips I find eating and dozing wherever possible in line with local time on the day of travel is sound advice and taking Melatonin (you can get it on the internet but it doesn't work for everyone and read the instructions as there are contraindications) has helped in the past.

Jacki and all,
Personal experience - Melantonin is available on an NHS prescription, and although it is usually started by a Hospital specialist, it can be prescribed by a GP. (It is used within my family on a regular basis.)

It works by helping the brain to switch off naturally rather than being a chemical cosh like temazepam.

M

Melatonin is licensed in the UK but only for those over 55 years old and only as a general "sleeping tablet" and not specifically for jet lag. Thus your chances of getting it from a GP depend on their degree of bravery with off licence medication. It does seem to work though according to Cochrane (who are pretty reliable judges of evidence)http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab001520.html

There was an interesting suggestion on a BBC program with Robert Winston last year that avoiding eating on the flight helps, although you would be rather hungry so that may not be any better. Can't find much more on this on a quick Googling though.

tontybear wrote:If you arrive on the VS7 it will be mid afternoon.

It will probbaly take a couple of hours to get to hotel, check-in get to room and unpack and freshen up etc. Then go for a wander round and have a light dinner etc before bed.

The VS23 gets in about 7.00 PM so taking the above into account it will be getting close to 'normal' bedtime too so maybe just a light snack / dinner.

I find it best to treat the outbound as a 'long day' and go to bed at my normal(ish) time and then get a good nights sleep then wake up at normal time the next day.

I have found that if I have a nap on arrival then that really messes up my sleep for that night so try not to !

Oh and hope you and Mrs Danny have a good flight and holiday

Tonty, they are going to LAS not LAX - although your advice still holds up.

Your internal time clock is reset by light levels.
So the normal advice is to spend plenty of the new day time in daylight at the new location - bit of a problem for LAS!

The other way is to simply ignore the time difference - why does it matter in LAS? There seems to be little you cannot do at 4am

There was an interesting paper in the New England Journal of Medicine a few months back on Jet Lag. See: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp0909838

Jet Lag, Robert L. Sack, M.D.
N Engl J Med 2010; 362:440-447, February 4, 2010

This may not be of any help, as you might not be able to access it, but you should at least be able to see the graphic explaining how light and melatonin can reset the circadian clock.

I really struggle flying East, but West have little problem - generally I arrive (to SFO) mid-afternoon - I then get to the hotel, unpack, and go for some exercise - in my case I go for about an hours run out in the fresh air.

Then after a relatively early dinner and a quick trip to a bar somewhere it is 10pm, and I turn in. I find the crucial thing is that in the morning you do not get up at 4am when you wake up, but just lie in bed dozing until 7am, and then get up and get out.

I do however use melatonin for the first 3 nights - I think it works for me ...

If anyone has any tips on flying East - please let me know - as it takes me well over a week to get sorted

Bill S wrote:The other way is to simply ignore the time difference - why does it matter in LAS? There seems to be little you cannot do at 4am

exactly...if I am awake at 4am, I normally just wander downstairs to the casino, plenty of people about even at that time. I go to Vegas every couple of months for a long weekend.

I flew to Sydney for 3 days a few weeks back, didnt bother me at all. Probably got back before jetlag could kick in...lol

I always find I wake up on Uk time when i go to the US - but taking melatonin does seem to help me avoid that - and also helps me sleep when I get home....

I've tried working through the tired wall when i get to the US - I just can't do it though - anyone got any tips for that?

Thanks for all your replies guys,it's really apreciated. Is the melatonin off the internet safe?

Danny

Ok hold up, stop what your doing, do not bother ordering Melatonin on the internet.

Where in Vegas are you staying ?

There are a number of walgreens stores up and down the strip where you can buy Melatonin straight from the vitamin section without going through the internet stupidity., The price of the top off my head is $6.99 for 240 of them.

The trip to Vegas and any west coast trip is on your first day in, just stay up as late as you can, being 8 hours behind 4pm here is midnight UK time so a little bit of a nap on the flight over may help.

Don't book any shows for your first night, just go for a stroll along the strip and take in the sights, stop at a walgreens and grab your sleeping aids.

BTW, if you have never taken them, in some people they do work quickly...very quickly, so best to wait till you are in your room before popping one.

Thanks Scrooge, We are staying at the Platinum Hotel and Spa, it's rated number three on tripadvisor and looks really good. We have stayed at the bigger hotels before and wanted something a bit more relaxed and not a thirty minute walk to your room through the casino

Danny

Danny

We will be going back again in December and are actually looking forward to getting up early and driving around town. At 4am there is nothing on the road and we can take our time viewing the lights and sights listening to Sunny 106.5 and their non stop Christmas tunes.

If I stayed in bed it would give me a headache, so should we get tired during the day, we pop back for a nap.

Personally I avoid medication if alternatives exist.

Enjoy

Jeremy

Hi
Having been to Vegas a few times, we find it best to have a light bite of proper food and a glass of something , then go to bed for a couple of hours, get up about 22:00. Then go out and do the Vegas thing.
This gets your clock on Vegas time.
Hope you have a great time.

My body clock is that messed up that it never knows what time zone it's in! I generally try to keep myself awake until late into the evening and then go to bed. I usually manage then to get a good nights sleep and then the next morning I am fine. I have never taken a sleeping tablet or melatonin in my life.

Well I was going to post that the Platinum is a toilet, but it looks like it got new management that has improved things greatly.

There is also a great bar/restaurant next door called Ellis Island, the food is very good and the micro brewery is good as well.

Oh, the closest Walgreens is at 2882 S. Maryland Pkwy, if your driving from LAS, take the north exit (not the tunnel to the 215), take Swenson to Flamingo, turn right and it will be on your left hand side a couple of minutes down the road.

I fly 300k a year and have never been able to figure out why sometimes I adjust immediately and sometimes it takes days (just in time for your return !).
However I have a couple of tips that work. Try and take overnight flights and when East (say LHR-HKG) force yourself to wake up about lunchtime (destination time).
Going West eat a big meal when you board and have a few drinks then go to sleep for as long as you can. If you got LHR-SFO the time change is 8 hours so if you get 5-6 hours sleep that helps a lot when you arrive.

My oddest tip - and it really works for me when going to USA - if you wake up at 5 or 6am get up, go and have a big breakfast and then go back to bed for a few hours. After a big breakfast I often drop off until 9am then the day is more bearable.
Don't try and gget up at 5am and think you will keep going until supper time !

I have to agree,there are some routes that just kill me, for some reason the hop over to Hawaii just knocks the stuffing out of me, it's only a 3 hour time difference but it is far worse than the 8 hour difference to/from London.