There are endless articles out there with tips from “experts” about how to overcome jetlag. As someone who has flown millions of miles and has spent a countless number of nights in timezones very far away from home, I figured I’d share my take.
In addition to sharing some general tips for overcoming jetlag, I wanted to also talk about why I’m not as obsessed with getting over jetlag as others. Let me start by saying that this advice is intended primarily for people traveling for leisure, rather than those who are on whirlwind international business trips.
In this post:
I don’t buy into “traditional” jetlag advice
The way I view it, there’s some traditional advice for avoiding jetlag that I don’t follow. I’m not saying it’s bad advice, but I just question why one should even bother. For example:
- Already start to adjust to your new timezone days before you leave on your trip, by getting up progressively earlier or later — that seems like a lot of effort
- Don’t drink alcohol or eat on the plane, but rather go straight to sleep — okay, totally fine if you’re flying economy, but you haven’t been racking up all these miles with credit cards in order to drink water in Emirates first class, right? 😉
- Change your watch to the local time at your destination as soon as you leave home, so you can start acclimating — fair enough, but that’s not some magical pixy dust that’s going to make you adjust… oh, and I also don’t own a watch
- Always stay on local time when you get to your destination, and don’t nap — naps are kind of amazing, though, and who doesn’t love an afternoon siesta?
Why I’m not intimidated by jetlag
While I generally try to adjust to local time when traveling internationally, I’m not obsessed with it in quite the way other people are. Why?
- I get up at 3-5AM when I’m at home (without an alarm), and I love being a morning person, so if I get up an hour or two earlier (or later than usual), it’s not a big deal; I feel like jetlag advice is largely for people who are late risers, who don’t want to get up early
- I kind of love the feeling of being jetlagged; I love making a coffee at 2AM in my hotel room, getting some work done, going to the gym, and still being the first person at breakfast
- I have the flexibility to work from anywhere, and I also work whenever I travel, so I try to have at least some of my day overlap with US business hours; since my travels aren’t generally a “once in a lifetime” holiday where I have no work, I don’t have the same obsession with being perfectly adjusted that many other people have
My tips & strategies for dealing with jetlag
With the above out of the way, I figured I’d share my tips and strategies for dealing with jetlag while in timezones that are far away from home. In no particular order…
Stay out of your hotel room as much as possible
If you’re like me, your hotel room is also your office when traveling. But that’s also a slippery slope. Your room might have a mediocre office desk and a very comfortable bed. So if you’re anything like me, you might get off a long haul flight, then go sit at your desk in your room, and then slowly start working from bed, and then… zzzzz.
Therefore while adjusting to a new timezone, I always recommend staying out of your room as much as possible if you don’t want to sleep. Get some fresh air and sightsee, go to the gym, or if you want to work, go to a coffeeshop, the hotel lobby, or the hotel club lounge, assuming you have access. This will help you avoid the temptation to sleep.
Don’t nap after 2PM
This is quite possibly the most important point for me. Some people say you shouldn’t nap at all when battling jet lag. I don’t think that’s necessary.
For example, if you have a long haul flight and land at your destination at 6AM, in my opinion you should nap so that you’re refreshed. The key, though, is to avoid a nap late in the day. Based on my preferred schedule (getting up around 5AM, going to bed at around 9PM), I never nap after 2PM.
When I try to nap after 2PM that typically turns into a full-on slumber, and that’s not good for adjusting timezones.
Use the power of caffeine
Others will disagree with me on this, but in this post I’m sharing my tips, so too bad. 😉 I love coffee in general, and in particular when traveling. When it’s the afternoon on my first day at a new destination and I’m tempted to nap, I instead leave my hotel room and try to find a great cup of coffee somewhere.
That kills many birds with one stone — I get caffeine, fresh air, and I pass time.
Don’t leave your phone next to your bed when sleeping
Once you finally do fall asleep for the night and are trying to overcome jetlag, I recommend not putting your phone within easy reach from where you’re sleeping. Why? When I wake up in the middle of the night I’m tempted to just look at my phone briefly, but once that happens, I’m wide awake. After all, life is continuing in my timezone back home, and I have all kinds of emails, messages, etc.
So instead I leave my phone face down and far away. I turn on a white noise app, and I can choose for how long I want it to play. For example, I might play it for six hours — then rather than looking at what time it is, I can tell by the noise whether six hours has passed since I fell asleep. I have a much easier time going back to sleep when I don’t look at my phone.
Being up at weird times isn’t that bad
I hinted at this earlier, but I think it’s worth emphasizing — being jetlagged isn’t that bad, and on some level I’d encourage people to embrace it. Some of my fondest travel memories have involved wandering foreign streets in the middle of the night. There’s something beautiful about being up before everyone, and watching the sun rise (if that’s not something you’d usually do).
Sure, try to adjust to local time as much as you can, but don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get it exactly right. You can see a destination in a whole different way at off hours. For that matter, there’s something really nice about taking an afternoon nap if you got up much earlier than usual. I especially love this in tropical destinations where it may be ridiculously hot in the afternoons.
Pick your arrival times deliberately
I find that timing when I arrive at a destination can have a big impact on how I do with jetlag. Coming from the East Coast of the United States, here are my general preferences for the time at which I like to arrive at destinations:
- For Europe, I like to arrive as late in the morning or early in the afternoon as possible; this allows me to avoid napping the first day, and then I’m deliriously tired by bedtime, and get a good night of sleep
- For the Middle East and Africa, I prefer to arrive in the early evening; it has usually been a very long travel day, and my best bet is to have dinner or take a walk, then go to sleep, and then wake up early the next morning (as usual)
- For most of the rest of Asia I don’t have that strong of a preference one way or another, since it’s such a massive time change, and it’s going to be a struggle no matter what; I generally prefer an early morning arrival with the possibility of a nap, assuming my hotel room is ready, but that’s a whole different adventure
- For “deep” South America you have to take a long flight but the timezone hasn’t really changed, so I prefer taking an overnight flight to travel as efficiently as possible, and then I’ll try to take a nap early on my first day
Enjoy your flights
This counters typical jetlag advice, but OMAAT is largely about helping people maximize their rewards to travel in comfort. Maybe I’m just still a kid at heart, because the prevailing “beating jetlag” thought process seems to be to board a plane, not eat or drink anything, and go straight to sleep.
Not only do I struggle sleeping when there’s a meal service (because of the noise, smell, lights, etc.), but for that matter a large part of what I love about first & business travel is the inflight service, especially on top airlines.
So while this perhaps isn’t great jetlag advice, by all means enjoy and maximize a flight if you’re looking forward to it. Have some great food and drinks, take a nap (or don’t), and you can figure out your jetlag situation when you’re on the ground. Of course this assumes that you’re traveling for leisure, and aren’t traveling for business and need to hit the ground running on arrival.
Bottom line
I’ve certainly done my fair share of long haul travel over the years, and the above is my general approach to dealing with jetlag. As you can tell, I don’t pursue a “zero jetlag” strategy, but rather try to find a happy middle ground. I’m a very early riser anyway, so if I get up an hour or two earlier or later, it doesn’t really matter to me. If anything, I hate when I get up at 8AM or later, since I feel like I’ve already wasted half of the day (yes, I’m weird).
Personally when trying to adjust to a new timezone I try to stay out of my hotel room as much as possible, drink coffee (and use finding a good cup of coffee as an activity any hour of the day), avoid afternoon naps (and embrace morning naps), put my phone far away from me when sleeping, etc.
What’s your strategy for dealing with jetlag when traveling?
Good article on do's and don's on jet lag. So much is all so personal to in a secretive way. I had not planned on writing a comment BUT in the section concerning drinking etc, I laughed how you pointed out that one does not fly Emirates First class to drink water. YES I DO. When flying regardless of airline, in either Business or First is to approach the flight attendant who is working my...
Good article on do's and don's on jet lag. So much is all so personal to in a secretive way. I had not planned on writing a comment BUT in the section concerning drinking etc, I laughed how you pointed out that one does not fly Emirates First class to drink water. YES I DO. When flying regardless of airline, in either Business or First is to approach the flight attendant who is working my seating area. I AM A RECOVERING ALCOHOLIC, SO PLEASE, DO NOT OFFER ANY. They are very cooperative.
Now @Dim Sum is responding on Ben's behalf. This demented gurl has zero social skills/awareness whatsoever.
first the article is about Jetlag; someone decided to throw in an unrelated topic.
and yet Ben hasn't responded and has posted multiple articles instead - and hasn't touched the CrowdStroke induced IT meltdown in days since DL confirmed it is filing suit unless CRWD and MSFT settle fairly quickly.
DL countered every one of the points that Ben and others leveled against DL about the outage which simply says that there were...
first the article is about Jetlag; someone decided to throw in an unrelated topic.
and yet Ben hasn't responded and has posted multiple articles instead - and hasn't touched the CrowdStroke induced IT meltdown in days since DL confirmed it is filing suit unless CRWD and MSFT settle fairly quickly.
DL countered every one of the points that Ben and others leveled against DL about the outage which simply says that there were facts that people didn't know and which counter Ben's incessant "my gosh this looks bad for Delta" and actually makes CRWD and MSFT (which is mostly being dragged in for the size of its pockets) look quite bad.
now, back to jetlag....
@Ben What is your opinion about this?
https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/delta-flyers-file-class-action-lawsuit-over-july-meltdown.html
Ben can respond if he wants but federal law prohibits suing US airlines for service failures whether as a class action or not because the DOT regulates service - even though the US airline industry has been deregulated for almost 50 years.
The class action suit is asking for the same thing that the DOT is asking Delta and other airlines to do so there is likely no basis for a participant to join...
Ben can respond if he wants but federal law prohibits suing US airlines for service failures whether as a class action or not because the DOT regulates service - even though the US airline industry has been deregulated for almost 50 years.
The class action suit is asking for the same thing that the DOT is asking Delta and other airlines to do so there is likely no basis for a participant to join the class if they have received compensation from Delta.
And if the precedent is broken prohibiting civil lawsuits against airlines, the impact will be far larger to other airlines over time because other airlines cancel and delay more flights than DL does.
The DOT has released its Air Travel Consumer Report covering May and, as I have been saying, year to date cancellations for American and United are still higher for those two airlines than for Delta even including cancellations due to CrowdStrike.
And Gary over at VFTW posted data that shows that United cancelled 3.5% of its flights in July compared to 5.2% for DL so the notion that DL alone suffered major impacts from CrowdStrike is completely unsupported by facts and data.
"Ben can respond if he wants..." Why would Ben do that when you are triggered and compelled to respond on all things Delta?
first, the article has nothing to do with Delta but someone inserted the comment. Address your ire there.
second, Ben presumably can access every reply faster than any reader. He has chosen not to respond. Doesn't matter the topic. He has chosen not to go there 10 hours after the comment was posted.
and third, there is no need on any topic into a discussion when the answer to the question is one of federal...
first, the article has nothing to do with Delta but someone inserted the comment. Address your ire there.
second, Ben presumably can access every reply faster than any reader. He has chosen not to respond. Doesn't matter the topic. He has chosen not to go there 10 hours after the comment was posted.
and third, there is no need on any topic into a discussion when the answer to the question is one of federal law. Like it or not, US airlines cannot be sued for service failures because the DOT won't let go of the authority that the Civil Aeronautics Board had almost 50 years ago.
the same rule applied when UA had its schedule meltdown due to overscheduling EWR a year ago and WN's IT meltdown which was driven by a lack of spending on IT.
And for the record, DL said that the reason why it took so long for it to get its operation re-established was because it operated 60% of its mission-critical systems on Microsoft and CrowdStrike, a system that it trusted as being reliable. It is doubtful that any other airline operated anywhere close to that level of dependence on two IT Providers which were perceived to be reliable and high quality.
Countering other points Ben made, DL said that CRWD's CEO didn't call until 3 1/2 days later and their technical support team simply referred DL to publicly available directions which required rebooting every computer/server - of which DL had nearly 40,000 offline.
As for not taking responsibility, another flimsy charge Ben and others made, DL said that it is CRWD that pointed to mice type that limited their liability as DL has written hundreds of millions of checks to customers.
the only hubris is from those that made statements that were contrary to facts which they did not know.
It is no surprise that Ben and most of the media that were so quick to throw Delta under the bus have now gone silent... and so have CRWD and MSFT since DL released its counter points to CRWD and MSFT's statements.
An out of court settlement will be reached. The more Delta talks about this case, the more it damages CRWD and MSFT's business.
I don't think there are any magic solutions, and everyone has their own method. I'm not going to spend days doing some fakakta gradual adjustment routine before I fly, I think the best way is to accept that the local time at the destination is what it is, and force my brain and body into compliance. Not having to travel in economy class also makes it easier to manage.
Terrific post, Ben. I'm with you almost completely on ignoring the 'traditional advice' about coping with jetlag. You're a bit coy about saying it could be bad advice. So I'll say it for you: it's mostly bad advice!! I live in Australasia and travel to the UK mostly. Have learned from experience to catch the morning flight out of Singapore around 9am local time (so it's a fully 'day' flight all the way) and arrive...
Terrific post, Ben. I'm with you almost completely on ignoring the 'traditional advice' about coping with jetlag. You're a bit coy about saying it could be bad advice. So I'll say it for you: it's mostly bad advice!! I live in Australasia and travel to the UK mostly. Have learned from experience to catch the morning flight out of Singapore around 9am local time (so it's a fully 'day' flight all the way) and arrive in London 13 or 14 hours later in the late afternoon around 4pm or 5pm local time. Then I hit the sack around 7pm because by now I'm truly tired, and have good full night's rest. We differ on coffee though. That stuff only made my jetlag even worse. But taking a one hour nap worked wonders. I can only advise people to experiment to see what combination works for them, instead of swallowing the 'traditional' advice without thinking.
Heading west is always easier than flying eastbound. Westbound I'm not so hung-up on whether it's a day or overnight flight. Eastbound is a circadian nightmare no matter what time you leave.
Heading east from Australia/New Zealand is way easier than heading west. You leave Monday morning (local time for all of these) arrive on the west coast early Monday or in Texas mid morning. You connect and fly to my airport. You're home between 6pm and 8pm. Stay awake until 10 pm and wake up feeling great about 8am Tuesday.
Why did my post calling this bs for travel to Australia get booted?
If your end destination is the UK from the US, take a daytime flight. You get to your hotel room is always ready, have a late dinner and go to bed.
The whole counter argument about missing a day or paying for an extra night's hotel are valid yet that is the cost of forgoing jet lag.
Great advice. Like you, some of my fondest memories involve wandering around foreign destinations in the early morning hours at and just before sunrise. I would probably be up anyway but maybe jet lag has actually helped in those situations. No regrets.
Wonderful thoughts. Great ideas. Thanks! I have found 2 “collars” that enable my head to stay vertical and not drop forward or go left and right. This is common problem for someone 6’2”. Noise cancelling headphones also help knock out screaming babies and plane engine noise.
The biggest thing i do in economy is bring webbing tied end to end. I put both arms through webbing loop so it is above my elbow. This...
Wonderful thoughts. Great ideas. Thanks! I have found 2 “collars” that enable my head to stay vertical and not drop forward or go left and right. This is common problem for someone 6’2”. Noise cancelling headphones also help knock out screaming babies and plane engine noise.
The biggest thing i do in economy is bring webbing tied end to end. I put both arms through webbing loop so it is above my elbow. This pulls my arms in a little so i can relax my arms. Why? My arm and shoulder constantly rub on person next to me. Without webbing pulling arms together i constantly am using muscles to keep away from rubbing other people. That just keeps me awake if i try to sleep. Seats are designed for your waist width. Shoulders add another 6” of width so there a person is always disturbing other people unless you are 5’ tall and weigh 95 lbs. i am 6’2” and weigh 168 lbs.
I always explain what i do to people who sit next to me so they do not think i am too crazy. In economy every single person has said, “That’s a great idea!”.
Again you gave great advice. Enjoy the flight, the coffee, the food, etc.
Thanks for the jet lag tips…makes a lot of sense. You mentioned hotel room coffee, and I’m wondering if you could write about that. I’m also a coffee geek, and very picky. And I don’t usually like the coffee the hotel provides, so I usually take my own. Dripkits work well if I’m traveling light, or taking my pourover fixings with coffee I’ve roasted myself at home if I have a large checked bag. Which hotels serve the best coffee? What do you personally do?
You are so right. When I was a F/A, my routes were largely MIA to points in deep South America... not a major time zone change at all BUT they were red-eyes. Flying MIA to Europe I realize that I did pretty much what you do and you know... it worked !
“ Others will disagree with me on this, but in this post I’m sharing my tips, so too bad.”
Well said.
The remedy to jetlag is sleep, not drugs or torturing yourself. That said...
1. try to start adjusting to the new time zone BEFORE your trip, even if you shift your body clock only 1 hour. Every bit helps.
2. napping is OK but should be short, like 20-40 minutes. Any more and you are groggy. The FAA has studied short naps and find them helpful.
3. Try using sunlight to remind yourself that it is daytime. Open the curtains, walk outside.
Does the mood lighting on these newer jets really make a difference with jetlag or is it merely a placebo, psychological?
Another good post. I so agree with you on standard 'avoid jetlag' trips(sic) and I don't own a watch either ;-)
my trick is to try to always go west so I do round the world trips The best impact is to be like you and enjoy the sunrise!
Safe travels,
I actually do a lot of what you say, usually we try to shower and change and drink some coffee and get out in the sunshine and walk. I try to avoid drinking at lunch otherwise I will have some wine at dinner and try to go to bed past 9:00 to make sure I say asleep
Good Point on showering If long travel day it's truely refreshing
If I arrive first thing in the morning in Europe and can drop my luggage and start touring and moving, then I am ready to fall asleep as soon as the sun goes down - or earlier.
For Asia, arriving in the afternoon or evening is easier than morning arrivals for me because I only have to push myself for a couple hours and can see the sun go down shortly after my arrival.
S....
If I arrive first thing in the morning in Europe and can drop my luggage and start touring and moving, then I am ready to fall asleep as soon as the sun goes down - or earlier.
For Asia, arriving in the afternoon or evening is easier than morning arrivals for me because I only have to push myself for a couple hours and can see the sun go down shortly after my arrival.
S. America is a matter of sleep deprivation not unlike an eastbound US transcon but not really jetlag.
I agree w/ moderate amounts of caffeine ending by early afternoon as well as not napping after noon if at all.
Some destinations reward the jetlagged - for example the Singapore Botanical Gardens opens at 5, and for much of the year the morning is the only time you really want to be at a park due to heat / humidity.
We usually take a quick nap (1 to 1 1/2 hrs) but set both of our phone alarms and leave the curtains open for light. We also make sure to have something planned like dinner reservations so we have something to look forward to and a real reason to get up. It's easy to sleep through the alarm if you don't have concrete plans.
@Lucky, your strategy won't work like it used to.
It's called getting old.
Ha! But so true. I'm 72 and can't drink nearly what I used to. On the Other Hand, I ask the FA to leave my Champagne glass even if it looks like I'm not drinking it. I still want the Obiance
Simple. Sleep if arriving in the morning. Stay up if you arrive at night.