Amy's Solution For Jet Lag
Or why Amy sleeps from midnight to 9 a.m. French time while Gregg is up at 3 a.m., pacing the apartment like a grizzly bear. Two things: We take the 10 p.m. flight from Los Angeles, which gets us in at 5:30 p.m. Paris time, and to the apartment by around 7 p.m. I stay up until midnight with ease, and then I take Benadryl, Best of all, Benny is over-the-counter, cheap, and non-narcotic, and I wake up the next day on European time with a clear head and a clear nose.
Helpful accessories include the Air France sleep mask (I have piles of them at home from when Air France lost our luggage in Italy, and use them for my afternoon naps) and Hearos Xtreme earplugs (the blue, highest protection ones -- very squishy, easy to stick in your ears, very comfortable).
On the way there, I ran into my old pal Jeff Lorber on the plane, who was going on tour in Sweden and a bunch of places. I'm waiting to hear about how his experiment -- fasting, maybe for 24 hours? -- worked against jet lag. Still, as a foodie (and as somebody who enjoys the food on Air France), I think I'll stick to Benadryl.
Benadryl as a sleeping pill? True that. I wish I'd known how powerful the "drowsiness" mentioned among the side effects would be.
A couple of hours before a luncheon my wife and I had signed up for, I took it to suppress the sneezing and dripping of a cold so I could go. Twenty minutes later I could no longer sit upright and stumbled back to bed. My wife berated me for not calling and canceling, and I felt the responsibility deeply but absolutely could not lift my head to do it. I couldn't even wake up enough to tell her the number to call. Slept for four hours, got up to pee, then went back and slept another three hours. This was after a full night's sleep the night before.
Axman at December 15, 2008 7:27 AM
Speaking as a pilot who is routinely subjected to the kinds of jet lag and circadian rhythm abuse that would constitute torture if applied to terrorists: Ambien CR.
Hey Skipper at December 15, 2008 9:05 AM
Is Ambien CR a prescription? Any additional recommendations when the time change is about 10-11 hours? And you have to be ready to work when you touch down?
(I'm going out for Hearo's today!)
Micki at December 15, 2008 9:23 AM
Ambien is by prescription.
I take it during layovers, and never fewer than seven hours before takeoff.
If circadian rhythm is far enough out of whack (10-11 hrs) than Ambien will only get me a few hours sleep, but I wake up without any side effects.
For non-pilots, Zanex (sp?) will get you a solid 8 hours, no matter what.
However, since residuals remain in the blood stream for up to 24 hours, I only take it first night back from a trip.
Hey Skipper at December 15, 2008 7:43 PM
So for a passenger who might have to get off the plane and go to work for several weeks on an upsidedown schedule, you'd recommend Zanex? Of course, I'm hoping the doc will be able to make a good recommendation, but I like to hear from the folks actually doing the traveling, not just the one with the prescription pad. Thanks for your insight!
Micki at December 15, 2008 8:58 PM
So for a passenger who might have to get off the plane and go to work for several weeks on an upsidedown schedule, you'd recommend Zanex?
Yes, if you have at least twelve hours to sleep. The upside to Zanex is that you will go to sleep. The downside is that if you don't have sufficient time, you will wake up groggy.
On the other hand, Ambien never leaves me groggy, and it goes below clinically detectable levels within about two - four hours after taking it, an important consideration for pilots.
However, if I am far enough off my normal sleep schedule, it rarely gives me more than a few hours sleep, and sometimes none at all.
Recently, I have started eating something -- a toasted bagel, say -- right after taking an Ambien, then going to bed within a half hour. So far (five consecutive trials) I get to sleep much faster, and sleep longer.
Hey Skipper at December 17, 2008 9:44 AM
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