5 Easy Ways to Cheat a Jet Lag

Taking a trip across the seas to arrive to a world different your own
gives a sense of exhilaration that nothing can match! Travelling
opens up your life in the most transcending ways but unfortunately,
it also accompanies a sense of wooziness that catches you
unawares and takes away the initial joy of reaching your
destination. Medically it’s called ‘Desynchronosis’ (Better known as
Jetlag) - that eerie sense of exhaustion.

So, what really happens to make you feel jet lagged?

Here’s what unfolds, the circadian rhythm - your body clock - goes
temporarily out of sync. Your body stays in its original time zone,
while it’s physically reached another. As a result, it gets confused
and exhausted trying to figure out the inconsistency.
There are few interesting facts to this change of rhythm. When you
travel east, you mostly find yourself staying up late, unable to
sleep, and sluggish in the morning. Travel westward and you
experience vice versa, bounding out of bed earlier than you would
want and feeling rather exhausted post dinner. In fact, traveling
east is harder than traveling west. Jet lag impacts everyone
differently but typically the symptoms experienced by the elderly
are far more pronounced.

Surprisingly though, it is not just in relation to travelling long

distances air-borne. You can feel the same jetlagged-ness
whenever you travel somewhere where the external environmental
cues differ from the ones where you came from. For instance, if
you stay in the same time zone but travel far north or south during
the extremes of summer or winter, the sun will rise and set much
later or sooner than you’re used to and therefore induce the same
feeling of a jet lag.

The best way to beat a jet lag is to quickly and substantially give
your body the information it needs to process a new time zone. In
short, what the body needs is a good amount of sleep and sunlight
and at the right times.

This starts not when you land, but before you take off, by setting
your watch to your destination time zone as you settle in for the
journey.

Here are 3 easy hacks you can use to nip the jetlag in the bud.

1. Plan your sleep schedule

If your trip will take many hours, opt for a departure time that
aligns with your sleep schedule. If you sleep overnight while you
fly it makes the transition very seamless. However, if that is not
possible and you are not able to sleep on the plane, choose a
flight that arrives early enough for you to get to your final
destination, into bed, and sleep to get a full night’s rest.

2. Hydrate yourself amply

Jet lag is partly a result of dehydration. As airplane cabins are

commonly pressurised to 6900ft above sea level, this makes
you dehydrated already and you don’t even realise it. To
combat this, drink water more water, more frequently and keep
it handy. Also avoiding highly processed airplane food, carbs,
caffeine or alcohol helps to significantly reduce the occurrence
of a jetlag.

3. Soak up daylight
Light is the major modulator. Our body’s circadian rhythms have
been evolved to sync with the sun. When you arrive at your
destination and the sun is still out, let your body soak in some
sunlight and feel it’s daytime. The next day, step outside as soon
as you wake up and repeat the same. The bright light from the
Sun, even on a cloudy day helps to anchor the body’s entire 24-
hour cycle.

Human body was designed to be extremely adaptive. Provide it

with right sleep, food, water, exercise and Sun, and it will never
betray how you would like it to function. On your next trip, say
goodbye to jetlag!