Day Before
Day Of
Checklist, tips and tricks, etc.
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(Claude Opus 5.5 created all of the following given the URL.)
Jet lag plan for long international flights, from Lincoln Quirk. Melatonin and light drag the body clock onto destination time; quitting caffeine before the flight piles up enough sleepiness to actually sleep on the plane. The caffeine half only works with a habit to quit (~1-2 cups of coffee a day).
Planning
Example: New York to London is +5 hours. With a 10:30pm bedtime, that's 5:30pm in New York, so the melatonin alarm is 5:00pm New York time. On a 6:00pm departure that lands at 6:00am London time, melatonin happens at the gate and the whole flight is London night.
16-24 Hours Before Departure
Expect headaches and irritability. The tiredness is the point.
Boarding
On the Plane
Arrival
tips on packing for a trip effectively*:
pack at least one extra underwear and pair of socks. also, pack 1.2x underwear & 1.2x pairs of socks per morning, rounded down.
Jetlag Cures, turned into the Long-Haul Flight Checklist above. The model: sleepiness is a body clock (set by melatonin, nudged by daylight) plus sleep pressure (adenosine, which caffeine blocks). Melatonin and light move the clock to the destination; withdrawing from caffeine lets the pressure a coffee habit builds up hit all at once, right when it's time to sleep on the plane. His own caveat:
not particularly supported by science, works on my machine, your results may vary.