Having done many transpacific flights throughout my life, jet lag has been something I’ve learned to deal with. The truth is, there’s no solid, one method cure to it, especially when flying through many time zones.
It also tends to vary trip by trip, and one particular trip comes to mind as the worst sleeping situation I’ve ever been in.
In July of 2024, I flew Delta from Tokyo to New York with a layover in Detroit. Unfortunately, my trip got tangled up with thunderstorms in New York, causing me to get stranded in Detroit.
My sleep situation during this whole trip went like this:
Waking Up, Departure
My trip began on 17 July 2024 in Tokyo, Japan.
Although I didn’t take note of the exact time I woke up, it must’ve been around 07:30 based on messages and photos on my phone.
I left the house at 10:00 to catch a bus to the airport that left at 10:30. I arrived at around 12:20.
I had booked Premium Select on this flight, and was seated in 20A, the window. My flight departed Haneda at 15:25.
Despite the nice seat, I did not sleep at all on this flight. I’ve always had difficulty sleeping on an airplane, even in premium cabins, and the mid-afternoon departure did not help, as it was still far from nighttime in Japan when I wanted to sleep.
This meant that at the end of this flight, I had been awake for a little over 20 hours straight. At this point, this isn’t a crazy amount of time to be awake for.
The Detroit Nightmare
Things quickly began to go sideways once I got to Detroit. Although my connecting flight to JFK had boarded and left the gate, we sat on the taxiway for about an hour and returned to the gate.
A ground stop had been issued for flights to JFK, and we had nowhere to go.
The flight had an original departure time of 16:07. It got delayed to 19:34, but I had my doubts.
Sure enough, the flight kept getting delayed every hour. The 19:34 departure turned into 20:34, then into 21:34, and so on. There were many angry passengers, particularly at the hourly delays.
Of course, I couldn’t have slept through any of this, even if I was tired.
The flight ended up getting canceled a little after midnight. I quickly rebooked myself for a flight to Boston the following morning. All New York flights were full, and I did not want to adventure myself through connections after this long day.
I searched and found a hotel. Was it crappy? Yes. But all I cared about was getting in bed, and I would only be there for about 6 hours anyway.
I finally went to sleep a little after 02:00 in the morning. I had been awake for about 32 hours straight at this point, which is the longest I’ve ever been awake for.
However, this is where the awful jet lag kicked in. Although I was so tired, my body would only register this sleep as a nap since it was still the middle of the afternoon back in Japan. I naturally woke up about 2 hours later at 04:30 in the morning, even though I didn’t have to.
My stomach was also a bit unwell, since I had been awake for all that time.
I couldn’t fall back to sleep, and it was time to go. So there I was, with 2 hours of sleep after being awake for 32 consecutive hours, with another flight this time to Boston.
The McNamara Terminal was busy. Even the Sky Priority line took some time to get through.
Even though Boston wasn’t my intended final destination, it was just great to finally be on an airplane. I was approaching the 40 hour mark since leaving the Tokyo house at this point.
The Jet Lag Recovery
I arrived in Boston a little after noon and got to the apartment at around 13:00.
Door to door, this trip took a little over 40 hours. Here’s the breakdown in US Eastern time:
- 16 July 2024 at 21:00: Departed Tokyo house
- 18 July 2024 at 13:06: Arrived at Boston apartment
After settling down a bit, I fell asleep at around 14:00 and slept until after 22:00 at night. As far as my body was concerned, it was nighttime in Japan. I had slept a mere 2 hours in a span of 44 hours, so I needed it.
I was awake for a few hours after that, before going back to sleep at around 03:00 in the morning for another 4 hours or so. I felt like an absolute zombie, but it was great to close the door on this long trip and sleep!
That said, I was now about to begin the third day since arriving in the US (19 July 2024), and my sleep schedule was still all over the place. My plan was to stay awake as much as possible as I made my way down to New York City that day.
It ended up taking almost a week, but I eventually got myself back on track. This was by far the longest it took for me to recover from jet lag.
I tried to stay outside as much as possible by taking many walks and going out for meals. Absorbing sunlight and staying away from the couch and bed back home is key.
I hope I won’t have to take a trip like this anytime soon. Sleeping is important, and I learned my lesson to take direct flights whenever possible and to try to be on top of my sleep while traveling.
All photos taken by the author.
I’m not a big time traveler but have done a number of trips to Europe and a few to the mideast and if I get 30 minutes of sleep on a plane, even in business or first class, that is a lot for me. I just can’t relax on a plane (or train) and sleep. I’m not a napper at home or even when I was a kid. I need a bed.
I can recall one trip to the UK for work and I think I was getting an hour or so of sleep per night for most of the trip. In the mideast I woke up in the early hours and they had ESPN and I caught a college game that I thought was prerecorded but with the time change it was live.
It is great when I can go to sleep and get 6+ hrs of sleep on the first night since that makes the trip so much better but often it is a painful several days and returning, especially when living on pacific time, and it is an 8 hr+ time difference.
Toughing it out the first day is important but often not possible.
+1 on all of these points. I’ve always said “airplane sleep is not real sleep.”