Image: Mohamed Hassan, CC0
Don’t you hate the foggy, headachy, dragging feeling of jet lag? While there aren’t any surefire ways to prevent this common problem, there are some things you can do to help adjust your internal clock when you fly across time zones.
Switch your watch
As soon as you board the plane, switch your watch to the time zone you are traveling to. Putting yourself in that time zone mentally keeps you from thinking about what time it is at home.
Take an overnight flight
If you’re flying in first class or business, take an overnight flight. Many airplanes have beds that lie almost flat. You can check with your travel agent or look online to see what type of aircraft you’ll be flying on.
If you are flying eastward, such as from the US to Europe, overnight flights are great for coach class, too, because if you leave in the evening you’ll already be tired and more likely to sleep during the flight.
Arrive in the evening
Another option is to take a flight that arrives at your destination in the evening. The exhaustion you feel from traveling will help you fall asleep and get you on the right schedule quickly.
Drink water, not wine
The symptoms of jet lag are greatly aggravated by alcohol and coffee (diuretics). Drink plenty of water during the flight, and you’ll feel much better.
Avoid napping when you land
It’s easier to adjust your body clock when you arrive at your destination if you go outside and get some sunlight. If you must nap, keep it to an hour or less. Again, using the example of flying from the US to Europe, after you arrive at your destination, try to stay awake until 7 pm or so, then go to sleep, and you should feel more in sync the next day.
Try Jet Lag Rooster
Jay Olson, a psychology instructor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, studied the latest research on jet lag and developed a free a free app, called Jet Lag Rooster, which aims to help travelers incrementally adjust their waking and sleeping patterns in order to tap into the body’s natural circadian rhythms. Learn more about it here.
As a last option – pills
If nothing else works and you can’t sleep on airplanes naturally, ask your doctor about getting a prescription for sleeping pills. Use them sparingly, and make sure you try them at home before you are 30,000 feet up in the air.
