Hotels are increasingly addressing jet lag, betting that helping an exhausted guest could turn them into grateful — and loyal — customers.

Jet lag can occur when someone crosses three or more time zones and a thrown-off body clock disrupts daily rhythms. Not everyone gets it, but those who do can feel exhausted and irritable and have trouble concentrating. Symptoms vary by number of time zones crossed, the traveler's age and direction of travel. (Flying east tends to be tougher than flying west.)

"If you're run-down, dehydrated and you can't adjust your body clock, then you won't be able to perform to the degree you want to," says Brian Povinelli, Sheraton's marketing vice president.

Most of the hotels tackling jet lag are upscale. Among their offerings:

•A diet and exercise plan. The 406-hotel Sheraton chain is rolling out an exercise and nutrition regime this fall developed by Core Performance, a firm that trains top-level athletes and executives. Sheraton hotels will have special workouts developed by the firm, along with energy-rich menu items such as a breakfast banana split with low-fat cottage cheese.

"When you start to look at effects of travel, it's absolutely demanding," says Mark Verstegen, Core Performance founder. "You have to prepare for it."

•Light therapy. Over the past year, the 150-hotel Westin chain has been testing an anti-jet-lag room in its Wheeling, Ill., hotel near Chicago O'Hare.

The room has a blue light in the shower designed to boost energy and a photo-therapy light on the desk. It also contains a sound machine with rainfall and beach noises, a sleep TV channel with meditative programming and black-out curtains. But you can't book the room: The hotel gives it to guests who arrive from at least two time zones away, says Peter Simoncelli, the hotel's general manager.

•Special pillows. The 18-hotel Conrad chain rolled out a pillow menu in January, including some that have been designed by doctors to induce sleep. The idea is to let guests pick one that resembles their favorite at home, says Jan Monkedieck, general manager at the Conrad Cairo. Luxury hotels have long offered jet lag spa services.

Frequent traveler Rob Newman, who has had a jet lag massage at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok after the flight from the USA, says massage can help because "your body doesn't naturally hold itself upright in a chair for 10 to 17 hours."

But Paul Mayo of Port St. Lucie, Fla., says it often takes him five days to feel normal after flying to the Middle East and three days when flying to Asia.

"I have tried everything," he says. "Only time works."

Jet lag horror stories

* Debbie Joy of Phoenix says she almost stepped into the street right in front of a taxi in Sydney, but was saved by a fast-reacting friend who pulled her back just in time.

* Paul Mayo of Port St. Lucie, Fla., says he once nearly fell off a radar antenna — about 100 feet high — when working while still jet lagged.

* Stephanie Dickey, of Richmond, Texas, says that twice she's returned from a distant business trip and had jet lag spoil her appetite during a romantic anniversary dinner with her husband.

* Mike Nicholes of Portland, Oregon, says that he once decided to sleep in and not go to the market to buy souvenirs for his children and grandchildren. That only happened once, he says.

The disappointment when 'big spender' came home empty handed pretty well cured that," he says.

* Janelle Barlow of Las Vegas says she once nodded off in a meeting in Europe and was pointed out by the leader of the meeting. "People who know how to sleep with their eyes open have an incredible business skill, she says.

* Terry Buchen of Williamsburg, Va., says he once rode in the front passenger seat of a client's car and fell asleep for 15 minutes. "I had no control over myself," he says.

* Tim Burke of Littleton, Colo., says he once had to check machinery with a client after a 36-hour journey, including flight and layover time in Surabaya, Indonesia. "I could hardly stand on my legs with the client next to me," he says. "It was hours of excrutiating pain."

* Marc Hall of Seattle says he'll never forget how a Japanese executive who was visiting his company for a busy, four-day tour in Seattle once started snoring during his colleague's presentation. It was during their last meeting of the exhausting tour, and the man just laid down his head on top of his briefcase on the conference table.

Do you have your own jet lag survival tips or horror stories? Share them below.

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