Jet Lag
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Jet Lag
Found this on news.com and thought it might provoke some interesting discussion:
I guess I'm interested because for me personally, the idea that I would constantly be jet lagged (and that it would potentially have permanent negative effects on my health) was the single biggest factor that put me off becoming an airline pilot. I do quite a bit of international travel now as a pax, and that's bad enough - but doing it pattern after pattern for a whole career would be something I just couldn't face..
What do LH pilots think -is this article true, or do you actually get used to jet lag (or at least better at managing it) after a while?
cheers
SW
No getting over the jet lag
From correspondents in New York
AIRLINE crew and passengers who frequently fly between several time zones face a number of health problems including disruptions in a woman's menstrual cycle and even short-term psychiatric disturbances, researchers from the UK warn in a report published Thursday in The Lancet.
There seems to be no getting use to long-haul flights, according to researchers who report that flight crews who regularly take long journeys are not protected from the effects of jet lag such as poor and interrupted sleep, mood changes, irritability, stomach problems, and decreased brain power.
Jet lag from crossing several time zones also causes a dip in an athlete's performance, note Jim Waterhouse and two associates from the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University.
Jet lag is worse for older travellers, and its severity increases with the number of time zones crossed. "If the journey crosses fewer than about three time zones, then jet lag is unlikely to be a major difficulty for most people," the authors write.
The direction of travel also matters, Waterhouse and colleagues say, with flights to the east bringing more jet lag than flights to the west.
So how long will it last? Jet lag caused by eastbound flights lasts for several days "roughly equal to two-thirds of the number of time zones crossed, and about half the number of time zones crossed for westward flights," Waterhouse and colleagues report.
Currently, there is no cure for jet lag, but there are some things frequent long-haul travellers can do to try to lessen the impact of jet lag upon arrival. For journeys that cross more than three time zones, travellers can help the body clock adjust by deliberately seeking or avoiding sunlight at the new destination, the investigators offer.
Trying to maintain alertness during the day at the new destination by exercising and/or drinking caffeinated beverages may also help. The jury is still out on the value of taking the hormone melatonin to curb jet lag, the authors say. Melatonin is secreted during sleep and has been implicated in jet lag, but Waterhouse and colleagues don't advise using melatonin until more research is conducted.
What's needed, they conclude, is a "more detailed understanding of the molecular changes associated with time zone changes ... with a view to developing drugs to promote clock adjustment and further assessments of new sleep-promoting and alertness-promoting drugs."
SOURCE: The Lancet, March 31, 2007.
From correspondents in New York
AIRLINE crew and passengers who frequently fly between several time zones face a number of health problems including disruptions in a woman's menstrual cycle and even short-term psychiatric disturbances, researchers from the UK warn in a report published Thursday in The Lancet.
There seems to be no getting use to long-haul flights, according to researchers who report that flight crews who regularly take long journeys are not protected from the effects of jet lag such as poor and interrupted sleep, mood changes, irritability, stomach problems, and decreased brain power.
Jet lag from crossing several time zones also causes a dip in an athlete's performance, note Jim Waterhouse and two associates from the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University.
Jet lag is worse for older travellers, and its severity increases with the number of time zones crossed. "If the journey crosses fewer than about three time zones, then jet lag is unlikely to be a major difficulty for most people," the authors write.
The direction of travel also matters, Waterhouse and colleagues say, with flights to the east bringing more jet lag than flights to the west.
So how long will it last? Jet lag caused by eastbound flights lasts for several days "roughly equal to two-thirds of the number of time zones crossed, and about half the number of time zones crossed for westward flights," Waterhouse and colleagues report.
Currently, there is no cure for jet lag, but there are some things frequent long-haul travellers can do to try to lessen the impact of jet lag upon arrival. For journeys that cross more than three time zones, travellers can help the body clock adjust by deliberately seeking or avoiding sunlight at the new destination, the investigators offer.
Trying to maintain alertness during the day at the new destination by exercising and/or drinking caffeinated beverages may also help. The jury is still out on the value of taking the hormone melatonin to curb jet lag, the authors say. Melatonin is secreted during sleep and has been implicated in jet lag, but Waterhouse and colleagues don't advise using melatonin until more research is conducted.
What's needed, they conclude, is a "more detailed understanding of the molecular changes associated with time zone changes ... with a view to developing drugs to promote clock adjustment and further assessments of new sleep-promoting and alertness-promoting drugs."
SOURCE: The Lancet, March 31, 2007.
What do LH pilots think -is this article true, or do you actually get used to jet lag (or at least better at managing it) after a while?
cheers
SW
Grandpa Aerotart
I don't find it onerous in a overall way. I just sleep when I need to sleep irrespective of time of day.
To some extent your body clock becomes 'permanently' adjusted to the average time zone you spend most time in...in my case it seems to live somewhere over India enroute to the ME
Certainly going east can be a pain. When my home time zone is SEA and my body clock averages somewhere west of there going to AKL can mean seriously disturbed sleep. Luckily for us our schedule doesn't have us leaving AKL very early and we don't go very far...BN...and then get off for up to several days. So despite laying awake until 0500 LT because your body clock thinks it's 2200 the night before I do get enough sleep and feel quite ok flying across the Tasman.
Going westbound is a doddle and coming back east to your normal time zones just requires a little planning to ensure you're fit to fly.
While young blokes should be very much more tolerant they usually also feel the need to 'socialise' downroute a great deal more than those of us who have that out of our systems...thus they often suffer more. Much older pilots possibly suffer more too because of aging effects but it seems to me those of us between those extremes fair reasonably well.
I am naturally a bit of a night owl anyway and I think that helps. Downroute too you're not influenced by family to get up at a certain time and usually don't have any running around paying bills pressures...so you just sleep until you wake up. At home my child is late teens and somewhat of a night owl herself...when I am home I go to bed when I am tired and wake up at whatever time and don't care if that is lunchtime. I work other aspects of my life around that. Of course if I need to be up I get up and have a nap later on...if I don't I don't.
Our company schedule has most long haul flights departing early evening from home base and around midnight at some ports downroute. Some pilots feel the need to use chemicals to sleep but that just terrifys me...or the thought of becoming dependant does...I avoid them completely.
All in all after spending a career doing shorthall and conciously avoiding longhaul I finally found myself doing longhaul and I have to say I prefer it.
To some extent your body clock becomes 'permanently' adjusted to the average time zone you spend most time in...in my case it seems to live somewhere over India enroute to the ME
Certainly going east can be a pain. When my home time zone is SEA and my body clock averages somewhere west of there going to AKL can mean seriously disturbed sleep. Luckily for us our schedule doesn't have us leaving AKL very early and we don't go very far...BN...and then get off for up to several days. So despite laying awake until 0500 LT because your body clock thinks it's 2200 the night before I do get enough sleep and feel quite ok flying across the Tasman.
Going westbound is a doddle and coming back east to your normal time zones just requires a little planning to ensure you're fit to fly.
While young blokes should be very much more tolerant they usually also feel the need to 'socialise' downroute a great deal more than those of us who have that out of our systems...thus they often suffer more. Much older pilots possibly suffer more too because of aging effects but it seems to me those of us between those extremes fair reasonably well.
I am naturally a bit of a night owl anyway and I think that helps. Downroute too you're not influenced by family to get up at a certain time and usually don't have any running around paying bills pressures...so you just sleep until you wake up. At home my child is late teens and somewhat of a night owl herself...when I am home I go to bed when I am tired and wake up at whatever time and don't care if that is lunchtime. I work other aspects of my life around that. Of course if I need to be up I get up and have a nap later on...if I don't I don't.
Our company schedule has most long haul flights departing early evening from home base and around midnight at some ports downroute. Some pilots feel the need to use chemicals to sleep but that just terrifys me...or the thought of becoming dependant does...I avoid them completely.
All in all after spending a career doing shorthall and conciously avoiding longhaul I finally found myself doing longhaul and I have to say I prefer it.
Nunc est bibendum
I've just gone back to work after 5 1/2 weeks at home. Before leave I wouldn't have said I was particularly tired or fatigued but by the end of my time at home I was sleeping all night, every night and felt great. About five days into the first trip and I'm reminded again about how good that time at home was. Jet lag's a dog but I guess that's why we get paid the big bucks! 
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Swingwing, you are correct.
I spent 4 years flying the 744 and did not think it was that bad at all.
That is, until I left.
After 2 months on the ground (ground school and simulators), I woke up one day and felt on top of the world. I felt happy. I could hold a thought. Unbelievable. Then it hit me....this is how normal people feel everyday.... normal. The insidious thing about long-term jetlag is that you never see it coming.
Little by little, your subjective version of what feels "normal" is slowly lowered. After a while, the reference point for what you feel is normal, is the same as what non-jet-lagged people would call "f---ing fatigued". But if that is all you know, and by now can remember, then that feeling is your own benchmark of normality.
I honestly felt like I "woke up", like Neo coming out of the matrix. My wife says she feels like she got back the man she originally married. It scared the living s--t out of me.
I have been flying domestic now for 7 years and thoroughly enjoying life. I will never go back to ultra-longhaul flying. Sure, I'd love the extra money, and sure, I'd rationalise that this time I could defeat it. But what stops me is that I know I would not see the fatigue coming.
Qf 744 flying is probably near the worst end of the scale. LHR-SYD-LAX equals 16/24 possible time zones. Throw in the occasional JFK and you get 19 hrs ! Out of 24 !
I would never have even come close to understanding this unless I had lived it. It will probably never be dealt with properly because of the cost. Eg- only allow your pilots to fly in the SIN-LHR or SYD-JFK or BKK-HNL timezomes, or whatever combination.
In answer to swingwing, subjectively you may feel that you do get used to jetlag. In reality, that's rubbish. I can claim the experience, but, I'll never repeat it.
Regards,
FLCH69.
I spent 4 years flying the 744 and did not think it was that bad at all.
That is, until I left.
After 2 months on the ground (ground school and simulators), I woke up one day and felt on top of the world. I felt happy. I could hold a thought. Unbelievable. Then it hit me....this is how normal people feel everyday.... normal. The insidious thing about long-term jetlag is that you never see it coming.
Little by little, your subjective version of what feels "normal" is slowly lowered. After a while, the reference point for what you feel is normal, is the same as what non-jet-lagged people would call "f---ing fatigued". But if that is all you know, and by now can remember, then that feeling is your own benchmark of normality.
I honestly felt like I "woke up", like Neo coming out of the matrix. My wife says she feels like she got back the man she originally married. It scared the living s--t out of me.
I have been flying domestic now for 7 years and thoroughly enjoying life. I will never go back to ultra-longhaul flying. Sure, I'd love the extra money, and sure, I'd rationalise that this time I could defeat it. But what stops me is that I know I would not see the fatigue coming.
Qf 744 flying is probably near the worst end of the scale. LHR-SYD-LAX equals 16/24 possible time zones. Throw in the occasional JFK and you get 19 hrs ! Out of 24 !
I would never have even come close to understanding this unless I had lived it. It will probably never be dealt with properly because of the cost. Eg- only allow your pilots to fly in the SIN-LHR or SYD-JFK or BKK-HNL timezomes, or whatever combination.
In answer to swingwing, subjectively you may feel that you do get used to jetlag. In reality, that's rubbish. I can claim the experience, but, I'll never repeat it.
Regards,
FLCH69.
only allow your pilots to fly in the SIN-LHR or SYD-JFK or BKK-HNL timezomes, or whatever combination
I've only been in the game a couple of years but slowly getting the hang of making it more manageable - I don't think you ever get used to it. Things like staying up all day (or even just a 2-3 hr nap) when you get home early in the morning are great in theory, but not always practicable. A few beers or a glass or two of wine does wonders for your sleeping habits too, but I know the academics would say otherwise!
As for:
While young blokes should be very much more tolerant they usually also feel the need to 'socialise' downroute a great deal more than those of us who have that out of our systems...
!TL
