Hunter's Travels

Let’s be honest. Jet lag sucks. Nobody likes dealing with it, but it is a part of travel. Especially when you start crossing five, nine, or twelve time zones. Since it is something you will experience, I will walk through my process of surviving jet lag as a frequent traveler.

What is Jet Lag?

Jet lag is a temporary sleeping problem that occurs when you travel across multiple time zones. After being in one time zone, your body starts to set an internal clock. This is called your circadian rhythm. This lets you know when it is time to go to sleep, and when it is time to wake up. When you travel to a different time zone, you break the cycle your body has developed, which can have some negative effects.

How to Adjust to Jet Lag

One of the best ways to minimize jet lag symptoms is by planning ahead. As your trip gets closer, you can slowly adjust the times that you go to bed and wake up. This helps speed up the process of resetting your circadian rhythm.

If you’re traveling east, try going to bed earlier and wake up earlier.

If you’re traveling west, try going to bed later and waking up later.

You can also adjust the times that you eat meals which may help to avoid an upset stomach.

Many travelers may opt for taking melatonin or other remedies on their flights to help them sleep. This can be very useful if you find it hard to sleep while flying. But it might not necessarily help with jet lag.

Once you arrive, get outside and get some sun. Your body understands that you should be awake during the day, so this can help give you an energy boost. You will also want to drink a lot of water. Staying hydrated is very important in keeping your body functioning.

These are a few simple tips which should help in your time zone recovery. While these are all great, I take my planning a step further. After a lot of flying around the world, I have learned to map out my sleep times on planes so that my body naturally adjusts before arriving at my destination.

Australian Disaster

When I was not too experienced with travel I went from Florida to Australia. This trip took well over 30 hours. My first flight went from Orlando to Los Angeles (six hour flight and three hour time zone change). I then had a nine hour layover before taking a 16+ hour flight to Melbourne. After arriving in Melbourne around 5am, and making it to the hotel at 7am, I was exhausted. I tried to stay up for the day, but when I laid down around noon to watch some tv I knocked out. I proceeded to wake up at 8pm fully rested. According to my circadian rhythm, it was 6am and time to start my day.

Since there was absolutely no way I would be able to go back to sleep, I decided to make the most of it and explore the nightlife. I wandered the city and ended up at a small club. After staying there until closing time (around 5am), I went back to my hotel. I managed to go to sleep at 6am and I woke back up at 10am. After making it through the day in Melbourne feeling sluggish, I fell asleep hard by 9pm and woke up the next day feeling refreshed and my internal clock was set for the rest of the trip.

Orlando to London

Anytime I fly to Europe, my flights stop in London. Since that is the case, I try to base my flights around London’s time zone when planning my trips. I have found it best to take an afternoon/evening flight when going east to London. Leaving at 6pm for an eight hour flight puts you in London at 7am. For that flight I try to sleep as much as possible, and once I land in London I am awake for the entire day.

On the return flight if I leave at 2pm I will land in Orlando at 6pm, despite the flight taking over nine hours. On this flight I will stay up the entire trip and watch movies or play games on my phone. That way when I get back home I will be exhausted enough that my body needs to sleep. When I wake up the next morning my internal clock will already be adjusted.

Singapore to Orlando

One of my friends recently flew from Singapore to Orlando, and needed advice on how to adjust to jet lag. The time difference is exactly 12 hours which meant he was going to have a hard time adjusting. Since this was his first major trip abroad I walked him through what I would do to adjust my internal clock.

The first flight from Singapore to San Francisco left at 9pm and landed at 9:20pm on the same day… after nearly 16 hours of flying. The second flight left at 11pm and had him arriving at 7:30am in Orlando. I recommended sleeping on the first flight for four to five hours at the most so that he could stay up the remaining 12 hours. On the second flight he slept so that the next morning his body got a head start on adjusting to the local time zone. After staying up the entire day, he was ready to sleep at a reasonable hour in the new time zone and went about the rest of the trip with no problems.

On the return flights he had to take a different approach. Since his final arrival time in Singapore was going to be 6:15am, I recommended staying awake on his first layover flight, and maybe taking a nap on his second flight to San Francisco. After that I recommended staying up for at least six to eight hours of the final flight. At that point he was tired enough to sleep for the second half of the flight, and when he opened his eyes he was ready to start his morning in Singapore. He was so ready to start that he even went to work that morning.

Time to Fly

So how do you survive jet lag? Sure there are plenty of remedies or pills you could take to help regulate your sleep cycle, but I always found that planning ahead and pre-adjusting yourself to your destination’s time zone is the most efficient way to survive. These examples that I provided show my thought process when I plan trips around long flights, and I hope you are able to use it as a guideline for your next trip.

Be conscious of your destination’s time zone, drink lots of water, and enjoy your trip to the fullest. Enjoy your flight!