Dealing with jet lag (part 2)

We’re looking at how to avoid and deal with jet lag as best as possible and today we have to start with how your body will react depending on what you put into it, during or more importantly, after the flight.

On the day of your flight make sure you fuel yourself the right way, with some light meals and try not to overdo the caffeine. Quite possibly the most well-known – and usually very willfully ignored – tip is to avoid alcohol before and immediately after you land. Keep in mind that while it might give you a slight buzz it will also dehydrate you and you’ll already be in an environment that dehydrates one. Dehydration ahs a massive impact on the severity of your jet lag symptoms.

Once you do land make sure you get some rest and water, try to spend your first night away from any of the sights or distractions of the destination, and make sure you don’t plan to do some very intensive sightseeing during the first 24 hours after your arrival.

Business travelers will do well to get to their destination a day or two early in order to adjust to the time difference and be on their best for their meetings.

Survival mode

This is the worst-case scenario in which you haven’t followed any of our earlier suggestions then you can only mitigate as much of the damage as possible.

First of all you have to turn off or change any and all pre-set alarms on your mobile devices. You really won’t want to be awakened at 4AM because your device didn’t auto-update to the new time zone. Even if it did, why would you want to wake up early after a long flight anyway?

After some sleep you need to start getting accustomed to the new time zone and the best way to do this is to time your exposure to sunlight. If you travelled west you’ll want to be out during the late afternoon, while you’ll want to stay in during the evening if you’re travelled east.

Take in caffeine only if you plan to stay awake for the following seven hours, otherwise you’ll be disrupting your changing sleep patterns.