Further ideas on combating the international scourge of jet-lag
I have addressed myself to the thorny issue of jet-lag before, but now I am ready to publish more findings on the subject. These findings have come about after extensive travel between the UK and Australia, purely in the interests of researching this area.
As I have observed before, jet-lag remains a serious obstacle to many people travelling between continents. These people regularly express amazement that I am able to go from, say, London to Melbourne for a week, fly back, and then behave as if everything were normal. For example, I arrived home four days ago and I’ve not really struggled with the time readjustment at all, any more than I struggled with it on the way over. Why? Am I incredible? Well, yes. But actually it’s down to an incredibly simple yet overlooked trick, which I have publicised before. When you get on the plane, you set your watch/body clock immediately to the time at your DESTINATION, i.e. if you are flying to Australia, you think in Aussie time from the moment you board. If it’s night-time when you get on the plane, it doesn’t matter – stay awake. If it’s day when you get on the plane, but night where you are landing, try and get some sleep. Act like you’re already there. Then, mentally and biologically, you will be already there. And when you are there, you won’t have to force yourself into unnatural sleep patterns. You’ll still feel a bit weary from the general effort of travelling, but nowhere near as bad.
I’ve done this trick – barely a trick, it’s so obvious – dozens of times and it puzzles me that it’s not in wider use.
But then on the way from Heathrow to Melbourne this time, I thought about the way airlines encourage people to behave. Our flight out of London was at 10pm, so seven in the morning Melbourne time, and about 4am in Singapore, where we would land first. So quite obviously, the idea is to act as if it’s morning already, stay awake throughout the first flight – it’ll be hard, but there are films and books, and coffee – then sleep from Singapore to Melbourne. You land in the early morning in Melbourne and you’ve had a night’s sleep like you normally would.
This was what I did, but as soon as I put it into action I realised why virtually no-one else was. For a start, they serve dinner as soon as you get in the air, even though IT’S TOO LATE FOR DINNER BY LONDON TIME AND IT’S NOT EVEN DINNER TIME IN AUSTRALIA. This takes an hour and a half, and makes everyone fatally groggy, and their bodies are instantly befuddled by taking on food when they shouldn’t. Then they put the lights off, for pretty much the duration of the first flight, meaning that M Watson had to work on the laptop in near total darkness to avoid disturbing the people around, who understandably went off to sleep.
So when we landed in Singapore, it was mid afternoon and everyone but me had just woken up. They felt dreadful. I was pretty bleary eyed after writing for nine hours, but I knew sleep was now at hand.
AND THEN on the Singapore-Melbourne flight WHEN EVERYONE SHOULD BE SLEEPING, they kept it bright as day in the cabin, so this time I had to go to sleep on my own with everyone else watching films and wandering about. I did, and it was fine, but again I couldn’t help wondering why they timed it in such an unhelpful way for my fellow passengers. When we got into Melbourne, I woke up and all was good, but everyone else was just thinking ‘ooh, I could do with a nap after that’ AND IT WAS THE START OF THE BLOODY DAY. SO THEY COULDN’T. AND THEY WERE JET-LAGGED BEFORE EVEN SETTING FOOT IN THE LUCKY COUNTRY.
So my message today is: air passengers, as I’ve already said, you can beat this out-of-synch thing. But also, airlines, let’s think this through. Try to encourage passengers to sleep at the logical times; don’t put the lights on and off at the mathematically worst moments. You guys do this all the time, you must be able to work it out. And don’t serve food automatically just because ‘well, we’re in the sky, might as well’. That way you’ll be doling out breakfast at dinner time and omelettes at 3am and god knows what else.
Let’s have a bit of common sense here. That’s all I’m asking. Please. For our children.
You may think I’m getting worked up here, but the annoying thing is, if I had a foolproof method for beating, say, smoking addiction, I’d stick it in a book and make a fortune. And do some of those audio CDs to go with it. Whereas, as it is, I’ve cured something so small-scale that I can really only write a blog about it. Or can I? Is there a market for this? Anyone want to buy the book rights or a movie option? WATSON: LAG-BEATER. Contact me through the usual channels. Don’t worry if you’re overseas. I’ll be up.
PS I’ve got no idea why ‘combating’ only has the one ‘t’, but google it. It shows your instincts are not always right. JUST LIKE WITH etc.
Posted by Indy on February 29, 2012
Your right of course, but for me, I need a long time to adjust my body clock. You method still needs 2 ‘daytimes’ next to each other (before you get on the plane and then again just after boarding). I gradually wake up earlier and earlier over 1-2 weeks. I have tried your method and I still still felt groggy after the extra long day.
I am particularly susceptible to day light (I get SAD in winter). I found my new blue SAD light has instructions on how to use it to alter my body clock before travelling with advice on how long and when to use it, dependent on how far you go and in which direction (east or west). You could use one on the plane while the lights are low to keep you awake. They really are very good!
Posted by elizabeth on February 28, 2012
jet llag (double L, not silent)
welsh, for the skewed feeling travelling between England/Wales time zones
Posted by katie on February 28, 2012
Combating only has one t because the emphasis is on the first syllable of the word “combat”.
You only double the letter if the emphasis is on the second syllable, e.g. “occur” the “cur” is the bit that’s emphasised most when the word is spoken, so “occurring” has two Rs.
Boring I know that, but hope it helps!
Posted by Clembear on September 26, 2011
Em – I’m a good sleeper on flights – here’s what works for me
– be tired. Mark’s approach will be hard to apply if you take a morning flight, fully rested to somewhere its currently night
- window seats. You can snuggle into the corner and have a sort of headrest. Less disturbance from others too – check out Seat 42 for the best seats on different routes
- sensory deprivation. An eyemask, earplugs, noise cancelling headphone. It helps.
- Blankets/pillows – these make it feel more like a proper bed as does
- Taking your shoes and socks off
- No caffeine. To be honest no caffeine on your day of travel and you’ll be asleep by about half 9 anyway.
Posted by Megan on September 26, 2011
When I fly to the UK, it’s invariably an overnight flight en route there. This time around, I am getting on a plane at 4:30am UK time. So, really, I should be brought on to the plane already asleep for this system to work.
Posted by Jen on September 26, 2011
I’ll inform my mum n dad – they’re off on their jollies this week!Jx
Posted by Corey on September 25, 2011
I usually use this/your method and it does work, although I sometimes do enjoy a spot of jetlag. My dad once picked me up from Gatwick after a trip to Florida and it was such a beautiful day he took me down to Brighton for the day where I spent the afternoon lying in the hot sun hearing the sea lap on the stones and me snoozing on the beach, after which I was as fresh as could be. Jetlag can be relaxing sometimes!
Posted by alot of rachels on September 25, 2011
Jamie Oliver (was it him? or another chef) did a tb programme about trying to sort plane food and going round to airlines to sort it, maybe you could do a similar programme. so you pitch the idea to the airline and then you go in a plane and tell the passengers when they should be sleeping. shout at them if needed.
Planes should have little compartments for when for people who want to stay awake when it’s lights out and then a dark room for people who want to sleep when all lit up
Posted by Misha on September 25, 2011
Good tips. Good tips.
Posted by EmT on September 25, 2011
I have always been aware of this trick but I have incredible difficulty sleeping on planes (or on trains and in cars – but that is not too much of a problem generally). If anyone has any tips on how to achieve this I would be eternally grateful as I travel alot for work and pleasure. Everytime I try to drift off something happens to wake me up, sleeping while seated is just not something I find terribly easy. I see some people on planes that just sit down and fall asleep straight away yet I can not get one wink of sleep.
When I flew to Nepal at the beginning of the year my flight left at 9pm so I had obviously been awake all day, then awake for the 7ish hours overnight flight to Dehli, then had the WORST flight ever from Dehli to Kathmandu – so obviously no sleep – and arrived in Nepal nearly 30 hours since I had last had some sleep. Please any suggestions would be gratefully received…!!
Posted by Lydia on September 25, 2011
I’ve never been abroad, but when I eventually go I will keep this in mind.
I hate non-double letters, they are so confusing. Don’t even get me started on assistant.
Posted by lisan66 on September 25, 2011
Combating only has one t? It reads like it should be pronounced com-bate-ing instead of com-bat-ing.
And as for jet-lag…..I’ve never been further than Majorca so I’ve never experienced it, but I’ll keep your tips in mind for when it comes along!
Posted by Rachael on September 25, 2011
I was thinking throughout reading that “why are you charging people for this genius?” so yes I think possibly you could get people to pay for it somehow, like present it to airlines. Although I doubt they really care whether people get jet-lagged, as long as they travel and pay lots of money.
Posted by Miz on September 25, 2011
Jet lag is definitely beatable. When I was younger I used to fly between Heathrow and Tokyo fairly regularly, and it hasn’t been too bad. I don’t sleep well on planes, but if you know what time it is in your destination it’s easier to trick yourself into thinking: ‘well, I didn’t sleep very well yesterday’, or ‘hmm, I shouldn’t have stayed up late watching movie X’. (That might just be me though.) I find it easier to go backwards (i.e. Tokyo to London) than forwards.
I’ve been lucky enough not to have had a bad experience with airlines (although there was that one time where they played Fantastic Four on a huge screen, which meant that if you didn’t have a sleep mask or really thick eyelids then you were pretty much fucked, such was the power of the flashing lights), but then the ones I fly with tend to give you the same meal (mostly an omlette) for every meal, which means it’s harder to distinguish between dinner/lunch/breakfast. Which is, oddly enough, a good thing…:-)