LOL I've flown as much as 250k miles in one year. My number one goal is to make sure I get on the "destination" sleep pattern as quickly as possible. I set my clock to the destination time as soon as I board the plane, force myself to sleep on that schedule and I open the windows in the Hotel to make sure the sun wakes me up. I do feel the sun is a big part of the process. Most people who travel with me find it frustrating how quickly I adjust to new time zones. I always give them the same advice.. Follow the Sun.. Live by the Sun.. Sleep when it goes down..
What happens when you travel to somewhere (closer to poles) that have very large variations between summer and winter?
For example, here in Scotland at this time of year (which isn't that far North) sunrise is 4:30 or so, sunset is past 10pm and it really doesn't get that dark - so keeping curtains/shutters tightly closed is necessary to get a decent nights sleep. Similarly, in winter we get fairly short days (~6 hours) so we'd need to have a 4 hour work day!
That definitely takes more work. What threw me off the most in higher latitudes is how much my appetite depending on the light level.
My first trip that "far" north was to Dublin in midsummer, and I wasn't really in the mood for dinner until after 10pm which wasn't a good thing as we discovered most kitchens close far earlier than that.
My frustration is with flight crews that insist on keeping the cabin dark, as if the plane is still located on the origin's time zone. I've had FAs yell at me to keep the shades down, even during the night phase, so that the sun doesn't wake people up as the plane crosses into daylight. (They're missing some amazing stars and aurorae at that flight level).
No wonder, when we land at 1:00PM in Europe, that people spring up to a fully bright environment and can't adjust to the sudden warp in daylight.
I've found the simpler solution that works for me is to fast for 16 hours, including the entire flight, and eat breakfast on the plane an hour before landing. Also, I sleep on the plane, starting right after takeoff, with a sleeping pill if needed. This has worked for me in both directions for flights like Vancouver to London (9+ hours). Instead of being ruined for a week, I get essentially no jet lag.
Yes this means turning down all food and alcohol on the plane, and just drinking water.
The idea is that your body has 2 clocks, a food clock and a light clock, and that the food clock will win if you fast and then break your fast (get it?) with an appropriately timed breakfast.
Interesting - I do something similar, except that I fast for 24 hours before getting on the plane. Nothing but water for that period. Once on the plane though, I generally eat the first meal - it helps me to go to sleep on the plane - but no alcohol. Of course, if your someone that can't sleep in a plane seat, you're probably better off with your system, as mine is all about getting me ready to sleep on the plane.
The other trick for me is to try and arrive at night, so I can pretty much go straight to bed. When I wake up the next morning I'm in the right timezone.
If for whatever reason I can't organise to arrive in the evening, I just suck it up and stay awake until a normal bedtime (no cheating, although it's tempting, going to bed early will just leave you out of sync with the clock). It helps if you can be outside in the sun during the day whilst doing this.
One last thing, sometimes your problem is not having to stay awake until night, but that night arrives too quickly because you've flown east. In this case, my solution is to prepare by making sure I only sleep 3-4 hours the night before, meaning that even if it's 5pm bodyclock time and midnight wall clock time, I'm nevertheless ready to go to bed.
At any rate, I'm no longer young, but I travel at least a couple of times a year, and I have zero problems with jetlag.
I do something similar, except that the anchor is dinner at the appropriate time for the destination TZ. On my last two trips from Boston to Bangalore (9.5/10.5 hours depending on DST) this has led to approximately zero jet lag, compared to before when my second day there and my first day back would be almost total wipeouts.
My friend whose sister works in this area scoffs, and says that she recommends something very similar to the OP instead. Maybe my success with the fasting method is mostly placebo effect, but hey, I'll still ride that for all it's worth. ;)
It always bothers me that there never seems to be any particular pattern in when an airline serves meals during long flights- sometimes it's based on the departure time zone and sometimes it's based on the arrival time zone. I think more often it's the former for some crazy reason- maybe getting airlines to serve meals based on what we now know as best practice for this would be quite helpful.
I second this, food and light are both important parts of the process. Have used something similar to this to prevent jetlag on both legs of multiple transatlantic/panasiatic flights (though it has to be said travelling west-to-east is always rougher than east-to-west.
I fly a lot for work, too, and I'm convinced that the worst cause of jet lag is the air travel itself, not the time zone changes. With the craptastic quality of economy class travel these days, the lack of food service on semi-long flights (I'm looking at you, Delta, on your US transcontinental flights!), the insane flight schedules (I'm looking at you, India, for whom all international flights heading west leave somewhere between midnight and 3am!), the ridiculous and time consuming airport security theater (I'm looking at you Sao Paulo immigration zone!), the "everything costs extra" revenue model that forces everyone to try to carry-on everything ... resulting in unnecessarily lengthy boarding processes when a slew of bags end up being valet checked anyway, any nearly every other part of flying. Perhaps I am being too harsh and uppity, but flying commercial airlines these days -- with VERY few exceptions -- feels like riding a city bus, which is decidedly not restful. Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. I've flown to India, Brazil, Mexico, cross-country US, and everything about it sucked. The only bright spot was Global Entry, which imho is the way immigration & customs should work for everyone (minus the rigmarole of enrolling), and Pre-Check, which is the way check-in security used to be.
This rant was just a long-winded way of saying I blame the airlines for a lot of my jet lag problems. The fasting method works well but I get grumpy when my blood sugar drops too low so I generally avoid this. Getting on the destination sleep pattern by forcing myself to stay up until that time zone goes to bed is my usual method, and it generally only takes two days to get completely adjusted. With a wife & little kids at home, though, I'll sometimes make a decision not to adjust so I can minimize the unpleasantness when I return (I live in North Carolina and when I travel to California I always stay on my home timezone, going to bed by 8-9pm and waking up at 3-4am Pacific.).
I fly regularly from London to West Coast US and have kids / wife at home, so I can appreciate your rant.
Having tried varying different combos of the route either one hop, or broken up (including internal Delta) I have found that the choice of airline does indeed make the biggest difference not only to the journey, but to how quickly I can adapt to the new timezone.
I'm lucky that air new Zealand have their flagship route from LHR to LAX, and their level of comfort far exceeds many of the others doing the same trip (May be one of your VERY few exceptions; yes talking economy).
That coupled with pretty decent flight times - Leaving around 4pm flying overnight and landing around 7pm US - really makes a huge difference to how quickly I can adjust when I get the other end (Stay awake for the flight and go to bed when I land or sleep the whole flight and land ready for the morning depending on direction)
It's the 4.5 hour train journey to/from LHR, and that fills me with dread every time, not the 10H flight.
If anyone's grasping about for a mobile app idea, this article seems to be crying out for some kind of accompanying configurator. I loosely grasp what it's trying to say about the causes of phase shifts, but to apply it to my next trip I'd need to reread the article and spend some time in front of a spreadsheet..
I've been influenced by jetlag more than once and I can say hands-down the most effective and least cumbersome method I've found is just to take a Melatonin pill and drowse off to sleep 10 minutes later. If I'm still feeling it, I'd take another one before going to sleep the next night.
