I've always heard this term but have honestly never really experienced it. Granted my flights are usually west coast to Hawaii or back so maybe it's just not long enough? Depending on the time of year there's either a 2 or 3 hour time change which messes with my sleep a small amount but usually not much. Today was an abnormally long flight due to wind and was a bit over 6 hours. I'm coming up on 50 and keep expecting to feel the "lag" at some point but just never seem to. Am I just not lying far/long enough or am I lucky?

Take a TPAC/TATL - you'll feel it then

Flying home from the US to Australia I tend to feel quite ...... for a day after I get back. Nothing terrible...just a bit out of sorts... That is with the normal overnight TPAC flights. The one time I flew back on a DAYTIME flight I felt far, far worse... I do not get the same effect flying TO the US...that however may be because the good feelings of heading TO a vacation overrides it!

Everyone is different - some people suffer badly and some not at all. I sleep when I'm tired, nap when I want and don't care too much for what my watch says and never really felt anything resembling it.

If a 3 hour trip messes with your sleep that's a mild disruption to your circadian rhythm otherwise known as jet lag. The impact varies among people but the greater the time change the greater the disruption.

2 to 3 hours is not really enough to give you genuine jet lag. You will just be waking up a few hours earlier than normal when you get to Hawaii for the first couple of days, but that's about it. Of course everyone is different, so some may feel more laggard after that flight.

Real jet lag, in my experience, is when you are in a substantially different time zone, i.e. flying east coast to Asia, where you have your first day but your internal clock tells you it's night time. That is where people struggle. I tend to be fine traveling to a destination and can get on the local time very quickly (I stay up the first day and suffer through with the help of coffee and walking around, then sleep that night and set an alarm for an earlier wake up the next day). Coming home is where I struggle to get back on the time and it takes me about a week to truly get back on my time/routine. As Badenoch mentioned, your situation is more of a slight variation in your sleep pattern than a genuine jet lag.

since Jan 2015 I've logged 420 flight segments, of which 65 have been redeyes (57 as part of Seattle/LA-to-DC travel) ... 19 nonstops on AS/VX/AA, but the advantage of flying DL is a lot of options via JFK/DTW/ATL (I scrupulously avoid the short MSP redeyes from the west coast; only three in that time)

a window seat is essential so I can lean against the sidewall, and my routine is generally half a Tylenol PM before boarding followed by one drink after takeoff; like pstm91, I'll power through the arrival day (with the help of early hotel check-in, a quick shower, a change of clothes, and an iced coffee with lunch), have a light dinner, turn in ~8pm Eastern, and set an alarm for ~6am

5-6 hour trip, 2-3 hours is the time change.

The time difference is what I was referencing, not the length of the flights.

Okay, I see comments like this all the time and I have to ask - do you keep track of your flights somewhere? You obviously must with how specific you get with number of redeyes etc. Just curious because I see these comments frequently and I always think to myself that I have NO idea how many flights I've had since last year, let alone from XX date. I just know it's a lot... Always makes me laugh though

< GEEK ALERT >
I started out with a pen-and-ink ledger ~1971, and typed everything into an Excel spreadsheet ~2014 ... haven't updated the paper version in a long time, but the book is in a plastic bin along with all my ticket envelopes (thru ~2016) and boarding passes with the aircraft registration noted

the main spreadsheet tab has running totals by airline, equipment type/model, routes -- city pairs, airports (latest info here), direction -- and the like; there's another tab tracking tail numbers by type by airline; a third has last flights on a model/type (relevant to the "Obsolete Aircraft" thread)

currently at 2775 flights (2409 commercial) and approaching 2.7M total miles flown

< / ALERT >

In the past ten days I've done IAD-ADD-DXB and AUH-DOH-IAD. First TATL during the day (departed at 10 AM). I didn't really experience jet lag as I do on eastbound TCON or TATL night flights.

I don't really get it no matter hard I try...

I live in NYC and fly to London quite regularly, I will pick flights that leave JFK late, fly J/F etc., wake up early the day I fly and find that the worst result is I might go to bed at 10pm on the first day in the UK.

I've done SYD-LAX-JFK in one day, leaving SYD mid-morning and arriving JFK in the early evening. Went to bed at 10pm and woke up without an alarm at 8am the next day. *shrug*

Sometimes, depending on a lot of factors including time zone differences, flight times, departure times, arrival times, ability to sleep on flight, ability to sleep at appropriate time at destination.

For time difference of up to 3 hours, usually no jet lag.
West Coast to Europe is tough. The 8-9 hour difference is hard to deal with, sometimes not right away but a couple days later.
Westbound is generally easier for me, just makes for a long day.
West Coast to Hong Kong was surprisingly easy, since we left in the morning, arrived in the evening and were able to have dinner then sleep at a reasonable local time.

Do you happen to be ADHD? I don't get jet lag and attribute it to the manifestations of ADHD.

Perpetual time blindness is a common trait, basically being unaware of and having an inability to track the passing of time. It's difficult to explain to anyone without an extreme version of it - mostly because I have zero frame of reference to understanding the human concept of time (beyond the basic/scientific definitions), and how the perceived concrete linear structure is so natural for others. 5 hours is 20mins, 5 minutes is also 20mins. I can track the days on a calendar everyday for weeks, but the next morning I will have no idea what the day of the week is until I check. I also have to calculate my age any time I am asked. Seeing/speaking to someone after 10+ years away is like the passing of only a couple of days, no matter who it is.

I believe I had read something connecting ADHD, time blindness and an understated or lack of a circadian rhythm. I mostly fly TPAC/TALT and still don't understand the concept of "jet lag", it is just as imaginary and made up to me as ADHD is to others.

At least you're not the only geek - I do this too with all of the same info. I have a FlightMemory account and around the same time (2014-2015) I copied everything into an Excel Sheet in case FlightMemory ever goes offline one day. Then I don't lose everything with no back-up records. One tab in my spreadsheet is the primary with all the main info logged (including a column for cumulative mileage) and then I have sub-tabs in the spreadsheet that track city-pairs by number of times flown and aircraft types by number of times flown. What is interesting to me is that I can tell there's some sort of rounding that FlightMemory does to the whole number on the displaying of the distance but for total distance flown, uses a decimal figure because the total distance flown in my Excel Spreadsheet is about 10-20 miles off from what my FlightMemory shows as my cumulative mileage.

It was in this spreadsheet that I found out that on a couple different occasions, I sat in the exact same seat on the same tail number on flights a few years apart. Kinda funny to think about.