How does Stop Jet Lag work?

Time zone changes require body clock changes.

Jet lag symptoms occur when your body clock (which signals when to eat, sleep, and wake up) is out of synch with your environment. The consequences of jet lag can severely affect your quality of life and are hard to shake. When traveling from west to east, it can take your body up to a day for each time zone crossed to adjust to local time. Traveling east to west is easier but still can take a half day per time zone for your body clock to adjust. And, the older you are, the more severe your jet lag may be and the longer it could take to recover.

Resetting your internal body clock

Stop Jet Lag orchestrates the use of bright light exposure, melatonin supplements, food, caffeine, exercise, and social or interpersonal stimulation by sending the right signals, at the right time, to your brain.

Stop Jet Lag is able to analyze hundreds of possible scenarios and ultimately selects the best timing and anti-jet lag activities for you to follow. Switching your behavior to local time as soon as practical also helps you arrive at your destination alert and 'in-sync' with your surroundings.

Tips on avoiding jet lag

You can transition to new time zones quickly and smoothly with simple, but crucial, adjustments to normal routines by identifying:

  • The right time to rest or to stay active and when it's possible for you to get core sleep given the limitations of your specific flight schedule.
  • When to seek exposure to bright light or to avoid bright light.
  • When to take melatonin supplements (optional), based on extensive research conducted by Oregon Health Sciences University.
  • The proper size, timing and type of meals, and when you should and should NOT consume caffeinated beverages, as researched by Dr. Charles Ehret of Argonne National Labs.
  • The optimal time to start operating on the new time zone.

Stop Jet Lag activities: how and why they work

  • Exposure to Bright Light
  • Altering Sleep Patterns
  • Meals: What to eat, when
  • Caffeine do's and don'ts
  • Melatonin Supplements (Optional)

View activities description »

Why your flight times matter

Unlike other methods of jet lag avoidance, Stop Jet Lag analyzes flight times in relationship to when they occur during your normal routine. This can make a profound difference in successfully adjusting your body clock. We chose the following scenarios to illustrate the optimum times to shift to a new time zone based on a flight itinerary.

View scenarios »


Haven't booked a flight?

If you have booked, you most likely can't change it. But, if you have, Stop Jet Lag will provide the right recommendations.

Read what times are best times in our FAQs »