Captain Jeremy Burfoot, author of The Secret Life of Flying
Jet lag happens when your natural circadian rhythm is altered because of travel to a new time zone. Your circadian rhythm is your internal clock that your body uses to manage sleep and wake times. The body clock uses daylight, your temperature and your hormones to achieve this. Travelling disrupts the body’s ability to manage its internal clock, through normal means.
The further you go west or east, the more it affects you. For example, if you fly to Europe, you will be nine or so hours behind Australia. This means you’ll feel like going to bed really early but will wake up hungry at 2 am.
The best way to adjust the body clock is exposure to sunlight. In general, it takes a day to adjust by an hour, so when you go to Europe, it’s at least a week before you are over the jet lag. In my job, because of flying east and west all the time, sometimes the body completely loses track of where it is, time-wise. You don’t really know whether you are Arthur or Martha. It can’t be good for you long term. I got to the point as a pilot where I would sleep when I was tired and eat when I was hungry. What more could I do?
Jet lag is thought to be worse as you travel from west to east, and you may also be more susceptible to jet lag if you travel frequently and also if you’re an older person.
So, what’s the secret of dealing with it? When you arrive at your destination, try to get straight into the new time zone and forget about your old one. If you eat and go to bed according to the time at your destination, you will get in sync with the new time zone faster. When your plane is in the air, try to sleep during your destination’s night-time. You should also avoid the urge to sleep when you arrive if it’s daytime. This can make it difficult to sleep at the correct bedtime. If you force yourself to stay up on that first day, you will be a lot better off.
Exposure to sunshine can wake up your body and reduce the release of melatonin hormones that make you sleepy. Many aircrew have found that taking up to 5 mg of melatonin at bedtime in the destination helps to go to sleep and reset your body clock.
One other thing you can do is ‘bank’ time zones in advance rather than dealing with jet lag when you get there. I’m off to New York at the end of this week. It’s eight hours ahead of where I live now and I really need to be sharp when I get there, so I’ve been getting up 30 minutes earlier each day for the last week. On the day I leave, I’ll be getting up at 3 am. It works to the extent that being in economy seats for 17 hours doesn’t kill your plan.
For more advice on other aspects of aviation health check out my new book, The Secret Life Of Flying.
The Secret Life of Flying by Captain Jeremy Burfoot
How does a plane stay up in the air?
Does the Mile-High Club actually exist?
When you flush the toilet, where does it all go?
Buckle up for some turbulence because nothing flies under the radar for Captain Jeremy Burfoot.
With more than 35 years of airline experience, the former Qantas pilot presents an Airbus-load of stories about unruly passengers and cockpit clashes, and expertly navigates the bizarre myths surrounding everyday air travel. He explains important details like why plane wings actually bend, which in-flight surfaces carry the most germs and how to make plane food taste better.
Jam-packed with hilarity, horror stories and honest insights, The Secret Life of Flying is part memoir and part guide to the skies – a razor-sharp and First Class read for anyone who has ever wondered who’s really flying the plane …
Get your copy here.