Thinking about heading to another country for a race and it’s a 14 or 15 hour time zone difference, heading Eastward. Any advice on how long I should arrive beforehand to try and recover? I know they say a day for every hour but that’s not feasible to arrive two weeks before the race. Would three or four days be possible?
I have been flying from US to Europe regularly (8 - 9 hrs difference) for decades, and it takes 4-5 days to fully acclimatize to the time change. Melatonin can hasten the process significantly. Flying East is worse than flying West. (Our bodies can adjust to longer days much easier than to the shortening of days). Good luck.
One Day/Hour is a little silly. I have to deal with this next weekend, though not as bad. Red-eye back from CA Friday night, land at 7AM ET Saturday, Half-marathon Sunday. The one thing that you can do, is slowly start to keep ‘their’ time. Get up early, go to bed early, and manage your sleep carefully on the trip over.
Vitamin A does wonders for adjusting.
(I’m talking about Ambien. )
I sue it when I travel to Asia and it is great. Half a pill when I go to bed. If I wake up in the middle of the night, another half pill to get me through.
When travelling east, try and sleep as much as possible on the flight over. Personally, i can’t sleep for schitt when I fly coach, so going east can be really tough for me unless I fly business.
When travelling west, you want to stay up for as much of the flight as possible.
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I generally sleep poorly and when traveling it gets worse. I have no experience with prescription sleep aids. What effect if any does Ambien have on your ability to perform as a athlete. Do you take it the night before an event, or will that result in a drug hangover that would be determinable to your race? Tim
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For me, there are zero after effects from Ambien. I don’t wake up drowsy, groggy or anything. In fact, I feel very rested.
That said, I probably would not take it the night before a race, especially an “A” race. One night of below-par sleep should not derail your event, anyway. I recall reading some where that physical performance is not affected until after 72 hours of sleep deprivation (but I have zero desire to even test that limit!!)
I’ve travelled quite a bit, often long haul flights (10hrs +) with short stays (1-3 days). The below are things I have done/learnt through this process when I especially need to be physical at destination:-
- Start when you board the flight. Set your watch to the destination time zone and start adjusting during flight. This includes sleeping and eating. This may mean you are trying to sleep when the cabin is light and staying awake when dark. Eyeshade, ear plugs, noise cancelling headphones are a win here. When you wake, have a “shower” (wet ones FTW).
- hydrate very well. Bring extra bottles of water with you. Hit the attendant button as much as you need. Dehydration will cripple you.
- eat according to new time zone. Do NOT eat the airline food. (most of my carry-on is food and water). Depending on quarantine restrictions simple things like fruit, sandwiches, trail mix, protein bars etc. I have even gone to the trouble of packing a disposable cool bag and bringing some cheese and crackers, and milk. Or a Themos and fresh bread (again, dependant on airline security restrictions and quarantine laws etc)
- compression tights can be a good idea in this circumstance.
- some light exercise on the plane in-line with the new time zone can help, as well as avoid possible risks of DVT. Yes you may look silly doing push-ups and pistol squats in the aisle but most people on the plane are fat and eating shit airline food so fuck them.
- when you arrive at new location continue with the local schedule. If it’s during daylight hours get out in the actual sun and do some light exercise. If it’s lunch, have lunch. Dinner, have dinner, then try to sleep.
- if sleeping is an issue try to avoid staying up watching tv/surfing the web. Eat some protein, have a warm drink and read a book instead. As above, eye mash, ear plugs, headphones etcetera may helping depending on where you are staying.
- alcohol doesn’t help in any way shape or form here. Avoid it.
- did I mention hydrate?