<p>We are in the process of booking flights to visit our study-abroad twin in Paris. As neither of us have ever been to Europe before, my husband and I are trying to figure out what makes the most sense in terms of the time change. We could take a flight that leaves at about 6PM which arrives in Paris the next morning at about 7:30 AM Paris time. Or … we could take a later flight which leaves at about 10PM and arrives at about 11:15AM Paris time. Both flights are just over seven hours nonstop.</p>
<p>We want to make the most out of our first day there, but we don’t want to be totally sleep deprived and exhausted all day. I’m thinking that the later flight makes sense; my husband thinks the earlier flight is better. Do any of you experienced travelers have suggestions?</p>
<p>The later flight makes more sens. It would be very hard for you to sleep on the earlier flight. With the later flight, you could have your dinner beforehand, after you get on the plane get a glass of port or wine and decline the meal service, go straight to bed. You’ll be able to catch 5-6 hours of sleep. Once you get to your hotel, have a good lunch then stay up until 12am. Paris is night city. We usually eat around 8-9pm.</p>
<p>I agree with oldfort: Take the later one. You’ll be more tired, and better able to sleep on the plane.</p>
<p>Underlining another aspect of what oldfort says: One thing that helps tremendously is to stay up and do your level best to eat meals on Paris time. DON’T take that nap, no matter how badly you want to, in the afternoon. Eat a Paris-time lunch, stagger around (maybe do a Seine boat tour, to orient yourself), eat a Paris-time dinner (late, as oldfort suggests), and hang on as long as possible before you go to bed. That’ll help set your body clock faster than anything else.</p>
<p>I would take the later one. If you get to Paris too early, you’ll be so exhausted by early afternoon you’ll want to take that nap. With the later flight, you’ll be able to do some sightseeing or hanging out with your child in the afternoon, have an early dinner, and then collapse. </p>
<p>Are you staying in a hotel? If yes, then you certainly won’t get into your room with the earlier flight.</p>
<p>Oh, this is hard. I can see the benefits and drawbacks of both.</p>
<p>Personally I like the later one. It is much more natural to try to fall asleep at 10 or 11 at night. Don’t try to watch the movie or eat their dinner. Get some sleep masks and earplugs and start dozing/snoring. When you get to Paris it will feel like 4am. When you finally go to bed at Paris night time, you will feel tired but not bone weary. However, it might be closer to 2 or 3 by the time you hit your accommodation and then most of your day is gone. But if you can get outside and walking, eat a late dinner, perhaps you and your body will feel like you’ve had a full enough day.</p>
<p>When I have taken the earlier flight I have never managed to do more than fitfully nap. Arriving at the equivalent of midnight, I can’t make it though the day without sleep or a bad headache. On the other hand, is you can make yourself get up at an unholy time (on the day of departure) perhaps you can do better than catnap on the earlier flight. Then if you are totally revved up and excited, you can soldier through until 8pm, crash and sleep for ten hours.</p>
<p>So, what makes sense for you and your husband’s health? Are you prone to migraines? Do you need less sleep than mere mortals? Are you so excited (as we all would be) to go to PARIS and see you child that sleep would be impossible on either flight?</p>
<p>As someone who has difficulty sleeping on planes, I’m going to disagree with the prevailing wisdom here. The last time H and I went to Paris we took the earlier flight, checked into our hotel (even if you couldn’t get into the room, you could leave your bags there), walked around Paris for a bit, had an early lunch, and then took an afternoon nap. That refreshed us enough to stay up and enjoy dinner and go to bed at normal Parisian time. We were fine the next day. But that’s what works best for our body clocks. If you can sleep on the plane, the later flight might make sense.</p>
<p>It really depends on whether you can sleep on planes and whether you can drop your luggage somewhere, either at the hotel or where your D is staying.
I used to be able to get to my destination early in the morning and put in a whole day of work or sight-seeing. I find it harder to do so nowadays and consider the first day a lost cause.</p>
<p>Agreed with Booklady, it really depends whether you could sleep on the plane. the only catch is that most hotels wouldn’t allow you to check in until after 3 or 4pm, so if you were tired there would be no place for you sleep. I’ll sleep when it’s time to sleep, doesn’t matter where. I am also used to go straight to Lon/Paris office right off a flight.</p>
<p>I don’t sleep on planes and would take the earlier flight. If it arrives on time at 0730, by the time you get your bags, get to the hotel, and check in, it’ll probably be 0900-1000. Be aware that you might not be able to get into your room that early but you could leave the bags at the desk. You could then have an easy first day and try to get to bed early yet at a reasonable localized time. Don’t try to take a nap in the middle of the day when you get there or your body clock is liable to be messed up for your whole trip there. I find it easier to just stay up longer and then maybe go to bed at 9pm or so. It’s actually worse flying from the west coast since it’s a much longer flight.</p>
<p>Everyone’s constitution and sleep requirements are different though so YMMV.</p>
<p>I don’t sleep on planes but would take the later flight. At least you’ll get a little sleep that way. You won’t get any with the earlier flight and be too exhausted to do anything that first day. When you get there, do your best to stay up all day. It is much easier to force yourself to stay awake than it is to go to sleep. Then you will be tired enough to get some sleep that first night there.</p>
<p>the last couple of times that we’ve been to europe my parents have gotten one of the hotel rooms from the night before, that way when we got in at like 9am local time we could go to the room and sleep for a couple of hours until lunch time. THen we were refreshed and ready for sightseeing in the afternoon and were able to stay awake late enough to reset our body clocks. Sleeping on the plane is hard as the flight isn’t actually very long, and dinner tends to take a really long time, and they wake you up for breakfast. Although you can eat before hand, everyone else on the plane won’t be and so it is noisy and bright.</p>
<p>I’ve been to Paris 7 or 8 times. I’ve always taken at least a short nap after arriving at the hotel and it has never messed my internal clock up for the entire trip. Nor has it prevented me from going to bed at the normal Parisian time later that night. Just my experience.</p>
<p>A couple of people make the point of not being able to check into the hotel when you arrive early. I can not emphasize enough how important this can be. You get to your destination feeling any number of ways but often I just need a little nap and a shower. European hotels in general will not let you in that room until 2 or 3, even when they’re not full. For that reason I’ve always looked for flights arriving in the PM.</p>
Again, I suggest staying up once you get there and not taking a nap since your body clock can get messed up. If you could manage a short nap, i.e. 30 minutes or so, then it’d be fine but some people are so tired that they lay down for a nap and wake up 4 or 5 hours later and now they’re messed up. If they use an alarm to try to wake up after a 30 minute nap they might feel more miserable than if they’d have just stayed up. </p>
<p>I also like to immediately head out and see things once I’m in a place like Europe even if it’s to walk the area a bit. However, I can easily stay awake a long time for some reason and as other posters have mentioned, the nap thing works for them so you’ll need to just see what you feel like once you’re there. I’ve done the nap thing once or twice (several hour nap - a mistake) and was messed up. Once I learned my lesson I stayed up and then got to bed early and was relatively okay from then on. </p>
<p>I do recommend taking a shower once you’re there and then seeing how you feel. If you get in too early the hotel might not let you in your room. You can call them before you leave and see what their policy is. You’re going to be there in the off season so the hotel might be willing to let you in without charging for the previous night.</p>
<p>One other heads-up: in addition to your sleep clock being off, your ‘eating clock’ will be off also. You might find yourself un-hungry during the localized meal times and wake up at 03:00 starving. I suggest you have a couple of minor snacks available (granola bars, apple, etc.) for these inopportune hunger attacks and try to at least eat something as close to the localized meal time as you can.</p>
<p>And bring comfortable walking shoes since you’ll likely walk more than normal and enjoy.</p>
<p>Another vote for the later flight. Another advantage is the time required to stay awake till your new bedtime is much shorter!
ETA we always find we do better to try to stay awake till about 8:00pm our “new time.” Then we wake up the following day adjusted and ready to go. We lived in London for 2 1/2 years and return to Europe frequently, this has always worked for us. Getting out in the sunshine helps keep you awake and helps you adjust to your new time.
Enjoy your trip. :)</p>
<p>While I do not have that much of experience with overseas flights, I talked to my father who has accumulated more than 2,000,000 miles in travel to Europe. In general terms, he said that American tourists and business people have developed the worst and least productive attitude how to deal with jet lag. In his opinion, one of the most egregious bad tip is to try to fight the time difference by … staying up after landing in one of those awful early flights. </p>
<p>Here’s his recommendation: unless staying for an extended period of time, build your trip while trying to maintain a daily calendar that is as CLOSE as possible to your US timezone. It’s a myth that the body can adjust to a new timezone by staying up upon arrival. The adjustment of the circadian rhythm is slow. Reportedly, the body adjusts only one time zone per day (60 minutes) following eastward travel. What good it it to wake up VERY early and wait for the breakfast lounge to open after a terrible night, hit the streets when traffic is heavy, run a few hours in a zombie state, eat lunch, run some more, drink a lot of caffeine, and finally return to the hotel for a little nap, wake up and eat dinner, and be extra sluggish?</p>
<p>My father said that it has always been easy to spot Americans: they are lining up at the breakfast lounge before it opens and the only ones sitting at the hotel restaurants at 5 or 6pm when waiters still dress up! There is an alternative: before leaving for Europe, start waking up earlier and earlier; in Europe allow yourself to sleep some hours in the morning and wake between 10 and 12 (it will feel like waking up a 4 or 6am in the US), eat a light “brunch” and hit the streets well rested. Plan all your activities between NOON and MIDNIGHT. That represents 12 hours and better hours than 8AM to 8PM. Business people will not mind meeting your for a late lunch or a late dinner. Touristic attractions do not close that early in Paris. Seeing the Louvre at night is not much different and will remind you of the Da Vinci Code. Climbing the Eiffel tower at night and eating crepes while watching the City of Lights … when the lights are actually on are pretty good ideas. </p>
<p>People can do a lot more when rested and alert. And, after all, vacation should not be a bodily torture but a pleasant time.</p>
<p>I’ll be contrarian here. I just flew to London a week ago on business; left on a 4 pm flight, arrived in London at 6 am. The moment I got on the plane, I took 2 Tylenol PM and fell asleep for the duration of the 8 hour flight (I do sleep well on planes, though). the time I got to London, I was a bit tired but not horribly so; got to my hotel (they held my bags), had some breakfast, which gave me energy, and went sightseeing the whole day. I was then sufficiently tired to fall asleep around 9 or 10 pm that night and from there on was fine.</p>
<p>But you have to know whether Tylenol PM (which is Tylenol with Benadryl) works for you, or not. It makes me sleepy, but it makes some people jittery.</p>
<p>Either way, for international flights, the MOMENT you get on the plane, you set your watch to the destination time and act as though you are doing whatever you’d be doing at that time. </p>
It’s impractical to try to enjoy Europe on anything close to a timezone that’s 8 or 9 hours difference (west coast to Eu). Regarding body adjustment, everyone is different but staying up has worked well for me. It’s not an instant adjustment but it’s better than the alternative for me.</p>
<p>We have also travelled extensively and fly to Europe a couple of times a year, not to mention Asia. In my humble opinion, it’s not a myth. It is MUCH easier trying to keep your body awake, than trying to get it to sleep. Unless you are going to stay on your own time zone (therefore, not being awake when things in Europe are open) it’s the easiest way to adjust.</p>
