Beating jet lag on short-haul flights across Europe

Small time changes still count

Most flights within Europe cross at most one or two time zones. Lisbon, Dublin and London are an hour behind much of continental Europe, while Athens and Heraklion are an hour ahead. Flying from Faro to Athens, for example, moves your clock forward by two hours. That is not the dramatic jet lag of an intercontinental trip, but combined with an early alarm, a late arrival or a busy few days, it can still leave you tired and out of rhythm.

Often the bigger culprit is not the time difference itself but disrupted sleep around the journey. The good news is that both are fairly easy to manage.

Shift gently before you go

If you are heading east and losing time, try going to bed and getting up a little earlier for a night or two before departure. Heading west, a slightly later bedtime helps. Even half an hour makes a difference. On the day of travel, set your watch or phone to destination time as soon as you board and start thinking in local time.

Avoid starting the trip already exhausted. Packing the night before and getting to bed at a reasonable hour does more for how you feel on arrival than any trick on the plane.

Use daylight on arrival

Light is the strongest signal your body clock receives. When you land, spend time outdoors in natural daylight, especially in the morning if you have travelled east. A walk around your new neighbourhood is ideal: it helps you adjust and gets you oriented at the same time.

Eat your meals at local times, even if you are not especially hungry. In southern Europe, where dinner is often later, you may find it easier to shift to the local rhythm than to fight it.

Be careful with naps and caffeine

A short nap of twenty to thirty minutes in the early afternoon can help after a very early flight. Long naps late in the day tend to make the first night harder. Coffee helps in the morning but is best avoided in the late afternoon and evening if you want to sleep well.

On the first night, aim for a normal local bedtime, keep the room dark and cool, and put your phone away for a while before sleeping. By the second day, most people find they have adjusted to a short-haul time change.

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