How to Survive a Flight and Jet Lag

Adventure is a State of Mind

Okay, so getting on a plane might not be that exotic of an experience these days (unless you’ve never flown before, of course!), but it is officially the beginning of your adventure. From the moment you show your boarding pass and walk down the jetway, most of your everyday responsibilities are behind you and your new experience begins.

The Flight

It’s not my favorite part of traveling. Well, let’s be honest, it’s almost nobody’s favorite part of traveling. But until they invent a Star Trek-like transporter, for most of us, it is likely to be our most efficient option to get to where we want to go if where we want to go is another country.

Many of you have already flown for work or leisure domestically and may be thinking about skipping this post because you’re comfortable with flying, but I’d recommend that you take a moment to think about some of the issues specific to long-haul flights, such as those over the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. I know many people who get stir-crazy during a two hour flight. If this is you, consider how you’re going to feel at the two-hour mark when you still have five, seven, ten, or even more hours to go. Luckily, here are things that you can do to make the flight more bearable and healthier.

Hydrate

One of the best things you can do to stay healthy on a long flight is to drink, and drink a lot! No, I’m not recommending that you get drunk – as much as you might think it sounds enjoyable, a plane doesn’t exactly count as fun nightlife. You’ll probably annoy your fellow passengers, which is never advisable, and jet lag is unpleasant enough without adding a hangover to the mix.

What I’m recommending is that you drink a lot of water or other fluids that will keep you hydrated, such as fruit juice. This will serve two purposes. First of all, air travel tends to dehydrate most people. Dehydration makes many people feel like they have a hangover (a dehydrated brain is actually what creates a lot of the symptoms of a hangover) and increases the risk of blood clots, which is a health risk already slightly increased by virtue of being on a long flight in the first place, especially if you don’t get up and move. (More on that coming up.)

Move

Drinking a lot will increase your need to go to the bathroom, and as much as most people don’t relish the idea of making seatmates move to let them into the aisle to walk to the lavatory, or squeezing themselves into the minuscule airplane restrooms, moving around frequently will reduce your risk of blood clots. Moving frequently during a flight will also keep you limber and increase your chances of being able to unfold your body from your seat at the end of the flight!

Snooze

If possible, start your trip well-rested. I know with all of the last-minutes items on the to-do list, including packing, many travelers (myself included) often begin their travel adventure with a sleep deficit. Some even purposefully stay up all night before they leave because they have an early flight scheduled and they’re hoping that being tired will help them sleep on the plane. If this plan works for you, feel free to continue. For most of us, however, the more rested we are as we set out on our travels, the less jet lag symptoms we will ultimately experience.

Just like food and water, our bodies require sleep to function optimally. If you’re flying first class, you might find the plane a comfortable place to sleep. For the rest of us, it’s very unlikely the plane is going to provide you with the most restful sleep you’ve ever experienced. Regardless, even managing a brief nap will help you to function better and recover more quickly once you arrive at your destination.

Have a Plan for When You Can’t Sleep

Having an entertainment plan for what you want to do (when you’re not sleeping) can also help to make a flight seem shorter. My personal favorites are reading – reading books on my Kindle during trips has significantly reduced the weight of my carry-on luggage now that I’m not packing multiple books – and watching movies.

It used to be that international flights and long domestic flights gave you movie options and provided earphones. Increasingly, however, airlines are changing over to systems that require you to use your own device (phone or electronic tablet) or rent one from the airline. Obviously, using your own device is the more affordable option, but you’ll need to check the airline’s website to find out whether they have an app that needs to be downloaded prior to your flight. Other options include downloading movies to your device before your trip. This is an option that many streaming services, such as Netflix, allow you to do.

You may enjoy other activities that translate well to entertainment on the flight. For example, you can draw or play brain games, such as Sudoku, both of which can be done on an electronic device or on paper. One of my dear friends loves playing cards with her traveling companions and always brings a deck of cards with her on flights.

Having several options for entertainment is advisable, in part because on a long flight you will get bored with even your most favorite activity, but also because sometimes plans don’t work out quite as you think they will. For example, it’s hard to play cards if the airline changes your seats and you and your travel companion end up three rows apart!

Jetlag

If you’ve ever listened to travel stories from anyone who has traveled internationally, there’s a one in three chance that you’ve heard jet lag stories. (Actually, I just made that statistic up, but I guarantee you that the number is high!) Almost everyone traveling across multiple time zones experiences jet lag, but how well they handle the experience and how quickly they recover varies widely.

What does jet lag feel like? It differs from person to person, but some of the most common symptoms include:

• Headache
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Difficulty thinking clearly
• Gastrointestinal disturbances
• Moodiness and irritability
• Difficulty regulating body temperature
• Difficulty regulating glucose levels

The length of time it takes a person to recover from jet lag differs from person to person and also depends on how you handle your first few days in the new time zone. Jet lag also usually lasts longer when you travel east. This is because traveling east means your body is moving in the opposite direction of its natural day/night cycle.

Because jet lag makes most of us at least a little fuzzy headed, it’s usually a good idea to plan lightly on the first day of your trip. Even more crucial, don’t plan to do much that requires thinking. For example, if you’re supposed to make an important business presentation, plan to fly in a day or two before you’re scheduled to talk to give your brain a chance to recover.

It’s About the Zones

Jet lag is when your body thinks it’s in a different timezone than the sun, mealtimes, and clocks are telling you. With jetlag, you may arrive in a country completely exhausted from your long flight and assume that you’ll go to bed early and sleep like a baby, only to find that at bedtime, you’re not sleepy at all and suddenly want to do anything except lay down and go to sleep.

The big problem with jetlag is if you ignore the clocks and do what your body is telling you to do, you may never feel that you are in sync with the people around you and will struggle to get up every single morning of your trip. But prolonged jet lag doesn’t have to be your fate.

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

Dolly Parton

Trick Your Mind and Body

The key to reducing the impact of jet lag is to convince your body that it is in the time zone you want it to be in, and to do this as quickly as possible. This actually begins before you arrive at your destination. Ideally, it starts when you get on the plane.

If you wear a watch, change it to the time zone to which you are traveling. I’ve read some travel experts’ recommendations to do this a day or two before your trip, but I’ve never been able to manage this given that I’m living my life in my home time zone and don’t exactly want to go to bed in the afternoon and wake up in the middle of the night. Once I’m on the plane, however, it becomes a little timeless bubble, so I can start telling my body that we’ve already entered the new time zone. It’s especially helpful if you can take a nap (see above) during the time that you would be sleeping in your new time zone.

Most flights will help you trick your internal clock by how they time their meal service – for example, you might be arriving in London at what would be 1:00 in the morning at home, but the airline attendants will serve you breakfast in preparation for your morning arrival in the UK.

Match Your New Time Zone

Once you arrive, as much as possible, try to do things that match the time zone of your arrival destination. If you have a morning arrival after traveling the day before, your body will be begging you to take a nap. I’ll admit, I’ve given into this temptation… but I also felt crappy the rest of the day as a result. Taking a nap on the day of a morning arrival has also resulted in it taking 24 to 48 hours longer than normal for me to recover from the jet lag.

If you arrive in the evening, you may be lucky enough to actually fall asleep, not because your body recognizes that it is time for bed but because you’re exhausted from the trip itself. (What is it about airports and airplanes that they seem to suck the life energy right out of you?) Take advantage of this and go to bed at a normal bedtime and get up at a normal morning time.

The Magical Power of Sunlight

If you arrive during the morning or afternoon, it may be difficult to stay awake until you can settle in for an early bedtime – I’ll admit that some of those bedtimes have been barely past dinner time – but as a bonus, you have access to the almost medicinal benefits of sunlight.

Sunlight, especially morning light, is hands down the most effective way to reset your internal clock. Even if you’ve traveled to a cloudy climate, get outside for as much of the first day as possible. Walking around outside has the added benefit of helping to keep you awake, and a day in the sunshine followed by a decent night’s sleep can significantly limit or even eliminate jet lag.

I once read a rule of thumb that it takes a day per time zone to recover from jet lag. I don’t know what that number was based on, but I can honestly say from my own experience that when I’ve been able to get outside during daylight hours a lot on the first two days of a trip, I’m usually feeling close to normal (for me) by the third day.

Try to Get Your Zzzzzzs

What if you can’t get a decent night’s sleep because after a day of struggling to stay awake, you tuck yourself into bed, and… your body remembers your home time zone and suddenly wants to wake up and have breakfast?

If you’ve gotten medical advice and a prescription from your medical provider*, by all means, make use of your sleep medications. An over-the-counter alternative to consider is melatonin, which will help convince your body that it really is your bedtime now. The benefit of melatonin is that it mimics what your body does naturally when you have a regular bedtime, so taking it for a couple of nights when you’re trying to shift your bedtime to match your new time zone can be very helpful. Before you take your trip, talk to your medical provider or pharmacist about how much melatonin would be an appropriate dosage for you.

Although it may be obvious, be careful with how you use other common, legal drugs so as to not work against the change you are trying to make as to what time your internal clock is operating on. For example, do not consume caffeine late in the afternoon or in the evening, especially during the first few days in a new time zone.

Similarly, be careful of your alcohol consumption during the first few days. While alcohol may initially help you to fall asleep, the way it is processed in your body means that it will wake you up again in about four hours. And believe me, if you are struggling with jet lag, your brain and body at that point will have no idea what time zone they are in… and possibly not even which way is up!

Check Your Meds

A note on medication, especially over-the-counter medications – double check whether they are legal in the countries you are visiting. There can be a great deal of variation between countries. For example, here in the United States, we have to have a prescription for antibiotics; but in some countries, antibiotics can be bought without a prescription from a pharmacy.

On the other hand, melatonin is easily bought over-the-counter in the U.S. but can only be bought by prescription in many European countries. In Japan, you are only allowed to bring in a two-month or less supply of melatonin with you if you want to avoid being accused of importing a controlled substance.

Sleep Hygiene

Some people can easily fall asleep anywhere (I’m thankful that I generally fall into this category), but many individuals have difficulties falling asleep if they are away from home. Trying to make your sleeping environment as conducive to sleep as possible will sometimes help with this. Most people sleep better in a cool, dark, quiet room. It isn’t always possible to alter your environment, but when you can, adjust the temperature and close the blinds.

If you know you’re especially sensitive to light, travel with a sleep mask. If noise tends to keep you awake, pack ear plugs. (I don’t always need them, but after a political rally started up at about 10:00pm on the beach right outside our hotel in Volos, Greece, I’ve since packed ear plugs on trips!)

Also, are there any special touches or bedtime routines from home that can make you feel more comfortable? Do you tend to read right before you go to sleep? Plan for that even while on vacation. Do you have a favorite scented lotion that you put on before bed? Make sure to pack it with you.

Don’t Panic

If all else fails and you spend much of the first night or two awake, don’t panic! Try just to rest without worrying about whether you’re actually falling asleep. I promise you, relaxation is helpful. The next day, try to mentally stick to the schedule of where you are. Avoid telling yourself things like, “I can’t believe it is 1:00 in the morning at home right now!”

Most of all, get outside and get lots of sunshine, especially in the morning, to reset your internal clock. If you’re not worrying about it and you’re active and getting sunshine, there’s a very good chance that you’ll sleep fine the next night. And soon, jet lag will just be one story among many about your travel adventures.

Heading Home

A bit of bad news – jet lag runs both ways. That means you’ll also experience it when you’ve returned home. This is because you will have adjusted to the new time zone (unless you’re only staying at your destination for a day or two), so now your body will need to reset its internal clock when you’re back in your home time zone.

The good news is that all of the same tricks work. In fact, mentally adjusting to your home time zone is often easier because most of us quickly slide back into our usual routines when we’re home. To speed up the recovery, however, make sure to use the same strategies that you used to recover from jet lag before, especially getting lots of sunshine!

What can you plan for your next trip to make the flight easier and jet lag recovery quicker? What can you schedule into your first day or two to get lots of sunshine and be kind to yourself if you’re experiencing jet lag symptoms?

*This site is only informational in nature and not intended to identify, diagnose, or treat any specific psychological disorder. You should always check with your doctor or mental health professional if you think you may have mental health concerns. Any information presented on this site are opinions and should not be taken as medical advice. For more information regarding the treatment of any psychological disorders or travel-related phobias, check out the information and counseling resources via the American Psychological Association.