Feb 16
2009

If you go on a long flight, you’re likely to experience jet lag upon landing.  Jet lag is caused by the fact that the world is divided into time zones.  Travelling through those time zones throws off your body’s internal clock.  If you travel from Europe to the United States, you may end up in a time zone that is eight hours behind your normal time.  This means when its 3 am at home, it may be only 6 pm where you are. Dealing with jet lag can be difficult.  After all, your body says it should be asleep at about the time you’re eating dinner.  If you’re travelling the other way, you may need to be up for breakfast about the time you’re usually going to bed. To deal with this, try to arrange your trip so that you arrive about a day or so before you have to do anything.  If that’s not possible (and it often isn’t, especially if you’re on a business trip and your company is making all of the arrangements), try to at least give yourself a few hours between the time you arrive at your hotel and the time you have to be somewhere.  This will let you take a short nap or at least rest for a bit. Another way of dealing with jet lag is to change your sleep cycle the day before you leave.  If you know it will be later in the evening when you arrive, try staying up later than you normally would the day before you travel.  This way, you’ll arrive fairly tired so you should be able to sleep even if it’s usually afternoon your time.  On the other hand, you can try sleeping later in the day before you leave so you’ll be fresh when you arrive. If none of those options are possible, you can always take some sleeping medication to help you sleep and drink a lot of coffee and other caffeinated beverages.  While this obviously isn’t the healthiest way of dealing with jet lag, it may be the only option if you don’t have time to nap.

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