Avoiding Jet Lag: When Flying High Makes You Feel Low

Avoiding jet lag is something most of us have to do - but often don't know how. The last thing I want to do is arrive at my destination a wreck and waste precious travel time, so I'm always interested in how to prevent jet lag.

There are probably as many jet lag remedies as there are women who travel, so finding the right one is most often a case of trial and error.

Do you have a favorite jet lag remedy?

I'm not a doctor, so anything I share with you here comes from my own experience or research, not from any professional knowledge. This is not medical advice - your first step should be to consult with a doctor. My goal is to give you enough information to ask the right questions when you go. 

Avoiding jet lag: what is it, anyway?

Jet lag is a misalignment of circadian rhythms that occurs when you travel quickly across time zones. Simply put, it means that you've traveled so fast that your insides aren't quite aligned to the outside world, resulting in what the medical world calls a secondary circadian dysrhythmia.

Symptoms of jet lag are quite numerous and can include sleepiness and a fall in alertness. The symptoms can last for days until you adapt to your new time zone so avoiding jet lag is a priority for many of us. There's a popular belief - I believe it - that it takes you one day per time zone to recover from jet lag. In other words, if you travel where there's an eight-hour time difference, it should take your body clock eight days to get back to normal. 

Avoiding jet lag: sleep and other helpful things

Now this is a nice way of avoiding jet lag...
Photo: Caribb via Flickr CC

There are certain things you can do even before you get on the flight to help minimize jet lag. You can eat well and hydrate yourself, so you're feeling at your best when you board the flight. And if you have that possibility, you can build in a stopover to your journey. Flying from Europe to Australia? Stop in Bangkok or Tokyo for a couple of days and see the sights.

Ready to fly?

• Wear comfortable clothes. You'd be amazed at what some people think is comfortable, like tight jeans or high heels. I try to wear a cotton or light fleece track suit, which also keeps me warm on the plane.


• Get on the flight as rested and calm as you can. Meditate, breathe deeply, do whatever you need to do to feel serene.


• Note the direction of your flight. Flying East to West will usually be easier on you than the other way around, so take your precautions accordingly.

• Set your watch at the destination's time as soon as you get on the flight.
  

• Drink bottled water, lots of it (not juice, coffee or alcohol, none of which will help hydrate you). I always buy my own right after security, just in case they run out on the plane.


• Sleep if you can. I find this works well for me, especially if I'm on a night flight. Carry some earplugs, an eye mask and a soft or inflatable travel pillow to snooze more comfortably.


• Don't eat the food. Seriously. It's all dried out and you'll do better on a light stomach. If you must eat ask for a fruit platter - you can usually get one if you ask 2-3 days ahead of time (check the airline's website). Like water, the fruit will help hydrate you.


• When you're not sleeping, stay a bit active. Walk around the cabin (once the serving cart is out of the way and the seat belt sign is off) and follow the exercises in your inflight magazine or on your audio channel.

Avoiding jetlag: my personal recipe

Let me tell you my own secret for avoiding jet lag. In addition to all of the above, I don't go to bed until the evening. 

That's right. Whether I arrive at 10 in the morning or halfway through the afternoon, I stay up. At times I'm dragging myself around in a wretched sleep daze, but no matter. If I give in and sleep, the jet lag will immediately kick in. If I manage to stay up until my usual bedtime, it'll be much less noticeable, and sometimes I'll be avoiding jet lag altogether.

Keep this in mind when you decide whether to take a day or a night flight.

Avoiding jet lag by flying at night if you want to sleep
Photo: S Fujiwara via Flickr CC

If you take a night flight and arrive in the morning, try to sleep during the flight. You'll have a few energy reserves when you land, and you'll be respecting your natural cycle - asleep at night, awake during the day. Then stay up all day, as though it were a normal day, and go to bed as usual in the evening. You'll probably have to fight drowsiness but it may well be worth it - you could be shaving days off your jet lag.

If you take a day flight and arrive in the evening, just eat something if you're starved and go to bed. You'll again be respecting your natural rhythms by sleeping at night. The downside is you'll be facing a long boring flight: make sure you've got a few books and games, and catch up on your movie-going inflight. Try not to sleep, or you'll be throwing off that natural cycle and encouraging jet lag. 

Jet lag homeopathic remedy help

Valerian: avoiding jet lag naturally?
Photo: epicnom via Flickr CC

Homeopathic remedies for jet lag are on the market and some travelers say they work beautifully. Homeopathy, for those unfamiliar with it, is a type of alternative medicine that uses a diluted form of the symptoms it's trying to cure. Diluted is key here because the amount of each substance is minute - in larger doses they would be toxic.

You'll find homeopathic jet lag remedies, most of them arnica-based, in health food stores and in drugstores that deal with homeopathy. 

Valerian is also used by some for jet lag because it is a natural herb that helps you sleep. 

Using melatonin for jet lag

This is an increasingly popular but still controversial jet lag remedy. It has to do with supplementing your hormones to manage your sleep cycles. In other words, melatonin may help you adjust to your new time zone. We naturally manufacture melatonin in our bodies and release it according to the amount of light outside.

Long-term effects of melatonin haven't been studied and while some people swear by it, there is at least one study that reports it can actually make jet lag worse if it's not taken  when it should be. Melatonin is also credited with possible side effects like insomnia or nightmares if taken in high doses, so I'd handle this one with care and with professional advice.

In the US it's available over the counter as a natural substance (even though synthetic melatonin is what you usually get), whereas it is forbidden in Canada, New Zealand and most of Europe, and available in Australia only with a prescription. There seems to be a divergence in dosage suggestions so I'd be careful if you're planning on trying it out.

Avoiding jet lag with bright light therapy
Photo: Mysid via Wikipedia Commons

Another possible way of avoiding jet lag - a few studies exist but this is still a new area - is the use of bright light therapy help reset your body clock. 

A number of lights are touted for their anti-jet lag properties but research has yet to prove that bright lights really make a difference. Still, it's not an unpleasant alternative so whether or not it works, there seems to be no harm in it.

Sleeping pills are also used by some people to combat jet lag but there are different opinions about this. While some people swear by pills because they sleep deeply and may arrive rested, there are concerns that immobility caused by deep sleep could provoke blood clots. Many pills also contain addictive substances, which seems like a high risk to take for jet lag, no matter how unpleasant it might be.

Is there really a jet lag cure?

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Combatting Jet Lag with Melatonin and Light + a note on DVT  The following is from my own experience plus an article by Jane Brody of the New York Times Service and the work of circadian rhythm specialist, Dr Alfred ...

Eat according to the time  Even if you just had breakfast two hours ago, if the clock at the current location says LUNCHTIME, eat "something."