Safety & Advisories
The body clock shifts about an hour a day going east, and Kathmandu is nearly ten hours ahead of New York. Here is how to plan the first days around…
By Dawa Sherpa · Sep 20, 2026
Flying east, your body clock moves about one hour a day — so a New Yorker landing in Kathmandu, nearly ten hours ahead, is looking at roughly ten days to fully adjust. Most treks are shorter than that. This is not a reason to stay home; it is a reason to stop…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Take the hours of difference and read them as days. That is the CDC's eastward rate applied to the real gap, and it is our own arithmetic rather than a medical prediction — people vary, and nobody adjusts on a neat schedule. Add an hour to each row in the…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
On an eastward flight your body clock is running behind local time, which means the alpine start suits you and the bedtime does not. This surprises people. At 6 a.m. in Lukla your body thinks it is about 8 p.m. the previous evening — comfortably awake. At 8…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Light timing and a small dose of melatonin, used in the right direction. The CDC's guidance is specific: morning light after your body's low point advances the clock, which is what eastward travel needs; evening light delays it, which is what you want going…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
The Kathmandu day at the start of a trek is not padding, and this is half the reason it exists. A full day in the city at 1,400 metres gives the clock its first real shift in daylight, gets you one proper night in a warm bed, and leaves room for a bag that…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Roughly a day per hour of difference going east, so about ten days from the US East Coast and up to a fortnight from the West Coast. Symptoms usually appear within one to two days of landing.
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
East. The CDC puts westward adjustment at 1.5 hours a day and eastward at 1 hour, and says westward travel is easier to adapt to.
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
The CDC says 0.5 to 1 mg is often enough to shift the clock, taken about 90 minutes before bed when travelling east. It does not recommend doses above 5 mg.
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
We have not found evidence that it does, and we are not going to imply it. They are separate problems that happen to arrive in the same week. Altitude illness is managed by ascent rate; jet lag is managed by light and sleep timing. Source: CDC Yellow Book…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
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