by Gaz
How To Avoid Jet Lag
11:54 am in Personal Growth, Travel by Gaz
Like most people, I suffer from terrible jetlag on long haul flights. Memorably bad was the recovery period after flying back to England from San Diego last December. Due in some small part to arriving just before Christmas with plenty left to organise, and in the larger part to our enjoying a handful of 4am parties during the following 2 weeks. I was determined not to suffer the same fate after our return flight to San Diego.
Here is the technique I’ve successfully used this time, for a 14 hour flight on Wednesday morning, spanning 8 timezones:
- On Monday night stay up as late as reasonably possible. I made it to 2:30am.
- On Tuesday morning, don’t set an alarm, just wake up naturally. I woke up after 10am.
- On Tuesday night, don’t sleep at all. The key to this is finding something engaging to occupy yourself. I finished upgrading my blog to a new WP-2.1 compatible theme.
- Once on the plane, take as many short naps as you need. I had a two hour nap after the first meal around 2pm (per the timezone I had just left)
- Don’t go to bed at the hotel until at least 10pm in the destination timezone. I managed to stay up until midnight
- Set an alarm for your usual wakeup time in the new timezone. Even if you wake before the alarm, try not to get up. I woke up for the bathroom around 4:30am, but went back to sleep until my alarm sounded at 7:30am
Of course, this method is relying on being tired enough to need a good nights rest in the new timezone due to sleep deprivation over the preceeding days; and is based on flying West where one can enjoy a 30 hour (or more!) day. But I find that much easier to cope with a little tiredness for one day prior to travel, than having my whole schedule blown apart by jetlag for 3 days after I’ve travelled. I’m writing this at midnight after my first full day back in San Diego, and I feel ready for bed and expect to get a good 6 or 7 hours sleep before I wake up… so already I’ve pushed my bodyclock back 8 hours and synchronised with the time here.
Your mileage (literally and figuratively) may vary, however, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend doing any driving during the pre and post-flight adjustment days unless, like me, you already know what to expect from your body after sleep deprivation.
Next month, I’ll cover my strategy for coping with the return trip, and an 8 hour time difference in the opposite direction.
