Fighting jetlag

You know the feeling. You’ve just grabbed your suitcases from the luggage belt, you’re eager to see long-lost friends and relatives, they excitedly meet you at the arrival gate, you board their car and they whisk you off to a restaurant or bar—only for you to almost crash face-first on your nachos and beer.

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That’s jetlag—something that afflicts more than half the passengers of long-haul flights. Jetlag affects us in varying degrees (the longer the flight and the larger the time difference, the worst the effects); but whether it makes us end up snoring happily in the middle of a party or a theme park visit or feeling like a zombie in a business meeting, one thing is for sure—it prevents us from being at our best.

So how do you eliminate or even minimize the effects of jetlag? Here are six simple tips.

Choose your arrival time. Are you a day person or a night person? Do you need to be at your sharpest and most alert as soon as you arrive? Do you have a critical activity (sports tournament, long road trip, hostile corporate takeover) that you need to be in tiptop shape for; and if yes, what time would that be? Giving yourself adequate time to recover from a long flight and arriving at the right time will go a long way in making sure you’re at 110 percent.

Consider when to sleep during the flight. Taking short naps on a long flight might actually be harmful as it doesn’t allow your body to achieve that deep REM sleep which will make you feel fully rested. Instead, consider your arrival time. If you’re arriving at night, it would be best to sleep during the beginning of the flight and stay awake by reading or watching a movie for the latter half. That way, you’ll be more tired by the time you land and your body will be looking forward to that nice hotel bed when you check in. Conversely, if you’re arriving at your destination in the morning or early afternoon, it’s advisable to catch your zzz’s towards the end of your flight. That’ll give your body the feeling of being recharged when you walk out of the airport.

Fight off that inevitable drowsiness in the middle of the day. Even the most traveled jetsetters experience this. But the worst thing you can do is sleep it off. Why? Because you’ll then be wide awake in the middle of the night, tossing and turning, and end up repeating the vicious cycle the next day. You’ll just have to fight it off or, at the most, take a 15-minute power nap if you really can’t keep your eyes open anymore. Just reward yourself by turning in earlier—say 9:00 pm or so—and your body will be well on its way to adjusting to the new time zone.

Adjust your watch as soon as you take off. And that includes the time on your smartphone. As soon as the plane gets airborne, synchronize your time to that of your destination’s. This is one of the best and most effective ways to quickly acclimatize to a new time zone.

Stop imagining what you should be doing back home. Once you start calculating the time where you came from and telling yourself “I should be having lunch right now” or “I should be sleeping right now,” your brain will be sending wrong signals to your body and you will end up feeling hungry or sleepy at the wrong time.

Keep your mind focused on your final destination even during a layover. Some trips require one or more layovers over different time zones. Some layovers can be as long as eight hours or more (my personal record is a mind-numbing 11-hour stretch in a Wi-Fi-less Portland, Oregon airport on a solo flight to Las Vegas). If it’s that long, then the time to sleep inside the airport again depends on your ETA (see no. 2).

Long-haul flying can be enjoyable and productive (whether you’re on economy, business, or first class and whether you’re on vacation or on business). Keeping in mind these easy-to-follow tips will help ensure that you arrive at your destination fresh, awake, and alert. Happy flying!