## I hate jetlag! This was inspired by and an elaboration on a [post by Jessica Ocean](https://medium.com/@jessicawatsonmiller/a-long-ass-long-haul-guide-for-destroying-jetlag-4a8252e81829) on how to avoid Jetlag for long flights. I suffer from horrible jetlag, and sleep poorly on planes, so I had to add a little beef to the bones of the protocol. There's a lot of sleep, and circadian rhythm science behind this, but this is the bottom line. I hope to come back and clean this up, but since this is immediately going to help people, I'm trying to get it out quick and dirty. ### Summary of Jess's article: - Stay hydrated on the plane (by dramatic means) - Drink a f-ton of water and don't be shy asking the steward to refill your water bottle. IMO, for some reason they can be a little snarky about this, but fight through the social dynamic. - Move your diet to the new timezone. - Move your sunlight exposure to the new timezone. ## How I think about it - The default situation: for every **day** you are in the new timezone, there is **one hour of change** in circadian rhythm. - E.g. without any intervention, it will take you 8 days to adjust to an 8 hour time difference. - The two biggest dials you have for changing circadian rhythm faster are **sunlight** and **food**. - The small dial you have is exercise, but it's not as important as the first two. (We are hacking our metabolism, so if you know your metabolism well then you can add more dials along these lines). - You can add chemical intervention, but it's tricky. I'll going to add a note at the end about that, but assume that this advice is with no chemical intervention. - You have to stay hydrated through the whole thing. Not going into that since the original article covers it well. Drink a ton of water leading up to, during and after travel. Electrolytes good. - **The goal** is to turn the dials as early as possible before and during travel so we can avoid days of pain after travel. ## What to do ### **Before** you travel: - For every **half hour** you are able to move ahead of time, you save **half a day** of pain in the new timezone. - So, start moving meals and sleep towards the new timezone as early as you can. - For example, if you're going to be traveling west: a few days before, stay up 30 min later in the evening and wake up 30 min later. The day after, an hour later. The day after that 1.5hrs and so forth. - You can start as early in advance as you care to, moving bedtime and meals by 30 min to 1 hr every day before travel. - Start light exposure therapy along with the meal schedule. - For example, if you're traveling west: blast your eyes with light in the evenings and wear UV blocking sunglasses in the mornings. You can do the math on when to do this silliness based on the new timezone you're headed to. - Start avoiding alcohol and reduce your caffeine consumption as early as you are able in your origin timezone. ### During travel: - As soon as you get on the flight change your clocks to the new timezone and fake it til you make it in that timezone. - sleep at sleepy time in the new timezone and eat at eat-y time. - Hyper hydrate on the flight - HUGE: don't follow the plane's schedule for meals and sleep. They almost always bias towards the timezone you're leaving until the meal right before landing. - You can tell the steward what your plans are for meals and they won't bother you. ### After arrival: - Exercise in the mornings. - Get daylight exposure in the new timezone on as much skin as you can early in the day. - Wear sunglasses in the late afternoon to trick your body to start winding down a little earlier. ### Returning home: - Do the same in reverse. Although, to be honest I find that I'm more comfortable being jetlagged at home. I often just go for broke and feel like shit in the comfort of my own living space. ## **Advanced Moves** - Relative changes in time are much more impactful than the overall changes. Like if it's a 19 hour difference, it can feel like a 5 hour difference, and that's the change to go for. - **Overlap combos** allow this to go as smoothly as possible. For example, maybe **naptime** in the origin timezone could line up with **bedtime** in the new timezone or breakfast could be dinner. This one is fun to plan out: - Origin schedule, origin time: - 8 am wake - 9 am breakfast - 12 pm lunch - 7 pm dinner - 10 pm bedtime - Origin schedule, Sydney time: - 2 am wake - 4 am breakfast - **7 am lunch** - **2 pm dinner** - 5 pm bedtime - Notice that if I start skipping breakfast, my lunch and dinner in origin time are pretty close to my breakfast and lunch in Sydney time. So instead of moving ALL my meals, I can just swap meals. This has the same effect in my experience. ### With chemicals: - WARNING: Avoid heavy sleep medications because they don't actually work the way they feel like they do. Narcotics won't help you move towards the new timezone since they don't operate on the same chemical pathways as the sleep neurotransmitters we want. - Benadryl will make you drowsy if you need to fall asleep quickly, and your body will naturally take over if you can dose it correctly. - If you want to get crazy with it, you can start dosing melatonin before and during travel about 20 min before the 2am mark in the new timezone. - Caffeine in the mornings in the new timezone helps a ton. - **Salesman tactic**: Drinking a ton of alcohol in the new timezone a couple of days in a row can actually help you mess up your circadian rhythm enough to then **hard transition** to the new timezone. This is effective, but the least healthy way to do it. ## An example playbook for Sydney: - 4 days before travel: - I skip breakfast. Eat lunch and dinner normally. - I stay in the dark for 1 hour longer in the morning. - I wear sunglasses and cover my skin until 11am. - I go to bed 1 hour later than usual. I eat a midnight snack to tell my body this is the new dinner. - 3 days before travel - Still skip breakfast. Eat lunch normally and move dinner earlier. - I stay in the dark for 1.5 hrs longer in the morning. - I wear sunglasses and cover my skin until 12pm. - I go to bed 1.5 hrs later than usual. Eat a large midnight snack. - 2 days - Still skip breakfast. Eat lunch and dinner on the new schedule. - I stay in the dark for 2 hrs longer in the morning. - I wear sunglasses and cover my skin until 2pm and blast my eyes with light during the midnight snack - I go to bed 2 hrs later than usual. Eat a large midnight snack. - Day before travel - (I am feeling sorta bad in my own timezone btw) - Still skip breakfast. Eat lunch and dinner on the new schedule. - I stay in the dark for 2.5 hours longer in the morning - I wear sunglasses and cover my skin until 2pm and blast my eyes with light during the midnight snack - I go to bed 2.5 hours later than usual. Eat a large midnight snack. - Day of travel. Every bullet point should end with "then I hydrate". - Conform as much as I can to the prev pattern without missing my flight. - As soon as I'm on the plane, I change clocks to Sydney time. - I don't eat the meals or go to sleep when the cabin does. I keep busy for the first half of the flight, eating my midnight snack on time. - About 2 hrs later, I would cover my eyes with an eye mask. Now would be the time to dose benadryl if you're doing that, but either way try to sleep. Now is the time to at least avoid light exposure and tell your body "we are sleeping" - Eat right before landing or even in the airport on arrival. - Get to bright light in the airport, food, and a lot of movement as I go through customs. - All but stare at the sun once I'm out of the airport and go for a jog. Some elaboration from Matt Walker, the sleep guy. https://youtu.be/7RU5YZNzlVM?si=pUxnOuQSN6Fomgo9