Larry,

I don't know if sleeping in on the first day would help in my case. I spent the first night of my last 2 safaris in camp at Makuti. Both were some of the longest nights I can ever remember. Too much excitement and too much travel I suppose but I slept from about 10:00pm until 1:00am then was wide awake for the rest of the night. Nothing helped, just laid there in the dark anxiously waiting to hear the camp staff begin to stir. I did hear lions in the distance on the first trip. I think I actually find it easier to cut the first day a little short than to sleep in. No matter what I try, it seems to take about 3 days to really get adjusted to the time change. I think Buzz's idea of a couple of days in the fish camp might just be the ticket next time.

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Larry,

Welcome to my world. As an international airline pilot this is a common situation for me day in day out, week after week, month after month, year after year. And in today's corporate management style it's only getting worse. As we are gone more and flying tighter schedules that vary greatly from late night/all night then converting to early mornings while crossing multiple time zones all in the same 4 or 5 day period.

It's alright though because management puts out directives to mitigate fatigue. Super useful shit like, "Make sure and get to sleep at the same time everyday as useful tool to mitigate fatigue." That's the kind of stuff right there that makes folk want to go out and start beating MBA holders about the head and shoulders with sticks. But I digress..

So back to the point of fatigue mitigation in regards to circadian disruption AKA jet lag. Here's how I deal with it and it is a constant part of my life.

Daylight and hydration and exercise and let me repeat DAYLIGHT are your friends.

Hydration is number one. The humidity level aboard an airliner in flight is somewhere just below the humidity level in the Sahara desert during the dry season. It is below 10% which is VERY dry. The number one reason you feel like hammered dog meat after a long flight, besides the fact that your flight was late, we probably lost your luggage, the inflight meal wasn't fit for a Gittmo detainee,the flight attendants were surely, old and fat and you had 4" of leg room is dehydration. You almost can't drink too much water while airborne. So after you go through security and before you board your flight buy a bunch of bottles water to carry on with you. There is no way that you'll get enough via the once every three hour water call the F/A's do en route. Drink, drink, drink (No not that! WATER!)

The best way to turn your body around and get it to start accepting another time zone is to get out in the sun and exercise.Sunlight is the trigger that cures and changes circadian shifts in your brain. When I get home from a real slammer my number one thing to do to fix myself is to get out in the sun and exercise, but it does take several days to get turned around. None of this stuff is instant. With that in mind don't be afraid to take a cat nap or two during the day just limit them to about an hour or maybe two in the early afternoon. I find if I can zonk out between noon and say two in the afternoon when I'm lagged my life gets much better. And hey that's the slow time of the day for hunting anyway.

Powering through and forcing yourself to stay awake is one of the worst things you can do BECAUSE sleep depervation is cumulative. Your body cares how many hours of sleep you get in a 24 hour period not when you slept so much. The longer you stay awake the more sleep you need to fix it, so strategic napping is an important part of your recovery. If I try to power through I get so tired that I get hyper and can't get to sleep! That's always fun!

Things that don't work in slightest for me are;

Melatonin
Valerian
Alcohol (actually makes it worse)

As a pilot we can't take any of the prescription sleep aids.

However I have taken Ambein while on vacation here is what it does for me. It puts me out for about 5 to 6 hours I then wake up hard and can not get back to sleep. After two or three nights of taking Ambein it causes insomnia. I won't ever take it again.

I hope that helps somewhat.[/QUOTE]

I found this write up very informative and helpful given the author is a professional "jet lagger". I'm going to give his model a try on my up coming trip.

I agree that Surestrike's post was extremely informative. I knew some of what was posted already. Some I didn't. Somethings simply are not doable. While I agree with them, the timing of flights, etc make some of this almost impossible.

I think I am going to hydrate more, use my mouthpiece and sleep an extra 2-3 hours the first night.

Thanks Surestirke.

I am a bit like Larry too. But I have a tough time getting to sleep, or nap at the 12-14:00 time, unless I am good and tired. So I have to stay up a while. Just napping here and there when I can until the next real bed time works for me. And more after the exercise and work. In my younger years I would just go and blow through it and if I slept from midnight until 5 I was good. Now I just get there a day early and take an extra day if I need it. Good posts.

On my first morning in camp I usually ask not to be woke in the morning. I sleep till I awake on my own. I usually am awake at first light I shower and get some breakfast and then I am ready to go.

"I agree Provent is not quite as good as the machine but they do work when attached properly."

They do beat the heck of out carrying the darn CPAP around, don't they, Die Ou Jagter? I've never tried the mouthpiece method. I wonder how it stacks up against the Provent, or is just an idiosyncratic thing - one works well for one guy and another method works well for the next?