Everyone loves to travel. However the further the destination, often means more exciting AND more exhausting.
Jet Lag seems to be an unavoidable but the below are tips from some of the best travelled experts..
Prepare
For three nights before travelling east, go to sleep an hour earlier than usual and wake up an hour earlier. When travelling west, sleep an hour later and rise and hour later.
Light Exposure
When freshly landed somewhere to the east, don’t expose yourself to light until the afternoon. Why?
“The brain is still back home; if you’re in Paris and you get up at 8 am and expose yourself to bright light, it is still nighttime to your brain. You want to do everything you can to help your brain adjust to the new time, so expose yourself to sunlight at 4 pm, when it’s 8 am back home. Just wear sunglasses until then, and then take them off. It’s about easing yourself in.”
Supplement
Rosenberg suggests taking 0.5 milligrams of melatonin for the first two or three nights in your destination. “It’s very safe, and it’s a great way to get through jet lag,” he said. A sleeping pill, he said, should always be a last resort. “I try to use natural methods first,” he said.
Don’t Give In
If you have to nap on the day you arrive in a far-off place, keep it to no more than two hours.
Scheduling
Try to arrive in your destination in the afternoon, which will allow you to go to sleep at a “normal” bedtime.
Go Early
Business trip? Go a couple days early to adjust. “You don’t want that meeting to be on the first day you’re there,” Rosenberg said.
Eat Smart
When you get to your destination, eat foods high in tryptophan – dairy, red meat, fish and peanuts – which help stimulate melatonin.
Sleep On The Plane
Obvious, but several hours of sleep en route can make a huge difference toward getting on a regular sleep schedule.
Exercise
It helps you fall asleep more easily.
Other little tips
Small advantages help: Turn off electronics 90 minutes before bedtime (melatonin production is suppressed by the bright light from a mobile phone or tablet); don’t drink too much alcohol (which interferes with sleep in a variety of ways) or caffeine after about noon.
