Is Jet Lag Going To Spoil Your Holiday?
This year millions of us will be jetting off to far flung corners of the globe to lie on a tropical beach and soak up the sun, to hike through some of world’s most beautiful wilderness countryside, to witness some of the architectural wonders of our planet or to simply explore new countries and cultures. And, unluckily, many thousands of us will find that the first two or three days of our vacation will be taken up with trying to recover from jet lag.
But does jet lag have to be an unavoidable part of long-haul travel?
The answer to this question is very much dependent upon where you are flying from and to. For example, if you begin your journey in Sydney, Australia and fly to Yokohama, Japan then you will not experience any jet lag at all because, despite the fact that you are flying thousands of miles, your flight essentially takes you due north so that your starting point and destination lie in the same time zone. However, if you fly from Perth to London, England then you will travel east to west over ten standard time zones and will definitely suffer from jet lag.
Jet lag is simply the result of your internal body clock being out of step with local time and, while your body clock can adjust itself to match the local time, any adjustment takes time.
If you fly across only two or three time zones then the time difference experienced will be small enough that you will probably not notice it greatly and your internal clock will adjust itself reasonably fast. However, if you travel across four or more time zones then the time difference is going to be significant and your internal clock will need more and more time to adjust as you travel across more and more time zones.
So, in our previous example of flying from Australia to London your internal clock will take a few days to adjust itself fully and, while it is doing so, you are very likely to find yourself suffering from insomnia, finding it difficult to fall asleep at night and to get up in the morning, feeling tired through the day, possibly experiencing problems with eating with nausea, stomach upset, a headache, dehydration, and much more.
So exactly what can you do?
There are many ‘traditional’ remedies for jet lag including jet lag diets, sleeping pills, over-the-counter medicines, melatonin and others and each of these has both its followers and detractors, but are these ‘traditional’ remedies the answer?
In simple terms the answer to this question is no. These so-called jet lag remedies do not work and, in a lot of cases, can make your jet lag worse.
Coping with jet lag is not a question of using formulas and pills, but is a question of coming up with a plan focusing on your specific travel plans and your lifestyle that assists your body’s natural process of adjusting its own internal clock. This means taking a number of steps in preparation for your departure, as well as en-route and at your destination. In some instances these will be enough to help you avoid jet lag completely and, in other cases, they will definitely help to reduce the effects of jet lag greatly.
