How to defeat Jet Lag
Traveling has a number of positive health benefits: maintaining a sense of adventure, taking you out of your comfort zone, appreciating new cultures/people to name a few. But, it’s not without its downsides. The chief downside of travel is the jetlag that comes with it. I’ll focus specifically on air travel for the purposes of this blog post but many of the concepts apply to road trip travel as well.
A few unavoidable things happen as a consequence of air travel.
Air Pressure is lower at high altitude which means your body takes in less oxygen. In turn, this causes fatigue to a greater degree than if you were completing a road trip of identical duration. It is one reason people feel so sleepy during and after a plane flight
Try nasal breathing during the flight. This creates more dilation of the airways in addition to being a natural filter for the air (more germs floating around with so many people in close proximity)
To bring more oxygen to all body tissues…bring more blood flow
Try a movement routine in flight, get up and walk the aisles when you can, or spend as much time standing as you can before a flight attendant tells you to sit down because you’re making other passengers nervous.
These same pressure differences can cause the gas in your stomach and intestines to expand creating a feeling of bloatedness.
There is no solution but to avoid, even more diligently, foods that make you gassy and bloated.
Low humidity is another byproduct of traveling at high altitude. Simply put, this will dehydrate you. However it is often amplified by eating salty airplane snacks, drinking alcohol or soda, and stressing out about the plane crashing (thanks Final Destination).
Drink more water than you normally do and consume foods high in water context (vegetables).
Last and biggest variable; Jet lag. Jet lag is a major issue when traveling across more than 1 time zone. The main impact is on your circadian rhythm. The driver of your circadian rhythm is sunlight.
“Undoing” the effects of jet lag include exposing yourself to sunlight as soon as you wake up (when traveling east) and late in the day (when traveling west) in your new timezone to start recalibrating as quickly as possible.
Your gut is the second piece of the puzzle you can control. Timing your normal meal rhythm with the new timezone alongside your sunlight exposure is the fastest way to resume your normal energy levels.
One thing that directly addresses every negative effect long duration flights has on your body…exercise. When you get back home (or even to your destination) get in a long morning workout to speed up the resetting process.
Exercise List to try in your seat during the flight. Repeat each exercise twice and complete the whole circuit 1x/hour.
Heel Raises x30 seconds
Cat/Camel x30 seconds
Shoulder Round and Squeeze x30 seconds
Candy Canes x30 seconds
Floor Separators x10 (hold each 2 seconds)
