What Should I Do About Jet Lag?

Jet lag happens when your internal body clock is still set to your home time zone while you are living on a new one. It usually causes poor sleep, daytime tiredness, trouble concentrating, and sometimes digestive upset. It is not a disease, and it fades as your body clock adjusts, typically within a few days for most people.

What to do first

1. On landing, switch completely to local time. Eat meals, sleep, and wake on the destination schedule even if it feels wrong at first.
2. Get outside into natural daylight at the right time of day. For travel east (for example, flying from the US to Europe), morning light helps you advance your clock. For travel west, late afternoon and early evening light helps you delay it.
3. Keep naps short. If you are exhausted, sleep for 20-30 minutes early in the afternoon and avoid long or late naps that push your night sleep later.
4. Drink water throughout the flight and after arrival. Dehydration makes fatigue and headaches worse.

Light: your main tool

Light is the strongest signal for resetting the body clock. At your destination, aim for bright outdoor light in the morning after eastward travel, and in the late afternoon or early evening after westward travel. In the hours before local bedtime, dim lights and reduce screen brightness to help your body wind down. If you cannot get outside, a bright indoor area or a light box can help, but natural light is best.

Sleep and melatonin

Try to sleep during the local night, even if you are not sleepy, and get up at a consistent local morning time. Melatonin is a hormone your body makes to signal night. Short-term, low-dose melatonin may help some people fall asleep at the new bedtime, but timing and dose matter and it is not right for everyone. Ask a doctor or pharmacist before using it, especially if you take other medicines, have a health condition, are pregnant, or are breastfeeding. Do not use it to replace good sleep habits.

What NOT to do

• Do not rely on alcohol to fall asleep. It fragments sleep and worsens jet lag.
• Do not drink large amounts of caffeine late in the local day, as it can keep you awake when you need to sleep.
• Do not take long daytime naps that make it harder to sleep at night.
• Do not use sleeping pills without medical advice, and never mix them with alcohol.
• Do not force yourself to stay on home time for meals and sleep. That delays adjustment.

When to seek professional care

See a clinician if sleep problems last more than a few weeks, if you have a sleep disorder such as sleep apnea, if jet lag triggers severe mood changes, or if you take prescription medicines that must be timed to your body clock, such as insulin, thyroid medicine, or blood thinners. Ask your doctor how to adjust those medicines across time zones before you travel.

How to reduce it next time

Start shifting your schedule a few days before departure. Choose flights that arrive in the late afternoon or evening when traveling east, and in the morning when traveling west. On the plane, set your watch to destination time and follow it for meals and sleep.

Jet lag is uncomfortable but usually temporary. Use light, local-time sleep, hydration, and cautious melatonin timing to adapt faster, and speak to a clinician if symptoms persist or you have a chronic condition.

This is general information, not a substitute for professional medical advice. If you have a medical emergency, call your local emergency services.