Tips for beating jet lag #1

Before I wrote this post, I always suffered a little with jet lag. I mostly got the typical symptoms of insomnia and slight delirium, and yes, I encountered it in both directions. The first time I met my in laws was an hour after landing from a 26 hour journey!

So here I am, almost as East as you can get before you smack into the international date line, I’ve crossed through TEN time zones, and I have found myself suffering from not just insomnia and weird delirious moods, but also brain splitting headaches, a cold, fatigue, irritability and possibly the worst of all, lack of appetite and no interest in food.

It was only when I researched the symptoms that I realised headaches and co, were also part of the deal. I’d actually put them down to dehydration, even though I was all over the dehydration.

So, to work backwards slightly, and for those who have never traveled or suffered from jet lag, I thought I would give you the 411, and some tips on how to battle one of the worst things about traveling.

FIrstly we’ll look at the basics behind it.

What is jet lag? What can we do to try and prevent it a little?

The science-y bit

The wikipedia article is an interesting place to start.

Firstly Jet lag, can also be referred to as desynchronosis or circadian dysrhythmia. For the purposes of this, we’ll stick with jet lag (bit easier to say…)

Basically when your body’s circadian rhythms (that’s your day to night routine) are altered by rapid long distance travel (aeroplanes). Your normal patterns of sleeping and eating all get a bit squiffy. When your body can’t immediately readjust, that’s jet lag.

Some of us feel it in minor ways, some in a major fashion. There are times when I have traveled to the states (chicago) and been totally fine, but then flown to Los Angeles and been a mess.

Tomorrow we’ll delve further into the symptoms and preventions!

I’ll also keep you all updated, according to all the research I’ll still be feeling like this until Sunday. Hopefully not!

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, so none of my advice is coming from a medical standpoint, instead it’s from my own personal experiences.

There are also THOUSANDS of articles online, so go do lots of research! If you’re really worried about your symptoms, please seek actual medical advice.