PSY 4327 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Jet Lag, Melatonin, Caffeine
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Jet lag
Things to do: Profs Advice
• Cut out caffeine, alcohol and cigarettes
• When you start preparing depends on your location's distance from your
destination
o Differs for everyone (individual difference), move clock for a half an hour a
day, or even an hour a day, some people need longer than others
o East: go to bed earlier
o West: stay up later
• The direction you move your bedtime depends on when you normally
go to bed and what direction you are travelling
• Parcel out the jetlag in the days before you leave rather than after you arrive
• You can reduce jetlag by what you eat (5 days before leaving)
o Protein breakfast
o Protein lunch
o Carbohydrate dinner (increase serotonin)
• Day before departure day is a feast day; eat a lot (melatonin increase
helps you sleep that night)
• Departure date is a famine day; eat as little as possible
• Her schedule: day 1: feast, Day 2: famine, Day 3: feast, Day 4
(Departure): famine and then arrival is a feast day, and then eat
normally
• Get as much light as you can when the light is out when you get to your destination
and have coffee (Going east)
• )f you’re travelling east, travel later in the day 9-10pm) so you can sleep on the plan
(West in the opposite)
• When you’re on the plane try and sleep mask and earplugs
• Before you leave (2 weeks before) take vitamin B12, and then take it for one week
after you arrive, it makes you more sensitive to light, making it easier for you to
adapt
• Melatonin just before they take a late flight, initiates phase advance if you’re
travelling eastward
o 6mg prior to departure
• On the plane do not drink alcohol its dehydrating and prevents you from sleeping,
drink lots of water
• Avoid proteins on the flight when travelling eastward
• When you arrive switch to their time and get exercise
It takes 1 recovery day for each time zone when travelling west but 1 and 1/2 for travelling
east if you do nothing to prepare before hand
Individual differences:
• Extroverts seem to adjust better than jetlag than introverts
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