Too tired to go for meetings when you arrive in your destinations or worse -too tired to enjoy your vacations? Jet lag is the effect of crossing one or several time zones really quickly, usually by plane. So, if you travel alot for business or are planning a vacation,this information will be invaluable to you. Because to be able to get the most of yout trip, you need to have better sleep and an increased level of energy.
Jet lag happens because our body temperature rhythm doesn’t adjust to a new time zone as quickly as we’d like it to. Whenever you travel East, you are forced to sleep when you are not sleepy. Whenever you travel West, you experience feelings of drowisness and tiredness earlier than everyone else.
If you are planning for a long vacation and want to spend your time enjoying it as much as possible instead of starving for sleep, or trying to force sleep at night, take the following precautions to set your sleep clock up for the journey well in advance:
1. Proper Hydration
When you fly in a plane for 8 hour, you would lose a lot of water. You may notice that your lips get really dry during a long flight. This is because there’s zero humidity in the plane! And this means that water is literally evaporating out of you as if you were a puddle of cool aid on a hot summer day!
Drink lots of water when you arrive at your new destination and don’t stop drinking throughout the day would immediately hydrate your body. And this would make adjusting to the new time zone much easier for you.
It’s also a good idea to keep a water bottle with you on the plane. The little 100ml packages of water they give you on the plane don’t hydrate you!
2. Set your schedule in advance
The best strategy for going across several zones is to start changing your sleeping schedule several days in advance to the trip.
For instance, if you are travelling from Los Angeles to Hawaii, begin waking up and sleeping earlier gradually 3 to 4 days in advance, this will minimize the jet lag effect when you arrive at your destination.
Adjust your meals and your light exposure as if you were to be already there and following that schedule.
3. Shock your sleep system
When you arrive your destination, immediately adapt your sleeping schedule to the local time zone. For instance, if you arrive at 3Pm and you’re feeling tired and drowsy, don’t sleep! Wait it out and go to sleep at the time you normally would. This will put more pressure on your body temperature rhythm to adapt to the local time. If you try to adjust gradually it will take longer and make your vacation time less enjoyable!
Using these 3 simple methods should minimize the jet lag effects you experience, and allow you to get most out of your travelling! If you find that you’re still feeling very tired and low on energy during your vacation, take a short 10-45 nap to recharge yourself.
