[SkiBum80]

When I was working and had to make frequent trips on Sunday to the East Coast for meetings, I could never decide whether I preferred flying a red eye or leaving Sunday AM and spending the night in a hotel and staggering out of bed at 3 AM my time so I could be at an 8 AM meeting with some sense of sanity.

For me that is easy. Take the red eye. I sleep real well on airplanes, maybe better than I do in a bed :-). Of course, I have many years of practice doing that. I am not sure this would transfer to physical activity however. Being sharp for a meeting is a lot different than playing football for hours. Unfortunately, I think it is so individual that no team choice can be ideal for all the players. The one thing I can say is do NOT go out two days early. Day three is always the "crash" day for time zone changes. You can get by on adrenaline for two days, but after that your body needs to reset on the new time.

I tried just about every option. When I was younger, single and had little control over my work schedule, I would just take the noon plane on Sunday. And back then I would sometimes stay the weekend if the two extra hotel nights were less than the return airfare, especially when the assignment was somewhere cool like NYC.

For me, going east was always much tougher than going west. I tried Melatonin for the jet lag, but it didn’t work — until I doubled the dose, LOL.

As I got older I also got more control over my schedule, so I flew out on Mondays and back Thursday nights, working on the plane Monday, at home on Friday, and at least having some semblance of a weekend with my family.

On one long-term gig (Atlanta) I just said “no mas” to the hotel room and actually bought a nearby brand-new condo. Rented it out after the assignment ended, sold it a year later and managed to break even. (I foolishly thought that all real estate markets were as good as Calif)

It did look like BC suffered from some jet lag in the second half, but we all know at that age there’s a lot of adrenaline going on, so who knows for sure.

Still flying coast to coast often.
My preference flying east is to avoid the red eye like the plague. A red eye will likely mess me up for days.
Unless you are flying in a fully reclining seat, which is a different ballgame than most travelers.
Also avoid really early morning departure, like 7 am, which in some cases, depending on how far to airport, might mean being up at 3 am.
After maybe being up late the night before, packing and trip prep, really early morn departure is no bueno.
Sweet spot is something like mid morning departure, arrive evening but not super late, try to go to bed before midnight local time.
Next day usually not that bad. Multiple coffees helps.
Flying west usually not that bad.
Yes jet lag a thing.
But we talking about young 20 somethings. 
Some of em think being up til 1 or 2 am and then only sleep 4 hours, is a normal routine.
I think for our Boston college game, in the 4th quarter, our ball control, OLine energy, and repeated punishing runs by Micah Ford and the rest of our talented RB committee, keeping their DLine on the field for a long stretch so they wore down, was the main reason for our good ground game.
Not their jet lag.
But of course the next game(s) will tell more so.

---

Also the effect of the travel depends a lot on the connections, not just the total distance.
A 2500 mile non-stop flight with not too bad ground travel to and from the airports,
is a lot easier trip than a 1500 mile trip with 1 or 2 connections and tedious ground travel also included.

[SkiBum80]

When I was working and had to make frequent trips on Sunday to the East Coast for meetings, I could never decide whether I preferred flying a red eye or leaving Sunday AM and spending the night in a hotel and staggering out of bed at 3 AM my time so I could be at an 8 AM meeting with some sense of sanity.

For me that is easy. Take the red eye. I sleep real well on airplanes, maybe better than I do in a bed :-). Of course, I have many years of practice doing that. I am not sure this would transfer to physical activity however. Being sharp for a meeting is a lot different than playing football for hours. Unfortunately, I think it is so individual that no team choice can be ideal for all the players. The one thing I can say is do NOT go out two days early. Day three is always the "crash" day for time zone changes. You can get by on adrenaline for two days, but after that your body needs to reset on the new time.

I tried just about every option. When I was younger, single and had little control over my work schedule, I would just take the noon plane on Sunday. And back then I would sometimes stay the weekend if the two extra hotel nights were less than the return airfare, especially when the assignment was somewhere cool like NYC.

For me, going east was always much tougher than going west. I tried Melatonin for the jet lag, but it didn’t work — until I doubled the dose, LOL.

As I got older I also got more control over my schedule, so I flew out on Mondays and back Thursday nights, working on the plane Monday, at home on Friday, and at least having some semblance of a weekend with my family.

On one long-term gig (Atlanta) I just said “no mas” to the hotel room and actually bought a nearby brand-new condo. Rented it out after the assignment ended, sold it a year later and managed to break even. (I foolishly thought that all real estate markets were as good as Calif)

It did look like BC suffered from some jet lag in the second half, but we all know at that age there’s a lot of adrenaline going on, so who knows for sure.

Still flying coast to coast often.
My preference flying east is to avoid the red eye like the plague. A red eye will likely mess me up for days.
Unless you are flying in a fully reclining seat, which is a different ballgame than most travelers.
Also avoid really early morning departure, like 7 am, which in some cases, depending on how far to airport, might mean being up at 3 am.
After maybe being up late the night before, packing and trip prep, really early morn departure is no bueno.
Sweet spot is something like mid morning departure, arrive evening but not super late, try to go to bed before midnight local time.
Next day usually not that bad. Multiple coffees helps.
Flying west usually not that bad.
Yes jet lag a thing.
But we talking about young 20 somethings. 
Some of em think being up til 1 or 2 am and then only sleep 4 hours, is a normal routine.
I think for our Boston college game, in the 4th quarter, our ball control, OLine energy, and repeated punishing runs by Micah Ford and the rest of our talented RB committee, keeping their DLine on the field for a long stretch so they wore down, was the main reason for our good ground game.
Not their jet lag.
But of course the next game(s) will tell more so.

---

Also the effect of the travel depends a lot on the connections, not just the total distance.
A 2500 mile non-stop flight with not too bad ground travel to and from the airports,
is a lot easier trip than a 1500 mile trip with 1 or 2 connections and tedious ground travel also included.