RETURNING HOME
Coming back is worse than going out
Same distance, same number of zones, and the recovery is not remotely symmetrical.
The outbound trip was fine. You adjusted in two days, had a good week, and felt sharp by the end of it.
You come home and it takes four days to feel human. Same route, same number of zones, reversed — and everyone assumes it is just them.
It is not. Two things make the return worse, and they compound.
One: the direction
Your internal clock runs slightly longer than 24 hours, so lengthening a day is easier than shortening one.
Westward travel stretches your day. Adjustment runs at roughly an hour a day, sometimes better.
Eastward travel compresses it. Adjustment is slower — commonly 30 to 60 minutes a day.
If your outbound leg was westward — Europe to the US, Europe to the Americas generally, US to Asia — then your return is eastward, which is the hard direction. The trip you found easy guaranteed a harder journey home.
| Route | Out | Back |
|---|---|---|
| London → Los Angeles | Westward, easier | Eastward, harder |
| New York → Tokyo | Westward, easier | Eastward, harder |
| London → Sydney | Eastward, harder | Westward, easier |
Two: what you do on arrival
This one is behavioural and it is probably the larger effect.
Arriving somewhere new, you are outdoors constantly, walking, exposed to daylight, motivated to be on local time because there is something to do. Every one of those accelerates adjustment.
Arriving home, you go from airport to house to bed. You work indoors the next day. You have laundry and a backlog. The strongest signal available — outdoor light at the right time — is exactly what you stop getting.
So you get the harder direction and the worse behaviour, at the same time.
What actually helps on the return
Get outside on the first morning home. This is the single highest-value thing, and it is the one nobody does. Twenty minutes of morning daylight after eastward travel does more than any amount of resting.
Do not take the first day off to sleep. It feels like the kind thing to do for yourself and it prolongs the adjustment. A light working day with daylight in it beats a dark day in bed.
No long naps. Twenty minutes maximum, early.
Go to bed at a normal local hour even if you are not tired, and get up at a normal one even if you are.
Plan the return leg deliberately
Two things worth doing when booking:
Do not schedule anything demanding for the two days after an eastward return. Not because you will be unable to function, but because you will be worse at judgement than you think you are, which is the dangerous kind of impaired.
Consider arriving a day earlier than you need to. If something important follows the trip, that day is the cheapest insurance available.
Related: How long does jet lag last? · I'm travelling and my team is still on the old schedule
Timezone: World Clock Widget
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Figures on this page are computed from the IANA time zone database. Last generated 2026-08-18.