Zzz Zone and the art of nodding off

British Airways Sleep Doctor, Chris Idzikowski has recently conducted further research into what happens to our sleeping patterns and habits before, during and after a flight*.

This was the first study of its kind to examine passengers’ in-flight sleeping habits, revealing that, whilst people are very aware of jet lag, in many cases the tactics they employ have little effect, and some may even be counter-productive.

* Survey conducted by Skytrax in February 2006, with a total of 1002 respondents

According to the research, around 81 percent of respondents’ sleep is either more, or much more, affected than usual by jet lag. In spite of this, the majority of passengers (67 percent) don’t know how to manage jet lag effectively.

Only 11 percent of the sample adopt cues that are helpful - either the use of light exposure, food, fluid, exercise, or some combination of these four contributing factors, to try to combat the effects.

More about jet lag

The survey results also demonstrated that your gender, how old you are and even the job you do, can influence your level of jet lag.

Women and men were found to sleep equally well in-flight, although women cope better with in-flight noise, with only 18.1% saying they have difficulty, compared to 31.1% of men.

Age is no barrier to a good night’s sleep. Passengers in the 51 to 65 age range felt they got a better night’s sleep than younger fliers. Whereas general research often shows sleep gets poorer with age.

The higher up the corporate ladder, the better you sleep onboard. 32% of directors get ‘plenty of sleep’, compared with 14% of managers.

The more you know about jet lag and its effects, the better chance of forty winks. Dr Idzikowski believes jet lag is putting long-haul travellers at risk of slipping into the ‘Zzz Zone’ of low mental performance just when they need their wits most.

Air travel does not allow time for our biological clock to adjust to a new time zone and this can lead to jet lag. A risk with jet lag is that passengers hit the ‘Zzz Zone’ or period of maximum sleepiness. This leads to the body and mind being at their worst, when least expected.

This can be problematic if it coincides with an important meeting or activity requiring strong mental focus.

Dr Idzikowski explains: ‘If you travel on business from London to Hong Kong, which is eight hours ahead of the UK, you will hit your maximum sleepiness between the hours of 11am and 1pm Hong Kong time. If you plan a business meeting around this time it is the equivalent of planning a meeting between 3am and 5am at home. ’

Use our Zzz Zone calculator to work out when you are at risk of slipping into the zone following your next longhaul flight:

Zzz Zone calculator

Our jet lag advisor tool, can also help you adjust to your new time zone as smoothly as possible.

Jet lag advisor