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These Two Foods Can Significantly Reduce Jet Lag, According to New Data From Qantas
Most frequent fliers have a list of personal tricks for how to avoid jet lag: Exercise as soon as you get off the plane; skip the in-flight meal; and don’t go near a drop of alcohol. But the Australian airline Qantas might have just ended the debate on the best ways to reset your body’s clock while traveling.
The airline just released a years-long study on how to change inflight routines to reduce jet lag on its upcoming ultra-long-haul flights from New York and London nonstop into Sydney. (The flights, which launch in late 2025, will be up to 22 hours long, making jet lag and inflight comfort an important consideration.) Among the study’s findings? Adjusted lighting, tailored sleep and dining schedules, and meals with specific ingredients helped significantly improve passengers’ jet lag. Specifically, foods that encourage wakefulness or sleep, including chili and chocolate, were found to be especially helpful.
For the study, the airline gathered data on a nonstop test flight from New York to Sydney in 2019 onboard which 23 volunteer passengers wore biometric monitors and kept logs of how they felt for the week before the flight, during the flight, and for two weeks after the flight.
According to the just-released results, the volunteers on the tailored in-flight schedule reported getting better quality of sleep on the flight, less severe jet lag on arrival, and having better cognitive performance in the two days after the flight.
A major component of the adjusted schedule was timing the in-flight meal service to align with the internal body clock and serving dishes that promoted the brain’s production of tryptophan, an amino acid linked to sleepiness. These dishes included “fish and chicken paired with fast-acting carbohydrates, as well as comfort foods like soups and milk-based desserts,” the airline said in a statement.
Other helpful factors included custom cabin lighting schedules designed to help passengers adapt to the time zone in their destination, as well as stretches and movement activities. In fact, Qantas is designing its Airbus A350 planes that will operate its ultra-long-haul routes to have a special wellness area where economy passengers can do their stretching and other exercises guided by video screens—or grab a healthy snack.
“The early findings have given us optimism that we can make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of international travelers, thanks to this partnership with Qantas,” said Peter Cistulli, professor of sleep medicine at the University of Sydney, which helped the airline with the study. “We have a multi-disciplinary team of more than 10 researchers from medicine, science, and engineering backgrounds working together on this project. This includes sleep researchers, circadian experts, nutrition and movement experts. No airline has ever done this kind of research before.”
The airline also says it’s conducting parallel research on crew wellbeing on the ultra-long-haul flights, but it hasn’t yet released findings from those studies. Although the length of the upcoming nonstop flights may seem daunting, Qantas says that the new routes will shave three hours off of total travel time, compared to itineraries with a layover.
注释：
inflight：n
表示" 进入目标; 飞机上"，如：The inflight announcement is not clear to me. 你是在飞机上广播的吗?
biometric: adj
表示"计量生物学的"，means "biometrical"，如：Biometric authentication is two-phase process. 生物统计身份证实是一个两阶段的过程。
tryptophan: n
表示" [化]色氨酸"，means "an amino acid that occurs in proteins; is essential for growth and normal metabolism;"，如：Once in the brain, the tryptophan is converted to serotonin. 一旦进入大脑，色氨酸会被转化成血清素。
Circadian: adj
表示" [生]昼夜节律的；生理节奏的"，如：Sleeping late on weekends can also disruptour circadian rhythm. 周未迟睡也会打乱人体的日夜周期。
daunting: adj
表示" 令人畏惧的"，如：The prospect of meeting the President is quite daunting.一想到要会见总统就足以令人心悸。
layover: n
表示" 短暂停留；逗留"，means "a brief stay in the course of a journey"，如：We had a two-hour layover in Denver yesterday.我们昨天在丹佛市逗留了两个小时。
中文简要说明：
说到「调时差」，几乎所有飞行常客各有自认成效最佳的招数，例如下了飞机要赶紧找机会运动、不吃机上餐点、滴酒不沾，形形色色。最近，澳洲航空与悉尼大学针对长程航班旅客密切研究1年之后宣布，要对抗时差造成昏昏欲睡的问题，吃「巧克力」与「辣椒」效果最佳。
《商业内幕》（Business Insider）报导，澳洲航空（Qantas Airways）与悉尼大学合组团队，2019年从纽约飞悉尼、伦敦飞悉尼共3个超长程直飞测试航班旅客之中，找了23名志愿者参与为期1年的「日出计划」（Project Sunrise）研究。
澳航预计2025年下半年开航纽约—悉尼、伦敦—悉尼2条直飞航班，由于航程长达22小时，澳航把调时差与机上舒适度列为重要考虑。据6月15日公布的研究结果，调整机舱灯光、配合目的地安排睡眠与用餐时间、餐食选用特定成分，有助于大幅改善长程航班乘客时差问题。
受试者在登机之前1个星期，必须每天记录作息。登机后，受试者须配戴生物征象监测器，收集航程中的生理资料；飞航期间，受试者依照特别设计的菜单、照明、睡眠、活动等安排作息。下机之后，受试者要记录自身状况，为期2周。
机舱照明与用餐时间均依目的地时区作息安排，受试者就寝之前要做轻松的体操。菜单设计原则是「提振精神、催生睡意」，菜色包括鱼与鸡肉搭配快速见效的碳水化合物，还有具备抚慰效果的餐点，例如汤品、乳制甜品，促进大脑分泌色胺酸。色胺酸是人体胺基酸的一种，与困倦、打嗑睡有关。
初步研究显示，辣椒与巧克力能让人保持清醒，轻松的筋骨活动有助入睡。据受试者回报，机上睡眠质量变好，抵达目的地之后时差痛苦程度减轻、下机之后2天内的认知表现也较佳。
协助澳航研究的悉尼大学睡眠医学教授齐斯杜利（Peter Cistulli）说，研究团队包括来自睡眠研究、昼夜周期、营养、运动等不同领域的专家10人，「以前没有航空公司做过这种研究」，初期结果让团队很乐观，为接下来的消费者研究带来更大的动力，以支持「日出计划」服务与产品设计，「我们有可能为越洋旅客的健康福祉带来真正的改变」。
澳航目前也让超长程航班机组员进行平行研究。日后澳航执飞超长程直飞航班的空巴A350机型内装正在设计中，舱内会特别设置健康活动区，供经济舱乘客按照机上屏幕播放的教学影片做体操，或者吃些健康的点心。
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