Why don't I suffer from Jetlag
 

It is interesting that I don't suffer from jetlag on those long international flights but my friends do. I am able to quickly accustom to the local time and meals. I know that being in my 20s is a factor but again my friends around my age have severe jetlag on the long flights.

I sleep 8 hours the night before the trip and get up early in the morning and stay up until the flight for international flights. I go right to sleep after the meal service and wakeup before breakfast. I am able to keep myself awake until a civilized bedtime at the destination. I may take a 40 minute nap if I am exhausted which is rare.

On short flights to the East Coast from California or to Hawaii I get up early in the morning and stay up the entire flight until I land. If I arrive in the morning I go right to the pool or beach and if I arrive in the evening I have dinner and go to sleep.

I can get 5-6 hours sleep in redeye flights and then in the middle of the day I take a 40 minute nap and then stayup until the local bedtime.

Overall I think jetlag is very manageable.

I think you are very fortunate and, yes, age may play a role. There are so many threads on Jet Lag that it could make your head spin. I will try to merge them in the morning. No Jet Lag excuse for me. I'm just tired.
O2K
Mod

And when I was a young man in college, I spent many an overnight working on projects or cramming for tests, and felt none the worse for wear. Now, in my mid-50's, I take weeks to adjust to the loss of a single hour when changing to daylight savings.

There are also psychological effects. When Mrs. Deubster & I go to Hawaii (which is 2 time zones farther for us, but 4 hours travel, since we have to go east an hour to Dallas before heading west), we are always so pumped up for the trip, we have no problems adjusting to Hawaii time. But the return is always a killer. Of course, west-to-east is always much harder than east-to-west, but still, returning home from a trip is always harder even if there is no time zone change.

Agree.

Going to Europe, I don't have jet lag these years. I did a few times, years ago, when we first started going, but with me the problem of dealing with different time zones seems to have been a learning experience to the back of the brain (so I assume). My "sunlight-expectations" mechanisms in the back of the brain are no longer surprised when the sun is up; also I keep sunlight on the eyelids even if I semi-nap for an hour or two once I'm there, so as to reinforce the message. (I don't sleep on planes--can't--and can go for 36 hours or so if I need to, though at home couldn't do that at all.)

The learning-to-expect-light is my theory, anyway, as to why I don't have jet lag any more, at least in going there. But we're all different, and what works for one person might not work for another.

But coming back--don't know if it's jet lag or just exhaustion, but it takes me 1-2 weeks to feel fully over the trip.

Becoming worse with time.

So far I have had no problem with jet lag. I will be 60 this year,so age must not be the only factor. I agree it is an interesting question.

I'm usually OK traveling within the US, even Pacific to Eastern time change. But going to Europe, jet lag hits me like a brick. It was the same way 10 years ago when I was in my 20s.

I always found jet lag challenging, even in my 20s, but I always needed more sleep than many people. Now in middle age I've been making monthly TATL trips for over a year and a half. I still get jet lag but my body has learned to adjust more quickly, partly because I've trained myself to get on the new schedule especially eastbound. But my sleep seems more readily disrupted in general -- I think that's a byproduct of learning to be awake on demand. It's hard on the body.

The only time I didn't experience jet lag traveling TATL was flying from the US to Scandinavia at midsummer.

I never get Jetlag, I don't do anything special other than if my flight arrives in the morning I won't go to bed until the normal bed time of whatever time zone I'm in. Makes for a long day especially when arriving in MEL at 10AM, but seems to help me adjust quickly.

On the way back to NA its always been a day flight for me, so I never have trouble getting to bed back at home. By the next day I'm usually feeling pretty good..

I started travelling when I was a little kid, and jetlag affected me just as much then as it does now. Maybe eventually I'll grow out of it. :D

Late 30's here and I rarely get jet lag. On my flights I drink a ton of water and avoid alcohol and caffeine. I find this helps a ton. If I don't drink enough water I will feel awful the next day.

I also am lucky in that I generally am able to sleep on flights

If you were a tall person, would you sit there and tell me that height issues are very manageable?

It's unfortunate that lucky people not only win the lottery, they are unpleasant enough to congratulate themselves on having won the lottery and love to come around and tell us how dumb-ace we are for not having won the lottery.

I'm glad you won the genetic lottery, Cynthia Crawford, but I'm not interested in hearing why you think I should have been able to do the same.

If I drink a lot of water, the jet lag is of course much worse, because now I have run re-deposit the water every 30 minutes instead of napping. Next question?

:rolleyes:

Flying to Australia, I don't suffer from jetlag. Now coming home, that is another story. I'm a mess. I hit the wall about 1:00 pm and can't remember the alphabet. LOL LOL Although I admit, I have more trouble just going from the west to east coast and back again than to and from a long international flight.

But then again, I'm old, and they say I've been old since I was 13.

Early 50's and never had it.

My wife is a zombie on a coast to coast flight, let alone Europe or further. :D

Just a quick poll- do you get jetlag more flying east or west?

Personally, I think most of my exhaustion while flying comes from lack of sleep on the plane. A decent nights sleep and I'm normally fine. It also helps to go for a walk in the sunshine to convince your body clock its daytime and not night.