Jet lag doesn’t have to derail your energy, mood, or circadian rhythm. In my latest video, I dive deep into how to proactively manage and beat jet lag—from a systems biology perspective. We explore how your SCN (the master circadian clock) and peripheral clocks in the gut, liver, and muscle fall out of sync during travel, and how light, melatonin, caffeine, exercise, meal timing, and temperature can realign them. It’s not just about getting sleep on the plane; it’s about precisely timing these levers before, during, and after your flight based on direction of travel.
I also cover little-known but promising interventions; from NMN to glycine to low-dose naltrexone that may support circadian flexibility and faster re-entrainment, especially as we age. If you’ve ever crossed time zones and felt off for days, this video is for you. Check it out to build your personalized anti-jet lag protocol that compresses recovery from days to hours.
Transcript
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How do I handle jet lag east to west, west to east? I travel a ton for work. I’m typically flying across time zones and spend about one out of three days each year living from a suitcase. Managing jet lag is a very high priority for me with my longevity ccentric lifestyle. So, let’s cut straight to it. Jet lag is not just feeling tired after a long flight. It’s a direct result of circadian misalignment. Your internal biological clock being out of sync with the new external environment. Travel
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fatigue is just a sideeshow. The main act is the superchasmatic nucleus or SCN in your hypothalamus being forced to adjust to a new light dark cycle that it’s fundamentally not ready for. The body doesn’t rewire in a day. Without intervention, you re-entrain circadian rhythm at roughly one time zone per day. So across six time zones, you’re looking at six days of jet lag if you do nothing. The goal is to beat that curve, to proactively and precisely shift your physiology before it shifts you.
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Mechanistically, jet lag symptoms stem from asynchronous clocks. The master clock, the SCEN, drives rhythms in melatonin, cortisol, body temperature, and alertness. Peripheral clocks in liver, gut, muscle, and immune system also drift out of phase. It’s a systems level circadian collapse, if you will. Travel eastward, say New York to London, requires a phase advance, shifting everything earlier. This is harder because the period is closer to 24.2 hours in that case. Going westward, like New York to LA, you’re delaying the
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clock. It’s a little bit easier to achieve. The protocols, timing windows, and pharmacology differ depending on the direction of travel. What does light do? Light is your primary tool. It entrains the scen through melanopsin containing retinal ganglen cells that respond especially to blue wavelengths of 460 to about 480 nanometers. Morning light exposure after the temperature reaches its lowest point shifts the clocks earlier which is good for eastward trips. Evening light delays the clock which is ideal for westward trips. The
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phase response curve is the backbone. Apply light in the wrong window you move the clock in the wrong direction. So eastward, morning light exposure at the destination block light in the evening. If you’re going westward, evening light, block morning light. You use light therapy like a scalpel, not a hammer. Blue light blocking glasses post sunset help preserve indogenous melatonin production. Red light environments provide visual function with minimal circadian disruption. Think of your retina as a command line interface to
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your SCM. Mistimed exposure wrecks the entrainment. People talk about melatonin, but what is melatonin? Melatonin is not a sleep aid. It’s a circadian signal. It’s a hormone taken at the right time, it advances or delays the clock depending on the placement on the melatonin PRC. For eastward flights, a half a milligram to 2 milligrams of melatonin 2 hours before the target bedtime in the destination time zone helps advance the rhythm. Westward, very low doses in the morning can help to delay it. The phase shifting effect is
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separate from its hypnotic effect. High doses don’t work better. They just increase the risk of mistiming and getting it wrong. Empirically, melatonin works. Cochran meta analysis shows it cuts jet lag duration and severity significantly, especially with eastward jumps that are greater than five time zones. Timing is the variable that matters most. Combine melatonin with light. They act additively on the circadian system from opposite ends. So, how can you further improve your sleep? While Valyrian, lavender, magnesium, and
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other supplements may help with sleep quality, none of them shift the circadian phase. Glycine, an amino acid about 3 g before bedtime, actually promotes thermore regulatory cooling, lowering your core temperature and shortening sleep latency, the time that it takes for you to fall asleep. So, while it doesn’t shift the clock directly, it facilitates sleep during misalignment windows of jet lag. Use it as a sleep architecture optimizer. Don’t expect it to replace melatonin or light. Caffeine has dual utility. First,
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symptomatic relief from daytime sleepiness. And second, weak phase shifting capacity. A 200 milligram dose in the evening delays circadian phase by about 40 minutes. So, westward travel, afternoon caffeine helps to delay it. Don’t do it too late, but in the afternoon it can be okay. Eastward, avoid caffeine after noon time in the local time zone. Caffeine has a significant influence via the adenosine receptor antagonism. the SCN signaling and pineal melatonin modulation. If used right, caffeine reinforces the desired
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phase shift. If used wrong, it reinforces the misalignment. So, avoid extended release formulations. Make sure that timing is perfect because it’s everything. Physical activity can help you in train your new rhythm. Recent human research shows that exercise at 7 to 9:00 a.m. or 1 to 4:00 p.m. causes phase advances. Evening workouts of 7 to 10:00 p.m. cause delays. You can use this to reinforce the light cues. Eastward travel, exercise in early morning destination time. Westward travel, exercise counterintuitively in
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the evening. Exercise increases core temperature, cortisol, and your peripheral clock gene expression. It doesn’t just reduce fatigue. It shifts your physiology. Now, does eating affect your sleep? It does. Feeding and trains peripheral clocks, especially in the liver and gut. The Argon anti-jet lag diet uses feast fast cycling to shift metabolic rhythms. Its efficacy has been shown in military deployments. Fasting through the flight and breaking the fast at breakfast in the destination time
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zone is the most practical version of this. Meal composition matters. High protein breakfast increase tyrrosine and dopamine enhancing alertness. High carb dinners promote tryptophan transport and the production of serotonin and then melatonin. Leverage this. Protein morning carbs in the evening. Caffeine with meals reinforces circadian alignment. Stay hydrated. Skip alcohol. Circadian rhythm tightly tracks body temperature. A warm bath 90 minutes before sleep. Good. It promotes the natural postbath core temperature drop
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that facilitates sleep onset. Cold showers or exposure in the morning activates sympathetic tone. Norepinephrine cortisol signaling daybreak. Use thermal cues to reinforce the dayight cycle of the destination. Plan ahead. Bank sleep. Extend nightly sleep to eight and a half to nine hours for three to five days pre-flight. Shift your sleep wake schedule towards the destination gradually 30 to 60 minutes per day. For eastward travel, this means earlier bedtime and waking. Use light melatonin and caffeine pre-flight to
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help with the shift. Arrive rested. Never board sleepd deprived if you can help it. Preemptive phase shifting and sleep banking reduce adaptation time and blunt symptom severity. modulate circadian gene expression via cert one. Declines in NAD+ with age correlate with dampened circadian amplitude. NMN supplementation may enhance circadian flexibility. To be clear, no human trials have yet been conducted for jet lag, but it’s mechanistically sound. Consider NAD plus optimization with supplements like Novos Boost in the
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local mornings. The prescription lowdosese Nalrexone or LDN as it’s known taken at night may suppress cortisol in the evening. some anecdotal success in treating delayed sleep phase and misaligned rhythms. The prescription drug lowd dose nrexone or LDN taken at night may suppress evening cortisol. It can augment the morning endorphin rebound and restore the dural cortisol rhythm. Some anecdotal successes in treating delayed sleep phase and misaligned rhythms. Randomized control trials for jet lag have been done yet,
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but it’s also mechanistically plausible. The risk profile for this is also low when you’re using one and a half to four and a half milligs. What about rapamy and mtor? MTOR inhibition modulates clock amplitude and entrainment speed. Mice with mTor dysregulation showed altered circadium responses. Whether rapamy makes the clock more flexible is speculative. The longevity community hypothesizes that it does. While it’s not recommended for short-term jet lag at this point, it’s an open research
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question. Ultimately, jet lag is beatable, but only if you approach it mechanistically. Align the SCN using light and melatonin. Align peripheral clocks using meals, exercise, and temperature. Use sleep extension pre-flight. Leverage caffeine strategically. Use supplements like glycine if needed. Considered NMN support, especially if you’re over. Every tool works best when used at the right circadian phase. There is no silver bullet, but the composite protocol, properly timed light, darkness, melatonin, food, sleep, and
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movement can compress the jet lag window by days.