Manage jet lag between New York and Europe

After returning from New York, you’ll likely experience jet lag—that exhausted feeling caused by the time difference. Here’s what happens: for several days after you get home, you’ll struggle to wake up in the morning and won’t feel sleepy at night. Your body is still on New York time. To recover as quickly as possible, here’s my method for the fastest jet lag recovery:

1/ Adjust your schedule 24 hours before you leave

• To ease the transition back to European time, start thinking about your return 2 days before your flight home.
• The day before you leave, skip sleeping in and wake up at 7 am New York time—that’s 1 pm in Europe. If you can wake up even earlier, that’s even better: it will help you adjust when you get home. To motivate yourself, catch the sunrise over Manhattan. Here are 5 places to watch the sunrise in New York. That evening, don’t stay up too late—this also helps reduce the time difference.
• On departure day, set your alarm 1 or 2 hours earlier than the day before. Waking up at 6 am New York time means it’s already noon in Europe. This helps you manage the time difference much better than waking up at 9 am, which would be 3 pm in Europe.

2/ Set your watch to European time as soon as you board

• Think of yourself as already being in Europe and set your watch to European time the moment you board your flight home. If your flight takes off at 8 pm, that’s 2 am in Europe. Imagine you’re coming home from a night out, settle into your seat, and try to sleep as soon as possible. After the announcements and takeoff, it will be much easier once the plane reaches cruising altitude.
• If you really want to speed up your recovery, you can eat before the flight and go straight to sleep without touching the meal service. It depends on whether the food appeals to you.
• Whatever you do, I strongly advise against watching a movie or reading during your flight home. You need to reset yourself to European time while you’re in the air.

3/ Don’t nap when you arrive

• Once you arrive in Europe, stay strong and resist the urge to nap! Even a short nap of an hour will delay your body’s adjustment to the new time zone and cost you a full day of recovery. Push through.
• That evening, you’ll face the opposite problem: at 11 pm in Europe, it’s 5 pm in New York, so you won’t feel ready for bed. But that’s exactly why staying awake when you arrive matters—by keeping yourself active during the day, you’ll be exhausted enough to collapse into bed that night.

4/ Recover gradually

• The day after you return, expect a rough wake-up. Especially if you haven’t followed any of the tips above! 🙂
• If you have followed my advice, you’ll still feel like you’re waking up in the middle of the night. If you can, I suggest waking up at 9:30 am so you can ease into the day without too much struggle.
• The next day, push your wake-up time back another 1 or 2 hours. According to scientific research on jet lag, your body recovers 1 to 2 hours of time difference per day. By following my tips, your recovery will be even faster. Welcome home! 🙂