Hah! You thought I’d have an answer?
Well, I have a few, though I have no idea how effective any of them are for me, or any particular individual (it’s tricky to gauge unless you cross time zones frequently enough to study your own responses over time).
One idea I’ve liked in the past, since it seems to have some serious scientific research behind it, is the Anti Jet Lag Diet. The front page of that site makes it look like you have to pay to use it or something, but really, clicking around gives you all the information you need if you read it. All you’d be paying for is a customized plan so you don’t have to think about it. And now they have an iPhone app that will personalize it for you (that might well be worth it for frequent travelers).
The basic idea is that you start playing with your food intake about 3 days before travel. A pattern of “feast” and “fast” days puts your body into a different routine, and you tweak it according to which direction you’re flying and by how many time zones. Generally seems worth a try, and I have used it in the past.
The simplest application would be to eat very lightly or not at all before overnight flights, and then have a big meal when you wake up, to tell your body it is DAYTIME! One of the strategies to do this is to ask them to save your in-flight dinner, and have it (along with your in-flight breakfast) before you land. There’s also some subtelty regarding high-protein and the like. Don’t remember the details at the moment (though I’d better read up on it if I’m going to try for this trip!)
Another thing (I don’t remember where I found this) relates to caffeine. The idea being to have some caffeine before you go to sleep on an overnight flight heading east. The logic behind this is that apparently caffeine really works in ways contrary to how a lot of people use it. Having caffeine in the morning makes it harder to sleep at night. Specifically, it lengthens your waking hours, and shortens your sleeping hours. This means that having some caffeine a little before bed might get your wired briefly, and/but when you do go to sleep, you will have a shorter sleep cycle (which is a good thing when flying east).
Obviously this is going to be problematic for people who can’t sleep at all for hours on end after having caffeine. This is why it’s important to know how your body handles things, rather than just following something blindly. But for me, it’s definitely worth giving a try, since I’m not generally a caffeine person, but I have not had all that much trouble sleeping on the plane after having some.
The reality is that in the hustle and bustle of preparing for long trips, the last few days are rarely conducive to complicated diet modification (and even less so before returning from a long trip). So I haven’t done very well with the diet thing. The caffeine approach is easier. And not eating airplane dinner isn’t a major hardship (although having airplane-dinner-that’s-been-sitting-around-for-many-more-hours for breakfast might not be everyone’s idea of a good start to a trip).
Sticking to the schedule of your destination as soon as you get there (and ideally even before getting on the plane) is certainly an obviously-smart tactic. And spending as much time as possible in daylight when you arrive is a good way to signal to your body what you expect from it. Not sure how that’ll play out in Iceland in mid-summer, however 🙂
One other thing that I haven’t actually used for travel purposes, but we have at home is artificial daylight (or whatever you can get). We have a “GoLite” that is primarily for reducing Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in winter. But in principle it could be a useful tool for adjusting one’s body clock before departure, and enforcing it after arrival.
Another thing that gets reasonably good press (though less conclusive) is melatonin. I’ve actually found that to be pretty useful, and will definitely bring some along. Take it when you want to tell your body to go to sleep. Meh. Might be exactly as effective as a sugar pill. But it seems to help me.
So in case you can’t tell, I’ve spent quite a bit of time (though not recently) researching this stuff. Now I just have the random memories I’ve spewed out above. Hope they help me, and maybe even you, someday. Maybe I’ll assemble better data and links sometime in the future. Right now I’m doing the exact opposite of what I should be doing… It’s late (2 AM), and I’m still awake. This is no way to prepare to fly east.
So Good Night!
Tags: caffeine, diet, flights, flying, food, jetlag, preparations, sleep