Picture this. You leave OR Tambo on the evening flight, sleep for perhaps three broken hours somewhere over the Sahara, and land in a grey European morning. Two hours later you are in a meeting room, holding a coffee, searching for a word you have used a thousand times. Your body is in the room. Your brain is still somewhere over Chad.
What jet lag actually is
Deep in your brain is a tiny group of cells that acts as your master clock. It runs on a cycle of about twenty-four hours, known as the circadian rhythm, and it tells every part of your body what time it is: when to be alert, when to digest, when to cool down for sleep.
The clock sets itself mainly by daylight. When you cross several time zones in a few hours, the light outside changes at once, but the clock inside you shifts only gradually, roughly an hour or so a day. For a while your brain and your surroundings disagree about the time.
It is also worth knowing that not all travel tiredness is jet lag. Flying from Johannesburg to London or Frankfurt involves only a small time difference, yet you can still arrive wrecked. That is travel fatigue, and it often lifts after a good night or two. True jet lag, the kind you get flying to New York, Sydney or Singapore, can take days.
How it affects your brain
- Being wide awake at 3 am and desperate for sleep at 3 pm
- Slower thinking and trouble finding words
- Poor short-term memory and small, careless mistakes
- A shorter temper and a flatter mood than usual
The front of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, is thought to be especially sensitive to lost sleep. It is the part you need for judgement, tact and complicated decisions. That is why it is unwise to schedule your most important conversation for the morning you land, if you have any say in the matter.
You can cross seven time zones in a night, but your body clock still travels at walking pace.
What helps your clock adjust
The main tools for jet lag are free. They are light, timing and routine.
- Use daylight on purpose. Light is the main signal your clock listens to. As a rough guide, get morning light after flying east and late-afternoon light after flying west. Spending time outdoors is likely to help more than sitting in a hotel room.
- Switch to local time straight away. Set your watch on the plane, and eat and sleep by the destination clock.
- Keep naps short. A short nap takes the edge off. A long one may leave you awake at midnight.
- Drink water, and go easy on alcohol. A glass of wine on the plane may help you doze, but it tends to make sleep lighter and can leave you dehydrated.
- Give yourself a buffer. If the trip matters, arrive a day early where you can.
Some travellers use melatonin or sleeping tablets. Please discuss these with your doctor or pharmacist before you do, especially if you take other medication. The timing of melatonin matters a great deal, and taking it at the wrong time can make things worse.
Where neurofeedback fits in
Neurofeedback cannot move your body clock to a new time zone. Light and time do that. What brain training aims to do is help your brain become better at regulating itself in general. Whether that makes travel easier has not been well studied.
Neurofeedback uses sensors on the scalp to read your brain's electrical activity. A computer then gives your brain feedback, through sound and picture, when it produces calmer and steadier patterns. The sensors only read. Nothing is sent into the brain.
Every client starts with a 19-channel brain map, which takes about an hour and a half. Training often encourages SMR, short for sensorimotor rhythm, a calm and steady brainwave pattern linked to a still body and a quiet mind. Neurofeedback has been studied for insomnia, with mixed-to-encouraging results.
The aim is to support more settled sleep, which may help you recover from poor nights. Results vary, and nobody can promise a specific outcome. You can see how sessions work on our what to expect page.
When the tiredness does not lift
Ordinary jet lag usually clears within a week or so. If you are still exhausted long after you get home, or if you cannot sleep well even in your own bed, something else may be going on.
See your GP if poor sleep or fatigue continues for more than a few weeks, if you snore heavily or wake gasping, or if your mood has dropped. Neurofeedback works alongside medical care, not in place of it.
You may find these articles helpful: shift work and the body clock, which covers a very similar strain, and waking at 2:30 with a racing mind.
Common questions
Can neurofeedback prevent jet lag?
No. Jet lag happens because your body clock needs time to adjust to a new light and dark cycle, and no brain training changes that. Neurofeedback aims to support more settled sleep, which may help you recover from disruption, though this has not been well studied in travellers. Light exposure, timing and routine remain the main tools.
Why is flying east worse than flying west?
Travelling east shortens your day, so you have to fall asleep and wake up earlier than your body expects. Travelling west lengthens it, and staying up later is generally easier than going to sleep early. The natural human body clock is thought to run slightly longer than twenty-four hours, which would make stretching the day the easier direction.
How long does jet lag last?
A common rule of thumb is about one day of adjustment for every time zone crossed, although it varies widely between people and tends to be slower after flying east. Getting outside in daylight, keeping to local mealtimes and bedtimes, and limiting naps and alcohol can help your clock settle more quickly.
If travel has become a permanent state of catching up, it may be time to look after the brain that has to do the work when you land. You are welcome to get in touch with Irine to talk about whether brain training could help.
- jetlag
- business travel
- cognitive speed
- sleep rhythm
- executive travel
