"How Pilots overcome JET LAG | A330 rotation to Philadelphia"

Travelling all around the world to far away destinations gets me excited every time and comes with a lot of privileges. But it also comes with a lot of challenges. And the most tolling challenges of them all? That one is called jet lag. So especially if you're a frequent traveller or as for example an airline pilot, it doesn't only take a toll on your body, it also takes a toll on your mental capabilities. And travelling for business or as a profession, you need your mental game up to perform at your best capabilities. So how do I minimise jet lag to do that? Well, for that let's get some really jet lag. So today I'm going to take you along on a trip to Philadelphia. The distance for that trip will be around 3,700 miles and that will take us around 8 hours and 50 minutes. We're going to travel back in time 6 hours for that trip. The plane we'll be flying today is an Airbus A330-200 with a maximum range of around 6,300 nautical miles. So we don't even touch the maximum range of that jet. We're going to fly that flight in a two-pilot constellation. That means I won't have a longer break to take a nap or something. And that's a quite important thing to notice because I will arrive at the destination quite exhausted. But that's a thing for when we get there I would say. So let's fly to Philly. We're now on the apron on taxiway November from Frankfurt International Airport. We just got pushed back and now we did the after start checklist as well as the flight control check. It is 1.45 p.m. now and we're making our way to runway 07C which was our takeoff runway on that day. After around 17 minutes of taxi time, so around 2 p.m., we reached runway 07C and were cleared for takeoff. We did all the pre-departure checks and we were ready to go. We are now making our way out of Europe onto the Atlantic Ocean. As you can see we're traveling with the sun to the west on this day. Depending on the time of departure you might have a sunset or sunrise for about 5 hours. This can mess with your body rhythm since it tricks your mind on what time it really is on that day. But flying through the night is probably the most tolling for your body since it really wears you out flying 10 hours through pitch black darkness. We are now making our approach into Philly Airport. As you can see it is still broad daylight. My body clock is at 11 p.m. in the evening. At the destination it is 5 p.m. in the evening. During the approach you usually feel very awake and fit since the scenarios are very demanding and your body just picks up a fire of bursts of energy. To have those reserves it is really important to come well rested to work. Welcome to Philly Airport. We are now taxiing to our gate and our flight took us nearly 9 hours. It is now like I said 11.15 p.m. in the evening in Germany and here at the destination it is 5.15 p.m. There's a 6 hour time difference. After arriving at our gate we'll finish off our duties in the cockpit and we'll head out to the crew bus to the hotel. So we just arrived in the hotel and now it is 5 past 6 p.m. in the evening here and now the jet lag management starts. So basically I'm gonna go out, have something to eat now and try to stay awake for another 4 hours because I want to try to get as close as possible to a normal sleeping cycle here so that I don't wake up at 3 a.m. in the morning. Good morning there. Good shower in the morning feels always good. So back to jet lag. Managing your jet lag strongly depends if you're travelling to the west side of your home country or to the east side. Travelling to the west what we just did here from Frankfurt to Philly we're basically going back in time. And no we're not time travelling or anything we're just going back in time a few hours. If you would go to the east you would go forward in time. So basically everything we're doing to counteract jet lag in the west you pretty much have to do the opposite on the east side because if you're going to the west you have to stay up longer. If you're going to the east you have to get up earlier. Basically tell your buddy to sleep right now because in Germany it would be 6 a.m. in the evening but in for example Seoul 8 hours from the top it would be 2 hours in the morning. So you have to tell your buddy opposite direction here in the west we have to stay awake longer because in Germany it would be 4 a.m. in the morning but here it's 10 o'clock in the evening. So yeah you get what I mean. It's not that easy but let's get to it. So now it depends if you want to stay longer and adapt as fast as possible to the time zone or if you're going back in two days already and you just want to stay sharp for one event or after all you just want to stay in a home time zone. But nevertheless what the outcome of your situation is there's one really important rule to keep in mind. And that rule is try to get six to eight hours of sleep in before the event you need to be at your peak performance at. It may be your business meeting for a pilot flight back or when you're a tourist just like the full day where you want to explore the city. And trust me trying to put in six to eight hours of sleep not your sleeping cycle can be quite tough. So a good method to get eight hours of sleep in is to be properly exhausted before you go to bed. Yes it may sound easy to do that but the thing is especially if you're flying east so you go ahead in time and you need to go to bed seven hours earlier than your normal sleeping cycle it can get really tricky. And a good way to be tired early is of course physical activity. Go for a walk in the city you're currently in. Rent some bikes. Do a little bicycle tour. Go into the gym. Go in the swimming pool if you have one. Just proper exhaust your body that you can sleep seven to eight to six hours. I just got six hours this night which is totally fine for me. But proper exhaust your body that you get those six to eight hours of sleep. So in general to adapt to a new time zone quick you have to adhere to that new sleeping cycle of for example from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the morning. And depending on your general age your fitness level this can be quite tricky. But there's a thing to help around that a bit and that thing is called napping. Well back to that nap thing. Napping is really important especially if you want to go through the whole day without feeling tired and going to bed at 8 p.m. if you're traveling to the west. So I just had sushi and then I felt so tired in that moment and I know I've got check-in in three hours. So I lay down and I took a huge nap for an hour. I wouldn't recommend doing it an hour but I did it anyways because I'm flying through the whole night. So I tried to get as much sleep in as possible before that. But napping should be around 20 to 30 maximum 45 minutes because reaching those 45 minutes your body could fall into the deep sleep phase and you don't want that because that will tank you out. So basically take a nap for 30 minutes. If you crash in there for five hours trust me that will destroy everything you worked out for so far with minimizing your jet lag. So keep it to 20 to 30 45 minutes max. I have to get ready now since we're flying home soon. To help you staying awake or becoming more tired you can also your exposure to daylight. If you want to get tired start lowering your lights and closing your blinds in a hotel room early like an hour or two hours before you want to go to bed because your body naturally produces melatonin I think it's called in English as well as soon as it doesn't have any daylight anymore. Vice versa if you want to stay awake and you're feeling really tired go outside to the bright daylight. Sun is a magic thing if it comes to not getting tired. Just try to keep moving and stuff like that. Another thing a lot of people forget as well stay hydrated. What I like to do is basically I get a big bottle of water at least a liter and I carry it with me because when you carry something heavy with you all the time you start drinking it because you don't want to carry it the whole time. That's basically my go to tip if it comes to staying hydrated. Buy a big bottle of water and basically carry it with you and then you're going to drink it. So in conclusion everyone. No I'm going to tie my tie first and then we're going to talk because we know from earlier videos that doesn't work in one take. That looks better doesn't it? That is good. So everyone in conclusion to today's video about jet lag. Don't push your body too much. In flight school our rule of thumb for getting used to jet lag or new time zone is about one and a half hours per day. So don't push your body too much trying to adapt three hours a day. That doesn't make sense. Your body just needs its time to adapt to new time zone. I don't know what's in German. Eating cycle everything needs to be adapted at some point. But the rule of thumb and I must say it really is a good rule of thumb because I lived through a couple of severe jet lags by now and one and a half hours per day so let's say six hour time difference as here in Philly or in New York East Coast North America. It takes around four days to fully adapt to the new time zone. Don't push yourself too much. Stay hydrated. Go to the bright daylight. Get some sport in maybe the gym the swimming pool whatever. Don't push yourself too much. You're going to get adapted sooner or later. Around one and a half hours per day is a bit pretty good rule of thumb. And yeah just don't be too harsh on yourself. Take naps. Don't take them too long. Now with that said I would say I'm going to fly home now. Peace. See you in the next one. By the way if you want to see the home flight the fly home watch the video next week. See ya.