3 ways to tackle jet lag head on when taking international trips
As a connected company with partners located in all parts of the world, Ideoli’s team needs to stay sharp when crisscrossing the planet. But traveling through different time zones can throw your internal clock out of sync and leave you with that dreaded feeling of being jetlagged. Fortunately, we’ve picked up some tips along the way to keep jet lag at bay:
1. Lay Off the Coffee: It may sound counterintuitive, but if you want to stay fresh, skip having coffee or other caffeine sources until you adjust to the new time zone. Even if it’s early in the day at your destination, your body might feel like it’s nighttime, so a morning cup of joe will only mix you up further. “When I go to an international market, I’m often only there for 36-48 hours, and then I’m back on a plane. So I stay away from coffee even though I feel like I need it. Your biological clock doesn’t know and coffee is not a good mix, so I try to stay away from coffee when I’m traveling,” says George Stroumboulis, CEO and Co-Founder of Ideoli.
2. Stay Comfortable to Minimize Travel Stress: International travel can be exciting, nerve-wracking, disconcerting or a combination of a whole host of emotions. But if you want to beat jet lag, try to stay relatively even-keeled and comfortable so that you don’t become restless. Stress, or even just the potential for stress, can cause sleeplessness, notes the National Sleep Foundation. So from our experience, we suggest tips such as bringing your own food and drink on planes. (You can purchase beverages after going through airport security.) Consuming items you’re used to, and on your own schedule, helps you avoid putting your body through more change. Similarly, packing a hygiene kit, such as a toothbrush and change of clothes, can help you feel fresh and comfortable, all of which limits the stress of a long trip.
3. Sleep Before Your Trip: It sounds simple, but it’s true: getting quality sleep before your flight can minimize the effects of jet lag. Similar to the adage for soon-to-be parents of “sleep before the baby’s born, because you won’t sleep after,” sleeping before your trip can make adjusting to a new time zone a bit more manageable.
As travel company Skyscanner notes in its guide to beating jet lag, travelers often don’t sleep much before their flights, whether it’s due to pre-trip excitement or purposeful sleep deprivation to encourage sleeping on a plane.
