Jet lag (UK to Vancouver/Seattle)

[janey2000]

We are currently in Nashville for a short break and the jet lag has hit us so hard this time! We went to bed about 8pm and woke half way though the night then could barely get through the first day. We are still feeling super sleepy at 7pm 😖 So I’m panicking a bit about our summer trip to Vancouver and how to cope when we arrive at midday. Our daughter is 10 and an awfully light sleeper at the best of times 😂 Any advice or tips gratefully recieved. Thanks

[Omega1]

We suffer the effects of jet lag quite badly travelling east and west. In the last few years we have had some improvement by ‘forcing’ a night’s sleep by taking Nytol (or similar). The aim is to avoid being wide awake in the early hours and getting a good eight hours continuous sleep. It’s not perfect but seems to minimise the worst effects of jet lag for us.
Arriving at your destination in the morning is a problem and to us it’s just will power of trying to get through to 9pm without having a nap.

[Alidoll]

Try and set your watches to Vancouver time as soon as you get on the plane. That way you won’t get as confused when you look at the time (watch saying it’s night time when it’s lunchtime where you’ve arrived). Once there it’s a case of trying to keep awake in the afternoon -go for a walk, hit a cafe so there’s no temptation to have a little lie down. Go for a meal about 6pm so you’re finished by about 7:30 then back to the hotel and an early night.

I’ve travelled all the way round the world (Fromm Scotland) both east and west and only suffered bad jet lag once (travelling to Singapore - though that might have been the temperature differential from 10c to 30c!). I’m also a light sleeper if that helps.

[Disney_time]

We go to Vancouver more or less every year, arriving around 7pm local time, 3am for us. We have a 2.5 hr transfer to Whistler and doze the whole way. Sometimes the boys buy a burger or something at the airport to eat on the transfer, but we dont bother with food after the flight. We go straight to bed on arrival and sleep through to 6am local time. After that we are actually fine for the whole holiday (apart from needing to go to bed at 9pm every night, but we are not nightlife lovers anyway.j

On the way back the flight is at 9pm and we try to eat before boarding and sleep asap on the flight. The prob comes as you get back to the UK in the late afternoon and we usually have difficulty sleeping that night and for a few nights afterwards.

We use BA flights. I believe the air Canada flights are 3 hrs earlier on both outbound and return which might help some folk.

[janey2000]

We are fine on return to uk (dont sleep on the plane either!) but arrive Vancouver midday, long time to stay awake when it feels like bedtime! Should we nap for couple of hours on arrival then power through till reasonable bedtime?

[Omega1]

Originally Posted by janey2000

We are fine on return to uk (dont sleep on the plane either!) but arrive Vancouver midday, long time to stay awake when it feels like bedtime! Should we nap for couple of hours on arrival then power through till reasonable bedtime?

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We find napping a bad idea as it makes it all the more difficult to get to sleep later - but that’s just us!

[parisdisneyfan]

Originally Posted by Disney_time

We go to Vancouver more or less every year, arriving around 7pm local time, 3am for us. We have a 2.5 hr transfer to Whistler and doze the whole way. Sometimes the boys buy a burger or something at the airport to eat on the transfer, but we dont bother with food after the flight. We go straight to bed on arrival and sleep through to 6am local time. After that we are actually fine for the whole holiday (apart from needing to go to bed at 9pm every night, but we are not nightlife lovers anyway.j

On the way back the flight is at 9pm and we try to eat before boarding and sleep asap on the flight. The prob comes as you get back to the UK in the late afternoon and we usually have difficulty sleeping that night and for a few nights afterwards.

We use BA flights. I believe the air Canada flights are 3 hrs earlier on both outbound and return which might help some folk.

See more...

We did AC flights last summer and we found them ok both ways. Left the UK lunchtime and arrived mid afternoon in Calgary, we were fine for the drive to Banff and then tea and early bed. On the way home we just tried to go to sleep -6pm ish. We arrived home lunchtime and got lunch then drive home and just kept going until we had an early night.
We are trying the BA flights in May and have booked an airport hotel as we land about 8pm but reckon it would be stupid to try and drive up to Banff that night so we are making jetlag work for us by just getting up early the first day! I think you have just got to try and keep going or sleep to set your body clock to where you are x