I was on the second day of a 10-day trip through South Australia. It was 2am back to my San Francisco home, but here it was 6:30pm in Adelaide (a city in the depths of autumn) surrounded by leaves, and that time zone math might mean that I’m a hanging mess with drooping eyes.
This was not a fluke. I was randomly unavailable to the Jetlag gods. It was also not pure luck. I gave my good support to a program called Flykitt, a combination of supplements, blue light blocking glasses and a customized app that promises to prevent jet lag for 93% of travelers.
What is a fly kit?
Flykitt was founded by CEO Andrew Herr. He has a background in health physics, immunology, and national security. He worked with seven years of performance issues, including naval seals and fighter pilots, especially on sleep and circadian rhythms. At the time, he also worked with non-military clients who “had a personal and terrible experience with jet lags.”
“One day, this client came to me. He was a executive flying from the East Coast to Korea (in the US) and regularly went to Korea to close business transactions,” explains Herr. The client had landed in Korea at 4pm, but there was a big dinner that night and the Korean team wanted to negotiate at 7am the next morning. “(My client) said, ‘We’re being killed here. They use jet lag as a negotiation tool.’ ”
So herr got to work. He took everything he learned while working with naval seals and fighter pilots (particularly insights into how pressure during diving and flight causes inflammation), and combined it with the science of light therapy, dietary timing, and supplements.
This initial plan was rather low-tech, but served as a blueprint for what was to come. But it worked.
“He emailed me a few days later from Seoul,” says Ha. “‘Andrew, I just slept eight hours of my first night. What did you do?” That was the beginning. ”
What exactly is a jet lug?
To better understand why Flykitt works, I contacted Dr. Jaime Zeitzer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
“I’ve always split the jet lag into two parts,” says Dr. Zeitzer. “There are things that are fundamental biological processes. You travel over time, and the external world you are trying to live in does not match the internal circadian clock.”
Dr. Zeitzer explains that the other parts are more contextual rather than biological. It reduces oxygen when flying and eats at strange times.
This is not Earth’s shattering news, but it’s an understanding of the outline clock that really moves around jet lag, and it’s not just one clock, but some. The brain has a major thing, the hyperdiscriminator nucleus (SCN), located in the hypothalamus, which Gitzer says if he cuts it off, “there is no more circadian rhythm.”
He continues: “You also have a clock that is present in many different organs. So, there is your liver, your skin, your immune cells, your lungs, your heart. All of these can be set by independent stimuli, but are truly synchronized through this central clock.”
The best way to think about all of this is for your circadian clock to be an orchestra. “SCN plays the role of a conductor,” says Zeitzer. The main way that circadian conductors, the SCN, synchronize other watches is through light exposure.
The exposure of light through our eyes is extremely important to the watch. In fact, Dr. Zeitzer says that people with certain types of blindness or who have missed their eyes should “move one time zone a week.” Essentially, they live in the state of a permanent pier rug.
Therefore, the flykit focuses on minimizing and maximizing light exposure depending on where you are along your journey. And timed intake is also important.
“If you adjust your food intake the right way, you can adjust your gut clock faster than you can adjust the central clock,” he says. It helps in two ways: to eat nutrient-rich foods that are beneficial for your body, reducing inflammation, and “and your brain isn’t saying, ‘Oh, it’s 4am, but it’s dinnertime,’ so you’re not disrupting your sleep,” he adds.
How does Flykitt work?
I bought one Flykitt Core ($138) for my trip. It is designed for a single round-trip, but travelers can also purchase the kit with enough equipment for three or five round-trip trips. (For future trips, a single round-trip refill is available for $69.)
The kit is provided in a zippered canvas case and includes a 3-page supplement packet with sections labeled “Advanced” (vitamin B6 and B12), “Sustain” (fish oil and omega-3 oil), “Protective” (vitamin C), and “Mellow” (melatonin and magnesium). It also includes a QR code for the Flykitt app, a key piece of planning, and blue light blocking glasses.
My first thanks for Flykitt was that I didn’t have to do complicated maths to try and adjust my sleep and eating habits before I went to Australia. I simply connected flight details and answered some questions about when I usually wake up and fall asleep. The app calculated a program that took place in the day of the trip, with the majority of the trip taking place over the first few days of the trip.
“The basic framework is you’re a busy person,” Herr says. “I’m not going to ask you to do anything before the morning you leave. People are not going to do that,” he explains that the program is addressing three key areas. Reset the internal clock using management of inflammation from flight, strategically timing sleep and diet, and light exposure.
“Usually, during a flight, I sleep halfway through my destination, but not too many, not too few,” he says. “The first negative effect of not sleeping is inflammation, so we can give you a little less sleep than you can normally get.”
Inflammation is a natural response, in which the body releases white blood cells and supports damaged or infected areas of the body. Of course, the body wants to respond in this way when you cut your finger or get sick, but it’s useless while flying, and research that directed fighter pilots and divers can lead to brain fog and other negative effects.
Additionally, while the medical community still studies the relationship between inflammation and flight, science refers to multiple effects, including digestive problems and the effects of JET lag on immune function. In fact, Herr is working on a grant application that will allow the company to run a “fully randomized, placebo-controlled trial.”
To reduce that inflammation, during my flight, the app sent out notifications about when to take supplements (when taking vitamin C and omega-3 fatty acids), when to eat (high protein, low carbohydrate foods are recommended, avoiding caffeine and alcohol) (part of the anti-inflammatory protocol), and when to eat when to show blue wave sleep, when to eat.
The app also tracks internal clock movements for notifications about the gap between home timezone and destination, providing tips from the “circadian coach” and details of progress over time.
Depending on the program, when you approach your destination, the app says it’s time for a “circadian reset.” Mix the circadian reset with 16 ounces of coffee 1 hour before landing the sugar and methylated vitamin B mixture.
Herr says the mix will suppress melatonin levels in the body and provide an insulin boost that will help you reset your circadian clock throughout the body, including the liver, gut, and brain.
“It’ll empower you throughout the rest of the day,” he says. “We will continue to manage the inflammation and keep our circadians under control with the goal of landing you in bed that night.
It may sound like there’s a lot to manage, but I’ve found that the app reminders are healthier and more frequent than normal than you normally would.
I landed in Adelaide, Australia in the morning. A circadian reset is definitely an energy boost. Eventually I came down from the caffeine and experienced the energy dip that accompanied the big time zone jump, but I woke up on that first day, took my supplements and was ready for sleep by 9pm that night. And like the businessmen at Herr, I slept with nine hours of fulfilling sound. This is unprecedented for me. The next morning I awakened a completely normal feeling, as I did every day for the rest of my trip.
I was delighted and surprised, but still skeptical. Still, I went home 10 days later and had the exact same experience. I eagerly followed the program, spent one bumpy first day, and by the second day it was back to normal.
Is the fly kit worth it?
Flykitt is currently ideal for long distance travelling across multiple time zones. Herr said the company is about to release a domestic version that can help with the three-hour difference. And in January 2025, Delta announced a partnership with Flykit. Details will be revealed next year or so.
In the meantime, Herr found that the kits worked in 93% of travelers of all genders, races and ages. (There’s a reason why professional athletes, including Olympians, use it.) And if you’re among the 7% that doesn’t work? “We have a money-back guarantee,” Herr says. “This is there to help people, so if it doesn’t help you, we shouldn’t get paid.”
Of course, there are other Jet Lag apps on the market. Flykitt supplements are available for immediate purchase. So do you need a kit worth over $100 to drive away the jet lag? That’s not necessarily the case. However, following a personalized program, I was able to take care of myself much better than usual before and during the trip. This allowed me to enjoy my time and connection. And for me, it’s valuable.
