How to fix your sleep schedule after jet lag

To fix your sleep schedule after jet lag, switch to local time straight away: get up at your normal local wake-up time, get daylight at the right part of the day for your direction (afternoon after flying east, evening after flying west), keep any nap under 30 minutes and before mid-afternoon, and go to bed at a normal local time. The body clock moves about 1 hour a day after flying east and about 1.5 hours a day after flying west, so a 6-hour trip east can take 5 or 6 days without help, fewer with good light timing.

Below: why direction matters, a light timetable with clock times for both directions, a day-by-day plan, naps, caffeine and melatonin, the return trip, and what it means if you're still off a week later.

What jet lag does to your sleep

Your body clock keeps a roughly 24-hour rhythm of sleepiness, alertness, body temperature and hormones, and it's set mostly by light. When you cross time zones, the clock is still on the old time. That's why you're wide awake at 3 a.m. after flying east, or falling asleep at 7 p.m. after flying west, and why you feel foggy, hungry at odd times, and out of sorts. Sleep doctors call it jet lag disorder when it follows crossing 2 or more time zones and comes with poor sleep or daytime trouble.

It passes by itself as the clock catches up, but how fast depends on the direction, how many zones you crossed, and above all on when you get light.

East or west: why direction matters

Most people find east harder, because the clock runs a little longer than 24 hours and finds it easier to stretch later than to pull earlier. That's also why staying up late on weekends is easy and getting up early on Monday isn't.

The light rule that decides everything

Your body temperature reaches its lowest point around 2 to 3 hours before your usual wake-up time at home. Light in the hours before that low point pushes your clock later. Light in the hours after it pulls your clock earlier. Right after a long flight, that low point is still on home time, which can fall in the middle of the local morning.

So "get morning sunlight" is good advice once you've adjusted, but after flying east across many zones, early morning light at your destination can land before your low point and push your clock the wrong way. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's travel guidance makes the same point: after flying east across many zones, avoid bright early morning light for the first days and get light later in the day.

Find your light window

1. Take your usual wake-up time at home, say 7 a.m.
2. Subtract 2 to 3 hours: your low point is about 4 to 5 a.m. home time.
3. Change that to local time at your destination.
4. Flying east: get bright light in the 6 or so hours after that time; avoid it in the hours before.
5. Flying west: get bright light in the hours before that time (your local evening); avoid it in the hours after (your local early morning).
6. Move the window about 1 hour earlier each day (east) or 1 to 2 hours later (west) as you adjust.

Worked examples with clock times

New York to London (5 hours east)

At home you wake at 7 a.m., so your low point is around 4 to 5 a.m. New York time, which is 9 to 10 a.m. in London.

London to Los Angeles (8 hours west)

At home you wake at 7 a.m., so your low point is around 4 to 5 a.m. London time, which is 8 to 9 p.m. in Los Angeles.

Crossing 3 zones or fewer, most people can simply follow local time with ordinary morning light.

A day-by-day reset after you land

1. Set your watch and meals to local time on the plane.
2. On arrival day, don't go to bed early. If you must, nap 20 to 30 minutes, before about 2 to 3 p.m. local time, with an alarm.
3. Get light in your window, outdoors if you can: daylight is far brighter than indoor light, even on a cloudy day.
4. Move: a walk outside does light and activity at once.
5. Eat at local meal times, and keep dinner light the first nights.
6. Go to bed at a normal local time in a dark, cool room, with an eye mask and earplugs if the hotel is bright or loud.
7. If you wake at 3 a.m., keep the lights off, don't check your phone, and rest. If you're awake and restless after about 20 minutes, get up and do something calm in dim light, then go back to bed.
8. Get up at a fixed local time every morning, even after a bad night. This is the anchor that pulls the rest into place.

Naps, caffeine and alcohol

• Naps: one short nap, 20 to 30 minutes, early afternoon. A long nap takes away the sleep pressure you need to sleep at night.
• Caffeine: fine in the local morning to get through the day, but stop by early afternoon. Its effect lasts hours: 400 mg (about 3 to 4 cups of coffee) taken 6 hours before bed cut sleep by more than an hour in one study.
• Alcohol: it may help you drop off, but it makes the second half of the night light and broken, which is the last thing jet lag needs. Go easy, especially on the plane and the first nights.
• Water: drink regularly on the flight; dry cabin air and dehydration add to the tired feeling, though they don't cause jet lag itself.

Does melatonin help jet lag?

Yes, for many people, especially flying east across 5 or more zones. A Cochrane review found melatonin taken near the target bedtime at the destination reduced jet lag, and doses from 0.5 to 5 mg worked similarly, with the higher dose helping people fall asleep a bit faster. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine also recommends well-timed melatonin for jet lag, and the CDC's travel guidance suggests 0.5 to 5 mg.

• Flying east: take a low dose (0.5 to 3 mg) about 30 minutes before your local bedtime, for 3 to 5 nights.
• Flying west: it's usually not needed; light in the evening does more.
• Don't take it with alcohol, or before driving, and ask a doctor first if you're pregnant, take blood thinners, epilepsy medicine or other sleep medicines.
• Labels vary: one study of 31 products found the real dose ranged from 83% less to 478% more than the label. Pick a reputable brand or a pharmacy product.

Sleeping pills can help a few nights of sleep but don't move the body clock, and some leave you groggy; that's a conversation for a doctor before you travel. More on melatonin's limits in melatonin stopped working.

Short trips: stay on home time

If you're away for 2 to 3 days, it can be better not to adjust at all. Keep your home sleep times as far as you can, plan important things for when you'd be awake at home, and use light and caffeine to get through the rest. You'll have little or no jet lag when you get back.

Before you fly: getting a head start

For a big trip east, start 3 to 4 days before: go to bed and get up 1 hour earlier each day, and get bright light soon after waking. For a trip west, do the opposite: 1 hour later each day, with light in the evening. Even 2 days of shifting takes a day or two off the recovery. Fly overnight east if you can sleep on planes, and try to sleep only during the destination's night.

Coming home: the return trip

The trip home brings its own jet lag, in the opposite direction, and it often feels worse because you're back at work. Use the same rules: fix your wake-up time at home from the first morning, get light in the right window for the direction you flew, nap short and early, and keep caffeine to the morning. If you can, get back a day before work starts. Many people find coming back to the US from Europe (west) easy in the evenings but wake very early for a few days: keep the room dark in the early morning, and get light in the late afternoon.

It's the same problem as the twice-a-year clock change, only bigger; the daylight saving reset moves one hour, and the night-shift switch uses the same light tools for an even larger jump.

Still off a week after you got back?

Jet lag usually clears within a few days to a week, depending on zones crossed. If you're still falling asleep late or lying awake well after that, something else is often keeping it going:

• The clock settled late. You were already a night owl, and the trip pushed you further. Use the steps in can't fall asleep before 2 a.m. to bring bedtime earlier.
• A new habit of lying awake. A few nights of tossing and turning can teach the bed to mean being awake. The fix is to keep time in bed close to the sleep you're getting and to get up when you can't sleep: see how to fix your sleep schedule, step by step.
• Lie-ins and long naps since you got back, which keep the clock drifting.

Our free 2-minute sleep quiz works out your minutes awake in bed and a starting sleep window if the trip has left you with a habit of lying awake.

When to see a doctor

• Your sleep hasn't settled 2 to 3 weeks after you got back.
• You travel across time zones often, for work, and it's affecting your health or safety.
• You have a health condition that depends on timing, such as diabetes treated with insulin, epilepsy, or a medicine that must be taken at set times: ask before you travel how to adjust the doses.
• You're very sleepy in the day, nodding off while driving, or snoring with pauses in breathing.

Never drive if you feel sleepy after a long flight; jet lag slows reaction times like a lack of sleep does.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to fix your sleep schedule after jet lag?

Roughly a day for each time zone after flying east, and a bit faster after flying west (about 1.5 zones a day). Good light timing, short naps and a fixed wake-up time can speed it up.

Should I stay up all day to beat jet lag?

Stay up until a normal local bedtime, but a short nap of 20 to 30 minutes in the early afternoon is fine and safer than fighting sleep all day, especially if you have to drive.

Is it better to sleep on the plane or stay awake?

Sleep if it's night at your destination, and stay awake if it's day there. On an overnight flight east, sleep as much as you can.

Why is jet lag worse flying east?

Because your clock has to move earlier, and the body clock finds it easier to run later than earlier. That's why east usually takes about a day per zone and west a bit less.

Does morning sunlight help jet lag?

Once you've adjusted, yes. In the first days after flying east across many zones, early morning light can push your clock the wrong way; get light from late morning instead, then earlier each day.

How much melatonin should I take for jet lag?

Official travel guidance gives 0.5 to 5 mg near local bedtime for a few nights, mainly after flying east. A low dose works for most people; ask a doctor if you take other medicines or are pregnant.

Start on arrival

Work out your light window before you land, set your watch to local time, and pick the wake-up time you'll keep from the first morning. If you're still lying awake a week after you're home, take the free sleep quiz for your own numbers. More on fixing your schedule, falling asleep and night waking is on all sleep guides.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC Yellow Book: Health Information for International Travel, Jet lag disorder. Herxheimer A, Petrie KJ, Melatonin for the prevention and treatment of jet lag, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2002. Sack RL et al., Circadian rhythm sleep disorders: part I, basic principles, shift work and jet lag disorders, an American Academy of Sleep Medicine review, Sleep, 2007. Morgenthaler TI et al., Practice parameters for the clinical evaluation and treatment of circadian rhythm sleep disorders, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep, 2007. Eastman CI, Burgess HJ, How to travel the world without jet lag, Sleep Medicine Clinics, 2009. Drake C et al., Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2013. Erland LA, Saxena PK, Melatonin natural health products and supplements, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2017. American Academy of Sleep Medicine, International Classification of Sleep Disorders, 3rd edition (jet lag disorder). This guide is about habits, not medical care.