Getting hit with symptoms of jet lag is one of the worst things about travel. Luckily, melatonin can help you adjust to new time zones faster.
Below, we’ll dive into how much melatonin you should take for jet lag and when to take it exactly. And, as melatonin is only a short-term fix, we’ve covered how the RISE app can help you fall asleep when you stop taking melatonin.
“There are no set rules when it comes to how much melatonin you should take for jet lag," says Dr. Chester Wu. "I’d recommend taking as small a dose as possible. This could be between 0.3 mg to 1 mg of melatonin. Take melatonin in the morning to sleep later and four to five hours before bed to sleep earlier than usual. Alongside supplements, time your light exposure to match your new time zone to help melatonin shift your body clock as planned.”
Dr. Chester Wu is double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, and provides sleep medicine services, medication management, and psychotherapy to adults at his private sleep medicine and psychiatry practice.
Many experts say you should take 0.3 mg to 1 mg of melatonin for jet lag. How much you take depends on which direction you’re traveling in and how many time zones you’re crossing.
Take smaller doses (0.3 mg) in the morning to move your circadian rhythm — your internal clock — later (when traveling west) and larger doses (<1 mg) four to five hours before the time you want to sleep to bring your circadian rhythm earlier (when traveling east).
There’s no one recommended dose of melatonin to take for jet lag. It’s tricky to give a blanket recommendation as everyone reacts differently to melatonin supplements.
Higher doses of melatonin aren’t always needed. There’s research showing a 0.5-mg dose of melatonin can be just as effective as a 5-mg dose at treating jet lag (although the 5-mg dose was more effective at making people feel sleepy). Smaller doses will be better at shifting your circadian rhythm and larger doses may help when trying to sleep at a time you usually wouldn’t, like during the day in your old time zone.
Most clinical trials study 2-mg doses of melatonin, so even though you can find 5, 10, and even 20-mg doses of melatonin, these larger doses aren’t as well-researched. Plus, research into melatonin often compares large doses of melatonin to a placebo. This means we don’t know whether a lower dose could be as effective.
Taking large doses of melatonin increases your chances of side effects, and if you take a large dose in the afternoon or evening and wake up with high levels of melatonin still in your system, you may accidentally shift your sleep schedule backwards, when you’re trying to pull it forwards.
We’ve covered other ways you can reduce jet lag here.
Heads-up: Melatonin isn’t safe for everyone. Check with a healthcare provider if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, have a medical condition, or are taking medication. Melatonin can also cause unintended daytime sleepiness or drowsiness when you wake up, so you may want to take low doses — or skip melatonin altogether — if you need to drive when traveling or be at your best. Flight crew are sometimes cautioned against using melatonin to avoid the risk of drowsiness on the job.
Another heads-up: Stress, pre-existing sleep disorders, and quality of travel (think lack of space, poor food, and alcohol) can all make jet lag feel worse, making it harder to adjust. However, even if your symptoms are more severe, you should still stick to less than1 mg of melatonin. If you have insomnia, talk to your healthcare provider before taking melatonin as the supplement isn’t usually recommended for those with the sleep disorder and it may interfere with any insomnia treatments you’re doing.
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You should take melatonin for jet lag in the morning if you want to stay up later (when traveling west) and four to five hours before the time you want to feel sleepy if you want to fall asleep earlier (when traveling east).
There are no set guidelines for when to start taking melatonin for jet lag. It can depend on how many time zones you’re crossing. In general, you want to take melatonin for as few days as possible.
Here are your options:
Many people wait until they have jet lag to start treating it. Acting early by taking melatonin a few days before your flight can help you start slowly shifting your circadian rhythm so you adjust to the new time zone faster. This is what many experts recommend and it can be especially useful if you’re going to cross many time zones and want to make a big shift in your sleep schedule.
However, you don’t want to start shifting your circadian rhythm too soon as you don’t want to be out of sync with your current time zone for longer than you need to be.
Advice on when to start taking melatonin for jet lag varies. For example, some research recommends taking melatonin on the day of your flight and when in your new destination when crossing five or more time zones. If you’re crossing seven or eight time zones, this research recommends taking melatonin one to three days before your flight to slowly start adjusting before you travel.
The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, on the other hand, recommends taking your first supplement when you land in your destination.
There are no set guidelines on how long you should take melatonin for jet lag. It’s usually advised that you take melatonin until you’ve adjusted to your new time zone. Although the NHS recommends only taking melatonin for jet lag for up to five days in total.
How long it takes to adjust can vary from person to person. In general, it can take one day per time zone you’ve crossed to adjust to jet lag. For example, if you fly from New York to London, you’ll cross five time zones, so it may take you five days to adjust to London time.
For some people, it can take two days per time zone, so it may take you 10 days to adjust. You therefore shouldn’t need to take melatonin for longer than this, and in fact, melatonin should help you adjust faster, so you should need to take it for fewer days than this.
People experiences jet lag differently depending on what’s sometimes known as their phase tolerance — some people are more sensitive and adjust slower to new time zones than others, so they may need to take melatonin for longer.
For example, night owls have a natural tendency to go to sleep and wake up later, so it may take early birds longer to adjust after flying west (when you want to go to sleep later than your usual time zone) than it does night owls.
How long it takes you to adjust to a new time zone, and therefore how long you need to take melatonin for, can also depend on your age. Older adults may take longer to adjust, although check with your healthcare provider before taking melatonin.
Melatonin works best when you take it as a chronobiotic (something that shifts the timing of your circadian rhythm) in the morning or evening (depending on the direction you want to shift). It can also work to reduce wakefulness and encourage sleepiness, but only during the day when your natural melatonin levels are low. So you shouldn't take melatonin to just fall asleep on the plane or once you’ve gotten over jet lag.
And you may not need to take any melatonin for jet lag at all. Melatonin doesn’t work for everyone and studies on its effectiveness are mixed.
For example, one systematic review looked at eight studies on the use of melatonin to treat jet lag. Although the researchers said melatonin appears to be relatively safe and it can be effective for some, they provided only a weak recommendation in favor of melatonin use for jet lag and said more research is needed to fully recommend the treatment.
Other methods, like adjusting the timing of your light exposure and meals to match your new time zone may be even more effective at helping you get over jet lag than melatonin supplements.
We’ve covered more on how long before bed to take melatonin here.
Expert tip: Make sure you’re maintaining good sleep hygiene (the habits that can help you sleep), especially getting and avoiding light at the right times. Light can shift the timing of the circadian clock, so getting it at the right times can help in the treatment of jet lag as you can adjust to the new time zone faster.
RISE can guide you through 20+ habits — including when to get and avoid bright light — and tell you the best time to do them each day based on your own biology.
RISE users say this helps them get over jet lag faster.
“I have tried many sleep apps, and thanks to RISE, I was able to even out my jet lag in just a week.” Read the review.
This light timing can also help you keep up your new sleep pattern when you stop taking melatonin and help keep your natural melatonin levels high when you’re not traveling.
There’s no set guideline for how much melatonin to take before your flight. It depends on which direction you’re traveling in and how many time zones you’re crossing. In general, experts recommend sticking to 0.3 mg to 1 mg of melatonin and taking as low a dose as possible.
You may not need to take any melatonin before your flight at all. Melatonin doesn’t put you straight to sleep, so it won’t be that effective if you’re taking to to just fall asleep on your flight. And melatonin isn’t that effective if you take it when your natural levels are high (like in the evening or at night), so it might not help you sleep if you take it just before an overnight flight that departs at your usual bedtime (if your overnight flight is leaving earlier than your normal bedtime, then taking melatonin at the beginning of the flight could help you sleep).
There are some things you can do to sleep on a plane without taking melatonin.
You can sleep on a plane by:
You may not need to sleep on the plane at all. Check the time in the destination you’re flying to and only sleep if it’s nighttime in that time zone. Sleeping on the plane during your new destination’s daytime could make it harder to adjust and fall asleep at night when you’re in the destination.
And, unfortunately, it’s not always possible to sleep on a plane. Even if you take melatonin, you may find the light, noise, discomfort, and regular disturbances that come with air travel mean you don’t get much shut-eye on board.
Don’t panic, just keep an eye on your sleep debt. This is the amount of sleep you owe your body. The lower your sleep debt, the better you’ll feel and perform and the less severe your jet lag symptoms will be.
Lowering your sleep debt by going to bed a little earlier or sleeping in a little later, depending on your direction of travel, can also help you adjust more quickly to a new time zone, so you can take less melatonin for less time.
Lower your sleep debt as much as you can before your flight, so you go in well-rested, and then pay back any sleep debt you build up when you get to your new destination.
One caveat to this: There's one time sleep debt can be helpful. If you don't sleep well on the overnight, and you don't nap when you reach your destination, you will be very tired that first night which can help overcome sleeping at the wrong circadian phase.
You can learn more about sleep debt here.
RISE can work out how much sleep debt you have each day and help you lower it.
RISE also works out how much sleep you uniquely need, so you know what to aim for each night.
You may need more than you think. When we looked at how much sleep 1.95 million RISE users 24 and over need, we found 48% of them need eight hours or more. Sleep needs (the genetically determined amount of sleep you need) ranged from five hours to 11 hours 30 minutes.
You can use melatonin for jet lag by taking the supplement at a time that’ll shift the timing of your circadian rhythm closer to your new time zone. If you take melatonin in the morning, it pushes your circadian rhythm back, helping you sleep later than usual when traveling west. If you take melatonin four to five hours before the time you want to feel sleepy, you can pull your circadian rhythm forward, helping you sleep earlier than usual when traveling east.
Try to go to bed at a time that’s normal for your new time zone. Melatonin won’t force your body to sleep, though, so if you’re trying to sleep earlier than usual, you also want to shift your light exposure and meal times earlier and take plenty of time to wind down before bed in dim lighting to help promote sleepiness.
It’s not usually advised to go to bed when you’re not sleepy, especially if you have insomnia. So if you don’t feel sleepy, do a relaxing activity in low lighting until you do.
Remember to set an alarm at a normal wake-up time the next morning so you don’t sleep in too late.
Heads-up: Get medical advice if you’re considering melatonin for a sleep disorder. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sleep aids like melatonin may not be an effective treatment.
There are no set rules on how much melatonin you should take for jet lag, but in general, experts recommend taking 0.3 mg to 1 mg of melatonin. Take as low a dose as possible and only until adjusted, not beyond.
RISE can guide you through 20+ sleep habits — including when to get and avoid light. The app can also tell you your ideal bedtime, when your body’s rate of melatonin production will be at its highest, and when to take melatonin based on your circadian rhythm.
All this can help you fall asleep more easily, both when traveling and when back home.
Don’t just take our word for it: 80% of users get better sleep within five days.
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