Jetlag is a mismatch between your current actual timezone and the various chemical processes in your brain and body which regulate the daily rhythm of your body's activities. Fortunately for international travellers, these processes will adjust themselves over time. Unfortuately for international travellers, there's a maximum rate at which they can adjust and there are plenty of things that people do to disrupt this process. Depending on how you react to jetlag, you can feel pretty grotty during the adjustment process, which is not going to be conducive to top sporting performance.
I am in no way an expert on the science of diurnal rhythms and their management, but I've worked out a routine and a few tricks which seem to allow me to help make the adjustment as quickly as possible:
Rule #1 - Your body will only adjust at about 1 hour per day of time difference maximum. Some people may be faster and others slower.
Rule #2 - You cannot speed up adaptation beyond that limit, but you can slow it down by doing the wrong things.
Rule #3 - The sooner you move your sleep patterns to your destination once you have arrived, the closer you will get to the maximum recovery rate.
Rule #4 - Do not have afternoon naps or any extra sleep outside of your normal nightly sleep routine.
Rule #5 - A couple of glasses of wine is fine, but don't hit the booze to try and force sleep, as this will generally result in a very poor quality of sleep which may be counter-productive.
So far, so good; however it may not be entirely obvious how to apply this to your trip so let's work our way through the trip from NZ to the UK:
Before the flight: Try and get plenty of rest and keep well hydrated. If you can start to move your bedtimes forward or backwards to closer match your destination timezone, so much the better.
Flight Plan:
| NZ Time | LA Time | London Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:10 | 02:10 | 10:10 | Flight departs AKL. Watch some films, do some work, but stay awake for the majority of the flight |
| 09:10 | 12:10 | 20:10 | Try and get a little sleep before landing at LAX |
| 11:10 | 14:10 | 22:10 | Flight lands at LAX |
| 13:10 | 16:10 | 00:10 | Flight departs LAX. Snooze if you can. |
| 14:30 | 17:30 | 01:30 | Meal served. Eat properly to ensure you don't wake up because I'm too hungry to sleep and have two glasses of wine. Then go to sleep and get as much sleep as possible. |
| 23:40 | 02:40 | 10:40 | Flight lands at LHR. |
After the Flight: No matter how hard it is, try to stay awake until at least 20:00 on the day of arrival in your destination. Get as much daylight as possible once you arrive at your destination, as this will help**, as can strenuous exercise***. Don't drink lots of alcohol on the evening of arrival, as you'll come out of deep sleep when the booze wears off. You'll also be dehydrated and feeling rubbish.
A final thought: Touring is expensive. A little preparation and thought can stop you wasting a lot of money. Save the boozing and late nights for after you've won the matches. It's OK to be knackered at work when you get back to your home country.
* With the exception of ground coffee for cafetieres. For some reason, it's frequently miserable over here.
** Forbes-Robertson, S., Dudley, E., Vadgama, P. et al. Circadian Disruption and Remedial Interventions: Effects and Interventions for Jet Lag for Athletic Peak Performance. Sports Med (2012) 42: 185. doi:10.2165/11596850-000000000-00000
*** Waterhouse, J., Reilly, T., Atkinson, G., Edwards, B. Jet lag: trends and coping strategies. The Lancet. Volume 369, No. 9567, p1117–1129, 31 March 2007.
