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view from international flight
In my original post How to Avoid Jet Lag, I detailed the technique I always use to basically skip jet lag altogether. Essentially, that entails getting yourself on the destination sleep/wake schedule during your journey, before you even arrive. I’ve been doing that successfully throughout 20+ years of international travels.
Clearly, the primary cause of jet lag is the difference in time schedules between your departure and destination locales. By getting yourself on the destination schedule before you arrive, you can quickly and easily adjust to the new time zone.
But there are several other factors contributing to jet lag, particularly: dehydration, poor blood circulation, lack of sleep, and stress. Therefore, it’s important to incorporate a few more tactics into any super-long journey to help avoid jet lag, or to minimize its affects if you don’t manage to completely avoid it. Here are the other things I do on flights, in conjunction with setting myself on my destination schedule:
airplane air is very dry
Stay well-hydrated.
Nowadays, it’s pretty common knowledge that airplane air is extra dry and that you need to re-compensate for that during your journey. Your bodily hydration level is a huge factor in whether or not you suffer from jet lag. Specifically, it’s important to drink a lot of water and to keep your skin moisturized, especially your face. Drinking lots of water before, during, and after your trip will help immensely with how you feel, both during the flight and after arrival. A high-quality facial moisturizer, applied several times during the journey, will save your skin from drying out. Do both!
drink fruit juices and water, not alcohol
Skip alcohol and caffeine.
Both alcohol and caffeine dehydrate your body. Skip both or minimize as much as possible before and during your trip. That includes carbonated sodas like Coke and Pepsi as well as coffee and tea. Making your flight into a big drinking party is a sure recipe for serious, head-thumping jet lag when you arrive. Yuk!
If you really want to avoid or minimize jet lag, you’d better skip the plane party and drink water and/or fruit juices en route. You can always hit the parties after your arrival.
Minimizing both alcohol and caffeine will help in another aspect of long trips: You won’t have to run to the bathroom as frequently. Lol
Maintain good blood circulation.
Good blood circulation is essential for getting oxygen to all parts of your body, to digesting food, to an alert mind and brain functioning, to muscle health, and to bodily comfort. Sitting in the same position for long periods of time clogs up your circulation. So on long flights, be sure to get up, walk around, do basic stretching exercises for all parts of your body, including neck, wrists, arms, ankles, legs, and back. Some airlines include an in-flight stretching video in their video repertoire. Follow that if there is one. Or just do your own stretches. Any stretching is better than no stretching!
p.s. Don’t worry about fellow passengers or staff thinking your strange. Lots of people nowadays understand the importance of stretching. Best of all, though, you’ll feel much better.
sleep well
Sleep well.
If your ‘avoid jet lag’ itinerary (as I outlined in How to Avoid Jet Lag, pt 1) calls for you to sleep on the flight, make sure you get a good sleep. It won’t do you any good to just toss and turn for hours on end. If you can sleep well on flights, you’ve got it made. If you have trouble, though, here are some ideas to try out:
On big planes, in the very back middle sections, there are usually groups of 2-4 seats vacant. If you can grab one of those rows, you can lay down to sleep. If not, well then:
You can sleep in all sorts of positions in your plane seat. For one, while seated normally, pull down the meal tray then lay your head and upper body on that. With your head in a horizontal position, you feel somewhat like you’re laying down. Alternately, sit on the floor in front of your seat, with your upper body and head resting on the seat. Then of course, seated normally, you can lean to the right side a while, the left side a while. Slump back in the seat, stretch your legs out as far as possible. Get a window seat. You can rest your head against the back of the chair and the window, stretch your legs out and get diagonally- horizontal to some degree.
If you really have trouble sleeping, take a sleeping pill. Doing so once in a while won’t cause addiction problems. There are also several natural, herbal sleeping ‘pills’ available.
stressed out!
Identify and minimize emotional stress.
I believe a major reason many people get exhausted from traveling is not so much because of the bus, train, or bus trip itself, but because of emotionally charged issues surrounding the trip. Things like ‘leaving loved ones’, ‘saying good-bye’, ‘fear of the unknown’, ‘concerns about the new destination’ can really stress you out, causing emotional exhaustion. I suspect most people don’t realize how exhausting emotional stress is. It took me years to identify and acknowledge it. But once I did, I was able to ‘anticipate’ it and ‘plan it’ into my schedule, as in, ‘oh, yeah I’m going to be exhausted from xyz stress, so I’d better not plan too much on days abc..”
To combat the exhausting affects of emotional stress surrounding your journey, identify what you’re stressed about, acknowledge it, and try to calm yourself about those issues as much as possible. Yoga, meditation, and stretching can help. Reading and learning about unknown aspects of your destination can help alleviate those fears. Working through your feelings and getting closure can also help tremendously.
If you’re still emotionally stressed out, the good thing is that it can help you sleep like a rock once you let go. Take that sleeping pill and really pass out.
airport departures-arrivals sign
Plan a light itinerary the first 1-2 days after arrival.
Just to be sure, don’t plan a heavy demanding schedule upon your arrival. Plan to spend the first one or two days relaxing and adapting to the new climate, culture, food and people. If you’re able to successfully avoid jet lag, then upon arrival you can simply go full steam ahead. But if you’re planning a heavy schedule upon arrival but then don’t have the energy, you could miss appointments, meetings, or whatever else you were planning to do. If you’ve got important business stuff, try to arrive one or two days early to adjust. That way you’ll be alert and professional when you get to your meetings.
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Qs:
Which of these tactics do you use when flying?
Which work best for you?
Do you have any other tips and suggestions? Share!
You might also like:
(Nina offers more suggestions for avoiding jet lag)
Hi! I'm Lash, an American nomadic world traveler who's been traveling solo since 1998. I’m passionate about traveling the world nomadically and then sharing it all with you. I hope to inspire you to travel the world, to entertain you with tales from the road, and to help you reach your travel dreams. Welcome! 
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TRAVEL TIP: HOW TO AVOID JET LAG- pt 1 - LashWorldTour » LashWorldTour
2013/06/16 at 5:37 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
[…] How to Avoid Jet Lag pt 3: More Strategies […]
TRAVEL TIP: HOW TO AVOID JET LAG, pt 2- FOLLOW UP REPORT - LashWorldTour » LashWorldTour
2013/06/16 at 5:54 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
[…] How To Avoid Jet Lag pt 3: More Strategies […]
TRAVEL TIP: 8 STRATEGIES TO AVOID MOSQUITOES WHILE SLEEPING- LashWorld
2021/02/15 at 7:39 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
[…] Travel Tip: How to Avoid Jet Lag, pt 3 […]