Jet Lag: Why Flying East Is Worse, and How to Beat It
You step off a long flight, the airport clock says it is the middle of the afternoon, and every cell in your body is convinced it is 3am. That gap between the time outside and the time your body is keeping is jet lag, and anyone who has flown from India to the US or out to the Far East knows it can flatten the first couple of days of a trip. The useful thing is that it is fairly predictable, so you can plan around it. Here is what is actually happening, why one direction is so much worse than the other, and what genuinely helps.
What jet lag actually is
Inside you is a body clock, a roughly 24-hour rhythm that decides when you feel sleepy, when you feel sharp and when you feel hungry. It is set mostly by daylight. Fly across several time zones in a few hours and you drop your body into a place where the sun is running a completely different schedule. Your clock has not caught up, so it tells you to sleep at lunchtime and keeps you wide awake at 2am. That mismatch is the jet lag, and it eases only as your clock slowly re-sets, usually by about an hour a day.
Why flying east is worse than flying west
This is the part most people get wrong. The trouble is not the distance, it is the direction. Flying west, say from India to the United States or Europe, you chase the sun and your day gets longer. Stretching your body clock to a later bedtime is something most of us manage fairly easily; it feels like one big late night. Flying east, towards Japan, Australia or New Zealand, your day gets shorter and you have to fall asleep earlier than your body wants, which is much harder. As a rough guide people recover from eastward trips at about one time zone per day, and from westward trips a little faster. So an Indian traveller often bounces back from a US trip quicker than from a trip to the Far East, even when the US is further away.
Flying east is harder
India to Japan, Singapore, Australia
- Your day gets shorter, so you must fall asleep earlier than usual.
- Your body clock has to move forward, which is the difficult direction.
- Recovery is roughly one day per time zone crossed.
- Best fix: chase bright morning light at the destination and avoid bright light late in the evening.
Flying west is easier
India to the US, UK, Europe
- Your day gets longer, so you simply stay up later.
- Your body clock moves back, which is the easier direction.
- Recovery is usually a little faster than an eastward trip.
- Best fix: get daylight in the late afternoon and push through to a local bedtime.
A simple plan: before, during and after
Before you fly
A day or two before you leave, nudge your bedtime in the direction you are heading. Going east, try sleeping an hour earlier; going west, an hour later. Even a small shift gives your clock a head start. And sleep well the night before, because beginning a long trip already tired makes everything that follows worse.
On the flight
Set your watch, and your head, to the destination's time the moment you board. The calculator on this site shows that local arrival time for your route, so you know what clock you are switching to. Then live by it: if it is night there, try to sleep with an eyeshade and earplugs; if it is daytime there, stay awake. Drink water often and go easy on alcohol and heavy meals, both of which make the recovery rougher.
After you land
Get outside. Daylight is the strongest signal your body clock listens to. Heading east, chase the morning light and shield your eyes from bright light late in the day; heading west, get light in the late afternoon and evening and hold out until a local bedtime. A 20-minute nap is fine, but a three-hour afternoon sleep will wreck the next night.
What helps, and what does not
- Genuinely helps: daylight at the right time of day, keeping to destination meal and sleep times, and staying hydrated.
- Worth a try: a small dose of melatonin near the destination bedtime can ease an eastward trip for some people. Check with a doctor first; this is general information, not medical advice.
- Does little: trying to bank sleep weeks ahead, or sleeping pills that leave you groggy. Caffeine keeps you awake but does nothing to reset your clock, so use it to survive the day, not to fix the lag.
Know what you are in for before you go
Half the battle is simply knowing how big the jump is. When you run a route through the calculator it tells you how many time zones you will cross and in which direction, and gives a rough recovery estimate, so you can plan the first day or two instead of being ambushed by them. Try Delhi to Sydney to see a hard eastward jump, or Delhi to New York for a big westward one.
Jet lag is never quite zero on a long trip, but it does not have to own your holiday. Shift your clock a little before you go, live on destination time the moment you board, and chase daylight at the right end of the day, and most of it fades within a day or two.