EXPLAINED | How World Leaders Combat Jet Lag on Long Trips and Silly Things They Did Due to Sleep Loss

G20 leaders, who gathered in New Delhi for the annual summit, held back-to-back meeting, negotiations, and group sessions throughout the weekend. Several world leaders including US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Australian Anthony Albanese and others participated in the two-day G20 summit under India’s presidency of the bloc.

After a successful completion of the summit, most heads of state including Joe Biden and UK PM Rishi Sunak left the national capital on Sunday. Most of these leaders travelled across time zones to arrive in India for the G20 summit.

Joe Biden, who took the long flight from the US after a stopover in Ramstein, Germany, arrived in New Delhi on Friday and left for Vietnam on Sunday. Several others including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese also took long flights to India.

But how do the world leaders cope with jet lag during diplomatic visits, especially after long flights.

Jet Lag During Foreign Trips

Jet lag, also known as desynchronosis, is common while traveling long distances. It is a temporary sleep disorder that occurs when a person’s internal body clock is disrupted after travelling across multiple time zones.

It occurs because the body’s internal clock is synced to the person’s original time zone. Jet lag can cause a person to feel fatigued, sleepy and irritable, which may not be suitable for world leaders who have hectic schedules.

How PM Modi Deals With Jet Lag?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also travelled to several nations and at times, his meeting with foreign leaders and diplomats begins immediately after he lands in the foreign country.

According to PTI, PM Modi has some secrets that help him fight jet lag. He uses three tricks to avoid jet lag:

• He schedules back-to-back meetings on a foreign trip so that there is no time to feel fatigued which is common after a long flight. During the state visit to the US in June, PM Modi held several meetings with the President, other US officials, business community and diaspora over three days. The huge number of interactions wouldn’t have been possible without back-to-back meetings.
• PM Modi tunes his body and the sleep cycle to the time zone of the destination. Therefore, he doesn’t sleep on the flight even if it’s night in India. While returning to India, he does the same thing and tunes his body and sleep cycle according to the Indian time.
• The prime minister also tries to accommodate some meetings on the flight itself to save time when he finally lands in the foreign country. PM Narendra Modi, in a post on X, once revealed that he looks through papers and files during long flights. “A long flight also means opportunities to go through papers and some file work”, the PM posted on X.

How it Has Affected World Leaders

Jet Lag has affected world leaders many times and sometimes in embarrassing ways. In 1992, US President George HW Bush, during his trip to Japan, suddenly fell ill, vomited on himself and his host Japanese PM Miyazawa during the state dinner.

The president’s spokesperson later explained that Bush had suffered an attack of gastroenteritis, probably due to jet lag.

Prominent US official Henry Kissinger used to travel a lot being the national security assistant of President Richard Nixon and as secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. Once during his foreign trip, he found himself “on the verge of losing my temper at North Vietnamese insolence” while holding negotiations with North Vietnamese diplomat, according to The Washington Post.

“From then on I never began a negotiation immediately after a long flight,” Kissinger reportedly said.

What Does Other World Leaders Do

The world leaders use several methods and strategies to reduce the jet lag and minimise the fatigue due to long flights. Some of the strategies are adjusting sleep schedule before the trip, staying hydrated and avoiding alcohol and caffeine.

Some of the additional methods are adapting to the local time zone (of the destination) upon arrival. Controlling exposure to light by dimming it or increasing cabin lights can also help combat jet lag, according to Moneycontrol.

In one of the lighter moments, Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, during a US trip in 1973, noted that he was wearing two watches, one set on Moscow time and the other on Washington time. The Soviet leaders said that the two watches helped him keep track of his body rhythms.

During her tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton visited 112 of the world’s 200 countries in four years. She was on the road for 401 days and spent 87 full days on a plane.

In 2012, Clinton, in a trip that lasted 12 days, flew to France, Afghanistan, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Egypt and Israel. President Barack Obama was so concerned about her gruelling travel schedule that he ordered her to cut back, according to The Washington Post.