If you’re taking a long east-to-west or west-to-east flight, you will encounter some jet lag. Your body will still be on the old time zone and it may take several days for everything to get in sync again. But you don’t have to sleep through the day or stay awake at night in your destination city; you can get it all over with on the plane.
East-to-West
When flying east-to-west you will find your sleep cycle is advanced; you’ll want to wake up too early and not want to sleep until well after midnight. But here’s how you fix that: as soon as you get on the plane, set your watch to whatever time it is at your destination, then do whatever it is you would do if you were already there (if you were not jet lagged). Try to sleep when the people there are sleeping and try to be awake when they are.
Of course, this is easier said than done. You’ll have to stay awake later than you would feel like on the plane. One way of accomplishing this is to take an exciting book with you, and as soon as you start feeling sleepy and the other passengers are starting to nod off, take it out and start reading.
Stopovers — changing planes
If you have a stopover somewhere, then set your watch for the first leg of the trip to the stopover city. To do it any other way is just too confusing; you don’t want to miss your connection because you’re not quite sure what time it is. Then when you get on the next plane, again set your watch to the city where you will be getting off.
Other than the above exception, don’t try to be gradual about resetting your body’s clock. Go for the maximum, all at once.
And when you get there
You’ll wake up too early after you fly east-to-west. Just stay in bed for a while, rest if you can’t go back to sleep, and try to wait until everyone around you is getting up. At the other end of the day, try to stay up as late as you can, up to the “normal” bedtime in your new time zone. If you have trouble staying up that late, try to take a short nap (set your alarm clock for 1 hour or so), get up again, then go back to sleep at a more normal time. You might have to take several days to get totally back in sync but any remaining jet lag will be very mild — perhaps a bit of drowsyness in the evening — if you’ve already done all the on-the-plane steps.
Airline staff and fellow passengers
The airline staff will try to discourage this. It’s more convenient for them to keep everyone on the schedule of their source city, with meals and such based on that time zone; and if you have to deal with with jet lag after you get off that’s not their problem. Just do it your way without discussing it with them first.
The guy sitting next to you might have a problem with you keeping your light on while he’s trying to sleep. Just be quiet, keep to yourself, and if he asks say you’re having trouble sleeping. Say just a few more minutes (over and over again if you have to) and don’t get into a battle.
Artificial jet lag
It’s possible — even without traveling by air — to get into an artificial jet lag situation. If your visiting relatives from farm country keep wanting to get going early in the day, you’ll end up “jet lagged” just as if you had taken an east-to-west flight. After they go, do the and when you get there steps above and you will be all right.
West-to-East
When flying west-to-east do all of the above steps except:
- ◆ On the plane, if you’re lucky enough to wake up in the pre-dawn hours, read that exciting book then, ideally starting when people start waking up in your destination city.
- ◆ Sleep or at least rest just after the inflight dinner. If you can fall asleep while it’s still light outside, so much the better.
- ◆ When you get to your destination city, go to bed at a “normal” time, even if you don’t feel sleepy. Do something relaxing, like reading (but not that exciting book mentioned earlier!)
- ◆ Get up at an early time, even if you feel like sleeping in. Use an alarm clock if you have to, but get going!
If you have “too late” artificial jet lag, like when your party animal friends keep you up late night after night, wait until the party week is over and do the steps in the last paragraph. This will help you get back to a more conventional schedule.
I’ve done these things for years and have never had any jet lag worth mentioning.
