Jetlag…

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Singapore, 6^th November 2013

For some reason I suffer more from jetlag when I fly from west to east (back from Europe) then the other way around. The last few nights I have had trouble sleeping waking up wide awake only an hour or so into my sleep. I generally try to get into the day-night pattern straight away. It works quite well the other way around as in the evening you are really tired being “biologically” 6 or 7 hours ahead. The draw back is generally that you wake up early, but then to me that is fine as I go do my early morning walk. But now being back in Singapore my biological clock, lacks 6-7 hours behind so when I go to bed (even around midnight) I somehow wake up shortly after. This surely must be jetlag…Where is my magic blue light when you need it 🙂

Several airlines now have a dynamic lighting systems (LED of course) to add or compensate lighting levels depending time of the day or outside brightness. I must say so far mostly on business and first class. The poor souls in coach/ economy class still have to suffer with rude changes in lighting levels as often there is no soft fade-dimmer option, just on-off. It seems the key though is drinking water a lot and sleeping as much as you can. As I am blessed being able to sleep anywhere, even standing up if necessary, ( 🙂 ), I generally manage some sleep even if I fly economy. Of course flying business with a flat-bed does help a lot, compared with a fold up stress seat in economy, often with some crying babies one or two rows away from you…

Even the airlines inflight magazines seem to jump on the jetlag combat wagon, with several products on sale claiming reduction of jetlag; a light mask being one of them. I don’t know, but to me the more natural the likelier it will have success. In other words make sure the lighting environment is as natural (in quality) as possible and programmed to simulate as close as possible circadian rhythms to balance your body during long haul flights over different time zones.

Light Watch 4-189: I am not totally sure about colours as available in the new 787 Dreamliner (I have not flown the plane yet), but soft transitions from warm to cool light intensities should help…