Anyone who has taken a long-haul flight will know the feeling. You arrive at your destination (or back home) and for a day or two your life is a blur. Waking up in the middle of the night, wanting to sleep in the daytime, and an appetite that doesn’t follow rhyme or reason; you wait for normality to return, and it does so at its own pace, regardless of how many times you’ve been through it before.
I have had times when jet lag hasn’t affected me at all. Flying to Peru, we travelled for 14 hours in daylight, and on arrival in Lima we had a meal, I went to bed and had an uninterrupted night’s sleep. Next day I was ready to go and on top form. Other times I have felt rough for two to three days: arriving in Singapore was probably the worst I’ve suffered from jet lag and no number of Singapore Slings helped my body clock reset itself.
On a long trip it’s easy enough to just grin and bear it through those first couple of days. But what do you do if you’re only at your destination for a couple of days? A couple of years ago I was due to give a presentation in Houston. I flew out two days before, had one day of meetings, was due to speak the next morning and jump on the afternoon flight home. I chose to keep myself on UK time throughout the trip. So I was up at 3am and exercising in the hotel gym (something I would only ever do in an emergency) and swimming countless lengths of the pool (well, probably less than 4). Did it help? Not a bit. I felt rough for the two days there and the next two on my return home.
I fare worse because I rarely sleep on planes. I even took a sleeping tablet once on a flight home from San Diego. Having popped it soon after my meal, I waited for the effects to kick in. And waited. And waited. They did eventually make me very incredibly drowsy. Unfortunately it was around one hour before arrival where I was due to pick up my car and drive home. Never again.
Is there a reliable cure for jet lag? I did see a recent TV documentary about a way of beating jetlag recently. A group of scientists suggested going 16 hours without food, immediately before and during your flight. On arrival you will be very hungry, and by eating the meal that you should eat at that time, your body clock will be reset. They attached electrodes to their subjects and measured brain activity in an attempt to prove their point. I’m not convinced, and tried to follow this recently without success. This tip is of course far easier to execute when travelling economy on an American/European airline, where the food is so easy to turn away.
I would welcome advice on how others manage to conquer jet lag. But for me, I’ll keep enjoying my meals and trying to sleep on the plane, I’ll stay off the tablets and on arrival will build in an extra day to recover.
An Australian friend who I used to live with in the USA had the most horrifically long journeys home to Melbourne and would recommend taking a Melatonin supplement the days before and after your flights to “help balance your sleep hormones”. I can’t vouch for how scientifically accurate that is but she would swear by it. Apart from that, might I recommend a good old fashioned skinful of booze? Sleeping during the flight, if you can, has always been my absolute saviour from jet lag. What better inducement to sleep in an uncomfortable position than getting merry on free wine and passing out in front of a boring in-flight movie. Admittedly, it isn’t the most elegant way to travel, but it works for me.
No, I don’t actually know the feeling, and I have taken many long haul flights. I don’t get jetlagged. Yes, I go to be a little bit earlier the first night after I arrived, most of the time, but not always. What I do is I change the time to the new time zone as soon as I get onto the plane, or just after dinner. On everything, including my phone. And then I start thinking about the new time zone. And I also don’t try and stay awake, I sleep on the plane – earplug in and then I am out 😉 Nowadays I most of the time try to eat before I get onto the plane so that I can change time zone and read a little and then be OK even if I fall asleep before the food arrives. Bring some snacks just in case you wake up when everybody else is sleeping though.
Works well.
OH, and go easy on the alcohol, I may have a glass of red but that is. I drink enough water, but not too much because I don’t want to have to go to the bathroom all the time. And no caffeine. Also no caffeine the first day when I have landed if I can avoid it.
OH! By the way: I don’t allow myself to think about what time it is where I came from (with one exception, if I have to call someone in that time zone. What I really dislike is people who tell me “Oh, now the time is so and so at home”. interfears with my thinking and may get me into the wrong thinking. When I arrive I start living “normal” life straigth away; If I arrive at lunchtime I eat lunch, if I arrive in the evening I have supper. You see? Just live that time zone.
If heading to Asia I normally spoil myself with a massage or so when i get there, relaxes me and helps me getting into the right time zone as well.
I did try Melatonin once, but also to no avail. Others, like you say Zoey, swear by it. Some good tips there Ann-Katrin. I especially like the idea of thinking in your new time zone and not in the old one. I do set my watch to the new zone as soon as we get airborne. I can’t compete with your discipline though. My mind forever drifts to thinking “this time yesterday we were ……”
Thanks for the comments.
I think it will always remain of life’s mysteries. Flying around the world is a human invention that seems to have lept way pass evolution’s ability to keep up.
Interesting concept at the end. Will have to try it!
Funny that you wrote this today Andy, I’ve been writing an article about jet lag over the last day or two. Turns out the reason jet lag has such an effect on you is that long flights effect your regularly timed exposure to daylight and darkness. Which is how you body knows when to be awake and asleep, when to produce melatonin. And when that rhythm is disrupted you’ll feel groggy and prone to insomnia just when you don’t want to be.
I read that supplemental melatonin is effective but not if you don’t know when to take it. You have to time your dose exactly right to trick the body into a sleep pattern correct with your destination.
Unfortunately the psychological trick won’t work because the effect is purely physiological. The water drinking, Ann-Katin, definitely a good idea.
Here’s my post if you’re interested. Just posted it today!
http://news.airtreks.com/post/2010/02/how-to-defeat-jet-lag-once-and-for-all/
It doesn’t matter to me if the physiological tricks won’t work because the effect is purely physiological – much in life is. Heck, we even have physical illness that is based just on phychology. And it works like a charm, on me. I travel the world across time zones very often, and I never have problems with jetlag. As long as it works for me I am happy 🙂
Excellent point that physical illnesses are often psychologically induced, stress being a great example. So why wouldn’t it be able to go the other way, the mind as a cure.
That’s great that you can think away your jet lag. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking, I guess!
I heard the cure is to drink lots of water, but they say that about everything.
Over the years I have tried to understand the theory of jet lag, as I travel a lot, mainly to Asia. I have found that the whole experience is connected to your sleep/wake cycle. Yes, it is affected by light and dark, but it takes a few days to adjust. So to help it along I do the following:
– Try try not to go without sleep more than 16 hours
– Sleep on the plane
– If traveling west, I go to bed about 8 pm and take melatonin about 2 am if I wake up
– If traveling east, when I arrive, I exercise and/or do lots of stuff to make me tired. I then take a bit more melatonin than when traveling west and always sleep in the night
It is important not to stay awake for long periods of time because you then add sleep deprivation to the jet lag, then you really feel like crap.
Your body produces melatonin anyway, but it does so when it expects it to be night time. This is why melatonin supplementation works for most people. But you have to know when to take it.
I’ve read loads of stuff over the years, but there’s a pdf file you can download from this website: 1jetlag.com. It breifly explains circadian rythym, melatonin, when to sleep etc. It might be of some use.
Thanks for the tips about sleeping when you can and not trying to stay awake until ‘the right time’. I’m guilty of that one I’m afraid.
I’ll read the many great suggestions here before my next long haul flight. Looks like some folk are less prone to suffering with jet lag than others. Water and mind control!
I fly to various countries in Asia for roughly half the year. That is, I generally spend 1-3 weeks in a location or two at a time, then return to the U.S. I used to suffer the type of jet lag that is not just fatigue but also nausea and disorientation. Actually, before I got very good at my routine, I almost always got sick (i.e. a cold) as I was returning home, which made me wholly miserable. Usually, that was just about the time when my body gave way to exhaustion, stress, etc. Before I modified my routine, basically I suffered from jet lag and illness in a vicious cycle.
What did I do? I did a lot of research, and I committed to trying anything reasonably helpful (all at once and consistently). I thought that trying any method once was inferior to trying potentially contradictory or conflating methods many times. Over the past 2 years, I have done the following, which has almost cured my jet lag entirely for all of my trips.
(1) FOOD I follow a strict diet before each leg, beginning 2 days prior to departure. On day 1, I fast. It is simple–I drink plenty of water, a couple of glasses of fruit juice if needed, and try my best to power through. I make it a contest, and quite honestly it also makes me feel good the next day when I eat. On day two, I eat only protein through mid-afternoon, followed by a meal with little to no protein and abundant complex carbs. On day 3, the day of departure, I do the same as with day one (no food). On day 3, I always cheat, though. I have to eat something to help me psychologically with the fact that I will not eat another morsel for 12-16 hours. Regardless of where I am going, which can be as short as Tokyo (12 hours) or long as Manila (about 20 hours), I do not eat for the duration of the flight(s). When I arrive, if it is still before 5pm (and light), I will eat a high protein meal without carbs. If it is evening and dark, I will eat a carb-rich meal without protein. The next day (day four), I do the same high-protein meals first, followed by high-carb meals later. I relax the rules on the fourth day.
(2) CAFFEINE I drink an Americano every day. It is a part of my morning routine–the first part. However, the day before flight, I do not drink caffeine. If you drink coffee as I do, that day sucks, but not as much as the day after getting to Asia when caffeine shockingly has no impact. Caffeine also, in my view, disrupts your ability to adjust to the new time zone. I do not drink caffeine of any kind between the day before and the day after flight. When I can sleep 6 hours straight, I can return to drinking coffee.
(3) EXERCISE I do not exercise when I get to Asia because usually that puts me into a new level of energy and ruins the slim chances of me getting any sleep. When I get up the next day, even if I have to work, I will do my best to walk a lot, quickly, and not to sit in a dark room. If anything, outside air is the best thing for me before 3pm. At 3pm or my earliest possibility thereafter, I do an intense, body-mangling workout. I do cardio for 30 minutes, followed by weights, lunges, and abs for 45 minutes, followed by a final leg of cardio (as long as I can stand). This makes me exhausted but cures my inevitable 3pm drowsiness. I also strongly believe it makes me sleep well that night. I have also read about doing this kind of exercise a day or two (or both) before a flight. I don’t necessarily think that this has as great an impact as the next-day workout.
There are things I tried that failed miserably: sleeping pills increase my jet lag, have a marginal effect on my ability to sleep on the plane, and usually make it impossible for me to wake up when I get to Asia or home. Drinking alcohol makes me drowsy, but even if I strategically drink alcohol to fall sleep, I always wake up 1-2 hours later. Finally, I cannot stress the importance of drinking water in-flight enough. Even if I sleep well on the long flight but do not drink much water, I will feel much worse the next day, even barring time zone changes.
I hope this helps anyone suffering from jet lag. My only other thought is that I think that any jet-lag-fighting strategy requires a specific approach based on the flight, duration of stay (and purpose), and other personal preferences.
Wow, thanks for the good info Ryan. That’s comprehensive advice and worth a post in its own right! Some excellent suggestions there that I’ll take on board on my next big flight.. thanks again!