Jet lag, brain fog and travel anxiety

Farzana exports knitwear. In October she slept in Dhaka for six nights: the rest were Hong Kong, Frankfurt, a buyer’s office in New Jersey, and a transit lounge in Dubai at four in the morning. In the New Jersey meeting she lost a price she has known for ten years and covered it with a smile. Back at the hotel she video-called her daughter, who was eating breakfast, and could not follow the story about school. Then she lay awake until dawn with her heart running, sure she had forgotten something important and unable to say what.

An illustration drawn from common experience. The person is invented; the pattern is not.

Understanding jet lag, brain fog and travel anxiety

Jet lag is real biology. The brain’s master clock sets sleep, alertness, appetite and hormones to the local day, and it moves only slowly after a long flight, more slowly still flying east. Until it catches up, people sleep badly, wake at the wrong hours and think more slowly. That slowed, muddled state is what many people call brain fog. It is not a diagnosis, but it is a fair description.

For someone who flies every few weeks, the clock may never fully reset. Short sleep, airport food, hotel bars and long days add to it. So does distance from home: missed dinners, children growing up on a screen, nobody to talk to at the end of a hard day. In that mix, ordinary worry can harden into anxiety, and a low mood can settle in that a weekend at home no longer lifts.

How common it is

In a 2018 study of employees’ health records in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, those away for work 21 or more nights a month were 1.69 times as likely to score for mild or worse anxiety and 2.27 times as likely to score for mild or worse depression as those away one to six nights. They were also more likely to smoke, to screen positive for alcohol dependence and to report trouble sleeping. The study shows a link, not a cause.

Signs worth noticing

• Fog, poor concentration and forgetfulness that last well beyond the first days home
• Waking at three or four in the morning, at home as well as away
• Racing thoughts, a tight chest or a pounding heart before trips or meetings
• More drinks in the hotel room, or sleeping tablets taken more often than intended
• Feeling lonely or flat even when back with family

How care helps

Jet lag itself responds to timing: light at the right hours, sleep shifted gradually before long flights, caffeine used with care. Melatonin can reduce jet lag on flights across five or more time zones, a Cochrane review found, but it is not right for everyone and should be discussed with a doctor, as should any sleeping tablet.

When anxiety, low mood or heavy drinking have taken hold, the assessment looks at sleep, alcohol, thyroid and the rhythm of the work itself. Talking therapy, particularly cognitive behavioural therapy, helps with anxiety and with insomnia, and medication has a place when symptoms are severe. A plan can be built around a travel calendar rather than against it, with appointments in person or by video between trips.

What getting better can look like

Change for Farzana might mean a fixed bedtime in every time zone, a call home timed for her daughter’s evening rather than her own, and two fewer trips a quarter. The price list stays in her head. The hotel rooms feel less lonely.

Common questions about jet lag, brain fog and travel anxiety

Is brain fog from jet lag real?

Yes, the slowness has a biological basis. The brain’s master clock sets sleep, alertness and appetite to the local day, and it shifts only slowly after a long flight, more slowly flying east. Until it catches up, people sleep badly and think more slowly; “brain fog” is not a diagnosis, but it is a fair description.

Does melatonin help with jet lag?

A Cochrane review found that melatonin can reduce jet lag on flights across five or more time zones. It is not right for everyone, so it should be discussed with a doctor, as should any sleeping tablet. Light at the right hours, sleep shifted gradually before long flights, and careful use of caffeine also help.

When to see a psychiatrist

If the fog, worry or poor sleep continue between trips, if alcohol or pills have become the way to sleep, or if you feel low most days, it is worth talking to someone. If you have thoughts of ending your life, please seek help today.

Care here is personal: built around your history, your health and what you want to change, and reviewed with you as it goes.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to the nearest hospital emergency department.

Sources

• Rundle et al., Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2018
• Sack, New England Journal of Medicine, 2010
• Herxheimer and Petrie, Cochrane Review, 2002