How to avoid jet lag: Tips for staying alert when you travel

Adapted from  Boosting Your Energy , Medical Editor: Anthony L. Komaroff, MD, Simcox-Clifford-Higby Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Senior Physician, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston.

If you travel across time zones, you’ve likely experienced jet lag. It’s that tired, groggy, out-of-sync feeling you get when your internal clock is thrown off.

On trips across just one or two time zones, many people may be able to wake up, eat, and sleep without much trouble.

However, on longer trips when you travel farther and across more time zones, it can be much harder to adjust. Luckily, there are strategies you can use before, during, and after your trip to prevent jet lag and help your body adapt to your new time zone.

Tips for preventing jet lag

Before your trip

Start to shift your schedule before you jet off. For several days before you leave, move mealtimes and bedtime incrementally closer to the schedule of your destination. Even a partial switch may help (see “A sleep schedule to beat jet lag” below).

During your flight

Stay hydrated during your flight by drinking plenty of fluids. Avoid caffeine or alcohol, as they promote dehydration, which worsens the physical symptoms of jet lag and can disturb sleep.

After you arrive

Switch your bedtime as rapidly as possible upon arrival. Don’t turn in until it’s bedtime in the new time zone.

Use sunlight strategically to help your body adjust. After eastward travel, morning sunlight can help you wake earlier. After westward travel, late-afternoon sunlight can help you shift to a later schedule.

A sleep schedule to beat jet lag

If you’ll be traveling through several time zones, as when flying coast to coast, you can gradually adjust your sleep time. For example:

• Three days before you plan to travel from the West Coast to the East Coast, go to bed half an hour earlier than usual, and get up half an hour earlier the next morning.
• The next night, go to bed an hour earlier than usual and get up an hour earlier.
• The day before you travel, go to bed 90 minutes earlier than your usual bedtime.

Here’s an example schedule of how you can help reset your internal clock when you travel through time zones:

Day-by-day bedtime adjustment example

• Day 1: Usual bedtime: 10:00 p.m.
• Day 2: 9:30 p.m.
• Day 3: 9:00 p.m.
• Day 4: 8:30 p.m.

If you follow this schedule, by the fourth day — the day of your trip — you’ll find it easier to adjust to your new time zone and will feel more energized during your trip.