Travel, of any kind, is exciting. It presents an opportunity to learn about new cultures, see new sights, eat amazing food, and just escape from the routine of everyday life. However, two of the least exciting things about travel are the plane ride there and dealing with the jet lag there and on the way back. The main question is how you can combat it, especially for those trips where your schedule is literally flipped (12 am becomes 12 pm). Here's a list of quick tips I have to help lessen jet lag!
1. Know Your Schedule
This is the simplest one. Know your schedule. When do you land? Is it around a meal? Will you be starting to tour directly afterward? Is there a bus ride to the hotel? Once you get to the hotel, will you have time for a nap? All of these are questions that you should be asking in order to determine when, or whether, you should sleep on the plane.
2. Adjust Your Inner Clock
When you're preparing for a trip where you're crossing multiple time zones, one of the biggest things is adjusting your inner clock. If at all possible, for a few days before the trip start adjusting your schedule to the time zone you'll be in. Start little- shift your dinner to be an hour earlier or later, start going to sleep earlier or later. If you can, gradually shift your entire schedule to match that of your destination, this way you'll be ready to go when the plane hits the ground. This may not work completely for a lot of people, work makes it complicated, but with this tip, a little goes a long way. Remember, even an hour that you adjust is an hour you won't have to adjust to when you're there.
3. Don't Sleep On the Plane
It is VERY tempting to let the plane ride slip by and fall asleep, as deeply as you're able to. The truth is, you really shouldn't sleep during your flight unless you're taking an overnight flight, landing, and immediately beginning to tour. Another exception is if you're in the air for a cumulative18+ hours- then sleep for a few hours but resist the temptation to sleep as much as possible. Otherwise, the more you sleep on the plane, the more you feel "out of sync" with time. Not only will you find it hard to adjust to local time, you'll be out of sync with your old time as well, which will also make it harder going back to normal. It's much better to get to a destination at night and be absolutely exhausted from travel and be able to sleep than to have slept on the plane, stay up all night, and be tired the next day.
4. Stay Up the Entire Time When Coming Home
When you're coming home from a trip, you often have jet lag again, and for me it's always worse than arriving at a destination. My trick? Wake up the day that you're supposed to be going home, don't sleep on the flight (unless it's one of the exceptions above), and if you have time left in the day when you get home, don't go to sleep until it's somewhat your normal bed time. For example, coming home from my trip to South Africa, I woke up in Cape Town at 9:30 am, got on the plane to Dubai at 5:30 pm, slept for 6 of the 11 hours, got on the plane to JFK Airport, slept for 3 of the 18 hours, got home at about 3:30 pm, and went to sleep that night at about 8:30 pm. Although travel is exhausting and it is important to let yourself rest, it's going to be much easier if you sleep when it's nighttime when you get home. It will turn the 6ish day adjustment period into about a 3 day adjustment period*.
5. Power Naps
While it's important to not sleep in order to readjust to your schedule, sometimes you just need to sleep to get through a day of touring. If this is the case, power naps are your best friend. They're short, they refresh you, and you'll still be able to go to sleep that night. A power nap typically lasts anywhere from 10 to 30 mins- anything more than that and you risk waking up groggier than you went to sleep. Find a bit of time when you check in to your hotel, on the bus, or even put in headphones and set an alarm on the plane. These naps will help you get through the day without feeling like you're going to collapse while helping you adjust to whichever time zone you need to adjust to.
*this is my adjustment period. This may not work for everyone.
