How do people who frequently travel long distances seem to avoid jet lag?

[Ginevra]

DH and I were talking about this today and it is something that puzzles me. If someone often has to cross time zones, especially on a very tight schedule, as a musical performer or politician might, how do they seemingly not get all messed up with time zone changes, varying altitudes, varying weather, etc?

 

I have not travelled extensively, but when I have, those differences have made me feel very sick sometimes, at least for the large part of a day when first adjusting. AND those were instances in which I was going only to ONE location, not hippety-hopping around to different countries. Is there something such people do or eat or drink that helps mitigate jet lag? Or do they just plow on in a “show must go on†manner and show up at whatever meetings or performance despite a stabbing headache or feeling dizzy or exhausted?

 

I know drinking water helps avert altitude sickness, but other than that, I have not heard of ways to mitigate travel illness/jet lag.

[HomeAgain]

Depends on the direction of travel for us.  East to west sucks, but west to east is much easier to bear.

[Guinevere]

Dh spends a lot of time sleeping, induced by Nyquil, if he has to. He says being able to function is all about the sleep. He sleeps most of the time he is in transit, and catches naps whenever he can. If he's going to be in the other time zone for a while, though, he switches, and purposefully stays up until their bedtime. He's nice and tired by then, and wakes up in their morning. That's more for overseas travel, though.

[Pawz4me]

A close family member is a professional athlete. Long season, lots of cross country travel. He says you get used to it. I do not know how, nor do I want to find out.

[MEmama]

Set your watch ahead of time and immediately adopt local time as soon as you land.

[mommyoffive]

I wondered this too. 

 

 

I don't know but jet lag doesn't bother me or my kids at all.   I was nervous about it but our trips domestically they are fine and when we went to Europe it wasn't hard for them at all.   Me either.  We slept a few hours on the plane and were totally fine to get going when we landed.  Same on the way back.  No issues or tiredness at all. 

 

I am sure the more you do it the easier it becomes. 

[lulalu]

It just ages me more each time!

 

People don't do it as easy as you think. It does get hard on the body.

 

But you get used to it and learn what your body needs. As well as there are things that help to get sleep on a plane or when you land.

[Carrie12345]

I do assume you just get used to it.

 

My sleep patterns are all messed up right now, partly due to the clocks changing, but by *way* more than the one hour shift.  I currently have no idea how much sleep to expect or when to expect it.  I'm a bit cranky, but functioning.  The show must go on, indeed, lol.

[prairiewindmomma]

Dh travels extensively. He is also chronically sleep deprived, or over caffeinated.

[TechWife]

Dh travels extensively. He is also chronically sleep deprived, or over caffeinated.

This is my husband as well. He’s exhausted.

[Rachel]

I think part of it is personality. I have a good friend who was CFO of an international corporation. I couldn’t keep up with his travel but he would be in London then Denmark, home a couple days, then China for a week. He didn’t nap, he just dealt with it. He also doesn’t require a ton of sleep.

[Guest]

I think part of it is personality. I have a good friend who was CFO of an international corporation. I couldn’t keep up with his travel but he would be in London then Denmark, home a couple days, then China for a week. He didn’t nap, he just dealt with it. He also doesn’t require a ton of sleep.

I cannot imagine this kind of life! I guess I’m really just a small-town kind of gal.

 

I’ve thought this especially when it was a person who was *only* in whatever foreign place to do a job and then go. It would kind of destroy me to be thinking, “I’m only a dozen miles from The Great Wall of China, which I have never seen, but I am in a board room, trying to negotiate a deal on widgets.â€

[tdbates78]

We take melatonin to sleep on our overseas flights. Getting enough sleep to function that first day upon landing is key imo. Most of my international travel experience has been east to west (US to Europe) so landing at, say, 4 am EST and staying awake all day is difficult if you don't get enough sleep on the plane. And yes, I think you do get used to it.

 

Traveling from Asia to and back was awful. East to west is a heck of a lot easier!

[medawyn]

My DH works in Asia/Pac often.  Jet lag is real, but you find ways to cope with it that work for you.  If at all possible, he builds another day into his travel for catching up.  Yes, it's a day not spent at home, but he'll work from his hotel or plan some low-key meetings his first day wherever.  Of course, sometimes he can't do that.  He plans his flights carefully for timing, sets his clock to local time the minute he boards the plane, and then just copes as best he can.

 

Water, healthy snacks (I always try to keep things on hand for traveling + unexpected food adventures overseas), and good vitamins help a bit.  He's definitely tired when traveling.  He's also fortunate to be able to combine trips often, so longer away but less back and forth than some of his colleagues.  The only trip we're both dreading a bit is this winter.  I'm due with #4 Jan 29, and he's supposed to be in Singapore on Feb 5, which means leaving no later than Feb 3.  Obviously, he won't be leaving if I haven't had the baby yet, but I can foresee having some quality time with my mother or MIL + newborn + 3 toddlers/preschoolers.  He might get more rest than any of us, despite the jet lag!

 

I'm looking forward to being able to travel with him again, when I'm less tied down with the kids.  Or when I can face dragging kids all over Asia with me.

[Rachel]

I cannot imagine this kind of life! I guess I’m really just a small-town kind of gal.

 

I’ve thought this especially when it was a person who was *only* in whatever foreign place to do a job and then go. It would kind of destroy me to be thinking, “I’m only a dozen miles from The Great Wall of China, which I have never seen, but I am in a board room, trying to negotiate a deal on widgets.â€

The irony is that his wife does not like to travel at all. When each of their kids graduated they did an overseas trip as a family but other than that, she stays home. Over the years he has done some sight seeing, but most of his travel was for his job.

 

He’s really quiet about it and you would have no idea he traveled that much if you didn’t know him. He rarely missed his son’s high school or college football games and only occasionally missed church.

 

My husband travels a lot but it’s mostly between eastern and central time zone, never overseas. He’s so busy when he’s traveling that he rarely does anything fun unless it’s a client taking him to a sporting event or something. He doesn’t even truly relax at the event because he’s working. It’s not nearly as glamorous as it sounds.

[YaelAldrich]

My DH travels pretty frequently (2-4 times a month, sometimes back to back).  He snags 1st class or business class seating as much as possible (since he travels so much that's pretty easy with upgrades) so he can lie flat and sleep some.  He immediately jumps to the new place's time zone.  But honestly he's just used to it.  It only really hits him (and us) on the second day, maybe also the third day, even for East Coast-Asia trips or East Coast-Israel trips.  He/we get up early but push through as much as possible.

[Laura Corin]

You need to get outside, particularly around midday, to help your body to reset.  Then immediately start following local time - no naps!

[Lanny]

Various ways but still they do not "Avoid" Jet Lag, they try to Minimize Jet Lag. I had a girl friend who was a Flight Attendant for a U.S. Flag airline with extensive International routes. Trans Atlantic and Trans Pacific. The flights to Asia are the worst. More Time Zone changes, the International Date Line, more deyhdration from the dry air in the aircraft, more possibility of Ozone poisoning on aircraft that cruise at high altitude, etc.

 

One can eat lightly. One can drink little or no alcohol. One can try to remain on the same eat/sleep hours as their home base, after they arrive, and for the first several days they are away, if they will be in the new Time Zone for an extended number of days.

 

I think I once read that it takes at least one day (24 Hours) to recover from a Time Zone change of one hour?  8 hour time change would be 8+ days.

 

Some of the women who flew Trans Pacific flights were having 2 or 3 periods in one month, they were so messed up.  If it does that to women, one must assume the men (pilots and flight attendants) were also having bad problems.

 

One should not sign any contracts after crossing many time   zones...

[MBM]

If I travelled a lot to different time zones, I'd reset my circadian rhythms using a FlexPulse pemf device using Program 1 which uses 10 herz. I just ordered the device today for other reasons, but program 1 is very good for jet lag. This is my third pemf device and they are wonderful!

 

https://flexpulse.com/programs/

[ktgrok]

Everyone says not to nap, but when I went to the uK I arrived early AM and totally took a nap. Whatever. I'm not worth being around if I haven't slept and I couldn't sleep on the plane (flew overnight). Slept for about 3 hours, then went and walked all over Edinburgh and ate and stayed up a bit late but nothing crazy, and then went to bed and by morning was totally fine. No issues coming back either.