Travel Fatigue

A major factor in managing Jet Lag is managing your sleep patterns. Careful and thoughtful scheduling of sleep periods and the use of strategic naps can provide you with enormous benefits when travel disrupts your sleeping patterns and causes sleep loss. This section provides some useful information about how to maximise the benefits of sleep.

Sleep Basics

Sleep is vital to our health, well being and performance. Most athletes need about 8 hours per night. You need the amount of sleep that allows you to feel alert, rested and able to function at your peak during the day.

Your internal body clock is programmed to make you feel sleepy twice each 24hrs:

• 03.00-05.00
• 15.00-17.00

You also have two periods of maximum alertness each 24hrs:

• 09.00-11.00
• 21.00-23.00

Outside of these times with enough sleep you should feel alert.

GENERAL NOTE: Schedule appropriate activities based on your knowledge of alertness and sleepiness. For example nap at 15.00 and train at 09.00.

If you don't get enough sleep the shortfall is your ‘sleep debt'. If you need 8 hours but got 6.5 then you are 1.5 in debt that needs to be carefully managed.

• International travel across time zones can have the same effect.
• You may also loose sleep from having to get up early to travel to the airport

You cannot store up excess sleep or make up missed sleep outside of a narrow window meaning it is important to repay any debt during a 24hr period. One strategy for reducing this debt is napping particularly during the sleepy periods in your daily cycle.

Napping

• When you are sleepy, sleep. More sleep is better than less and less is better than none.
• If you have a short amount of time, limit your nap to 45 minutes or less to avoid going into deep sleep
• If you have longer time consider a 2 hour nap to allow your body to go through a complete sleep cycle.
• After a longer nap allow 30 minutes to 'wake up' before your next physical activity
• Don't take a nap too close to your main sleep period

Though we may wish for an alternative, the only direct method to counteract sleep loss is getting sleep. So the question is, how can you ensure that you do manage to get enough sleep? The answer is to plan when and where to sleep and to maximise the likelihood of being able to sleep. The key steps are strategic sleep scheduling and good sleep habits, the sleep environment and sleeping on the aircraft

Strategic Sleep Scheduling

The key to strategic sleeping is timing. One of the challenges of time-zone travel is that you end up having to be asleep when your body clock wants you to be awake and having to be awake when your body clock wants to be asleep. It is difficult to force yourself to sleep if your body clock is not ready, no matter how dark or comfortable it is in your new destination. Conversely, it will be very hard to stay awake if it is a time when your body wants to be asleep. This will be true regardless of how important the activity.

When you are travelling try to keep track of what time it is for your body (starting with you home time). Calculate when you would usually be sleeping and identify what time of the day that is at your destination. Try to plan sleep periods at those times at your destination, taking advantage of your body's natural programming for sleep. So, if your usual sleep period is in the middle of the day at your destination time, try to schedule a nap then.

Example 1

Good Sleep Habits

• Getting better sleep while away actually begins at home. We may not be able to eliminate jet lag and sleep disruption, but there are effective strategies to help you sleep, to minimise the effects of jet lag and obtain optimal sleep given the circumstances. The following are suggestions that should help you improve your sleep, both when you are at home and when you are travelling.
• Establish a regular pre-sleep routine: You can teach your body that it is time to relax and go to sleep by developing a regular routine of activities prior to bed. Reading, taking a warm bath, getting into pyjamas or listening to music can all be routines that tell your body it is time for relaxation and sleep. What works for you may be very individual, but remember, you want to do activities that will induce sleep so don't read an exciting book or watch the evening news. Also bear in mind that for it to be most effective, your pre-sleep routine should be something you can do away from home.
• Make you sleep environment as comfortable as possible: Travellers have to manage their sleep at home, in hotels and in aircrafts. Making all of these settings comfortable so that you can sleep is a challenge. However, it is possible if you can adjust light, temperature and noise levels to your comfort. The key is to know what works for you and try to have as much control over environmental factors as possible.
• Observe the 30-min ‘toss and turn' rule: If you are awake in the night for more than 30 mins, don't lie there, struggling and watching the clock. You can not force yourself to sleep. Instead get up out of bed and try to do something that promotes relaxation and sleep. You might use relaxation techniques such as those outlined below, listen to soothing music, read, watch TV, although make sure the content is not too stimulating or interesting. The goal is to promote relaxation. When you feel relaxed and sleepy get back into bed and try to sleep again.
• Use relaxation techniques: A considerable amount of scientific literature has demonstrated the usefulness of relaxation techniques to help people get to sleep and stay asleep. Some relaxation techniques are primarily mental exercises such as focusing the mind, internally repeating phrases, focusing on images, meditation. Other relaxation techniques are primarily physical such as tensing and relaxing the major muscle groups of the body. Many relaxation techniques involve a combination of both mental and physical activity.
• Watch out for caffeine: Caffeine is a stimulant which when taken too close to bedtime can disrupt sleep. Try to limit the amount of caffeine you use within 2-3 hours of bedtime. That means you should limit caffeinated coffee, tea, and cola drinks prior to bed. Remember, caffeine also can be present in foods such as chocolate, frozen deserts, coffee ice cream and yoghurt as well as medications.

Creating a good sleep environment

If you are sleepy enough, you may even be able to sleep standing up! Most of us prefer to sleep lying down, though our sleep environments can vary widely. When you travel for training or competition, you typically sleep in a variety of environments, aircrafts, hotels and sometimes even airports, so how can you control the environment to get better sleep when you are away from home?

There are many environmental factors that affect the quality of sleep including light, noise and temperature. In a US National Sleep Foundation and Hilton Hotels survey of 500 international travellers, the top four complaints about hotel rooms were noise, quality of bedding, temperature and light. Some hotels have responded to these complaints but many have not. Despite this you can help create an environment that is conducive to sleep:

• Light: In general, a dark room is better for sleep. Eye shades can help. In a hotel, you could use tape or safety pins to clip together curtains that let in light. See if you can create low light levels for a middle-of-the-night trip to the bathroom.
• Noise: In general, a quieter room is better. However, what is most disruptive to sleep is random, loud noise, like sirens or the housekeeping trolley hitting your room door. Low-levels of constant background ‘white' noise might be helpful in masking other noises so that you can sleep. Ask for a room away from lifts and major thoroughfares. Earplugs can help a lot. To generate ‘white noise' try turning on a fan or turning the TV or radio between channels. Put the ‘Do not disturb' sign on the door. Turn down the volume on the telephone or divert calls to your voice mail. If you have to sleep during the day, you might consider calling housekeeping to make sure they don't interrupt your sleep.
• Temperature: In general cooler rooms are more conducive to sleep than warmer ones. However either extreme (too hot or too cold) can disturb your sleep. Try to have an additional blanket available for middle-of-the-night temperature adjustments.
• Personal Comfort: What is comfortable for one person may not be so for another. Most important is having an element of personal control over at least some of the environmental factors that can affect sleep. Some travellers bring personal comfort items - like their own pillows - to help them sleep. Others find that small touches - like a photo of family - can make a hotel room seem less sterile and more comforting.

Short Trips (48 hours or less)

When you are going to be overseas for 48 hours or less, it may be most beneficial to keep your internal body clock on home time. Your travel schedule of activities, such as eating, sleeping, training, may be more regular if you try to manage them to fit in with your home time. While it is often recommended to adjust to the local schedule quickly, a short trip may not benefit from this approach and it could lead to unnecessary physiological disruption.