11 Tips to avoid Jet-Lag on Long Flights for holidays | What is Jet-lag?
Jet-Lag is flight fatigue caused due to quick traveling across various time zones. It is a physiological condition causing a disorder of circadian rhythm. Circadian is internal biological/body clock which regulates wakefulness and sleep. Disruption of the body clock synchronization results in JET LAG. Presenting you with 11 Tips to avoid Jet-Lag on Long Flights for holidays.
11 Tips to avoid Jet-Lag on Long Flights for holidays | Tips to Avoid jet-lag on Long Flights for Fun Holidays can be categorized into 3 partsÂ
BEFORE TRAVELING
- Try to adjust your eating and sleeping pattern before a few days of your flight. Shift your sleeping and eating habits as per the clock of destination, before 3 to 4 days of travel date.Â
- Wear sunglasses before few hours taking flight as it helps to synchronize body clocks because the body clock is set by eyes detecting light.
DURING FLIGHT/TRAVELING
- If your flight is reaching during the night then don’t take a sleep or nap before 6 hours of reaching time (arrivals). And do vice-versa for morning flights – like if you are reaching during day time then take proper sleep for 5 to 6 hours before reaching the destination.Â
- If possible then do a break or split journey for 1 or 2 days in between.
- Avoid caffeine and alcohol during the flight.Â
- Stay hydrated and keep yourself moisturized throughout during the flight.Â
- Wear light, loose and comfortable clothes.Â
AFTER REACHING DESTINATION
8. Upon reaching the destination, try to get out in sunlight, fresh air as sunlight regulates biological clock which helps your body clock in adjusting to new time zones and surroundings. Staying indoors after reaching your destination worsens jet lag.Â
- Take bath before going to bed
- Avoid short naps during the daytime.
- Relax and don’t stress or burden yourself for 1 or 2 days. Many people take some sleep-inducing drugs but I don’t recommend it and read why you should not take Ambien for Jet Lag.Â
Listen these tips at
Have a fun-filled and relaxed flight! Check how to find the best flight deals.Â
Read about The Best Luggage tags for International Travel so that your luggage stands out on Carousel belts.
Read more on Long Haul Flight Essentials and Travel Tips for Economic Fliers.Â
Also what to carry on during long flights is a very important thing to know. Click here to read about what to pack in a Carry on Bag for long flights. Â
Read about travel planning before going for holidays, by clicking here.
Also, try out for different types of stays during your holidays. Read here for tips on staying during holidays.Â
So, till then KEEP TRAVELING……………… KEEP EXPLORING……………………………………………………
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The #1 thing you can do is drink plenty of water before you go, lots during the flight, and lots when you land. That horrible feeling of being dehydrated can really ruin an arrival at a new destination.
Jet lag can be really hard! I love the idea of keeping hydrated on flights – I am somewhat bad at that. But taking moisturizer and consuming water can really help. It’s hard to avoid taking short naps – ha! – but that’s great advice, too. I want to hit the ground ready to explore!
These are great! I hadn’t heard the tip about taking a bath. I’ve had jet lag coming home, which is better than going, but it’s still miserable!
If you follow some tips, then it will be be slightly better.
Great tips! I especially like the one about splitting the journey up into 1 or 2 days- I hadn’t read that one before, and that’s a good idea.
You would feel the difference if you follow some of the tips.
I am off to an 18-hour flight next week and I really hate jet-lag as I tend to lose one whole day to get back on my feet. Thank you for sharing these tips. Will try to avoid caffeine and alcohol. I think this what I have been doing wrong the whole time.
It is glad you found some of the tips useful. May be you will feel better next time when you take long flights after reading this.
Jet lag is the worst! That’s a great tip about wearing sunglasses. I did not know the body clock is set by eyes detecting light, but it makes sense. I agree about staying hydrated on flights. This has helped me a lot. I also try not to have coffee or alcohol, but sometimes I can’t help it!
I too got relieved by some of tips like even adjusting body clock before traveling and also not consuming coffee or alcohol.
I wish I had come across this post earlier. I have suffered badly with jetlag last year when I flew to Amsterdam from Bangkok. I was constipated for almost 5-6 days. It was a misery. I will follow your tips to change the body clock before flying.
Even first long flight was also misery but then I thought of changing the body clock prior to traveling so that it is not as bad.
I have read several of your posts about different places but this one is so important to any travel enthusiast I must say. Everyone has different ways to over come jet lag but some of the points you have shared here are absolutely winners. The main ones which I am impressed with are taking bath before going to bed and avoiding short naps during the daytime. These are really good tips specially when I travel long flights and with kids. thanks for these
Yes they are sometimes helpful and even adjusting our sleeping pattern before 1 or 2 days slightly before traveling also helps.
Great ideas! I didn’t have as many problems traveling from the US to Australia (I couldn’t adjust my schedule too much because I was working and had kids to take to school, etc) by staying up for most of the flight since I was arriving at night time. But on my way back, I wasn’t as lucky and had a miserable time that took me almost a week to adjust. I’ll be better prepared next time!
Even though we keep using the word jet-lag often, it was nice to see what it really means and what happens biologically. Loved the tips on avoiding the jet lag and the way they have been written, it will stay with me. I remember that once while travelling to US from India, the flight was delayed as a result, the airline had to take a halt in Amsterdam which broke my journey of 20 hours in two days. And being the first international flight, I was told to be aware of jet lag. Since not much happened, I remember telling everyone, jet lag is just a story. Now reading here that spiting the journey helps, I can connect the dots ! It would be tough to follow point number 5 of during the journey, so I follow point number 6 very well. Haha.
All good tips! I am such a terirble sleeper on flights and eventhough I try and time it right, I never fall asleep when I should and I fall sleep when I shouldn’t. So annoying! But totally agree about the no caffiene on the flight but no alcohol is a tough one for me. Maybe that’s my problem!
Jet lag is the bane of every traveler (and why I could never be a flight attendant). These are some great tips. I know drinking lots of water on flights definitely seems to help.
OMG having a jetlag is crazy and I don’t want to experience that. What I did after my flight – have a relaxing body massage and bath (whichever comes first). I can easily recover from little stress on my trip and head to my adventure.
Some great tips here Yukti. I usually don’t follow any of the above haha. What works for me, personally, is to sleep, sleep, sleep as much as possible but then I usually sleep a lot so that suits me. I did not know that caffeine and alcohol can make your jet lag worse, I usually have both on my flights 😀 I guess I have to start being a little more careful to avoid jet lag next time!
This time, try any of the the tip maybe they are helpful to you.
Jet Lag is a common hassle that all travelers face and one needs to come to terms with it. These are some great and practical tips to fight jet lag as well as be prepared for it. Keeping oneself hydrated but avoiding caffeine is the most important.
yes, we cannot avoid complete jetlag but can take precautions, so that it doesn’t worsens
I need to try adjusting my eating and sleeping pattern a few days before my flight if my schedule allows me to do so. I feel like that would help out tremendously 🙂
Some fabulous tips, I will be sure to keep them in mind for my next international flight. I didn’t do too well last time, having a wedding the day after a 26 hour flight. Let’s just say the wines weren’t a good idea….
you should avoid intake of alcohol during flights as they disrupt our body clock.
Good tips. Relax is perhaps the most important one. Too much time is spent stressing about the thought of getting jet lag. Give yourself time to acclimate to a new time zone. Sleep if you will arrive in the day. Don’t if you will arrive at night. Fresh air, water, exercise, cut down on the alcohol … all key.
This is a great post with quite a few good details. I suffer at times with Jet lag and find these tips useful to start with. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.
Good advice. The thing that seems to help us the most is just to start living on the local schedule as much as possible from the moment you arrive: don’t go to bed at 8am local time, for example.
Yes, you are correct, behave according to local time from few days before
Great tips on adjusting jetlag – I always suffer when traveling back to Asia. Adjusting eating and sleeping patterns before the flight is an important one. I should start doing that!
You are correct, when we travel from west to east, Jetlag is more felt as we loose some time during traveling.
I have suffered Jet Lag but had no idea how to avoid it. I now know after reading this blog. I did not know that being moisturized also helps. The bit on walking under the sun is also useful. As a habit, I used to sleep indoors just after arriving in the new country.
Keeping yourself in sun after reaching destination helps a lot, but many people worsens jetlag by remaining outdoor. Next time, When you travel, try to remain in sunlight after reaching.
These are very helpful tips for avoiding jet lag. On my first international trip, we decided to relax upon reaching the hotel and that worsened the jet lag. Lesson learnt. I agree going in the sunlight and being active upon reaching a new country really helps the body adjust to the local clock. Wearing sunglasses before the flight is something I didn’t know about. I’ll follow all these tips on my next international trip. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Great tips for avoiding jet lag! The tips totally make sense like spending time in the daylights to adjust your body, wear sunglasses before few hours taking flight, and avoid caffeine and alcohol during flight etc. Hopefully when I am flying long flight next time l will be able to follow your tips and avoid the jet lag!
These are such fantastic tips! I had no idea about wearing the sunglasses to help syncronise your body clock. I do need to get better at handling jet lag – next trip where I could face jet lag, I definitely will make more effort to go out into the sunlight and not stay inside since it may worsen the jet lag!
Personally one of my best tips for dealing with jet lag is to get off the plane and go for a run. I know for many this would be their idea of hell but it just helps to get my circulation going again and also make me feel less lethargic. I have done ayurveda retreats and it is astonishing how much a long flight impacts on your body. I find it really raises my blood pressure for a few days after flying so anything that can counter that has to be good
I agree with you that after reaching out, we should be active instead of sleepy. Going out and spending some time out helps a lot in controlling jetlag.
I also heard that you shouldn’t eat in a flight, appearently that is what cabin attendants do to avoid jet lag. I haven’t tried it myself yet though. Your tips are very helpful and I will try them at my next international flight.
Thanks for the tips! I down coffee on flights in the hope it will keep me awake but I’ll try not doing that next time 🙂
Yes may be, you can cut down coffee during flights
These are some really simple and handy tips and I am sure every traveller goes through this mess when traveling long distances. I dont know for what reason, but even a small distance flight makes me tired like hell, and I think I will be using some of your tips to avoid that fatigue for myself as well
I’ll send these tips to my aunt when she travels to the US! Thanks for this wonderful post!
Nice article.