Dealing with European Time Difference

[mwebsite]

How do you deal with the time difference to Europe? We are looking at a trip to Italy, the flight has us leaving the US in the afternoon, and arriving the next morning, around 9 am Rome time, which I think is around 3am EST. We would go in a day before the tour starts, but when do we sleep that day? Do we try to sleep on the plane, or do we stay up all day after arriving, or do we take a nap in the afternoon in Italy? What worked for all of you?

 

[kristilew]

DH travels to Europe at least once a month for work. His strategy: fly all night, go straight to the office, work until around 4 pm local time, then eat dinner and crash till next morning. He says this is the easiest way to adjust his internal clock, with the least jet lag. If you are arriving a day early, you should be able to do so as well.

 

[ImprovGal]

With a red eye flight, you're better off if you can sleep on the plane. Avoid alcohol and caffeine but drink plenty of water. When you get to your destination the following morning, stay awake and spend as much time outside as you can to get your body's internal clock set to the sun.
Try to go to bed as close to a normal time as you can.

That's optimal conditions. Here's my personal experience:

I traveled to Europe for the first time last year. I had a night flight out of Philly for the transatlantic leg. I was headed to Disneyland Paris followed by the 10 night med cruise on DCL. I was too excited to sleep on the plane. My friend and I arrived at our Disneyland Paris hotel and were told not to even think about checking in until 3 or 4pm. So, in a zombielike state, we went into the park and kept going until around 5pm and returned to the hotel to crash in our room.

I woke up to bright sunshine and seeing the clock said 9am I hopped out of bed and jumped in the shower, ready to take on another day at the parks. After getting dressed, I looked out the window to check weather and saw that... THE SUN WAS SETTING????? Apparently my restful night of sleep was only about 3 hours long. And now I had to wait until I tired out again so I could go back to sleep and wake up the next morning.

Oops.

It took another day before I finally felt accustomed to the time change.

 

[mwebsite]

Thanks for your help. Sounds like it's good to go in a day early, try to sleep a bit on the plane (maybe an antihistamine to help), then stay awake for an early dinner and get to bed after that.

 

[Lizardbeth61]

We flew in the day before we were to begin our tour and that was GREAT! We did as others suggest . . . tour that day and go to bed at our normal time according to the European clock. We woke up the next day ready to roll! We're going again in early October and plan to do the same thing. That first day after flying all night is tough, but doable!