Help! Adjusting to a time zone before flying.

[Hexx]

My head hurts just from thinking about it. Could use some help.
I'm flying from Seattle to Geneva, Switzerland friday morning (leaving the house a 7am).

The time zones shift 9+h.

Currently I go to bed around 3am PST.
I want to wake up at everyday with the Swiss at 8am.

Would shifting to this schedule work?

(wake)11pm PST --> 8am Swiss
tips: --day rolls over--
(bed) 2pm PST -- 11pm Swiss

Much Love!

 

[KMc]

I've never had any luck with trying to do this. If you are flying to Geneva then I am assuming you will leave Seattle in the afternoon, fly all night and arrive early morning local Geneva time. Regardless of whether you slept on the flight or not, resist every possible urge to sleep when you get there. Do not "nap". Find something active to do (sightseeing, walking, etc.). Stay up as late as you can, up until the time you want to be your bedtime while you are there. It will be tough, but it works quite well for me. Some people have had success with taking melatonin as well to regulate your sleep patterns while you are there - never tried it myself.

 

[rudder]

Just get out in the sun as much as you can when you get there. Shifting schedules will help... but no matter what it will take time for your internal clock to adjust. I have flip flopped 12 hours many times.

 

[Uppsala9496]

http://www.antijetlagdiet.com/

This diet plan actually works wonders for my wife and I. Every year we make a European trip for a long weekend and this diet helps.
Argonne Nat'l Lab report on it:
http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2005/news050520.html

 

[NetWareHead]

I do this all the time and it worked for me when i flew to Singapore which is 12 hours ahead of my time. I simply staid up all night long, never went to sleep. I took my flight at 10 AM and ended up falling asleep on the airplane sometime around 1 the afternoon, which is 1 AM singapore time. It took me one day to fully adjust.

 

[dullard]

It is virtually impossible to change the time you go to sleep. Sure, it may sound great to just go to sleep 9 hours earlier (or 9 hours later depending on the direction of travel). But, changing your time you fall asleep is much harder than it sounds. Most people just can't fall asleep when they aren't tired. Many people also can't stay up THAT much later without being exhausted the next day. Your body's rhythm works against you.

Instead, you need to adjust the time you wake up. If you wake up at the proper time, you'll naturally be sleepy at the proper time (no matter the time zone). Your body's rhythm works with you.

You have to then make a choice. 1) Adjust now and have a couple days of being sleepy now or 2) adjust while you are on your trip and be sleepy for the trip. If your trip is really important, I suggest #2. It works quite well for me even though everyone makes fun of me for doing it. That would require you to get up earlier and earlier each morning until you are waking up at 8 am Swiss time. I usually like a week preparation for this (adjust my schedule an hour a day). But, you don't have that luxury. Just try to get up as early as possible for the next two mornings.

Once you are up, don't let yourself snooze or lay in bed. Get up, get moving, and get some light on your body (even artificial light). Supposedly light on the back of the legs is the most important. And eat at Swiss time intervals. You want to do everything you can to trick your body now.

 

[Hexx]

Thanks for all the info. I left out that I'm leaving at 9am on Friday.
So I decided to stay up all night and start sleeping this afternoon and waking up ~11pm PST. Hopefully it works well for some epic snowboarding!