PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Concern over jet-lagged pilots
View Single Post
Old 25th Jan 2009, 08:09
  #22 (permalink)  
dicksorchard
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: merseyside
Posts: 81
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Melatonin & Jet - lag

I have a daughter who suffer's from autism & a sleep disorder .
She is prescribed Melatonin and takes it on a regular basis and has i am glad to say shown great improvement in sleeping patterns !

Now on a trip to see her consultant we got into a conversation about the benfits of taking this medication and my daughters consultant actually told me that he personally knew that Melatonin works for jet -lag .

When i asked him how he knew - he told me he used it all the time as he flew on a very regular basis and a lot of long haul . He also told me that he had two friends who worked in the avaition industry - both Air crew who used it also to combat fatigue and jet-lag .

So what did i do ?
Prior to a recent vacation to Cuba - flight from Manchester , UK to Varadero i took melatonin for 1 week - after a gruelling 14 hour journey ( delays etc & drop off at Holguin ) we arrived at our hotel late in the evening .

Myself and my partner woke up fresh as daisys , with not a hint ov jet-lag , in fact we where the only travellers from our flight to be at breakfast & lunch .
we where on the beach whilst everone else was in bed suffering from jet -lag !

Frankly we where amazed . Mind over matter ?

Well we did'nt take any melatonin whilst on vacation and forgot to take it prior to departure like we where supposed to do .

consequence - on return to the uk both off us felt dredfull ..the dreded jet lag had caught up with us ! since then i use melatonin on a reugular basis especially when travelling long haul ..i have learnt that some airline pilots also use this substance ?

what do you guys think ? and have you ever used it yourself ?
dicksorchard is offline