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Of course it depends... (Score:3)

byHussman32 ( 751772 ) on Monday June 23, 2014 @06:31PM (#47301625) If I travel from the West Coast (my home) to the East Coast (where many of my customers work) each week for a month, I'm toast. If I travel to Europe, I'm toast for three days afterwards. If I travel to Asia, I'm toast for four days.
If I travel to the East Coast once, I'm tired the next day. Share twitter facebook

Re: (Score:2)

by_merlin ( 160982 ) Three hours' difference is the worst for me. One hour I can absorb and just keep going, more than five hours is a clean break so my body clock "resets" itself. But in between I just can't deal with it - if I go west (e.g. Sydney to HK) I'll want to go to sleep before work finishes for the day, and if I go east (e.g. HK to Sydney) I can't wake up in the morning.

Re: (Score:3)

bywooferhound ( 546132 ) Three hours' difference is the worst for me. One hour I can absorb and just keep going One hour is like Daylight Savings Time changes

Re: (Score:3)

bypr0fessor ( 1940368 ) I live at close to sea level even if I am not changing time zones any altitude over 700 meters can cause me to have altitude sickness, Denver is about 1600 meters and every time I go it's like having a bad case of the flu.

Re: (Score:1)

byAnonymous Coward Well, nowadays there's always the cannabis cure...

yep 3 hours (Score:2)

byglobaljustin ( 574257 ) same here 0-3 hours isnt enough to get outside my normal variation 3-6 hours is the worst i lived in Korea for a year and they are 12hrs flipped...almost exact opposite of the US...that was ok at first but it always seemed like my body was primed to return to the USA schedule at the drop of a hat

...on direction and activity level (Score:2)

byRoger W Moore ( 538166 ) For me jet lag is worse going from Canada to Europe and worse if I have meetings in dark rooms. CERN has several basement meeting rooms that are often used for meetings by the LHC experiments. If I get a meeting in there the morning of the first day I arrive then jet lag is murder whereas if I can be out and about on the site doing things for a day or two things go a lot better. The other way I managed to avoid all jet lag was to volunteer for night shifts in the control room. Coming off shift at 8am is m

Re: (Score:2)

byBCW2 ( 168187 ) Agreed, the times I've traveled to Europe, I have taken 2 - 3 days to recover. From Europe to the US is always worse. When I go from the East coast to the Mountain time zone and back, it doesn't matter.

Re: (Score:2)

bySkater ( 41976 ) I recently flew from the east coast of the US to Austria, a time change of 6 hours. I didn't sleep well on the plane over, got perhaps an hour on the first flight, followed by another half hour or 45 minutes on the second flight (woke up just in time to get food). Then my luggage didn't make it in, so I was awake until midnight Vienna time waiting for it - so I think aside from those naps I was awake about 36 hours straight. That was pretty rough - I've never pulled an all-nighter - but the next few days

Re: (Score:1)

bylaie_techie ( 883464 ) It depends on the total travel time, time zone difference, and whether going east or west. I have almost no problems traveling between Utah and Hawaii (3 or 4 hour difference), but it took the better part of a week to adjust when flying from Sao Paulo to Honolulu (more than 28 hours traveling, 8 hours time zone difference). It took three days getting used to Sao Paulo when I flew there from Utah the first time (20 hours travel; 5 hour time zone difference), but only one day the second time (3 hour time zone

Re: (Score:2)

byjlechem ( 613317 ) I can fly anywhere in the US with no issues, east to west coast. However I've gone to Japan and have been toasted for 4 days. Travelling to Europe I'm good after a day or so.

Re: (Score:2)

bymaliqua ( 1316471 ) it all depends on the time of my flights if its a flight that i can pretend is night time sleep even if i get little/poor sleep i seem to adjust better

Re: (Score:2)

bypraxis ( 19962 ) If I travel from the West Coast (my home) to the East Coast (where many of my customers work) each week for a month, I'm toast. Also somehow violating time! If you could teach others to get a month of travel each week you make a hefty bit of coin.

Re: (Score:2)

byAereus ( 1042228 ) To me, it depends on when you schedule the flights. IE: O'hare Narita you would think would be really bad, but not necessarily. Sleep from like 12am-3am JST, then take out a morning flight, say 10am. You spend the first 2 hours eating then it's shutters closed (sleep time). Wake up after 8 hours, eat the next meal in those 2 hours and you land at like 10-11am US local time. I had virtually no jet-lag using that method on the flight back.

How can I tell? (Score:4, Insightful)

byTWX ( 665546 ) on Monday June 23, 2014 @06:52PM (#47301831) My circadian rhythm is so screwed from decades of staring at glowing things three feet in front of my face that I'm messed up just staying home, let alone when travelling... Share twitter facebook

Re: (Score:2)

byPolygamousRanchKid ( 1290638 ) staring at glowing things three feet in front of my face In the plane, with those new "Unfeasibly Shrinking Seat Sizes", you are staring at things three inches in front of your face. That's what probably messes you up. I don't suffer from jet lag, but I suffer from people suffering from jet lag. They are usually cranky, irritable and onery in meetings, if they arrive directly off a flight from LA to Frankfurt; sleepless after sitting next to "The Screaming Three Headed Baby Kerberos from Hell". Actually, I do feel sorry for them, when I see a guy pour a cup of

Re: (Score:2)

byAmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * I've noticed JAL give you an extra 10cm of leg room in economy class over the standard amount. It makes a huge difference, and their prices are the same as the competition's. You don't seem to lose out in other ways either, except perhaps that they serve KFC as the in-flight meal sometimes.

Re: (Score:2)

byTheRaven64 ( 641858 ) If you've been flying enough (25K miles in a year), United gives free upgrades to economy plus, which has a bit more leg room. Not much, but for me it's the difference between almost enough and enough...

Re: (Score:2)

byAereus ( 1042228 ) That's what noise-cancelling headphones are for. I used those and put on some calm music and I couldn't even hear the baby screaming 3 rows up from me before I went to bed.

Re: (Score:2)

bybidule ( 173941 ) You are not alone. My mind is always a few TZ away from my body.

FOF (Score:2)

byjohnsnails ( 1715452 ) I find it funny how often I tend to pick the most picked option in these polls. Do other /. folk have a slight fear of flying like me?

Re:FOF (Score:5, Insightful)

bySteve Furlong ( 9087 ) on Monday June 23, 2014 @07:20PM (#47302029) Homepage I have no fear of flying, but I have no tolerance for petit bullies performing security theater. Parent Share twitter facebook

Re: (Score:2)

byarth1 ( 260657 ) Indeed. I used to go on plane trips a lot, but after 9/11, i have only taken a plane once. It was so traumatic that I refuse to put myself through that again. I cannot understand people who are willing to put themselves through being humiliated and treated as terrorist suspects and only grudgingly being allowed on a plane. The next trip to Europe, I'm going by boat. A week and a half at sea will give me time to write and relax. I shan't put up with the Terminal Sadists of America.

Re: (Score:2)

bydltaylor ( 7510 ) Doesn't take that long, and TSA, although present, isn't nearly as obnoxious. QM2 takes 7 days between Southampton and New York. A freighter can do it in 10, and some of them take passengers. I'm looking for one that will also carry my motorcycle in ridable condition, so I can use it on a European tour, rather than have to rent the ubiquitous BMW (yes, I asked Cunard for the same accommodation, but it's not available).

Re: (Score:2)

byarth1 ( 260657 ) You can rent a motorcycle too. Granted, it might be a BMW :) I'm thinking about the freighter route, because it's going to be more peaceful than a passenger boat full of bored tourists with too much money.

Re: (Score:2)

byjeffy210 ( 214759 ) Nice try being hipster there. Honestly the issue with the TSA is quite overblown as of late (and even from years past). You are hearing about the extreme edge cases that affect 0.1% of passengers. Look at the number of people that get harassed while driving. Do you still drive? I'm hispanic, and have been traveling regularly since 2001 and have not had any issues. I had 1 pat down and that was quick and they did not "grab my junk". As long as you're not acting overly suspicious or nervous they'll be fine. M

Re: (Score:1)

byAnonymous Coward lifelong and irrevokable membership in this tiny VIP group of yours may change your perception slightly.

Re: (Score:2)

byTheRaven64 ( 641858 ) Same. For some reason, my hair always triggers the security scanners so I always get someone checking I don't have a concealed... something... in my hair. The biggest irritation flying to the USA is not the TSA, it's immigration. Most airports put on a fraction of the immigration officials that they need and so the queues are huge and move slowly. My most recent trip was a pleasant surprise, as people who have entered on an ESTA before were put in the residents line at Chicago O'Hare, where it's mostly ●

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Re: (Score:2)

bytechno-vampire ( 666512 ) I don't have any FOF, but I'm retired and even when I was working, I never had a job that required that kind of travel. The last time I flew was back in 2010, to a convention on The Other Coast and back. I honestly don't remember if I had any jet lag in either direction, but when I was going east, it was an overnight flight, which may have helped because I manged to sleep, off and on.

Re: (Score:3)

bydltaylor ( 7510 ) Enjoy flying in small planes and 'copters. Despise the airlines and refuse to deal with TSA.

Re: (Score:2)

byWillKemp ( 1338605 ) Yeah, i wouldn't have flown nearly as much as i have if i lived in the US. I don't know why you people put up with it really.

Re: (Score:2)

byaccount_deleted ( 4530225 ) Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re: (Score:2)

byMBGMorden ( 803437 ) Highly doubtful. The commercial aviation industry is built upon pilots building up and and experience in smaller private aircraft. If you lose private General Aviation you lose your pool of upcoming pilots.

Re: (Score:2)

byDexterIsADog ( 2954149 ) Holy cow, take your meds - that's a suggestion, not a government order from a jack booted thug who just alighted from a black helicopter. Claiming crazy shit like that just increases the noise, and distracts from the current *actual* abuses of liberty.

Re: (Score:3)

byArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) Fear of flying, never needed to fly anywhere in my life, too expensive, never going to fly to the USA from Canada either anyway. Pick any four.

Re: (Score:1)

bymtthwbrnd ( 1608651 ) "I tend to pick the most picked option in these polls" Sounds reasonable!

Re: (Score:1)

byjohnsnails ( 1715452 ) Fair call. But if the site had a wider audience, i probably wouldn't. I dont really consider myself a nerd as such but do seem to go with the most popular option on polls on this site.

Re: (Score:2)

byEphemeriis ( 315124 ) Do other /. folk have a slight fear of flying like me? I don't fear flying... In fact, I used to thoroughly enjoy it back in the '80s/'90s... But flying isn't nearly as fun/humane as it used to be. And the additional security theater is annoying. These days it just isn't worth the hassle. If I have to go somewhere, I'll drive. It certainly makes for longer travel times... But it's a far more enjoyable experience, so I don't mind.

Re: (Score:2)

byistartedi ( 132515 ) I have no FOF; but my inner ears are such that certain types of motion can induce panic attacks. This includes boats, high-rise elevators, and as I've gotten older it unfortunately also includes being a passenger in a car on the freeway--but not stop-n-go or windy country roads. People have a devil of a time getting it through their heads that I DON'T have FOF. It's apparently a problem with my brain not being able to process subtle signals from my vestibular system, or with that system sending faulty sign

I dont get Jet Lag (Score:2)

bymjwx ( 966435 ) A flight from Perth, Western Australia (+8 GMT) to Los Angeles, California (-8 GMT) and no ill effects. But I dont sleep on planes, no matter how tired I am. So I simply powered on through the flight completely awake (the SYD to LA leg saw both sunset and daybreak) and kept going until 9 PM where I went to sleep with the aid of a few beers. Woke up around 9 AM completely adjusted to my new time zone. Nothing on the flight back either.

Re: I dont get Jet Lag (Score:2)

bynosfucious ( 157958 ) Worst flight ever: red eye LA to Miami nearly killed me. Perth to Melbourne, a similar distance no problem. Probably just the lack of red eye. I fly lots and the only other one as bad is Europe (Zurich) to Johannesburg. Overnight but same time zone. Got pretty cranky near the end of Dubai Melbourne too (17 hours after a quick 6 jaunt - via Asia is much better)

I never flew that far, but my king ant... (Score:1)

byantdude ( 79039 ) ... said he doesn't. I don't know if I will believe him since he can be tired and in a bad mood after long distance travel trips. :/

Melatonin (Score:2)

bySemperUbi ( 673908 ) works for me - on the flight east, one hour before when bedtime will be in the new time zone. Then the next night, another an hour before bedtime.

Not really. (Score:2)

byjtownatpunk.net ( 245670 ) Time and I have a pretty open relationship. We get together occasionally but generally each do our own things.

I can't afford jet travel... (Score:1)

byCirclotron ( 764156 ) ...so I just have to wait for daylight savings time to begin and end. Thats as close as I can get to jet lag.

Sunshine is the Cure (Score:2)

byDERoss ( 1919496 ) Exposing your skin (arms and face are sufficient) to sunlight is supposed to reset your body's clock when you travel. Even with such exposure (including on my bald scalp), I suffer the equivalent of jet lag when we change our clocks between standard and daylight-savings time (summer time for those outside the U.S.). It sometimes takes me 2-3 days to adjust to a 1-hour change.

Re: (Score:2)

byJakartaDean ( 834076 ) I was waiting for someone to posts this. I've flown from Asia to Canada (12 time zones) a few times a year for two decades now, and the way to adjust is getting out in the sun. Driving is sufficient. A few hours of sun exposure daily and I can shift 12 time zones in 2 days or so. Used to take me 5.

Re: (Score:1)

bygeekoid ( 135745 ) Actual exposing you skin to sunlight can make jet lag much worse. If you are not taling dirction into account, you are doing it wrong at least half the time. Of course, the placebo effect and trick you into thinking your not tired; which is more dangerous then being tired.

Re: (Score:1)

byIanBal ( 1804634 ) Changing to daylight saving is the worst type of jet lag for me, I suffer normally for two-three weeks of tiredness and sleep disturbances with this pointless change. I fly between Europe to Australia occasionally and have no problems at all, my body seems to "feel" the difference and adjust. Leave the clocks alone this Autumn.

Re: (Score:2)

byVellmont ( 569020 ) Exposing your skin (arms and face are sufficient) to sunlight is supposed to reset your body's clock when you travel.
The major thing that regulates the sleep/wake cycle is recently discovered 3rd light receptor in your eye. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I... [wikipedia.org] Sunlight will produce Vitamin D, but I know of no research that says exposing skin to sunlight will do anything for your circadian rythms. (Of course if you expose your sun, you'll also expose your eyes unless you shield them for some odd reason).

Depends on direction of travel (Score:2)

byDaveAtFraud ( 460127 ) I have little or no trouble with jet lag when I fly west. I have a lot of trouble when I fly east unless the flight is far enough that the jump is a complete reset. I'm in Colorado and flying to the eastern time zone is the pits. Flying to Europe on the other hand is not so bad. That flying west isn't so bad is no surprise. I'm a night person so staying up a couple of hours and then sleeping in a couple of hours is my prefered schedule. Getting up early even for the shift to daylight savings time usuall

Re: (Score:2)

byrsborg ( 111459 ) I have little or no trouble with jet lag when I fly west. I have a lot of trouble when I fly east unless the flight is far enough that the jump is a complete reset. I'm in Colorado and flying to the eastern time zone is the pits. Flying to Europe on the other hand is not so bad. That flying west isn't so bad is no surprise. I'm a night person so staying up a couple of hours and then sleeping in a couple of hours is my prefered schedule. Getting up early even for the shift to daylight savings time usually kicks my butt for a week or more and I don't even get a change of scenery. Cheers, Dave Next time you fly east try a redeye. I did one for a recent business trip from west coast to east, 10PM to 6:30AM. Slept 3hrs on the plane, then checked in early (thank $diety) and crashed for another hour before heading into the office. Was completely fine that day. Next day was more difficult, but manageable. Helped that my day prior to leaving on the trip was spent outside doing a lot of biking and walking in sunshine.

Re: (Score:2)

bysandytaru ( 1158959 ) I'm about the same. Traveled two hours west for work this week and I basically just go to bed and wake up on my normal EST schedule, shifted thirty minutes or so. I call it moving to "grown up time." Back home I stay up til midnight and wake up at 7:30 AM. Here, I'll crash by 10PM and get up at 6AM. When I go back, resetting to my normal schedule takes no special effort at all.

Not sure if it's jet lag (Score:1)

bysidevans ( 66118 ) Or it's a killer hangover from a month in SE Asia, but it usually destroys me completely.

Shift Work (Score:1)

byHoratio1337 ( 964596 ) Jet lag doesn't bother you as much when its a way of life from shift work. Or rather, TRAVELLING jet lag is not much different then the suckage of every day life.

Hard to tell (Score:4, Funny)

byGazzonyx ( 982402 ) <scott DOT lovenberg AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday June 24, 2014 @02:13AM (#47304063) It's hard for me to tell. Whenever I ride on a machine at 30,000 ft above the ground at 300 MPH, I take a Xanax (or three, funny story, but I have been "carried" off of flights by friends and family) to help me forget the previously mentioned facts. If I ever remembered that there's software on those machines, I'd probably take my pills with alcohol. Either way, when I get to my destination I always sleep for about 10 hours. Off topic, I heard a great programmer joke; a bunch of programmers are hanging out and talking about code and such. One of them says, "show of hands, would you ever get on a plane if you knew your company wrote the software that controls the airplane?" A single hand goes up out of the group. "You believe that your company writes software that well?!" questions the programmer that brought up the topic. The man with his hand up replies, "No. I'm just not that worried about troubles from our software mid-flight; if my company wrote the software, the plane would never even take off in the first place." Share twitter facebook

Re: (Score:2)

bygeekoid ( 135745 ) That software s not written by programmers. It's written by software engineers who specialize in aeronautics. IF software was an engineering discipline accross the board, we would have a lot fewer crappier programs. Sadly, anyone who can slap a button \on a gui and spell server nearly correctly can get work pushing out the sloppiest pile of shit and people just say 'oh well, software. Herp Derp." And where you went to schools seems to be pretty irrelevant. I've worked along side people from MIT, Harvard, Harv

Re: (Score:2)

byTheRaven64 ( 641858 ) If a software engineer can not write code that they themselves would not put their life on the line for then what are they doing as a coder? The way the joke is phrased is different. Each person in the bar might have been confident in their ability, given the right framework, to write the required code. But writing safety critical code requires different engineering practices to a lot of other software. If you're writing aeronautical code, then you typically have a small required feature set, and a huge budget for QA relative to the development budget. A company that's set up to release early, release often, and do testing by deploying to a

I keep myself awake (Score:2)

byHarlequin80 ( 1671040 ) I do a lot of flying and my solution has always been to keep myself awake until the local population goes to sleep. If I do that, no jet lag. So if I fly from Brisbane to London I normally arrive about 10am in the morning. Yes I am tired but I make myself stay up till about 9pm local time. Then I sleep right through and wake up like everyone else. The thing that can bugger it for me is if I go to sleep to early on the day of arrival. So I simply don't let that happen.

Alcohol (Score:1)

bysnickers ( 36112 ) For one job I was having to fly from Australia to the UK quite a few times (in ecomony). My boss felt sorry and arranged Qantas Club membership for me. In Singapore I went straight to the club and drank a heap of free Tigers. I could barely get onto the plane and had the worst jetlag ever. Since then I've realized that the skill with drinking and flying is to make sure you have enough to kill the pain of long distance flying but not enough to f**k you up.

Re: (Score:2)

byHarlequin80 ( 1671040 ) I have learnt with flying to stay miles away from the alcohol. It absolutely destroys me on the flights and even if I only have a couple of glasses of wine on an 8hr flight I feel like my head is going to explode.

Jet lag is for people who fly (Score:2)

byFatLittleMonkey ( 1341387 ) Jet lag is for people who fly. As someone with "non-24", I beg to differ.

Re: (Score:1)

bygeekoid ( 135745 ) jet lag is specifically about rapidly changing tine zones. I know it's confusing. maybe the name should have a fast mode of travel in it so it won't be confusing?

From 'Pattern Recognition' by William Gibson (Score:1)

byAnonymous Coward "She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London, that Damien's theory of jet lag is correct: that her mortal soul is leagues behind her, being reeled in on some ghostly umbilical down the vanished wake of the plane that brought her here, hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic. Souls can't move that quickly, and are left behind, and must be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage. "

Jet lag is bad, but ... (Score:5, Insightful)

byIhlosi ( 895663 ) on Tuesday June 24, 2014 @08:16AM (#47305331) ... having kids with you who adjust at a completely different rate is worse. ;) Share twitter facebook

"Time Zones" (Score:2)

byDarthVain ( 724186 ) I fly through time zones usually about twice a year, but never get jet lag. Because it only ever amounts to an hour or two. Only once did I have real jet lag and that was after a 12h flight to Italy.

Do the the biannual shifts ... (Score:5, Interesting)

byRambo Tribble ( 1273454 ) on Tuesday June 24, 2014 @09:58AM (#47306191) Homepage ... between standard and daylight savings time count? Share twitter facebook

more than most... (Score:2)

byschlachter ( 862210 ) Ha, I was half expecting to click through and find most people picking "more than most" which would highlight the inconsistent measure of degree in the different answers.

Re: (Score:2)

bydanbob999 ( 2490674 ) Jetlag effects only start with a difference of about 3 hours.

East - Sleep, West - Awake (Score:4, Informative)

byway2slo ( 151122 ) on Tuesday June 24, 2014 @10:35AM (#47306517) Journal When you fly it is important to coordinate your sleep schedule with your destination while en-route. This is harder to do on short flights. Also picking the right flight time is critical. Horrible jet lag is due to poor sleep in the plane, dehydration due to the dry air in the cabin, and non-adjusted body clocks. The latter can easily be fixed. Lets say you travel from NYC to London. To minimize jet lag on arrival, you want to take an evening flight and sleep the whole way. As soon as you board the plane, set your watch/phone to London time. If you can fall asleep before take-off you are golden. When you land it will be morning and you should wake up better prepared for a new day. You will be tired, but not dead tired. Use caffeine and sunlight liberally to stay awake until your desired bed time. Now you should be well on your way for your body clock adjustments for your stay. On the return trip from London to NYC, you want to take a morning flight and stay awake. Watch movies or read a book. Again, as soon as you board set your watch/phone to NYC time. You will get tired after dinner, so just force yourself to stay awake until your desired bed time and then get your sleep. With short flights, you have to start adjusting your body clock a day or two before you leave by going to bed earlier or later depending on the timezone of your destination. So if you are going from NYC to LAX you need to stay up 3 hours later and sleep in 3 hours just before your flight. For really long flights, like LAX to SYD, set your watch/phone to SYD time and begin following that time for your sleep schedule. Even if you cannot fall asleep, just closing your eyes and relaxing or meditating will help. When it is daytime in SYD, stay awake. Read that book or watch movies. Share twitter facebook

Re: (Score:2)

byNemyst ( 1383049 ) What you're saying makes sense, but I've found it incredibly difficult to sleep on the plane reliably. Usually I'll get an hour or two out of a seven hour flight after some heavy trying and back and forth, but that's it. I've been pondering some sleeping aids to get that sorted, even though I don't like the idea so much when I travel alone.

Re: (Score:2)

byswillden ( 191260 ) I find Ambien to be perfect for this purpose. I take a minimal dose, which is only enough to put me out for a couple of hours, but once I'm asleep I find it pretty easy to stay there, even if I wasn't tired before. And my doctor has no problem giving me a prescription for 20 pills every three or four years, since I only use them to fight jet lag.

Re: (Score:2)

bycaseih ( 160668 ) For me what matters is rest, period. IE sleep. At any time during the flight in any direction, and as much of it as I can get. Traveling is very tiring anyway. If I get exhausted, say by staying awake coming west as you suggest, I just start feeling crappy and my sleep schedule will take far longer to adjust. Instead I just take a benadryl and sleep while I can. That means I wear a mask and earplugs and try to get 6 hours sleep or so coming west in the daylight. I'll be tired regardless, but less tire

Re: (Score:2)

bycomplete loony ( 663508 ) Personally I find it is more important to synchronise your stomach. From the day you start travelling, eat as if you are already there. Do not under any circumstances eat when it's the middle of the night at your destination.

Re: (Score:2)

byawol ( 98751 ) In addition to sleep, meals are quite important. I highly recommend taking your meals at destination times as long as possible before the flight, likewise when you land eat when the locals eat not when you are just hungry it will help to align your sleep as well. Ignore the plane food unless you can get it at a decent time (they only feed you to keep you in your seat !!!). I have found that with this strategy (and the sleep one mentioned above). I can limit jet lag to feeling a little extra tired about late

Homeward Bound Only (Score:2)

byRatBastard ( 949 ) I almost never suffer jet lag when I travel away from home. It's the trip back that gets me. Most likely it's the second time jump that does me in.

Moderately, I suppose... (Score:2)

byspaceyhackerlady ( 462530 ) Funny you should ask: I just got back from a trip to London. Eight time zones worth of jet lag. I find the first night there or back is no problem to get to sleep, because I'm so totally wasted I can't hold my eyes open anyway. It's the second night that's the killer. After that I'm fine. Getting up at the right time is a challenge on flights to the east coast, but is rarely an issue for Europe. Unless you're making a phone call or having some other sort of live interaction, the time at home is irrelevant

No jet lag, weekly flights (Score:2)

byanjrober ( 150253 ) I fly every week, mostly in the states but with still frequent trips to europe, canada, various islands, etc. i sleep very easily on all flights. frequently asleep before taking off. and in contrast to what others say i find a nice couple glasses of red wine will get me a good solid sleep. the vast majority of the time i'm fine. no jet lag, back at 'em. 15 solid years of full travel though have sure trained me well. i also find a solid couple hour work out in morning after a flight will get me back on any

I'm permanently jetlagged... (Score:2)

byfrooddude ( 148993 ) About the only time I get up when "normal" people do is when I fly west a couple timezones for a short trip.

Not at all. Transporter lag, that's a different m (Score:2)

bymnemotronic ( 586021 ) If the Heisenberg compensators aren't aligned I get terrible Parallax Reality Syndrome (PRS). Best fix is a stiff PGGB (Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster)

One day per hour, more or less (Score:2)

byAshtead ( 654610 ) Going West (from Europe to the US for example) I wake up really early the next morning, then one hour later each subsequent morning. Takes about a week for a 7-hour time difference. Going east is different. First morning after I am up around 7 or 8, second day I can sleep until 1 PM if allowed to. Then it alternates the following days like that, for about a week for 7 hours as well. Seems there is some kind of 25-hour cycle active on stretching the day, and a 48-hour cycle in action on compressing the day.

Depends on direction and distance. (Score:1)

byCraig Cruden ( 3592465 ) When I was working in the UK and flying from Canada or the US the jet lag tended to be brutal for the first few days to as much as a week or two. We would fly, then arrive in the morning -- then make it through most of the work day ..... then try to keep each other awake until evening..... but eventually we would end up sleeping too early and it would set the cycle out of order for a while. In fact what would happen is that we would get to the point where each day we were closer to being in sync with the

Airport security has ruined the experience (Score:2)

bymtthwbrnd ( 1608651 ) of flying for me. I absolutely hate it now. I never fly unless I have to and when I do I hate it. They have taken all of the fun out of flying and turned it into a horrible experience.

Re: (Score:1)

byCraig Cruden ( 3592465 ) The answer to this - have the same people that run Singapore Airport run airports in North America. They are probably more secure than North American airports and the average time from landing to being out the door in a taxi or on the MRT subway..... is 15 - 17 minutes (and most of that is walking). I go through that airport around once a month and it is amazing in comparison to North American airports.

Um, don't you read slashdot? (Score:2)

by_Shorty-dammit ( 555739 ) http://science.slashdot.org/st... [slashdot.org] (ok, ok, I know nobody READS it...)

no jet lag for me (Score:2)

byihtoit ( 3393327 ) I don't fly. You can keep your sardine-tin planes, your TSA-Approved Gropamatic, your overpriced "premium" airlines, your rush-for-seating "budget" crampacking airlines. I'll take the quiet car on the train where the sign above the door says "TURN MOBILE PHONES OFF" and I can walk on and off without being patted down and subjected to Twenty fucking Questions about where I'm going, who I'm meeting, what's in the fucking gun case, or why I'm wearing an oak ghillie.

Flying East (Score:1)

byThe Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) I'm usually fine when I fly to the east. Going from the east coast to the EU I sleep as much as I can on the flight. Then arrive in the morning. If I can take a 2 hour nap once I get to the hotel and then go to bed around 8 that evening, I'm adjusted the next day. Coming home is usually harder to adjust for me. Especially if I've been gone for more than 2 weeks. Going to the west coast isn't really that bad. But if I fly farther west than that, it's a lot harder for me to adjust.

Re: (Score:1)

bykazekirifx ( 2647275 ) I and most people I've discussed it with have usually stated having the opposite problem. For me and the people I know it is usually travel between East Asia and the U.S., though, not Europe.

I use HSR you insensitive clod! (Score:1)

byAnonymous Coward Real people in first world nations use High Speed Rail - faster than planes, cheaper, and gets you downtown.

Depends on the purpose of the trip (Score:1)

byj2.718ff ( 2441884 ) Traveling for pleasure: no jetlag. I keep my schedule vague, so when at my destination, I wake up and sleep at times my body feels are appropriate Traveling for business: jetlag sucks. It's typical that I have to be awake early the next morning for work. And then people usually want to go drinking in the evenings (I try to avoid this as much as possible, but still feel obligated to socially be part of the team), meaning that my body must conform to the assigned schedule. It protests.

Utah is the worst for me (Score:2)

bylinear a ( 584575 ) Setting my clock back 50 years is a serious drag.

I don't fly E-W, you insensitive clod! (Score:2)

bybargainsale ( 1038112 ) I have travelled extensively by air, but overwhelmingly north-south (I'm from the UK but spent years in Africa.)

I don't fly commercial (Score:2)

byAlmost-Retired ( 637760 ) Although I have gone from EDT to MDT & got right to work when I got there, I can't say as I suffered any more jet lag the next day than if I had put in a long day right here in EDT country. But its been about a decade since last I flew commercial. I am a broadcast engineer, and when you are going someplace to play fireman and put out the fire in the cash cow, all of ones tools need to go along because you never know what you might need on the other end that home depot never heard of. You would be amaze

UTC-06:00 to UTC+04:30 (Score:1)

bydrizuid ( 444751 ) Many trips to Afghanistan, no issues. stay up all day/night first day, crash at the appropriate time the next day, adjusted.

I don't know tbh (Score:1)

byJustpin ( 2974855 ) I fly to Hong Kong from London every 3 months, usually with a stop in Qatar, the trick is simply to not go for the cheapest ticket but to choose the time correctly. So you get on a flight at 7-8pm or later, fall asleep after take off 12h later its 8am back home, and 2pm in the afternoon at HKG.... do your normal day to day stuff and its like nothing has changed except for location. You can also try the starvation reset trick, my parents swear by this trick. The only beef I have is swollen feet from the u

The cure for jet lag (Score:2)

bymendax ( 114116 ) Jet lag has always been bad for me because I can't sleep on airliners unless I'm sick. A trip back from New York with newly emergent mononucleosis and a trip back from London with a bad cold caught in Paris taught me these facts. But I found a sure fire way of sleeping on airliners: cold pills and booze. A dose of over-the-counter anti-histamines and two extra-strong screwdrivers did the trick and I slept for six hours on a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles.

It gets better as you age... (Score:1)

byAnonymous Coward When I was in my 20s I got terrible jet lag. Now that I am in my 50s I feel that crappy all the time, so no more jet lag...

Re: (Score:2)

byby (1706743) ( 1706744 ) And you pay for the privelege of flying..... No, you pay for the privilege of in-flight wifi / "economy plus" / business / first class / any ticket that's not the cheapest. My way of purchasing tickets (grad student...) is to buy the cheapest ticket that gets me from A to B. ●

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