How to beat 12 Hour Jet Lag
How to Cure Jet Lag | 12 Experts Explain | Condé Nast Traveler
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a jet lag that tired feeling after
travel tiny Nast Traveler has written
dozens of articles about it I've even
written an article about it
I'm Paul Brady and I'm the articles
editor at Conde Nast Traveler I want to
compile a definitive guide on how to
beat jet lag so I'm going to call up as
many experts as I can to answer my
questions Paul so to start it off what
are some of the symptoms of July really
sort of just feels like if you had a bad
night's sleep and you wake up and you
just ogaki feel really nauseous
sometimes jet lag is I can barely keep
my eyes open but I have all the energy
in the world wish I could sleep - why is
that like why are you so exhausted there
are kind of two parts of jet lag one
part of jet lag is the resynchronization
of your internal clock to your new
behavioral schedule there's a 24-hour
clock in the brain that is influencing
all of our behaviors these are clocks
that are found in every living organism
on the planet Earth it's ever been study
a few people have mentioned circadian
rhythms is that the same thing as an
internal clock a circadian rhythm is
anything in your body that repeats
itself about once a day and we call it a
circadian clock because it's circa which
means about and D in about a day right
okay how is all that related to jetlag
if you're traveling six time zones well
you're gonna be going to sleep six hours
later and you can be awake six hours
later all these things 256 hours a
timing of your meals when you've got to
be active interesting so pretend I'm
like five years old how would you
explain this to me it's like you're on a
swing you see your friend next to you
you're like I'm gonna sync up with her
so you start moving your legs go to this
period of adjustment before you sync up
your body does something similar okay so
how long does it take your body to
adjust your new time zone usually takes
you like a day per hour you're shifting
to adjust Wow okay so if you're
traveling New York to Tokyo
that's 13 hours it would take you 13
days to fully adjust I mean what if
you're somebody like
I don't know like a professional athlete
and you don't have that kind of time
well you have to ask an athlete see how
they feel would you ever arrive say like
a week ahead of a big match especially
when you go all the way to the finals
whether times when you felt like you
were being affected by jet lag on the
court so how do you get over jet lag
quickly go for a run that helps out a
lot yeah the sunlight walk around
why does going outside help with jet lag
you have clocks in your liver you up
locks in your spleen your clocks from
your brain in order for them to work in
concert with each other
this central clock remains synchronized
to the outside world through regular
exposure to light evolutionarily you're
looking in sunlight okay I think I'm
getting it the body's biological clock
is out of sync with the Sun and needs to
adjust to a new light schedule let's
back up can I do anything before the
trip to prevent jet lag my adviser used
to shift his clock before he would go
places so he would do pretty lengthy
manipulations to change his schedule for
them that would be similar to where he
was going
so when he got on flight and got to
wherever it was he just hit the ground
running came back - I'm back so your
advice would be you have to adjust your
schedule ahead of time how does that
work light in the evening causes what we
call a phase delay basically makes
things happen later so for example if
I'm traveling from California to New
York you know I want my system to move
earlier so I want it to advance then you
need light in the morning if I wanted to
delay I don't want light in the evening
and so the timing light very much
matters okay that seems hard
is there anything I can do on the plane
there are other aspects of jet lag
that are very much fed into by the
actual process of travel dehydration you
get on the plane
grease your meals with lots of new best
friends who may not share the same
spatial concerns that you do I always
travel to silk pillowcase or I brought
our genic compression socks fully wash
your face give yourself a little mini
facial treat it like a trip to the spa
and you'll feel better how much water do
you need to change I probably go through
a gal and a half of water a day
yeah the recommendation is about 8
ounces per hour should you drink alcohol
try to stay away from the minibar on the
plane what should you eat I usually
recommend the low sodium meal on
airplanes and that's because it's not
gonna make you feel bloated as much it
comes out looking like a TV dinner skip
it but sometimes they do have like a
salad and it is nice to have fresh fruit
and vegetables guess what I would
recommend just try to eat on a normal
schedule as much as possible and then
slowly try to transition to the new
schedule that you're going to should you
nap when you don't have a 30-minute nap
turning into a 4-hour snooze fest
sleeping for 30 minutes forget about if
I go down for 30 minutes I'm down for
nine hours
is there any technology that can help
one thing that we can do it's free and
it relays these controls at play and
dark so this app will tell you when to
seek and avoid light to trick your brain
into getting into the new time zone
faster yes there are other devices where
you wear goggles kind of on your face
while you're awake and increases the
amount of blue light which is a stronger
simulation to the system and it
increases after in the day can you get
jet lag without traveling there's this
idea called social gentler where the
individual during the weekend will stay
up later or onif read it stay up later
then they would on a work day so we do
it you know on a weekly basis on awesome
so you don't have to stop this the most
dangerous day of the year to drive or
you know the day you'll have the highest
likelihood to die is the Monday after
the day life-saving pretty spring
forward
well that's troubling yeah after all
this I still wanted to know are there
any benefits to jet lag this is like a
day-to-day life thing I'm super doing
this science I've gone to the point now
where if I get light at night especially
blue enriched light it's like really
what have you learn from jet lag it
almost just say I know it's gonna happen
so I'm just gonna try and make the
flight as comfortable as possible and
that's the biggest takeaway embrace the
jet lag it allows you to see a city in a
new light if you're not normally a night
person you can take the nightlife in if
you're not normally a morning person
maybe you'll see the sunrise in a
beautiful place the most important thing
to remember is that this is your body's
natural response to a very unnatural
thing but flying halfway around the
world in 14 hours
