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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/i675B.png)
The growth of the SC2 scene in recent months has been staggering. From the GSL in Korea, to MLG in the US, to Dreamhack in Europe, the scene has truly become international. As a fan, this is fantastic. But for a pro, it can mean a hell of a lot of traveling. Players like HuK and MC now seem to spend as much time airborne as they spend crushing nerd skulls. This is obviously not ideal, as it means players may not be in top condition, and may even risk burn-out.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LUw6E.png)
For my 750th post, I present a basic guide to understanding and dealing with jet lag. While this is motivated by the pro-tournament scene, I hope it will be useful to pro and everyday travelers alike.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/IZBQU.png)
First off, we need to understand why jet lag happens, and that means talking about the circadian clock.
Imagine you were placed in a darkened room for a week, with a comfy bed and no clue as to what time it was outside. You could sleep whenever you wanted, and meals would be provided whenever you requested.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MRom6.jpg)
How do think you would sleep under these conditions? Try to guess before you read on.
So, you might have guessed that you would lose any regular schedule and start napping on and off around the clock. Well, it turns out that's not what happens. People have actually done these experiments, and found that even in the absence of external time cues, people continue to follow an approximately 24-h sleep/wake cycle. This graph is an example of somebody who knew what time of day it was for 21 days, and then had all external time cues removed for a couple of months.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mHqWI.jpg)
Along the horizontal axis is time of day, and along the vertical axis is the number of days into the experiment. The dark bars indicate times when the person was asleep. What you can see is that they maintained a regular schedule for the first 21 days, always going to bed around 2am, and waking around 10am.
After time cues were removed on day 22, you can see that they started to go to bed about an hour later each day, meaning they were living on an approximately 25-hour day. This is not done consciously; it is all down to the fact that our bodies are regulated by an internal biological clock. This clock is commonly referred to as the circadian clock, because its natural cycle length is about 24 hours (circa = about, dia = day).
Just about every form of life has a circadian clock, as a result of having evolved in the presence of a daily light/dark cycle. Jet lag is the natural result of rapidly moving to a different time zone, a situation that never arose during the course of evolution.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/SWPYp.png)
As you just saw, when all time cues are taken away, the circadian clock keeps the body running on a schedule close to, but not exactly, 24 hours. In fact, for humans, the average circadian period is around 24.2 hours. Different people have slightly different periods, but they are all within an hour of this value.
Now, as you might imagine, if the circadian clock is going to remain synchronized to the 24-hour Earth day, it needs to be readjusted slightly each day to make up for the difference between its own period and 24 hours. For people with circadian periods greater than 24 hours, this will mean a slight advance of the clock (i.e., setting it forward), while for people with circadian periods less than 24 hours, it will mean a slight delay of the clock (i.e., setting it back).
So what is it that resets the clock to the correct time each day? It turns out the answer is light. Without light, the clock will continue running at its own period, oblivious to the 24-hour day, and in fact this is a condition suffered by many blind people.
Exposure to light can either advance or delay the clock, depending on when in the circadian cycle it occurs. The following chart shows how this works.
So light you receive in the morning tends to advance your clock (i.e., set it forward), while light you receive late in the evening tends to delay your clock (i.e., set it back). How much light do you need to have a significant effect on the clock? Not much at all. Room light, despite being around 1000 times dimmer than sunlight is still about half as effective.
This is helpful practical knowledge, because it means if you stay up late gaming one night, it will delay your circadian clock. This means you will want to go to bed later on the following night, which can quickly become a habit. To break this cycle, it's best to minimize light exposure at night, and maximize it in the morning (e.g., open your curtains, take a morning walk). It's also worth noting that the circadian clock is most affected by blue light; this free program, which changes the color balance of your monitor, is one way of reducing your blue light exposure late at night.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MPJXd.png)
When you move suddenly to another time zone, your circadian clock is still set to the time zone you just left. This is why you tend to feel sleepy or hungry at unusual times, and just generally messed up. So long as you don't do anything crazy, the circadian clock shifts by about 1 time zone per day. Unfortunately, this isn't quick enough for pros jetting straight between tournaments.
Adapting to a new time zone can be sped up by maximizing or minimizing your light exposure at appropriate times. Here are some tips for maximizing your light exposure:
1) Turn on more lights.
2) Get exposure to sunlight, if possible.
Here are some good ways to minimize light exposure:
1) Stay indoors if the sun is out.
2) Wear sunglasses.
3) Turn off lights.
4) Take a nap! The circadian clock only receives light through the retina, so anytime you are asleep, there is zero light input.
I'll explain when you want to maximize or minimize your light exposure using some examples. But first, here's a helpful trick
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/POuf8.png)
You can use your wristwatch to record what time your circadian clock thinks it is.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Jod5c.jpg)
Here's how to do it:
1) Before your trip, make sure your watch is set to your local time.
2) For every day in which you attempt to shift your circadian clock to the new time zone through managing your light exposure, set your watch time 1 to 2 hours closer to the target time zone. Shift 1 hour if you feel you didn't do a particularly good job of managing your light exposure. Shift 2 hours if you feel you did a good job of managing your light exposure. If you feel you did absolutely everything wrong (received a lot of light when you shouldn’t have, and were in dim light when you should have been in bright light) don’t change your watch time for that day.
Now, life is easy. Just follow these simple rules:
1) If your clock reads anything between 9am and 2pm, light will ADVANCE you (i.e., set your circadian clock forward).
2) If your clock reads anything between 9pm and 2am, light will DELAY you (i.e., set your circadian clock backwards).
3) If your clock reads anything between 2am and 9am, you should try to sleep, or minimize light exposure if you are awake.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Wlvto.png)
Let's start with an example of flying west: from Los Angeles to Seoul.
Seoul is 17 hours ahead, or 7 hours behind, if you prefer to think of it that way. So at 8pm in Seoul on the day you arrive, your circadian clock thinks it's 3am (the time in Los Angeles). This is bad news if you have a game scheduled for this time. Your concentration will be impaired, your reactions will be sluggish, and will likely feel cold through, as your body lowers its core temperature in expectation of sleep.
Without any special interventions, the circadian clock will typically take about 7 days to shift across the 7 time zones between Los Angeles and Seoul. This shifting occurs due to the new light/dark cycle.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tLxVH.png)
Because the sun now rises and sets 7 hours later, there is more light exposure at times when light causes delay. This results in the clock gradually resetting later and later until it has reached Seoul time.
Artificial light can of course mess with this, so we need to be take care in understanding whether switching the light on when it's dark outside will help the adaptation.
In this example, we want to delay the clock as much as possible. This means maximizing light exposure at times when your watch reads 9pm to 2am, and minimizing it otherwise.
Note that you can (and should) begin shifting your clock before you actually take your flight. In this example, if you can shift your circadian clock some of the way before you leave, you will only need to shift a small way once you arrive in Seoul.
So, suppose you fly out of LA on June 10. You can start your shift on June 8 by minimizing light exposure between 9am and 2pm, and staying up a little later to maximize light exposure between 9pm and 2am. You can now set your watch back 2 hours for June 9 (i.e., when it's 9pm in Los Angeles time, the watch will read 7pm). You should follow the same procedure on June 9, minimizing light exposure when your watch reads between 9am and 2pm, and staying up a little later to maximize light exposure when your watch reads between 9pm and 2am. You can now set your watch back another 2 hours for June 10 (i.e., when it's 9pm in Los Angeles, your watch will now read 5pm). The flight will arrive in Seoul on June 11. Let's suppose on the trip to Seoul it was difficult to manage light exposure, so we only shift the clock back 1 hour for June 11. This means your clock is now 5 hours behind Los Angeles time, which is only 2 hours off Seoul time. In just a couple more days you should be fully adapted to Seoul time.
The chart below shows the shifting watch time for this trip, along with the light exposure from 9pm to 2am each day.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/S8VfY.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NlaLl.png)
While flying west is all about delaying the clock as fast as possible, flying east is all about advancing it (so long as you are not crossing more than 8 time zones – for that case, see the points in the last section). As an example, let's consider a flight from New York to Stockholm.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/EyjsX.jpg)
Stockholm is 6 hours ahead of New York, so we need to advance the clock (i.e., set it forward) as quickly as possible. Natural light exposure will help matters, but we can speed the adaptation by following the watch rules as above. Whenever the clock reads 9am to 2pm, we should maximize light exposure, and whenever it reads 9pm to 2am, we should minimize light exposure.
So, suppose you fly out of New York on October 10. You can start your shift on October 8 by getting some extra morning light, and minimizing light exposure between 9pm and 2am by switching lights off, and getting an early night. You can now set your watch forward 2 hours for October 9 (i.e., when it's 9am in New York time, the watch will read 11am). You should follow the same procedure on October 9, maximizing light exposure when your watch reads between 9am and 2pm, and turning off the lights and getting to bed a little earlier to minimize light exposure when your watch reads between 9pm and 2am. You can now set your watch forward another 2 hours for October 10 (i.e., when it's 9am in New York, your watch will now read 1pm). The flight will arrive in Stockholm on the morning of October 11. Let's suppose on the trip to Stockholm it was difficult to manage light exposure, so we only shift the clock forward 1 hour for October 11. This means your clock is now 5 hours ahead of New York time, which is only 1 hour off Stockholm time. In just another day you should be fully adapted to Stockholm time.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/SAF7G.png)
For pros, travel itineraries can be a lot more complicated than a single trip east or west. Often a series of tournaments will be played in different locations. Or in the case of ongoing series like the GSL, a player may take an excursion to another tournament in the midst of the season before returning for the next round.
In these cases, the same rules can be applied to speed adaptation to a new time zone. But here are some extra tips to help you cope with jet lag:
1) When traveling across a very large number of time zones (more than about 8), the circadian clock always finds it easier to delay than advance. So, for instance, if you are flying 10 time zones east, it is actually easier to delay your circadian clock 14 hours rather than advancing it 10 hours.
2) Sleep is important! If you are feeling out of it and it's not a time scheduled for light exposure, take a nap!
3) Sometimes it will be impossible to avoid playing at an adverse circadian phase. By that I mean, when your watch is telling you that it's the middle of the night. Well, there's still something you can do - have some coffee! Remember that caffeine ingested orally takes about 1 hour to reach its peak level, and has a half life of about 7 hours, so plan ahead!
4) Stay off melatonin unless you really know what you're doing. Melatonin can help you get to sleep, but it also resets the circadian clock. If you take it at the wrong time, it may actually make your jet lag worse!
5) Food intake also has some effect on the circadian clock. It may therefore be beneficial to switch your meal times to the target local time as soon as possible to improve adaptation.
Finally, if you're a pro player with a complicated travel plan, feel free to PM me and I may be able to give you some additional pointers for your schedule.
Happy traveling!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qoKZu.jpg)
 
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
I'm stealing this first post. This looks ridiculous.
And by ridiculous I mean ridiculously awesome.
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Wow that's a nice post. Bookmarked!
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lol fw,
Really nice guide.
I like to avoid drinking caffeine and alcohol as well. Instead I always bring water.
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Neat. It's funny how few people know about circadian rhythm/how jetlag works. Hopefully now ALL WILL KNOW THE TRUTH
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5 stars easily, nice guide for pro SC2 players and the constant traveler.
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is there a tl;dr version? im so tired right now ~.~
either way, from what i have skimmed thru it looks highly detailed, definately helpful to the pro's. how many times has it occured that pro's don't play well cus of jetlag 
gj on the article!
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Light exposure huh? Never thought of that.
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Holy mother of blogs. This is one of the greatest blog entries in TL history!
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Wow! Nicely explained. I just learned a lot!
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too bad koreans cant read english, we need a translated version of this in korean, and other languages if necessary, just so that it's balanced.
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f.lux is awesome, wanted to post it when i read the post but then i saw you already had it in there
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way cool.
its cool to see how your body reacts so much to your environment
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Guys i know how hard it is to fix a sleep schedule. However smoking weed makes it really easy. If I smoke a joint i can go to sleep anytime I want and sleep 8 hours afterwards. I have fixed really retarded sleeping schedules like this.
P.S. I rarely smoke. The only reason I smoke at home is to fix my sleeping schedule.
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This is awesome. I don't have to ever worry about it, thankfully, but people don't understand how much it affects you. I also don't think it's really something you get used too, even after a lot of trips. Thank you for this, I'm going to refer this to anyone who plans on going over seas for a tournament.
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Wow, do you know if this will work for people with DSPD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome?
And you mentioned that melatonin "resets" the sleep cycle? Can you elaborate? I heard that several studies showed it to be ineffective or placebo in most people, but that it actually helps with DSPD individuals.
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"5.00 stars based on 15 ratings" 
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Whatthefat, you are so. fucking. smart. All of your blogs (except We Are the 98% (which is awesome in a different way)) are easily in the top 10% of the most interesting, informative, and awesome OPs on Teamliquid.net.
You are eSports. ... don't get fucked by Endymion o.o
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This is absolutely fascinating. I've already changed my monitor color. This is a must read for every gamer that screws up their sleep schedule staying up late :D
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intrigue
Washington, D.C9933 Posts
got flux because of this blog and i'm loving it =]
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16974 Posts
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On January 27 2012 08:53 intrigue wrote:
got flux because of this blog and i'm loving it =]
best thing about it is that it's much easier on the eyes late at night imho
but afaik it doesn't work if you play anything that is not in windowed mode, not sure tho
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Korea (South)17174 Posts
Simple technique to beat jet lag on 13 hr flights to korea: get a flight that arrives evening in korean time, stay up 24 hrs b4 flight
sleep as much in plane as possible
promptly get drunk as fuck in korea
sleep in peace
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On January 27 2012 08:53 intrigue wrote:
got flux because of this blog and i'm loving it =]
Stick to it. I've been using it for a while, and it makes me feel tired when I want to go to bed, and help my eyes. Only problem is it doesn't work in fullscreen games... Also, change the lighting so that it doesn't change suddenly, it's best if it changes slowly because you won't notice it. It's much better than the gunnar eye wear in my opinion.
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whatthefat, your blogs are always so good
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Is that an Airbus A330 in the picture?
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I didn't see the recommendation to make fists with your toes in this blog. I am disappointed.
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I knew about flux before it was cool :D But anyway, great post, thanks a ton! This will really help me when traveling.
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whatthefat is a cyborg... maybe a Mayan god. I say this on all of his posts. but c'mon, this is getting silly.
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eg needs to hire u to personally walk around and tell me when to sleep, drink caffeine, and pop mela... this is way too long for me to read and actually comprehend.
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Despite the terrible banners, it's actually an amazing post.
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Another thing to consider; flying dehydrates a person pretty badly. Remember to drink water. Also, consider picking up a nasal lavage. It'll help keep you nasal passages hydrated. That'll help fight off infection.
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Holy shit, this is a well-written, informative blog. 5/5!
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Good stuff, I usually just try to stay up as long as possible and wreck the schedule- to change it lol. 
Edit: Basically what rekul is saying... if I were to have something like that in mind lol.
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Perhaps this guide is better and more elaborate than how I do it, but basically I just don't sleep the first night and make my way to the next night. Might be standard? IDK. Makes for a rough first day but I wake up and I'm back to 100%.
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Great advice. One of the best tips I've had had nothing to do with the circadian rhythm but something completely different. When you get really bad jet-lag the best thing to do is not eat for at least 6 hours, then eat at the next local meal time. Your body closely syncs with meal times and jolting that rhythm is much easier than sleep cycles. Travel frequently and it's been a big help
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On January 27 2012 09:05 Rekrul wrote:
Simple technique to beat jet lag on 13 hr flights to korea: get a flight that arrives evening in korean time, stay up 24 hrs b4 flight
sleep as much in plane as possible
promptly get drunk as fuck in korea
sleep in peace
Ya know, I've never traveled across more than 4 time zones at once, but what you said was always going to be my game plan if/when I ever travel to somewhere in Europe/Asia.
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On January 27 2012 09:05 Rekrul wrote:
Simple technique to beat jet lag on 13 hr flights to korea: get a flight that arrives evening in korean time, stay up 24 hrs b4 flight
sleep as much in plane as possible
promptly get drunk as fuck in korea
sleep in peace
Exactly what I did when I visited Korea. Works great. Getting drunk on the plane helped me fall asleep as well.
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very informative! i will refer to this blog before my next trip!
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Nicely done, going to share this around!
Thanks!
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how do you know so much? great stuff thank you.
flux helps a lot! but damn it sure doesn't help me when I STILL play late into the night
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Cool post :D
All traveling pros must see this.
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This is very much informative ! I knew about our internal clock , but its usefull to know some extra tricks, thank you!
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On January 27 2012 08:41 Vei wrote:Wow, do you know if this will work for people with DSPD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome?And you mentioned that melatonin "resets" the sleep cycle? Can you elaborate? I heard that several studies showed it to be ineffective or placebo in most people, but that it actually helps with DSPD individuals.
It will work for people with DSPD, but it may need a little adjustment. The watch times I gave assume a relatively normal bedtime. If your rhythms are all shifted considerably later, then the watch times will also have to be shifted later. But the same general principle holds: in your "biological morning" light will cause advances, and in your "biological evening" light will cause delays. It's just that if you're going to bed at 8am, your "biological morning" (that is, when your body is accustomed to waking up) may now be in the afternoon!
Regarding melatonin, let's say you're living on a regular schedule. If you take melatonin in the evening, it will slightly phase advance your circadian clock (i.e., set it forward). If you take it in the morning, it will slightly phase delay your circadian clock (i.e., set it back). So its effects are approximately opposite to those of light, which phase advances in the morning, and phase delays in the evening. Getting the most out of melatonin requires careful timing and dosing, so I'd tend to suggest that people don't use it unless they really know what they are doing, or they are getting guidance from a sleep physician.
On January 27 2012 10:00 UltimateHurl wrote:Great advice. One of the best tips I've had had nothing to do with the circadian rhythm but something completely different. When you get really bad jet-lag the best thing to do is not eat for at least 6 hours, then eat at the next local meal time. Your body closely syncs with meal times and jolting that rhythm is much easier than sleep cycles. Travel frequently and it's been a big help
It's true, meals also have some effect on the circadian clock, so switching your meal times to the new local time may also help adaptation. I don't think that's even been rigorously proven, but there is some logic to it. Food intake plays second fiddle to the effects of light, but every little bit helps! I've added that point to the OP now.
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I really hope that all the pros read this, as it must be super frustrating to them if they cannot perform their best because they feel unwell. It will bode well for fans as well if their favourite players are playing as best as they can
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Amazing Post, absolutely informative and it has a phenomenal layout.
holy pokes i forgot i had flux installed, read this post, then set it off; Holy Shit I forgot how bright my screen use to be, it like killed me eyes. I have mine set to 3900k after sunset, its great
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Has Whatthefat ever posted anything bad? DOUBTFUL. Also, flux is amazing <3
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Great post; very informative and certainly something I'll try to make use of in future international trips!
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so much useful information for only 1 post. I had no idea of any of this! Thx for the post.
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You know what helps? Strategically smoking pot in order to balance energy level with timezone. Smoke to get drowsy, or smoke to get drowsy to sleep and wake up energetic. Picture waking up on a plane in China at 8 AM.. still high. I like to call it instant time zone readjustment.
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I travel a fair amount and this actually really useful, thanks!
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Wow, this is just some amazing info. Now I don't talk about the jetlag part, that I've learned to adapt to rather well by just planning ahead of travelling. But the other info, screen and light exposure and so on will probably help me alot in the future. As it is now my day is basically always 25 hours, thus i every 24 or so days "lose" a day by staying awake one hour later and waking up one hour later. Now I finally know what can help me regulate it, before I just knew that I had a 25 hour day which I was basically running on year in and year out totally screwing my daily rythmn although making it stable as in one hour more each day.
Thank you!
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On January 27 2012 10:27 dicedicerevolution wrote:I'm surprised that you didn't mention fasting in your post as it has been touted as even more effective than the light therapy you advise. Here's a link that describes it: http://www.wisebread.com/how-to-naturally-reset-your-sleep-cycle-overnightNonetheless the information is well organized and presented. Hope HuK was trolling about not reading that.
Yeah I was surprised that wasn't in there as well. You can definitely trick your body's clock by forcing yourself to eat earlier or later.
well, after this post jetlag can't be an excuse anymore
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Sick blog! I will definitely use this in my life and hopefully it helps some pros play their best! Thanks OP
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That was a great reading. Really nice guide!
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
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SEnd this TO ALL THE PLAYERS epic guide
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How cruelly ironic it is to read this as I wake up from a horrible night in Hong Kong after coming from Paris.... if only you had written this one day earlier!
Thanks a lot, really amazing post.
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Awesome post! Thanks for the f.lux program. It's really neat.
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Having known about how much light affects our internal clocks, I've always suspected this would be a useful way to deal with jet lag. Interesting to know it actually works. Good job with the write up.
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As someone about to fly from California to Brazil for IEM, thank you for this post ^_^
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The thing about that meal study is that it was conducted in mice. So it's a far stretch to apply the same results to treating jet lag in humans. I think it's reasonable to suspect that humans might have a similar response, but it's never been demonstrated.
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Been doing some on-call work, so I have zero regularity in my schedule. Just the past week, I've slept 2 - 11 hours at the oddest of times, averaging 5 hours / day. I don't feel any different except for about ~0.5 hour of drowsiness when I wake up; I'm mostly energized when I need to.
The pay for the work is very good; but I have to make a decision/commitment in the next month on whether to stay at this job long-term. Will I majorly fuck up my health by having 3-4 days in the week where it's not possible for me to sleep more than ~2 hours at a time and less than 4 hours total per busy day, or can my body just get used to this schedule by sleeping 10+ hours on the other not so busy days?
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On January 27 2012 14:05 HardMacro wrote:
Been doing some on-call work, so I have zero regularity in my schedule. Just the past week, I've slept 2 - 11 hours at the oddest of times, averaging 5 hours / day. I don't feel any different except for about ~0.5 hour of drowsiness when I wake up; I'm mostly energized when I need to.
The pay for the work is very good; but I have to make a decision/commitment in the next month on whether to stay at this job long-term. Will I majorly fuck up my health by having 3-4 days in the week where it's not possible for me to sleep more than ~2 hours at a time and less than 4 hours total per busy day, or can my body just get used to this schedule by sleeping 10+ hours on the other not so busy days?
Your body probably can't adjust to this kind of schedule. You may be able to handle the acute effects of sleep deprivation, and get some temporary reprieve from your days off, but chronic effects will accumulate over weeks. Your diet will probably also suffer, as sleep deprivation messes with the hormones that signal hunger and satiety.
The other thing is, if you keep somebody on 4 hours of sleep a night for 2 weeks, their reaction times just get worse and worse over time, but their self-assessed level of fatigue flattens off after just a few days. It seems once you get chronically sleep deprived you start to mentally adjust your own baseline and underestimate your own level of impairment.
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"GSL from Korea, MLG from the US and Dreamhack from Europe" Really, everything east is Europe then Asia? Jkjk
Well written and fascinating blog
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Isnt a bit of common sense and willpower often enough to switch back your daily schedule. I mean, I've screwed up my sleeping schedule in one big go several times because you either go sleep several hours in the afternoon when you really shouldnt, or you stay up way longer than you normally do. So if you can screw them up, shouldnt you be able to correct them too?
Example: Lets say you normally sleep at 23:00 and wake up at 07:00. Lets say you, for whatever reason, being it travel or other stuff, feel tired at 15:00 one day. Wouldnt it make sense to kinda force yourself to stay awake then? Maybe not necessarily all the way from 15->23, since by then you'd almost dead, but maybe force yourself to stay up from 15->20/21. By then you'll still be really tired, and you will probably welcome the extra two/three hour sleep you just gave yourself. So rather than the normal 8h, you sleep 10/11h between 20/21->07:00. And next day you're good to go with your normal life? Its pretty much the same as when you're fucking up your sleeping schedule, but you're doing it backwards and actually correcting it rather than fucking it up even more.
Not saying its that easy, and I dont travel enough to be able justify it through experience, but I've done some lighter versions of that "method" and it seems to work ok for me. Would be awesome to hear OP comment on this since he seems to have a great deal of knowledge about it. =)
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Whats "Flux" I see alot of people talking about it
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I haven't seen such an informative blog on TL in a long long time, great job!
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Hugely insightful post. You've just helped out a lot of people!
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Ive been flying across the Atlantic atleast 4-5 times a year for atleast 8 years now and I can say that alot of what you said is true but it's never possible to entirely deal with jet lag.
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ill have to use some of those tips in my travels :D always hated jet lag
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Awesome thread, will help me a lot as I tend to suffer pretty badly when I fly, hopefully this provides some relief, Thanks!
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Very nice read. I think pro gamers will digg this blog ! 5/5
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bookmarked, i'll read it later
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Thanks a ton for this post. It will definitely help me when I travel oversees this coming March. 5 stars for you sir!
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that guide is amazing lol
Iw odner how many pros going to Korea already do this or just dont bother? ALso shows that if they dont why some of them play ever so abd the day after they get there...
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wow that is awesome
nice post eventhough im not going to need it anytime soon
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Great write up sir, learned alot!!! : )
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really nice guide, i havent worn a wrist watch for years, maybe i should get one for travelling though :D
thanks alot ^_^
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On January 27 2012 10:25 STDfan wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2012 09:05 Rekrul wrote:
Simple technique to beat jet lag on 13 hr flights to korea: get a flight that arrives evening in korean time, stay up 24 hrs b4 flight
sleep as much in plane as possible
promptly get drunk as fuck in korea
sleep in peace Exactly what I did when I visited Korea. Works great. Getting drunk on the plane helped me fall asleep as well.
I travel sometimes from Los Angeles to the Philippines, which is an hour behind Korea. What I do is take the evening flight which arrives in Manila at the crack of dawn. Sleep as much in plane as possible then get through that first day eating meals at the proper local time. After going to bed that night, I'm completely adjusted the next day. The first day isn't bad, either, if I get some good sleep on the plane. An hour of napping is fine without wrecking the adjustment.
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A+ Amazing. I defenitely could tell something changed when i hanged around high light area vs low light area. Good article
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Nicely done and thanks for the well written post, though the program recommended has trouble actually locating me [no worries because I know how to use a physical, aka "tactily-tangible," map].
It would be nice if you included how/why you have this knowledge.
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That's what happening to me when the holidays are about to finish.
Wake up at 4pm and going to sleep 14hrs later...
Well I usually fix this with quitting a day and just play through the entire day so I'm ridiculously tired when I have to sleep. :D
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Hmm. I like the looks of f.lux, but my problem is less jet-lag than having to force my circadian rhythm to be out of sync with the actual day-night cycle. (Shift work that isn't the "normal" day shift sucks.)
Very interesting to see the research stuff... I'm wondering if you looked into the research they did on someone as a "long term" project. The subject was isolated in a comfy room, with no time indicators, and I think she spent around a year in there.
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jet lag definitely gets worse as you get older. 10 years ago flying from Europe to Asia or North America didn't bother me one bit. But now, it always takes a few days for me to adjust...
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Oh the joys of having a chronic sleeping disorder and can thank jet lag for letting me skip a day on medicine. :-D
Super post regardless!
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United States22883 Posts
This is all true, but more complicated than it needs to be. o.o Basically just use this and follow the instructions:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/drsleep/public/en_us
Also, there's a difference between jet lag and general fatigue from flying. You can fly from Miami to Nova Scotia, Canada and still be exhausted from the travel, without actually changing time zones. Long cross-continental trips are a combination of both of these, so even if you fast and adjust your light intake, your body is still likely to be fatigued.
I showed it to Bumblebee a while ago, not sure if the players saw it.
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Thanks Jibba! I've seen that adviser before, but I think it's simplified to the point of being useless.
My main issue with it is that it makes unrealistic assumptions about the amount of phase shifting that can be achieved by real world travelers. For a 12 hour time zone shift, it assumes the shift can be achieved within 2 days. That is really only possible if you sit in front of an extremely bright light box for several hours, and wear dark goggles the rest of the day. My estimations are based on a much more conservative estimate of how well people are likely to manage their light exposure.
The other problem is that it just gives you a schedule to follow from the beginning. If you mess things up on day 1, then the following advice may actually be worse than doing nothing. The way I've suggested updates your schedule automatically based on how well you followed the advice on previous days.
Also, I thought people might find it interesting to learn a bit about the science that underlies jet lag recommendations, even if it is tangential to the actual method of getting over jet lag.
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United States22883 Posts
True, the science part was really good. I just mean the charts/instructions part. And I agree, 2 days is a bit short for something like the US to China for most people, although for pro gamers they might not have the luxury of becoming fully adjusted in time.
This chart in particular makes my brain hurt. That's what I mean by complicated.
+ Show Spoiler +
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Very awesome, will bookmark this!
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What, blue light exposure at night should be avoided? Oh TeamLiquid, my beloveder TeamLiquid, what should I do?
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I am flying from Korea to Texas next week so I will definitely be using this info.
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On January 28 2012 08:53 blubbdavid wrote:
What, blue light exposure at night should be avoided? Oh TeamLiquid, my beloveder TeamLiquid, what should I do?
Go to the dark side! You can use the dark interface though blue light isn't necessarily coming from a blue screen. Screens are backlit in white light.
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Really nice post, i will give it a deeper read tomorrow ^^
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What's REALLY fascinating is the UBERMAN SLEEP CYCLE.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720
I wish there were more real scientific data around it. Imagine if everyone has an extra 8 hours everyday? Imagine living your 20s or 30s with double the amount of time you have now? If I wasn't in my 30s and a bit risk-averse I would definitely give this a try.
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On January 27 2012 18:52 Kreb wrote:
Isnt a bit of common sense and willpower often enough to switch back your daily schedule. I mean, I've screwed up my sleeping schedule in one big go several times because you either go sleep several hours in the afternoon when you really shouldnt, or you stay up way longer than you normally do. So if you can screw them up, shouldnt you be able to correct them too?
Example: Lets say you normally sleep at 23:00 and wake up at 07:00. Lets say you, for whatever reason, being it travel or other stuff, feel tired at 15:00 one day. Wouldnt it make sense to kinda force yourself to stay awake then? Maybe not necessarily all the way from 15->23, since by then you'd almost dead, but maybe force yourself to stay up from 15->20/21. By then you'll still be really tired, and you will probably welcome the extra two/three hour sleep you just gave yourself. So rather than the normal 8h, you sleep 10/11h between 20/21->07:00. And next day you're good to go with your normal life? Its pretty much the same as when you're fucking up your sleeping schedule, but you're doing it backwards and actually correcting it rather than fucking it up even more.
Not saying its that easy, and I dont travel enough to be able justify it through experience, but I've done some lighter versions of that "method" and it seems to work ok for me. Would be awesome to hear OP comment on this since he seems to have a great deal of knowledge about it. =)
Yes, in the scenario you give, a long afternoon nap that results in you not being able to get to sleep until quite late is likely to disrupt your sleep cycles. And the primary reason for that is that you will receive a lot of extra light exposure at night, which will delay your circadian rhythms. This means it will be hard to get to bed at the same time on following days.
On January 28 2012 10:48 ArchDC wrote:What's REALLY fascinating is the UBERMAN SLEEP CYCLE. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720I wish there were more real scientific data around it. Imagine if everyone has an extra 8 hours everyday? Imagine living your 20s or 30s with double the amount of time you have now? If I wasn't in my 30s and a bit risk-averse I would definitely give this a try.
I would strongly advise against it! The problem with these ultradian sleep patterns is that they run in direct opposition to your natural sleep drives. No matter what sleep schedule you try to live on, your body will produce a very strong drive to sleep every 24-hour hours. If you read the blogs of people who try these schedules, they all develop coping strategies to get through this sleepy phase, such as activities that force them to stay awake. It's a constant battle against your own biology remaining on such a schedule, and it's not possible to get sufficient sleep to maintain normal function. Many ultradian schedules have been tested in the lab; they are not pleasant to maintain.
It would be fantastic if we could somehow sleep less and function just the same, but at least currently, there's no way to do that.
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On January 28 2012 11:19 whatthefat wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2012 10:48 ArchDC wrote:What's REALLY fascinating is the UBERMAN SLEEP CYCLE. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720I wish there were more real scientific data around it. Imagine if everyone has an extra 8 hours everyday? Imagine living your 20s or 30s with double the amount of time you have now? If I wasn't in my 30s and a bit risk-averse I would definitely give this a try. I would strongly advise against it! The problem with these ultradian sleep patterns is that they run in direct opposition to your natural sleep drives. No matter what sleep schedule you try to live on, your body will produce a very strong drive to sleep every 24-hour hours. If you read the blogs of people who try these schedules, they all develop coping strategies to get through this sleepy phase, such as activities that force them to stay awake. It's a constant battle against your own biology remaining on such a schedule, and it's not possible to get sufficient sleep to maintain normal function. Many ultradian schedules have been tested in the lab; they are not pleasant to maintain. It would be fantastic if we could somehow sleep less and function just the same, but at least currently, there's no way to do that.
Read the blogs (there are several can be googled), they did it after few weeks of adjustment (that was painful) and have no drawbacks for months with extra 8 waking hours everyday able to do everything from studying to reading to whatever. Am not saying everyone should go try it now, but it is definitely something worth looking into.
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Holy shit intresting read, really got alot of info in my brain now
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Worst thing is when you travel so much and sleep on the plane all the time, you don't even get jet lagged cause your body is just in WTF mode. Cue when I was travelling like mad in q4 2011, this were some of my most crazy timezones packed within 2 months.
Singapore to Los Angeles,
US to china,
china to europe
europe to US,
US back to europe.
Sick -_-~
at the end of it, I could sleep in normal time without any problem because my body is just in WTF mode and doesn't really care where I am anymore as long as I do finally sleep. so no jetlag cause of crazy travel.
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This post comes at a fantastic time for me, as I just got back off a plane from Seattle to the UK. I only went for 3 days, and my god am I tired. It's early afternoon and my body feels like it's been awake for 35 hours. >_<
I would think that by only trying to adjust to a timezone for only a very short amount of time, your body can find it easier to re-adjust back to normal sleep schedules back home, but is this actually true?
I mean, I was only there for 3 days, and I feel that, other than the flight that went over-night, my body should be perfectly fine with the conditions back home again. I'm not 100% sure on whether this is true.
What are your opinions on it?
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Drink a hell lot of water...
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Poland3748 Posts
On January 27 2012 09:37 HuK wrote:
eg needs to hire u to personally walk around and tell me when to sleep, drink caffeine, and pop mela... this is way too long for me to read and actually comprehend.
Seriously.
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This one is REALLY awesome!
I suffer from kind of an Insomnia where i can't go to sleep!
Awesome information about the circadian period (i think mine is pretty high), and thanks for the tips! Will try it out
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Dude, this is one awesome guide! gg
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this reads like a text book , boring.
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great write though i think you made it a little too complicated. the best advice i ever received on jet lag was pretty simple: don't sleep until night time. just that simple and it has always worked for me. where ever i travel, i simply stay awake until nighttime local time and i've never experienced jet lag. i've made several cross atlantic trips from America to Europe and back without any adverse effects just by using this simple trick.
say you left at 9am and arrived 9 hours later at noon. don't sleep for the next 8 hours, then go to bed at the closest to your normal bedtime (in local time) as you can. if you can't make it to the ungodly hour that you usually go to sleep, at least wait for sundown.
if you arrive in the middle of the night, try to take a nap. try really hard to take a nap, b/c you should not sleep at all during the next day until sundown.
i hope pro's can figure something out, b/c i'm tired of hearing about jetlag as the cause of someone playing like shit.
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This is some seriously great info... my sleep cycle is so messed up from gaming that traveling across the world felt like nothing.
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Great post! Really liked all the images used, really illustrated the points well!! 5 stars!!!
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I have traveled a lot and never had problems with jetlag :/. Personally I think it is an overused word.
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A very interesting read. I will try out flux and see what its like. 5/5
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Extremely useful information. 5/5.
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On January 27 2012 08:15 xiaoW wrote:is there a tl;dr version? im so tired right now ~.~ either way, from what i have skimmed thru it looks highly detailed, definately helpful to the pro's. how many times has it occured that pro's don't play well cus of jetlag gj on the article!
The tl;dr version I use when traveling to & from China is the following:
1) Select a flight going West (to Asia across the pacific) that arrives so you'll be in your hotel at around midnight-ish (9pm arrival time is ok)
2) Stay awake THE ENTIRE FUCKING FLIGHT. Bring lots of electronics, watch the in-flight movies, etc. It's a long haul (10~13+ hour flight).
3) Go to sleep when you get there, wake up in the morning, go about your normal business (get outside into the sun, unless you're in Beijing where there is no sun HAHA GL)
4) Select a flight going East (to USA across the pacific) that arrives at like 8 am in the morning
5) Try REALLY HARD to get 8+ hours of sleep on the plane.
6) If success in #5, go about your normal day (get outside into the sun)
Works really well for me, I get basically 0 jet lag this way.
Also helps to not have a caffeine addiction.
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I'm from Australia and regularly go to conferences in Europe and America. So our flights are usually 20+ hours. Longest flight was 26 hours. What I do is get a flight that arrive at around 5 to 6pm local time. Drink as much crap alcohol as you can take without chundering on the plane and take a nap, watch a movie, read a book. Land, find your hotel and sleep. Wake up at 6am local time the next day.
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one of the best posts out there ^^
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Nice OP i installed flux to help me sleep. Everybody should have a read of this.
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Seems like I am out of the norm. Not that I am surprised. There is absolutely nothing regular in my rhytm - no matter if you talk hours awake, when i eat when i do not, when i goto sleep again, how much I sleep, and as such have never suffered from jet lag, and I have travelled to asia on several occations. Could it be that most humans are on this clock for the sole reason that they are forced to do so? And as such the experiment will just give the result of what people are trained to do on their backbone, so to speak. I say - make the experiment longer, and people would alter these rhythms completely, maybe because they aren't natural at all, but convienient.
I think I speak for all gamers, when saying time is both an illusion and relative in ones perception of time. And if your perception of time spent is less than what your clock says, then the only thing that matters is your perception. When it comes to be bored out of your mind - like on a plane, then your perception of time is much longer than what the clock says. People, like HuK or MC are on their way to get used to being in flight, and as such the time will not seem as long, as one experiencing it for the first time.
That people follow the clock is because they have to. I don't have to, and have not been forced to, since college 20 years ago. I am self-employed and not forced to work other than when I want to, and can do that at any given hour of the day, and I do.
I can have several 36 hours days, then 20, or just a 7 hour day - it is completely random. I can´t count on facts in 8 hours I have been awake 17 hours, and therefore will be sleepy. Or that I have prolonged it 10 hours more, I would sleep longer. I might, or might not.
If people lived on a planet with a 36 hour cycle, they would work towards that. I would not find anything out of the ordinary, and nothing would be altered.
Sometimes I eat several times during waking hours, other times, not at all. Sometimes I take several naps, and it's not regulated to restore balance in the daily scheme of things. What my main self-observation is, that my body wants to be up at night no matter how ludicris it may seem in the norm of how long I have slept or how long I have been awake, and will work towards it, and incredibly quickly; one waking day.
This is however a useful guide to find a normal rhytm in which i eat, sleep, game, and whatnot, through control on a 24.2 hour clock. And it is this control that is also used for coping with jet lag to normalize with the given timezone I should find myself in to be... normal.
I am well aware of that what I say, is completely useless to a vast majority of the worlds population, and as such I apologize.
Maybe I just don't understand the concept in its finer blueprint, and for that I am sorry, if so.
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Great post but I don't really get the hang of it. I will read it through another time to fully understand x)
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I HATE JET LEG IT SUCKS
User was warned for this post
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Nice post. Also read that fasting for 12 plus hours can reset your clock. The sleep issue is one a run into even outside of playing. Sometimes I'm laddering and wont' stop playing still 4am completely screwing up my clock!
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I got F.Lux months ago (Wolf tweeted it IIRC) and it has unquestionably improved my sleeping.
Being someone who doesn't travel, this is obviously of less relevance to my needs. However it still is a valuable explanation of how body clocks work, which is something relevant to every human being who doesn't follow the strictest of schedules and routines.
Awesome effort! A+
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It'd be nice if you could cite your sources for all of this information. I've tried to look up research on sleep before and it seemed to me like we don't understand it as well as you've conveyed in your guide. But maybe I'm wrong, thanks for the guide! I'd love to see the studies that back up your advice!
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I think the OP is wrong. When i go to Peru its 7 hours difference, and he wants me to stay on norwegian time (-1 per day) for a week? Cant be very efficient for the progamers either.
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ask koreans and huk
they are the champions
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On January 31 2012 18:08 Cambam wrote:
It'd be nice if you could cite your sources for all of this information. I've tried to look up research on sleep before and it seemed to me like we don't understand it as well as you've conveyed in your guide. But maybe I'm wrong, thanks for the guide! I'd love to see the studies that back up your advice!
There is indeed a large literature on sleep. Feel free to PM me if there's a specific area you're interested in, and I can direct you to some references.
On January 31 2012 20:47 exog wrote:
I think the OP is wrong. When i go to Peru its 7 hours difference, and he wants me to stay on norwegian time (-1 per day) for a week? Cant be very efficient for the progamers either.
Traveling from Norway to Peru is equivalent to traveling from Los Angeles to Seoul. In the guide, I recommend beginning the shift 2 days before you leave (June 8 in the example). You can achieve a shift of up to about 2 hours per day, which means you'll be almost on Peru time when you arrive.
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I will use this blog to great effect when I go to Korea and win the next Code S!
Fighting~
Edit: Though I should note that I am actually already on Korean time, except I live on the East Coast...
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I remember reading an article saying that the most important factor in resetting your circadian clock is timing of meals. A quick google search seems to support this. I can't find the original article, but here is a website describing the procedure:
http://www.antijetlagdiet.com/faqs.asp
Great OP though, very informative. Thanks for the read.
Edit: Ah, this was already mentioned, sorry.
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5 stars. It also helps if you're used to sleep way too late and therefore wake up too late, and want to get back to a better rythm. Huge thanks!
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On January 31 2012 04:06 Dracolich70 wrote:
Seems like I am out of the norm. Not that I am surprised. There is absolutely nothing regular in my rhytm - no matter if you talk hours awake, when i eat when i do not, when i goto sleep again, how much I sleep, and as such have never suffered from jet lag, and I have travelled to asia on several occations. Could it be that most humans are on this clock for the sole reason that they are forced to do so? And as such the experiment will just give the result of what people are trained to do on their backbone, so to speak. I say - make the experiment longer, and people would alter these rhythms completely, maybe because they aren't natural at all, but convienient.
I think I speak for all gamers, when saying time is both an illusion and relative in ones perception of time. And if your perception of time spent is less than what your clock says, then the only thing that matters is your perception. When it comes to be bored out of your mind - like on a plane, then your perception of time is much longer than what the clock says. People, like HuK or MC are on their way to get used to being in flight, and as such the time will not seem as long, as one experiencing it for the first time.
That people follow the clock is because they have to. I don't have to, and have not been forced to, since college 20 years ago. I am self-employed and not forced to work other than when I want to, and can do that at any given hour of the day, and I do.
I can have several 36 hours days, then 20, or just a 7 hour day - it is completely random. I can´t count on facts in 8 hours I have been awake 17 hours, and therefore will be sleepy. Or that I have prolonged it 10 hours more, I would sleep longer. I might, or might not.
If people lived on a planet with a 36 hour cycle, they would work towards that. I would not find anything out of the ordinary, and nothing would be altered.
Sometimes I eat several times during waking hours, other times, not at all. Sometimes I take several naps, and it's not regulated to restore balance in the daily scheme of things. What my main self-observation is, that my body wants to be up at night no matter how ludicris it may seem in the norm of how long I have slept or how long I have been awake, and will work towards it, and incredibly quickly; one waking day.
This is however a useful guide to find a normal rhytm in which i eat, sleep, game, and whatnot, through control on a 24.2 hour clock. And it is this control that is also used for coping with jet lag to normalize with the given timezone I should find myself in to be... normal.
I am well aware of that what I say, is completely useless to a vast majority of the worlds population, and as such I apologize.
Maybe I just don't understand the concept in its finer blueprint, and for that I am sorry, if so.
Circadian rhythms are not a societal choice. They are generated by biochemical oscillators at the level of the single cell. Explant any cell from your body, and it will continue oscillating with a period close to 24 h in its gene expression. Almost every form of life we have studied has some similar form of circadian oscillator, going all the way back to bacteria.
Humans, and other animals, have only a small window of tolerance around 24 h. For day lengths even a few hours away from this, it is impossible for the circadian system to adapt, and it begins free running at its own period. This in fact happens to submariners, who try to live on an 18-h day. Yet for some strange reason they persist with it...
That's not to say people can't make volitional changes to their sleep/wake cycles, by staying up late, or doing shift work. People can also develop coping strategies to better handle these scenarios. But ultimately, these choices are in opposition to the biological drive.
In terms of the lengths of experiments, human experiments have been run for months under these conditions, but not longer due to ethical constraints. However, in other mammals, many experiments have run the course of years, and yet the animals continue to produce extremely predictable circadian cycles in daily activity. We also know that our circadian clock is essentially identical on the genetic level to that of all other mammals.
Yours sounds an extremely rare and remarkable case, where you may have an extremely low amplitude or absent circadian rhythm. It actually sounds to me like you may have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irregular_sleep-wake_rhythm
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Interesting tidbit:
If you throw humans in a box for a long period of time, they maintain 24 hour days for like 3 full weeks. Then it goes all apeshit without the sun to regulate.
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Thanks for the advise, seems legit
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Canada46 Posts
People come to the blog section and expect a tl;dr.... really?
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Just used your thread link to download the f.lux program on my other laptop. I've always wished I could dim my screen further, thanks for taking it that next step for me!
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great post !!! Great work nicely done !!!!
So the optimal thing for progamers would be to arrive to the event 1 week earlier??? If you think about it taking out the cost it would be great for them i think but thats not +EV i think
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This is a very good blog post thinking about jet lag. But for me huge but simple graphs proving this and that are a huge turnoff. I spent 2 mins skipping through it. Though if I was a progamer this would be a must read.
I'll still try TL;DR -> Less light exposure at night more at day makes it easier for you to catch your usual sleeping routine.
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On February 03 2012 02:19 Leatherface wrote:great post !!! Great work nicely done !!!! So the optimal thing for progamers would be to arrive to the event 1 week earlier??? If you think about it taking out the cost it would be great for them i think but thats not +EV i think
That would be absolutely ideal, but I recognize that it is not feasible due to both cost and scheduling issues. That's why I recommend beginning the transition to the new time zone prior to the flight.
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Great article, thank you so much for the f.lux link. I use it on all four of my comps and rec'd it to everyone. :D
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