What is the earliest we can go to bed on our first day in London?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Insane idea. But .. can you hotel nap for 4 hours to help you get through?
Then get up and try to get London time from there.

If you’re able to get your sleep schedule, here, earlier and earlier, I don’t see the issue with getting in a half-day nap to tie you over.

Was going to add—I think the flight change is actually more ideal. It gives you a flight sleep window that is earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP who said 8pm. Eat dinner at 5 or 6. Just take sleeping pills on the plane and make sure you get at least 4 hours of sleep. You will not only be fine but have fun. Freaking out about it won't help.

OP here. This was the original plan but the new flight takes off a 6:10pm our time and it’s only 6 hours long. So to get 4 hours we’d need to be asleep by 8pm. It’s not that we aren’t willing to try - we are - but it just seems difficult. I’m so annoyed at Virgin. We chose them over others because they had one of the later flights. Ugh.

Try not to overthink this. You might feel great on arrival day, you might not. But it’s a day and you will be fine the next day. I travel to London several times a year and I’m usually fine on arrival day with a morning shower, coffee, and walking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP who said 8pm. Eat dinner at 5 or 6. Just take sleeping pills on the plane and make sure you get at least 4 hours of sleep. You will not only be fine but have fun. Freaking out about it won't help.

OP here. This was the original plan but the new flight takes off a 6:10pm our time and it’s only 6 hours long. So to get 4 hours we’d need to be asleep by 8pm. It’s not that we aren’t willing to try - we are - but it just seems difficult. I’m so annoyed at Virgin. We chose them over others because they had one of the later flights. Ugh.

Try not to overthink this. You might feel great on arrival day, you might not. But it’s a day and you will be fine the next day. I travel to London several times a year and I’m usually fine on arrival day with a morning shower, coffee, and walking.

Thanks. You are right that I am overthinking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP who said 8pm. Eat dinner at 5 or 6. Just take sleeping pills on the plane and make sure you get at least 4 hours of sleep. You will not only be fine but have fun. Freaking out about it won't help.

OP here. This was the original plan but the new flight takes off a 6:10pm our time and it’s only 6 hours long. So to get 4 hours we’d need to be asleep by 8pm. It’s not that we aren’t willing to try - we are - but it just seems difficult. I’m so annoyed at Virgin. We chose them over others because they had one of the later flights. Ugh.

Try not to overthink this. You might feel great on arrival day, you might not. But it’s a day and you will be fine the next day. I travel to London several times a year and I’m usually fine on arrival day with a morning shower, coffee, and walking.

Mostly agree with this, but I sleep horribly on planes, and even in my 20s, had a very bad day of arrival after maybe 2 hours sleep on the plane, and the 2nd day was not totally back to normal. Everyone is different. Having done this a few times now, one thing I would be sure of is that you have nothing scheduled before noon or 1 PM the day AFTER you arrive. My kids have always slept super late that first night- never up before 11 AM, even if they went to bed by 9 or 9:30 PM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP who said 8pm. Eat dinner at 5 or 6. Just take sleeping pills on the plane and make sure you get at least 4 hours of sleep. You will not only be fine but have fun. Freaking out about it won't help.

OP here. This was the original plan but the new flight takes off a 6:10pm our time and it’s only 6 hours long. So to get 4 hours we’d need to be asleep by 8pm. It’s not that we aren’t willing to try - we are - but it just seems difficult. I’m so annoyed at Virgin. We chose them over others because they had one of the later flights. Ugh.

Try not to overthink this. You might feel great on arrival day, you might not. But it’s a day and you will be fine the next day. I travel to London several times a year and I’m usually fine on arrival day with a morning shower, coffee, and walking.

Thanks. You are right that I am overthinking it.

You know, it’s a real mindf$& especially for moms because we’re kind of supposed to overthink everything and that’s how we magically have the gear everyone needs and the bandaid at the right time and the schedule that keeps everyone happy. But then at some point you have to just adopt a positive mind set and start to roll with the punches. Segregate 10% of your brain to keep looking ahead so that you can do things like buy the airport granola bars that will be so clutch for everyone in 3 hours without allowing that part of your brain to despair about how everyone is exhausted because you didn’t book a nap room even though you agonized over it for days and did tons of research. Easy peasy, right?

Maybe go to the Anthony McCall exhibit at the Tate Modern. That looks like it could be fun if you’re really sleepy.

[Anonymous]

Re: kids, my son woke up extremely hungry at 3AM our first hotel overnight in London. Painfully hungry. Crying. He never cries. None of the rest of us were out of sorts. All of us had eaten a meal before going to bed. I found a hotel clerk who went into the kitchen to find something for to offer. Came out w/bread. That was good enough. I suggest you have some snacks in the room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frequent traveler here. I don't like the flights to UK, Ireland, Portugal because they are so short like 7-ish hours, so if you leave at 6pm, you arrive at 1am your body clock time. As a night owl, I usually am about ready for bed just as we arrive then.

If you want to sleep, book a hotel by the airport on a day rate. Sometimes you have to contact them to get the day rate (not bookable on their site), but airport hotels all tend to have it. I arrive, get a few hours of sleep, work a bit, then head to my "real" hotel that afternoon like 3pm or so.

This is good advice. Airport hotel, especially if it has “day rates”!
We’ve also done naps from noon-3pm, but honestly hell to get everyone up, once they were up we did something fun until 9pm, went to bed, and no jet lag next day.
Third option is to power through until 7 pm or so. Even if you wake up at 6 am the next day, that’s totally fine. Early sightseeing with no crowds!

[Anonymous]

We did this last summer. Landed around 7am. Booked a day rate ar a Heathrow hotel- j think it was around $100? We had to checkout at 1pm I think? But we slept from
8:30-1130, showered and headed to our hotel to drop off our luggage before hitting the town. Went to bed around 9:30 and were totally adjusted. Worked great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can sleep at a cheaper airport hotel, then after you wake up, get the train into London.

OP here. If we do this, what is the correct length of time to sleep? Won't we be super groggy when we wake up after just a few hours?

Probably. The first time I went to London I didn’t reserve a room the night before and just planned to drop off bags and go do things, but the room was available so we napped for 2 hours. That worked well so the second time I did reserve a room for the night before and we again slept for about 2 hours. Both times we were groggy when we woke up, and I had to force myself to get out of bed but I did. We woke up by 11:30am both times. Getting ready and going out into the sun/light, eating lunch and walking around eventually got rid of the grogginess. Went to bed by 10pm the first night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous) Ideally I book the room for the night before so I can check in, take a shower and nap for about 3 hrs. Good to go from there and not jetlag.[/quote wrote:

We always do this. Kids are now teens, starter when they were younger. Sleep no more than two hrs. Then get outside and be a tourist. Bedtime 9-10 the first night if we can make it and Melatonin at night if you need it. We wake up ready to go the next morning

[Anonymous]

Could you pay for/have access to a club at the airport and take a shower and a nap? I've done that before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always nap. Ideally I book the room for the night before so I can check in, take a shower and nap for about 3 hrs. Good to go from there and not jetlag.

Same. We always nap for a few hours when we get there and then get up and go out for the rest of the day and then come back and go to bed at a normal time. Works well for us. I know many people swear by the “stay up all day” approach, but I see no point in torturing myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Our mid range hotel is costing almost $600/night (to sleep all four of us) so there is no way I will convince my husband to pay for another night just to nap. We may live to regret it, but he will never go for that I'm sure.

Then you will be completely miserable and you need to make it until at least 8pm. If you fall asleep anywhere between when you check in (4pm or so) and 8pm, you are screwed. So stay out of your room.

They might not be. I usually take flights that arrive around 7-830 am and I never nap. I stay up and aim for an early bedtime (8-9pm). I wake up in the morning totally refreshed and on track.

[Anonymous]

Are you landing in Heathrow?

You can land and then immediately nap for a couple of hours. Get up around 10 or 11am and be good for the day.

https://www.myaerotel.com/en-uk/find/americas-europe/united-kingdom/london/aerotel-london

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: kids, my son woke up extremely hungry at 3AM our first hotel overnight in London. Painfully hungry. Crying. He never cries. None of the rest of us were out of sorts. All of us had eaten a meal before going to bed. I found a hotel clerk who went into the kitchen to find something for to offer. Came out w/bread. That was good enough. I suggest you have some snacks in the room.

thanks for this anecdote. I thought that i was the only person who had this problem! The first time it happened, absolutely nothing was open, not even a vending machine. I walked a mile or two in the dark in the middle of the night through the quiet city and found a bar that catered to taxi drivers, where I ate the worst/best breakfast sandwich at my life while listening to cabbies regaling each other with crazy tales of Things That Happened In My Cab. Eternally grateful to that bar, and now I always carry a emotional support granola bar when I travel.