Jun 1, 2016

Surviving jetlag

I envy people who do not suffer from jetlag. It can be so painful, that stinging feeling of intense weariness. You get so tired it hurts and almost leaves you trembling. And jetlag is treacherous, it can leave you in peace the first day or two and then strike back, keeping you awake at night and lifeless during the day. Admittedly jetlag is fiercer when traveling from West to East, for instance going from America to Europe or from Europe to Asia. When you travel westward, you can absorb a time difference of 6 hours without trouble: you go through a long long day and in the evening, you are tired and just sleep. But toward the East, what happens is that 2 entire days collapse into one. It is easy to lose your sleep references and end up at your destination in the morning, dying to go to bed. At that point, your internal clock is off by 12 hours. It can take days to offset that.

Some choose to ignore jetlag, claiming they adapt naturally. Others, for short stays, choose to keep their internal clock synchronized with their home place. It is feasible, although it constrains your activities. Otherwise you need a way to adjust. My strategy is to use a combination of steps to minimize the impact.

1. Get some sleep
The single most important aspect (and the trickiest) for adjusting to jetlag is to get enough sleep during the trip, all the more so as long flights are often night flights. As a rule of thumb, I aim at getting at least 6 hours of sleep. Night flights are good as they avoid wasting away a day sitting in an airplane, but unless you fly first-class, getting some sleep is harder than in a true bed.
Some preparation helps: prepare an eyemask and ear plugs, as airlines nowadays do not always provide them. An inflatable neck pillow takes little luggage space and can make quite a difference. Another unexpected ally are socks: leg discomfort due to poor blood flow can ruin your sleep. Pharmacies sell special socks but if you want to save money, compression socks for running, found in sports shops, are perfectly good.
If you have money, buy yourself a pair of noise-canceling headphones. If you do, make sure you buy the good ones. From what I have tried, cheap versions are no good at all.
Besides, there is a miracle drug to fight jetlag. It is called melatonin. It is actually not a sleep pill, but rather the hormone that the body releases naturally when it is time to sleep, giving the brain the order for system shutdown. Taking a dose of melatonin in the evening (2mg typically) tells your body it is time for bed, even if your internal clock does not feel so. Melatonin gets degraded by external light so make sure you take the pill shortly before you close your eyes for slumber. And of course check before for any counter indication.

2. Aim at the destination
As soon as you board the flight, set your watch to the destination time. After all, that is the timetable you need to adjust to. Then set your activities accordingly. When it is time to get up then get up, take a few steps in the plane, rinse your face with cold water, have a drink, eat something, expose yourself to light. Conversely, if it is night, then by all means get some sleep. If you are traveling East on an evening flight, it means that the urgent thing to do right after boarding is SLEEP: at your destination, it is probably the middle of the night already. Unfortunately, airlines do not make it easy for you because, for a reason obscure to me, the schedule of meals and activities on board is based on the time at the place of origin, rather than that of destination. To get some sleep, you will need to surrender your apéritif, dinner and evening movie. But that is the right thing to do. Otherwise, by the time you set yourself to sleep mode, the night should already be over!

3. Anticipate
It helps to prepare yourself a few days in advance. If during 3 days you are able to get up really early, then you start gnawing at the time difference. It does have an impact because adjusting to a 4-hour change is significantly easier than a 6-hour one.

4. Adjust your gut clock
Equally important to adjusting your sleep clock is adjusting your digestive clock. From the day you travel, and possibly a day or two before, shift your meal times to match your place of destination. That means skipping dinner if you are going East, or skipping breakfast if you are going West.

Long-distance travel kit
Still with the idea of not forgetting anything, here is the contents of my long-distance travel kit, always ready at home:
- compression socks,
- inflatable neck pillow (do not buy the cheap ones, they leak far too easily),
- eye mask,
- ear plugs,
- Europe to US mini-adapter electric plug,
- melatonin pills,
- a few wet wipes (individually packed).

Good luck! Do you have more tips? Please share!

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