How should melatonin be used to alleviate jet lag?

Dear Reader,

It seems that plane travel interferes with the production of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate our sleep-wake cycles (see Melatonin under General Health Alice archives). This interference might explain, at least in part, why jet travel disrupts our sleeping patterns and why it takes a while for us to adjust to a new time zone. Travelers have the option of taking melatonin to help counteract the effects that flying has on getting a good night's sleep.

Taking melatonin to reduce jet lag is probably the safest and best-tested use of the hormone to date. In using melatonin during travel, the goal is for you to be in bed and asleep during the normal nighttime hours of where it is you're going. As you may have guessed, timing is everything. If you took melatonin at the wrong time while still at home in New York, you may have landed safely in London, but your inner clock might be wandering around the Los Angeles airport wondering how it got on the wrong flight! So, what's the trick?

When traveling to points east, on the day of your flight, take one dose of melatonin, as directed on the bottle, between 6 and 7 p.m. your time; you may have to take the melatonin on the plane. On the day you arrive and for the next four days, take one dose of melatonin at bedtime (between 9 and 10 p.m.) local time of where you now are. If you will not be staying in this time zone for four days and will instead be traveling further east, take one dose of melatonin on the day before flying onward, again between 6 and 7 p.m. local time (but not at bedtime). On the day of arrival at your second destination, take one dose of melatonin at bedtime (local time) and for the next four days.

If the western skies are calling, things are a little bit different. For one, melatonin will not help much if you travel less than five time zones to the west. No big deal — you'll sleep on the beach anyway, right? For you long-distance westward travelers, on the day you arrive, wherever it is you're going, take one dose of melatonin at local time bedtime and continue to do so for the next four days. Sound familiar? If you wake up before 4 a.m. and have the "fast acting" variety of melatonin, go ahead and take a little more melatonin (one or one-half dose) so you can get a complete night's sleep. If you're traveling further west in less than four days' time, take melatonin at bedtime the night before leaving. Then repeat the whole schedule again at your new sunny spot on the planet.

Happy (and restful) travels!

Alice

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