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What’s the Best Way To Get Adjusted To Big Time Difference


Mylisa
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We are leaving from Atlanta (Eastern Time) at 11:00 am with a connection in Seoul and arrive at our final destination of Bangkok at 10:00 pm the following day.

 

We pick our cruise ship up in Bankok but we arrive 2 nights ahead of time.

 

 

What is the best way to get on Bangkok’s time zone for sleeping. Our first flight is 15 hours and our second is 6 hours.

 

 

Should we go to sleep earlier on the first flight say 6 pm ET or earlier or just take short naps? We’ve never done a trip with such a significant time difference so we’re not sure the best way to handle this.

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  1. Sleep as much as you can on the flight, whenever you can. Don't fight it.
  2. Ignore the onboard meals, unless you happen to be both awake and hungry. The food really isn't ever that good (unless you're flying first class on a particularly good airline). If you're asleep, stay asleep.
  3. Get some exercise at the airports, including your connection point. Don't take lifts (elevators) or escalators up or down if there are stairs that you can walk on. Don't stand on a travelator, but walk along it - in fact, better still, don't use travelators at all.
  4. When you get to Bangkok, go with the flow. You're going to be awake at odd times, and you're going to fall asleep at odd times; there's nothing much that you can do about it and you will get frustrated if you don't accept that this is just how it is. Your body will simply need time to adapt.
  5. But to the extent that you can, do stuff at "normal" local times.
  6. And get some more exercise. It's better than drugs, which may leave you with after-effects.

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The number 1 thing is to live by the new time zone no matter what. So if you end up sleeping little that first night; still make yourself wake up in the AM. Personally, with you landing late at night I would try to sleep as little as possible on the plane so you are tired when you land.

 

I’ll tell you what. I’ve done Europe from the US several times but a major time zone change only a couple times. I find the latter very difficult. We went to Australia and it took me about a week to fully adjust (wouldn’t be hungry at meal times, would be awake in the middle of the night). Whereas for Europe I adjust in 1 day. So be prepared if it’s not an easy adjustment.

 

 

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Fly Business or First Class with 180 degree flat beds.

You can get a very good night's sleep on a 15 hour flight.

 

 

We are flying business class with lie flat seats.

 

I just didn’t know whether or not to go to sleep at my normal time or try to medicate and go to sleep more on their time or what to do.

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Lookup the Argonne anti-jet lag protocol and diet, do that 3 days before your long haul flights going across 10, 11, 12 or 13 time zones with the body clock upside down. It's a proven program used by troops deployment in the 70's and I first read the paperback (sold in Woolworth days) in the early 1980's, been using it since ... even for coast to coast or transcon & red eyes flights, vital for business & equally useful for vacations.

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/22/travel/the-jet-lag-diet.html

 

In short, careful of what & when you eat, how much, avoid alcohol, even if free in-flight, caffeine as indicated (or, tea or coca cola), exposure to sunlight or blackout shades based on the new timezone flying into, stay awake as best as you can, go to sleep by evening on arrival at local time. While others are still in zombie mode on day 3 and 4, I am ready by day 3, especially flying west. Coming back east bound is longer in adjustment & recovery.

 

In your case, eat lunch (late dinner in new city's local time) once in the air & meal is served. Then try to sleep or at least rest for 6 to 8 hours until morning time. Set your watch to new time before the flight to help ease the body clock mentally. Stay awake the rest of the way in the air & in transit via SK, by the time you land & get to the hotel, you will be exhausted & ready for a good night sleep. Try to stretch the sleeping hours on flight to Asia as it's night time, even though it's daylight in ATL. Are you flying Korean Air or Asiana, loved their A380 & upper deck is all J (business) class ? You can specific your meal time upon boarding and ask them to wake you for your meal times before landing.

 

ICN airport has free showers & clean towels upstairs for transit passengers, plus you will have access to club lounge, also showers to freshen up & very, very fast & free WiFi at 100MB & 5G services.

 

via Nexus 5X Oreo 8.0 w Tapatalk, VPN secured.

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No matter how we sleep if we arrive in the daytime we stay on the new time zone.

 

We find getting outside in the daylight and getting fresh air helps a lot.

 

Keith

OP arriving late, that's why I suggested the sleep aid. 😉

 

We're doing similar in April. Headed to Singapore via Narita - Atlanta - Orlando

Arrive around 11pm

 

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We are flying business class with lie flat seats.
That's going to help with the business of getting as much sleep as you can while you're in the air. Doing a dozen or so long-haul trips every year, I find that that is the number one help to getting over jet lag, because it is the one thing that you really can do something about.

 

Don't be scared by the number of time zones in itself. A bigger number doesn't necessarily make it harder to adjust. Coming back to the UK from the US east coast is a 5-hour time change, and that is about my worst nightmare. I find it harder than coming back to the UK from Australia/New Zealand, which can be anything between 9 and 13 time zones depending on the time of the year.

 

And as you will have access to lounges, I second mking8288's advice of a shower during the transit stop. In fact, I would also recommend getting a shower at your departure airport. Although you're not really that unclean, the refreshment is very good for relaxing you, which in turn is good for promoting decent sleep if your body is ready for it.

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Lookup the Argonne anti-jet lag protocol and diet, do that 3 days before your long haul flights going across 10, 11, 12 or 13 time zones with the body clock upside down. It's a proven program used by troops deployment in the 70's and I first read the paperback (sold in Woolworth days) in the early 1980's, been using it since ... even for coast to coast or transcon & red eyes flights, vital for business & equally useful for vacations.

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/22/travel/the-jet-lag-diet.html

 

In short, careful of what & when you eat, how much, avoid alcohol, even if free in-flight, caffeine as indicated (or, tea or coca cola), exposure to sunlight or blackout shades based on the new timezone flying into, stay awake as best as you can, go to sleep by evening on arrival at local time. While others are still in zombie mode on day 3 and 4, I am ready by day 3, especially flying west. Coming back east bound is longer in adjustment & recovery.

 

In your case, eat lunch (late dinner in new city's local time) once in the air & meal is served. Then try to sleep or at least rest for 6 to 8 hours until morning time. Set your watch to new time before the flight to help ease the body clock mentally. Stay awake the rest of the way in the air & in transit via SK, by the time you land & get to the hotel, you will be exhausted & ready for a good night sleep. Try to stretch the sleeping hours on flight to Asia as it's night time, even though it's daylight in ATL. Are you flying Korean Air or Asiana, loved their A380 & upper deck is all J (business) class ? You can specific your meal time upon boarding and ask them to wake you for your meal times before landing.

 

ICN airport has free showers & clean towels upstairs for transit passengers, plus you will have access to club lounge, also showers to freshen up & very, very fast & free WiFi at 100MB & 5G services.

 

 

 

via Nexus 5X Oreo 8.0 w Tapatalk, VPN secured.

 

I just bought the book you recommended on line. I’m not sure we’ll have enough time for a shower between flights but it sure would be great after such a long haul on the first flight!

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I just bought the book ... not sure we’ll have enough time for a shower between flights but it sure would be great after such a long haul on the first flight!
Wow, I'm impressed - that they are still selling this book, $2.95 brand new paperback in the 1980's - this is the one I owned (there's a newer one) https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Jet-Lag-Charles-Ehret/dp/0425089053/ref=pd_cp_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0425089053&pd_rd_r=8B2G38SKYHSTPA468YWY&pd_rd_w=u05zt&pd_rd_wg=64Wna&psc=1&refRID=8B2G38SKYHSTPA468YWY

 

It's not easy to follow everything exactly & do it right, but ... follow the concept & recommendation of fast-feast-fast, etc. and even if you cheated by taking a quick 15 minutes nap, you will still adjust quite nicely into the new time zone & city on the day after arrival. Otherwise, the confused body/bio-clock will start to crash by the afternoon (where it's late night/early morning in Atlanta).

 

This is a quick overview - it doesn't spell out the detailed plan based on # of time zone crossed, east-or west-bound ... but you get the idea.

http://maphappy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/The-Argonne-Anti-Jet-Lag-Diet-Guide.pdf

 

There's a newer anti-jet-lag fast, which I haven't really looked at & follow or use

https://harpers.org/blog/2012/03/the-empty-stomach-fasting-to-beat-jet-lag/

 

Suffice to say, the original scheme has worked for us in 30+ years of air travel, between NY & West Coast, vacations out in Hawaii & trips to Asia that's most brutal and tough coming home to the US without this "program" - being a zombie for 4 to 6 days or longer going to work isn't fun or good, even with 1 or 2 days of rest & recovery. Your other advantage is being able to fly into BKK earlier to transition ... by the time you embark on the cruise, you should be pretty ready - go easy on those land tours. Let us here on CC post-cruise how you did & how well it worked for you.

 

Safe & happy travel and enjoy your cruise. I'll leave you with some of our recent photos @ICN airport in SK, showing the main terminal's departure level, the transit hotel that's 1 floor above, by escalators or elevators. The quiet lounge area with comfortable chairs, the WiFi lounge with free terminals (yes) and the free Shower ... Korean Air has several lounges & is on the other side above departure. Transit is easy & efficient there, just make sure you have your boarding passes issued. Without time for a shower, just stop in the lounge for business class travelers for comp'd food, beverages & snacks - as airlines typically setup the intra-Asia connections with 2 to 3 hours in between, plenty of time (I won't mention the free tours from the airport then ;p )

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Edited by mking8288
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The last three times we have flown 20 plus hours to Bangkok we have always arrived about 11-12 pm. By the time we are in out hotel room it has been 1am. Generally we wake up the next morning and we are fine...though we may sleep in until 9am

 

Thus week we flew into Singapore at 8am. Adjusting to the time zone change has been brutal. Took us two days. We did sleep on the plane. We had business class flatbed seats on this 17 hours plus flight.and both got 7/8 hrs of solid sleep. We never take any medication.

 

Perhaps arriving at night does the trick.

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We are leaving from Atlanta (Eastern Time) at 11:00 am with a connection in Seoul and arrive at our final destination of Bangkok at 10:00 pm the following day.
I’m not sure we’ll have enough time for a shower between flights but it sure would be great after such a long haul on the first flight!
Are you on a Delta-operated flight for the first sector and a Korean-operated flight for the second sector? If so, I can flights that are scheduled 1114-1645+1 and then 1850-2225 that woulld roughly match the times you've given.

 

If these are the ones you're on, then 2:05 between flights would probably be enough time for a shower (if there are no delays to your first flight); I can't think of many airports where a same-terminal international-to-international connection would routinely take so long that it would rule out a shower.

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Short answer, soap & shamboo are available - if not, ask for them. Not sure about disposable razor, bring your own just in case - airline lounge definitely has clean & fresh towels, complimentary (all this, no tipping expected or needed, as it's culturally considered not respectful to do otherwise. - a big smile & thank you will make them proud & happy)

 

Didn't look at what Gloabiser checked till now - 2 hours is good enough for int'l transit via ICN, aircraft will deplane via lower level - secured - thru transit area & up to departure, depending on gate used - maybe 15 minutes or less. Once on main floor, #3 - there's a big 24/7 multi-lingual staffed help desk in the middle. Get directions if needed to get to business class lounge - it's all one floor above, pictures above should help.

 

Boarding usually start about T minus 45 minutes - that should give you 30 to 45 minutes to get inside & freshen up, even a change of underwear, tees & socks are good. It would be mid afternoon and airport is typically very busy, the lounge is an oasis - a quick shower is going to feel good. If for some reasons, you have more time - there's also free massages upstairs, next to the free shower for all travelers ... it's truly a world class airport, the first time I flew thru was July 1971 on a B707 to Anchorage for Oakland, CA, old days.

 

On final approach into ICN, our Korean Air FA had a list of connecting flights & updates, in case some are running close - and, they have greeters outside at the gate to assist & rush them thru. Delta is using B772 on this route, they will hold & let all the F & J class pax deplane first - KA's A380's - upper decks have their own quick exits, seldom squeeze unlike JFK's ground operations.

 

Before departure from ATL, use airlines's app, Flightstats, FlightAware or Kayak Pro apps to track your flight info, including the inbound flight ... we hate surprises & always proactive to monitor our travel plans.

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T2 just open 3 days ago, wow ... Korean Air, Delta & its alliance partners are using that instead of T1. Transit procedures should be the same as those at T1 - without taking the train shuttle over to T1. From what I can see, basically same/similar setup - arrival on level 2, departure on level 3 once clear of quick transit inspection & security screening (no liquiod per 3-1-1 protocols) and most services & lounges, etc. on level 4, close to the gates (especially for KL as the national & flagship carrier with its advantage).

 

YT video posted on Flyertalk - https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/korean-air-skypass/1872288-still-no-info-new-ke-lounge-new-icn-terminal-2-a-6.html

Info on the new T-2 and KL's Lounge - give them a week or 2, should sort out some of the new'ish issues.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/korean-air-skypass/1837461-new-icn-terminal-korean-air-lounge-3.html

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