How do you handle jet lag?

[Piscesqueen]

We will be arriving to Disney at around midnight (Dec. 3-18, 2010) when we take our vacation. We are coming from the Northwest and will need to adjust to the time difference.

For those who travel from the west....

How do you handle jet lag and what advice can you offer to make it easier to adjust to?

I'm more concerned about our children they will be 15, 9, 8, and 6 when we go and I'm afraid the jet lag will ruin the beginning of our vacation because thier schedules will be turned upside down.

Here's what I was thinking to help (any advice or input will be appreciated):

*1 week before trip having kids go to bed early and get up early.
*1 week before trip make dinner earlier than usual.
*Since we arrive late (by FL time) make the kids go to bed immediately.
*Plan late breakfasts and late dinners once we are there.
*Not do morning EMH but only night time EMH.
*First 3 days taking it easy.

I'm at a loss about what else to do, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[Safari Queen]

I travel to Europe frequently and deal with a six hour difference. I'd suggest going to bed right after you arrive, if possible. Then take it easy the first morning and second evening, sleeping in a bit and going to bed when you're tired. It shouldn't take more than a couple of days to feel okay -- it'a only three hours difference. Since you're on vacation, relax, take it easy, and do what feels right.

 

[SIMJUN]

We have never had a problem with jetlag travelling from WA to FL.

I don't think the problem (if you do in fact have one), will be the time difference so much as the time you arive, especially if any of you sleep during the flight.

Try and get everyone settled down to sleep as soon as possible when you reach your hotel and up fairly early the next morning, though not so early that eveyone is cranky and exhausted.

A full day in the parks will probably ensure that everyone is tired and ready for bed the next night.

 

[ancestry]

I would also suggest not allowing anyone to sleep on the flight. If they sleep on the flight the chances of getting them to bed as soon as you arrive will be fairly slim.

When I travel internationally I use melatonin (available in the vitamin/supplement section in most pharmacies) to help me fall asleep at a different time than I am used to. I have had great success with melatonin.

 

[itradehilton]

We feed the kids late dinner then put them to bed. The next day just sleep in and don't over book the first day.

 

[saradela]

One doctor told me to drink planty of water, I dont remembered why, I only remembered that I should take it for Jetlag at the airplane.
Saradela

 

[busyshrew]

I think there is an excellent article about jet lag.... correct me if I'm wrong, I remember it saying that a lot of jet lag can be helped by the correct timing of your meals. Your body adjusts faster if you shift your mealtimes?

I have travelled to Korea and Japan several times, the jetlag is brutal. What works for me is to eat very very lightly on the trip over, eat a light breakfast the first day, spend lots of time outside, then a good dinner and an early bedtime.

 

[jakoky]

Hi there, we flew to DW 5 years ago, and my kids were 13,11, and 9...we truly had no issues with the time difference BUT it may because of our early mornings beforehand...we live on vancouver island, so they day before flight, we were up before 3 am getting ready to leave for the ferry, as we were flying out of seattle...the day of the flight, we were up at 2:30 am as we had to be at the airport by 4 am....LOL, we landed at 7 that night florida time, and we were all ready for bed....i think we made it til 10 that night, which really was 7 for us....next morning, kids were ready to go....i remember getting them out of bed was much harder than our disneyland trips, but i guess that is because it was really only 4 am...good luck, and hopefully everyone will be so tired u can go to bed early the first night and start fresh in the am....have an awesome trip..

 

[everylastbreath]

We've in NY so when we travel to the West I always book a early evening flight, I do this even when we go to Florida, for a few reasons:

1- The day you travel is usually a shot day anyway, so I try and get there the night before so the following day is a full day

2- Usually the early evening flights are cheaper so you might even come out cheaper booking an extra night in the hotel with what you save on airfare

3- when traveling East to West the time change throws me for a loop, it takes me days to get on the correct time, so this way we come in later in the evening, I get to sleep at a decent time and wake the following day on their time- works everytime for me..

 

[DVCmom1960]

We deal with jet lag quite a bit at our house and you are spot on with the kids change in sleep patterns and meal times. I think I would check with your M.D. about melatonin I think the kids might be too young I suspect he might suggest benedryl? Go ahead and pick up a pair of ear planes for everyone @ your local pharmacy it will help with ear popping--they are good for round trip. by the way a flight attendant once told me she takes sudafed 20 min before take off to help with pressure in her ears ( helps me ). I usually gave my daughter about 10 days before the trip to gradually change our meal/bedtimes for overseas, as she has gotten older (shes 11 now) she pretty much does her own thing. BUT the boys (25 & 27) still reprogram about a week before we leave TN. They also take quite a few naps when we get where we're goin'. I think it was LBJ that made the potentates go by his routine wouldnt it be nice if Mickey would take WalMarts lead and go to 24 hrs!!! Most importantly relax and enjoy yourself Your at WDW!!!!!

 

[Mousemom]

We have been traveling from Washington to Florida since our kids were small (6 & 11, now 25 & 20). We usually take a morning flight that gets us in to Orlando around 7 PM. None of us can sleep on a plane very well so with getting up really early and not much sleep the night before we go, we are exhausted by the time we get to our room. If the kids were not tired we either would go to EPCOT and watch fireworks or go swimming for a bit. We don't get up early the first day either. We tried to do a red eye once. We got to the room at around 9:00 am. It was miserable because we could not get in to the room until later and not being able to sleep on the plane we were tired and felt drained. We have decided that unless we had to we won't do the night flight again. It does seem to be easier coming home and getting used to the time change for us. By the way...I love to see others from the Pacific NW who love WDW like our family does.

 

[Dowellfam]

We have travelled from Washington State to Florida twice now with small kids. Jet lag is a huge problem for all of us. We make sure to get a good night sleep the night before, as we have to be up at 3:00 AM to catch our 6AM flight. We usually get into Orlando at 4:15 and to our hotel and comfortable by 7. We usually go grab a bite to eat and hit a park for a couple hours. We are in bed by 11 (8 Seattle time) and we sleep in the next morning. That usually is all it takes for us! Good luck and have a fabulous time!

 

[TBLaube]

We fly in from California and one of our trips a while back we decided to try a red-eye since we didn't like getting up at 5am and not get into our hotel until late in the evening. Plus it was pretty resonable price-wise.
My kids and I only take red-eye flights now. We usually take off at 10pm and try to have our stopover be in LA or Philadelphia/Newark so we have longer in the air to sleep. This trip we will probably stop in Atlanta, but that is okay. It has worked out really well for us. If our room isn't ready, we usually go to DTD or go eat and check out an arcade at the resort. Luckily we have been able to get in our rooms as early as 10am. We take it easy that day, go to bed early and sleep in our first day. This seems to work out much better for us since we all get antsy sitting on the plane during the day. My kids are 14 and 9, but have been doing it for years. We actually get more sleep this way than if we fly out at 6am since we are too excited to sleep and have to get up so early.

 

[rstout]

I think that your plans are good. There are a number of good suggestions that other have made. My advise is not to worry to much about it and just get up when you are rested and go to the parks when you are ready. We travel from Oregon (3 hours) and go to a park that stays open late on the first day or two. Epcot is alway open until 9:30, MK sometimes later than that. If you get to the park at noon (which is when we usually arrive), which is 9 a.m. back home, you will be at the park for 9-10 hours. That's a long day. We don't miss out on anything and we are rested and have a great time.

Someone else mentioned meals. I met a world traveler type one time and he said that he thought that missing meals was an issue with prolonging jet lag. He was referring to major changes like flipping day to night, but he said that he would figure out what time he would typically eat a meal and make sure he eat something like trail mix (dried fruit and nuts) at that time where ever and when ever he was. He believe that this was an important factor in helping him rest and get back on track in the new time zone. Just a thought from this seasoned traveler.

We will be at WDW during that same week in December. It's one of the best weeks of the year at the World (decked out for the holidays and light to moderate crowds). Best wishes!

 

[walt's assistant]

Lots of good suggestions here.

I travel a great deal from the east coast of the US to California, Washington, Oregon and Japan.

In my experience, when coming eastbound from the west coast of the US, I do the following:

1) I get up two hours earlier than I normally do. I eat breakfast early.
2) I drink plenty of water on the flight to avoid dehydration. I try to avoid sleeping.
3) When I arrive at MCO, I follow local time behaviors (especially dinner).
4) I go to bed on local time schedule and wake up on local time schedule.

These steps always keep jet lag away for me and help me to get on local time right away.

Good luck!

 

[Piscesqueen]

Well its been awhile since I've commented on this thread and we are now getting closer to our travel dates.

I have spoke with out Dr. and she suggested that we give the kids Benadryl, put them to bed earlier, and change their eating patterns a week before.

I'm not going to worry so much about their eating habits because I can't control when the school feeds them and they always have breakfast before they leave for school. I could make them eat dinner earlier and go to bed earlier about a week or two before our trip.

I'm wondering if I'm putting too much worry into the whole jetlag thing considering we will be there for 17 days. Maybe its okay to be a little "off" the first few days. I just don't know....but, I also would like to make this as easy as possible for my kiddies.

I still would love to hear any suggestions, ideas, experiences, etc. from anyone who has any extra input.

Thanks to all ahead of time.

Much Love,
Piscesqueen

 

[Lori1960]

There wa a dr on the news in GA before the 1996 Olymopics came and the dr said to help withj jetlag you should eat carrots 4 days before your flight and no soda or alchol on the flight and than when you land have something with vitamin B12 don"t know if this works or not havent tried it