Close Banner Integrative Health Most Jet Lag Advice Doesn't Work: Here's Why + What To Do On Your Next Flight Author: mbg editorial March 14, 2026 Written by mbg editorial The mindbodygreen editorial team worked together on the creation of this article, combining their deep expertise honed by years of reporting on health and well-being. It has been thoroughly researched, written, fact-checked, and reviewed by our editors. What is jet lag? Why it happens Symptoms How long it lasts Treatment Prevention Image by Danil Nevsky / Stocksy March 14, 2026 We carefully vet all products and services featured on mindbodygreen using our commerce guidelines. Our selections are never influenced by the commissions earned from our links. Nothing derails a trip like jet lag—especially if you have limited time in your destination or need to be on your game upon landing. So is there any way we can skip over the travel woe? Yes and no. According to circadian rhythm specialists, jet lag is more nuanced than we give it credit for. This means that cut-and-dried advice on how to treat it doesn't always work—and could actually make it worse. Here's why jet lag really happens, who it tends to hit the hardest, and how to minimize its impact trip by trip. What is jet lag? " Jet lag is the delay between your internal clock and your new time zone," Jamie Zeitzer, Ph.D. , an associate professor of sleep medicine at Stanford University, tells mbg. It occurs when we change time zones too quickly for our internal clocks to catch up to our new surroundings. If, for example, you fly from Los Angeles to New York City in one day, come 11 p.m. at your destination, your body will still feel like it's 8 p.m. This mismatch can cause fatigue, difficulty sleeping at the appropriate times, and a number of other side effects. Why jet lag happens Everyone has a circadian rhythm , or internal clock, housed in the hypothalamus regions of their brains. This is one of the many clocks "ticking" in our bodies at all times—but it's far and away the most important. Not only does the circadian clock dictate when we feel tired and awake, but it also plays a role in keeping other processes in the body—from digestion to hormonal release—on schedule (hence the nickname "master clock"). Our circadian clocks run on a roughly 24-hour loop (though they all differ slightly, which we'll get into later). This loop is primarily influenced by light. We function best when we minimize disruption to this loop as much as possible by going to bed and waking up around the same time, taking in sunlight during the day and darkness at night, etc. Even though light shifts throughout the year as the days get longer and shorter, these changes happen gradually enough that our clocks can easily adjust. When we take a flight halfway around the world in one day, though? That's bound to throw the clock and everything it oversees out of whack. "When you travel across time zones rapidly, you change the light-dark cycle so quickly that the body clock can't keep up," explains  Steven Lockley, Ph.D. , a neuroscientist and the co-founder and chief scientist at Timeshifter . There's a reason that we don't get "ship lag," he adds, since traveling via slower modes of transportation gives our clocks adequate time to adjust to changes in the light-dark cycle. "Never in nature would you have experienced a change in the light-dark cycle of, say, seven hours in a day... It's completely unnatural, and your brain doesn't know how to cope with it as it thinks you are waking and sleeping at the wrong time," Lockley says. "So what it does is it has to reset itself—but it can't reset itself seven hours in one day." Until our clocks fully reset to our new time, we won't feel our best in our new environment. Common symptoms of jet lag The most obvious symptom of jet lag is a disrupted sleep schedule. Depending on who you are and where you're traveling, you might find it difficult to fall asleep at night, wake up in the morning, and/or stay awake in the middle of the day. Due to the other body processes that fall under the circadian rhythm's domain, you may also experience: Fatigue Indigestion and upset stomach Cognitive fatigue and fogginess Reduced ability to fight infection Impaired athletic performance Continual lack of sleep at your destination can exacerbate many of these symptoms. Zeitzer notes that many of the side effects of a long plane flight—such as dehydration, stress, and stiffness—can also add to the discomfort of jet lag. How long does it typically last? magnesium+ rest & recovery Rested. Renewed. Ready. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (57) Shop now Shop now Jet lag ends once your internal clock has fully synced up to the light in your new area. As a general rule of thumb, the circadian rhythm can naturally shift around one hour every day. So if you don't do anything else to reset your internal clock, it will take about a week to fully adjust to a seven-hour time difference. However, Lockley adds, some of