I recommend picking some up before you travel, or ask around for a trusted local pharmacy (it’s a fairly commonplace over-the-counter supplement). Note that this isn’t a magic fix – it will only help you get sleepy, it won’t be guaranteed lights out if you’ve only been awake for 10 hours and your body feels like it’s lunchtime. The good news? You can supplement melatonin – releasing the same hormone to ‘trick’ your brain into thinking it’s nighttime.

The tricky part is, the timing of this hormonal release is what needs to catch up when we change timezones. In short, what makes us feel sleepy in the evenings is a release of ‘melatonin’ in the brain. If you’re on a holiday somewhere exotic for a week, it can take a whole week to get fully adjusted, only for your body to then be thrown all the way back and start the whole process again! Convincing your body to sleep – the scientific way Writing in his book ‘Why We Sleep’ – the renowned sleep scientist Matthew Walker found that we can only adjust for around 1 hour a day in a new timezone! That’s not too bad if you’re flying from coast to coast, but a huge difference when traveling around the globe. You spend the day tired as hell, only to finally lay in bed at night and suddenly find yourself awake! Our days become nights and our nights become days, leaving us trapped in an upside-down, sleepless world until our internal clocks catch up. Thanks to the invention of airplanes, we travel faster than our body clocks can keep up with. What effect does a timezone change really have on our system?Įveryone knows the typical symptoms of jet-lag. Whatever the case, just don’t toss and turn all night (get up instead) and don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re going to spend tomorrow a little extra tired. eyemasks/ ear plugs, relaxing tea, and more listed below) to help you. However, if it’s too late for that, make sure to use every trick you can (i.e. Starting to ‘live’ in that timezone in the days before you fly can make for a super easy transition to the new sleeping times. The best way to sleep well in a different timezone is to prepare ahead of time. Thankfully, there’s a lot of things you can do to help make the transition easier on you and your body. There’s nothing worse than being unable to enjoy your holiday break or prepare for a meeting because you’re just not able to get some sleep! Tossing and turning a thousand miles from home is never ideal.

Now sleeping time