I’ve been on a few airplanes. As part of technology development, my work takes me from the east coast of the United States to various far flung places. Some places I go to I don’t really have to watch the News on TV; I open the curtains of my hotel room window and that is News!
Places like Moscow, Cairo, Venezuela, Jakarta, Bangkok. I somehow have avoided mainland China but that should happen this year. And at each of these places, I usually have to hit the ground running. Further, in the low-oil-price driven economy, long haul flights in Economy have become the norm. As a result, I’ve implemented some practical ways of beating Jetlag. In no particular order, here goes…
Prepare Early … I usually offset my waking schedule to come close to my anticipated beginning of the day at my destination. This usually involves setting an alarm at say 3:00am US-Eastern, checking email on my phone (quick run through), getting some Twitter/FB updates and going back to sleep.
Habitual Early Start … Over the years I’ve adjusted to a normal waking time of 4:30am. As a result, the Prepare Early part becomes easier. It’s not that big a deal to adjust to waking a little bit earlier than usual.
Water Please … I stick with water. Plenty of it. I avoid carbonated drinks like the plague. Never mind whether they are zero calorie or sugar free. No thank you. Alcohol is worse! Alcohol coupled with the slightly lower pressure at high altitude only adds to the problem. Whenever the air hostess asks “Something to drink?”, I say, “Water please, thanks.” On the ice or no-ice issue, I lean towards no-ice.
In-Flight, Prepare to Arrive … Huh? Obviously we will arrive! If Bangkok is not your intended destination, you should have gotten off before they closed the main cabin door!! But no, it’s more that this. When do you arrive? Early morning? Daytime late afternoon / early evening? Late evening / Night arrival? Each of these needs a different strategy. Let’s take a specific example: Newark, NJ to Delhi, India.
As it happens, I am on this flight as I write this. EWR-DEL is a 14 hour non-stop flight. UA82. Departing EWR 8:50pm, Arriving DEL 9:20pm. This is an example of late evening / night arrival. On this flight, it is important to get good rest in the first half of the flight. Go to sleep right after the dinner service. Sleep / Rest for the first 8/9 hours. At about 4 hours to go before landing, wake up and get into some activity. Read a book, watch a movie, take strolls up and down the aisle. Anything but sleep. This tires the body enough that once land and check-in to the hotel, sleep comes easily. It is already late night and a good 8 hours of sleep does wonders.
For the return flight, DEL-EWR, the strategy is different. The return leg departs DEL at 11:35pm and arrives EWR at 4:30am. On this flight, however tempting it is to go to sleep right after the dinner service, resist. Why? Because we have to prepare to arrive. We arrive early morning. This means we have the entire daytime ahead of us on the day of arrival. Getting a good 8/9 hours of rest just before arrival will help.
So, we prepare to arrive:
Late Evening arrival… Arrive tired
Early Morning arrival… Arrive rested
Sleeping on the Flight … Here is a trick to falling asleep on the flight: Let the body go limp. What does this mean? It means removing any and all effort to keep the head just-so, the arms resting exactly like such on the arm rest, the legs, you get the point. Let the head droop as it wants to. Let the arms and legs slide to wherever gravity takes them. Let the body go limp! I always use a neck pillow to let the head be supported effortlessly. I use the cushion provided by the airline to create a bridge to rest my arms on and let go of all effort to keep them just-so. I use a backpack under the seat in front to rest my legs on and let them go limp. And I sleep!
Eat when it’s Light and Sleep when it’s Dark … This is the quickest path out of jetlag. When it’s daylight, go out into the sun. Get some outside air. Keep hydrated and eat when it’s time to eat whether you feel hungry or not. And most importantly, get some shut-eye time when it’s dark out.
Here’s to flying Jetlag free(er)!