JET LAG: Travel Tips That Actually Help
Jet lag is one of those things that sneaks up on you and totally ruins a day, or four. Kind of like having a few too many Long Island Ice Tea’s. Jet lag, like a hangover, can leave you feeling like total garbage for days. When you’ve got jet lag, your sleep/awake patters are disrupted from lack of sleep and time changes. Often times, your body has also experienced physical stress from the changes in air pressure. It leaves you feeling drowsy, sleepy, annoyed, lethargic and generally out of it. No bueno. Over the past few years, I’ve done a ton of research and tried just about everything to cure jet lag. So I thought I’d share some of my top tips that can actually help you get avoid and reduce the symptoms of jet lag.
How Can I Cure Jet Lag?
The first thing we need to address is: what exactly is jet lag? Some of the symptoms include:
- Bad Sleep Patterns: This can come in the form of delayed sleep or early waking.
- Issues Performing Physical & Mental Tasks: Most of the time, it’s hard for me to workout or work. I struggle to stay focused and motivated.
- Feeling Sick: Anything from headache, fatigue, nausea, irritability, anxiety, stress or concentration issues.
- Digestive Issues: I know, TMI. But jet lag can cause issues with your digestion and even decreased appetite.
Before You Fly
- Prepare For A Time Change: The week before you travel, start to gradually change your schedule. This will help your body prepare for a new time zone. Start with 30 minute intervals and increase to 60 minutes. Meaning, depending on where you’re traveling to, try waking up and going to bed earlier/later.
- Fly At Night: If you’re traveling somewhere that’s more than 3 hours ahead/behind your normal time zone, I recommend flying at night. Taking a flight overnight is the best way to replicate your normal schedule.
- Pack & Prepare Early: The best way to avoid stress and travel anxiety is to be prepared. Don’t leave all of your packing and prep for the night before. Slowly start preparing for your trip a few weeks or a week early to avoid let minute stress.
During Your Flight
- Stay Hydrated: Water is key. I recommend avoiding drinking alcohol or caffeine if you’re traveling into a new time zone. Both can affect your sleep schedule and dehydrate you. I also recommend bringing your own water on a flight, that way you’re not waiting for the flight attendants!
- Avoid Salty Foods: I love to snack while I’m flying, but high salt content causes dehydration. I recommend sticking with low sodium foods like fruit or granola bars.
- Keep Your Blood Pumping: When you sit for long periods of time, you feel more lethargic. Exercise is a great cure for jet lag, so be sure to get up every hour or so while you’re awake to move your legs. It will activate circulation and make you feel more energetic.
- Wear Compression Socks and Pants: Wear them during the day or even sleep in them while flying and after flying to improve the blood circulation in your legs and feet!
After Your Flight
- Get Natural Light: Leave the blinds/curtains open when you arrive so that your internal clock resets faster.
- No Naps: I repeat, NO NAPS! Try to stay awake when you arrive in your new time zone. If you’re feeling sleepy, get outside and walk around. Do your best to adapt to a normal sleep schedule. You’ll adapt faster, feel better & get more out of your day.
- Take Advantage of Layovers: One of my biggest tips is taking advantage of layovers to break up a long trip. We recently flew into Vancouver before trekking into the mountains and heading out on a week long adventure. Instead of continuing on, we took advantage of the Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel.
Benefits of Planning a Stopover
A lot of people avoid layovers or “stopovers” during travel or long flights. But I’ve found there are tons of benefits. As I mentioned, we recently stayed at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport on the first leg of our travel. I highly recommend planning a day or two in between routing. Not only does it help with jet lag, but can actually save you money on flights.
The Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel is literally inside of the airport, crazy right!? It’s actually attached to the airport and sit directly above the US departures terminal. Since we got in fairly late, it was really nice not having to catch a cab to a hotel or drag our luggage far. It was actually voted the #1 Airport Hotel in North America for the fourth year in a row recently, and for good reason.
The hotel is 100% luxury. It’s not what you’d expect from an “airport hotel”. It has beautiful views of the runway (with no noise), great food & drinks, an indoor pool, healthy club, spa & amazing guest rooms.
I also found out that you can even get day use rooms. You can get a room for 4, 6 or 8 hours at a discounted rate. Perfect for relaxing, taking a shower or hitting the gym/pool in between flights. Since the rooms are soundproof, you can chill out and take a nap or just watch TV.
We stayed over night to take advantage of a little shuteye & food. Their Jetside Bar is a fun place to grab dinner & drinks. You can sit by one of their fireplaces, listen to live music & watch the planes take off & land! If you have extra time, I recommend checking out the spa which offers specialized treatments to help recover from jet lag!
Want More Travel Tips? Check Out These Posts:
HOW TO STAY HEALTHY WHILE TRAVELING
5 TIPS FOR THE ANXIOUS TRAVELER
12 MUST HAVE TRAVEL CARRY ON ESSENTIALS
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