Guatemala Jet Lag Calculator

A gap this wide puts Guatemala on the wrong side of the day from your home evening. Do nothing, and Guatemala City (UTC-6) takes a week to accept. Manage light and sleep on purpose in Guatemala and it is about 4 days.

Subtract your home UTC offset from Guatemala's -6 and the remainder is the shift your body clock must absorb. Concretely: London → Guatemala City = 6 h, New York → Guatemala City = 1 h, Tokyo → Guatemala City = 15 h, Sydney → Guatemala City = 16 h. Reference frame for Guatemala: Guatemala City keeps UTC-6 and sits 1,500 m above sea level in Central America, with that same offset in every season.

Morning light is the strongest reset signal Guatemala offers at this shift size. In Guatemala City (UTC-6), get it outdoors before 10am local. Sip an extra 500 ml of water for every 3 hours in the air to Guatemala City; cabin air on the 6-hour Guatemala run is drier than most deserts.

Direction changes the bill: flying to Guatemala westward from London costs about 4 days of recovery. The eastward routing to Guatemala City costs only 6 — the body clock delays to Guatemala more easily than it advances. Applied to this Central America trip: 6 hours west from London to Guatemala City maps to about 4 reset days, so a Guatemala itinerary should front-load outdoor time on days one to 4.

Near-4am wakings are part of night one in Guatemala City (1,500 m, UTC-6); stay dark and still, skip the clock-checking, and Guatemala nights settle by the third. Sleep follows light in Guatemala: book a dark room in Guatemala City (1,500 m), keep it cool (16–20°C), and wear a mask if the late sunset leaks through the blinds. For shifts over six hours — into Guatemala, that means the 6-hour London gap — 0.5–3 mg of melatonin at Guatemala City bedtime (UTC-6) pulls the clock faster in 3–4 nights.

Clear Guatemala dosing with a clinician first. Practical baseline: lights out in a dark 16–20°C Guatemala City room (1,500 m, UTC-6), and no evening alcohol for the first two nights while the Guatemala clock settles.