Traveling and experiencing the world can lead you to amazing adventures but the one thing you can never get away from easily is jet lag. Rather than just accept that you’re going to feel bad for a few days, you can actually be proactive about curing your jetlag so that it doesn’t interfere with your post-vacation life. Here’s our guide on how to cure your jetlag.
1. Know what jet lag is
The best way to combat jet lag is to understand what it actually is, and what the process does to your body. As described by https://landofthetraveler.com/tips-to-combat-jetlag/, jetlag is the term that describes the symptoms you feel when you move across time zones. You are most likely going to feel sleepy and confused, but you can also feel sick and nauseous in some cases. This is all as a result of our circadian rhythms being out of whack. Once your body clock readjusts to daytime and nighttime, your symptoms will disappear, but as this can take some time, it’s best to try and cure it ourselves.
2. Sleep well before traveling
The best cure for jetlag is to ensure that your body is well rested before you take your flight. If you stay up the whole night before your flight, you’re only contributing to the problem. Instead, you should try and get a full night’s sleep so that you can reduce the symptoms of jetlag when you arrive at your destination. This is especially important for your first flight, as you don’t want to feel jetlagged during your vacation. If you’ve had enough sleep then you’re ready to take on anything.
3. Avoid alcohol and caffeine
Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, and caffeine is a stimulant. However, one of the most common things to do on a long flight is to drink alcohol and coffee. By doing this, you’re sending your body in many different directions and influencing the amount of sleep that you need. Even if you weren’t taking a long haul flight, drinking coffee severely affects your body clock, which is why most people will have a large cup of it first thing in the morning. You should let your body do its thing naturally so that you can be ready to take on the day.
4. Let your body feel the daylight
The key to resetting your body clock back to its natural cycle is to give it the daytime and nighttime signal. The best way to do this is to open the curtains and feel the sunlight so that your brain knows that it’s time to be awake. If you’re feeling tired, the most obvious thing to do might be to close the curtains and try and sleep in the darkness, but this can do you more harm and prolong your jetlag. Instead, go outside and do everything you’d do when you wake up so that your body knows what time it is.
5. Drink lots of water
This might sound like the solution to a lot of problems and you’d be right. The simple truth is that staying hydrated will help you with your jet lag because it improves your body’s ability to adapt to change. Drink lots of water during your flight – this will also help with the dryness of the air on the airplane – and then you will see the effects it has on your energy and your ability to enjoy your travels.
Jetlag is an unavoidable part of travel, but there are certainly ways you can go about reducing the severity of the symptoms. Rather than try and sleep it off or drink lots of coffee to stay awake, it’s best that you work to naturally reset your body clock so that you can adjust quicker. By using our guide, you can reduce the effect of jet lag on your travels.
