The last time I flew halfway around the world and back I suffered from jet lag for almost two weeks. It was truly terrible.
More recently I flew over 28,000 miles on two roundtrip flights halfway across the world - in a 3 week period - but this time the jet lag only lasted a little over 48 hours. Read on to discover my best practices.
I have two secret weapons: the iPhone World Clock and good old H2O.
When I travel internationally I always add my destination city to my iPhone’s World Clock. As soon as the plane takes off I start doing things based on my destination’s time. And I try to completely stop thinking about what time it is where I departed from. The most important window of time is the last 3-4 hours of the flight. If you’re landing somewhere in the morning, make sure you try to take a nap in those final hours on the plane. I find that it helps adjust my body to the “new day”. If you’re landing in the afternoon or early evening, try to stay up until a reasonable bedtime.
Same goes for the return flight. These have always been the most difficult legs for me. All of the return flights I’ve ever been on have landed before noon - which creates a big problem…staying up until the evening. It is REALLY difficult - especially for those of you who have a hard time sleeping on planes. But if you can do it, you can restart your internal time and save yourself many sleepless nights.
And although water is no “secret weapon”, if I don’t stay hydrated, I find it adds on to the jet lag issues. Drink tons of water (and get an aisle seat). You won’t be sorry.