Jet lag can suck some of the fun out of travelling, as your body takes a day or two to adjust to a new time zone. How do you fight jet lag when you travel?
Photo by Jason O’Halloran.
Jet lag happens when your built-in body clock is thrown off and has to readjust. There are a few things you can do to minimise the effects: get used to your new schedule beforehand, stay on your original time zone, adjust your light exposure accordingly. Those solutions can be hit or miss, though. We want to know how you deal with it.
If you’re a pro at coping with jet lag, spill your secrets. How do you prevent, minimise, or deal with it?
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3 responses to “How Do You Beat Jet Lag?”
Power through until local night time, then sleep and get up according to the new time zone.
I do the same thing.
Works a treat.
Breakfast to breakfast fast. Eat breakfast the day of your departure as normal, don’t eat again until the morning of wherever you arrive and have breakfast then. I tried this on a Dubai – Brisbane flight recently and noticed a significant reduction in symptoms.
Staying on your origin time zone is the worst advice.
If anything, merge onto your destination time as early as possible. This might mean deliberately staying awake on certain legs/sectors when everyone else is sleeping. Especially if needing to do business at the other end soon after arrival.
Melatonin helps with this for most (but not all) people, with little to no hangover effect. Other drugs (e.g. sedating antihistamines) can also help if essential sleep is elusive, accepting the increased risk of side effects.