Jet lag doesn’t have to ruin your trip. Here’s what you can do

21.12.2023 - 13:49 / nationalgeographic.com

Hop a plane across several time zones, and you may end up with what scientists call circadian dysrhythmia (aka jet lag). It’s a temporary sleep disorder where your body’s internal clock isn’t in sync with the time cues in your destination—daylight, dark of night, mealtimes.

It’s also why you might doze off at lunch on your first day in London or be unable to get to sleep the first couple of nights of a vacation to Japan. “We have a natural rhythm to our bodies, and it’s pretty well set,” says Vivek Jain, director of the George Washington University’s Center for Sleep Disorders.

But jet lag doesn’t have to wreck your trip. “If you plan for it, you can do most of your acclimatizing to your destination a few days in advance,” says W. Chris Winter, neurologist and author of The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It. 

A September 2023 study published in the scientific journal Chaos suggests that eating a big breakfast in your new time zone can help both your gut and your brain adjust. You can also use light exposure, sleep, strategically timed naps, and caffeine. Recent scientific innovations, from high-tech gadgets to safer pharmaceuticals, might be worth adding to your anti-jet lag arsenal, too.

Here’s what the experts suggest to help you adjust to a new time in no time.

Try to book a flight that lands during the day, since getting out into sunlight helps reset your body clock. “It jump starts you much more quickly,” says Luxembourg-based sleep coach Christine Hansen.

If it’s morning or early afternoon when your plane lands, a jolt of caffeine can help you acclimatize. So can eating breakfast at the standard time in your destination. But you might want to forgo that cacio pepe fettuccini dinner your first couple of nights in Rome; the study published in Chaos found that skipping your evening meal while filling up at breakfast produced the quickest adjustments to subjects’ circadian rhythms.

Blocking out light is key to getting sleep on the plane (a proven jet lag antidote on overnight flights). If your destination is several hours ahead, wear sunglasses until you’re ready to snooze, then strap on a sleeping mask. When your brain senses darkness, it starts to produce melatonin, the chemical that initiates sleep.

A 2021 German study found that worrying about having jet lag made it worse. So, if you believe a certain routine or item will help you drift off, it might just work.

Use whatever tools you can to make your trip more pleasant and silent. “Basically, anything you can do to get comfortable enough to sleep can have a very strong placebo effect,” says Jamie M. Zeitzer, co-director of Stanford University’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences.

That could mean a pillow—either a