I’m just fresh off an international trip, and I’ve got jet lag pretty bad. Waking up at four in the morning is never a fun thing. I even tried to do all the things correctly, like staying up all the way to the night in order to get my body back on track. It just seems though that I’m just getting more more tired and getting less and less sleep. Usually I’ll try not to take a nap upon returning in the hope that I’ll get my body back on track quickly. However, this time nothing seems to be working and the prospect of waking up with only five hours of sleep each day is pretty brutal.
I’ve read all the articles about adjusting your body ahead of time before you go, and eating meals a certain time, but I found that none of this really works for me. I don’t sleep on planes, mostly because I’m always traveling in economy and due my height I don’t really ever find a comfortable position.
So I usually just stay up the entire time, and try to muster the strength to make it all the way to the night at my destination. From there I go to sleep and that usually works pretty good for me.
For whatever reason though, this time it’s been pretty brutal.
You can certainly get a lot of things done early in the morning with everyone still asleep, lots of paperwork to do there’s always work and catching up on TV shows.
I suppose I could actually start doing some sort of exercise routine or doing other things that would be much more productive but I just end up watching TV or doing something else.
Which brings me to the question, what do you do in order to get rid of jet lag on your return from international trip? Other things that you have found successful that perhaps I’m missing? I love to hear your antidotes to getting rid of jet lag quickly.
I never believed that advice about trying to stay up until your bedtime. It never worked for me. What does work is to take a 4 hour nap once you get to your destination. Then get up and finish out the day. Then go to bed at your regular time. It works for me.
I came here looking for advice on jetlag. If you don’t have the answer and have a question, could you please use proper punctuation, eg. a QUESTIONMARK, at the end of your title?
It would remove confusion and people won’t feel deceived
@timmer – I actually did talk about how I usually stay up the entire trip until night time to try to minimize jetlag, but it wasn’t working this time and therefore was soliciting input. Thanks for reading
My recipe for you is COFFEEEE A LOOOT during day and at night at desrination a hot shower and try to do a bit of cardio (bike works… Dancing walking a lot etc) I came back from SIN-HKG-ORD-IAH-CCS and with 12 hours of diference jet lag hit me just one day 😉
I’ve learned to eat my meal in the airport first. Then once I board, I take some sort of over-the-counter sleep aid. Sometimes I’ll put on my mask and dress warmly. After traveling abroad for years, I do think the only way to ease jet-lag is with an aid, and I don’t think it is possible to conquer it. I very rarely even take aspirin, because I am all for “natural”. However, flying into different time zones is not natural. Take an aid at bedtime a couple of days after you arrive too. Depending on which direction or hours in the plane, I may allow myself a SHORT nap mid-afternoon. Our body clock will just take awhile to adjust (appetite, digestion, sleep etc). Do keep yourself hydrated.