About Delagged
I’m Christian, and I’m based in Switzerland. I’ve flown long-haul for years, both for work and for fun. For most of those trips, I arrived wrecked.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. I did the word-of-mouth techniques first. Stay up until local bedtime. Drink more water than seemed reasonable. A glass of red wine (or four) on the plane before sleep. Magnesium, melatonin and so forth. I also played with various jet lag apps. But in the end, none of it really fixed it.
So I went to the science
That’s what sent me down the rabbit hole of circadian rhythms and body clocks, where I found quite a lot of research. The basic mechanism is well studied, and some fixes have real trials behind them.
Some of it explained why the standard advice kept failing me. Light is what moves your body clock, but light at the wrong time of your body’s day moves it the wrong way. That’s why “get outside as soon as you land” can backfire after flying east. Melatonin gets used like a sleeping pill, when for jet lag it’s a timing signal, and taken at the wrong hour it pushes you the wrong way too.
The guides on this site are what I learned, written down with the sources attached. Start with why flying east is harder or what melatonin actually does.
I built the plan I couldn’t find. For now that’s this site. In the background, I’m working on an app that builds in all the science I’ve found and fixes the things I didn’t like about the jet lag apps out there.
How this site works
- Guides cite primary sources. Every factual claim links to the study behind it, listed at the bottom of each guide. If we can’t source a claim, it doesn’t go in.
- Nothing publishes unreviewed. Every guide is read and approved before it goes live, and each one shows when it was last reviewed.
- The calculator runs the real app engine. The jet lag calculator runs the same plan engine as the Delagged app, in your browser. Your trip data never leaves the page.
- No affiliate links, no sponsored content. And nothing here is medical advice. Check with your doctor before taking melatonin.
Contact
Corrections, questions, or a study we should read: hello@delagged.com