“A time zone change of three hours or more is enough to throw us out of sync with the day-night cycle and cause disruption to our body clock – the circadian rhythm,” says Alison Gardiner, the co-founder of the online resource Sleepstation. This is the effect known as jet lag. Symptoms include tiredness, headaches, nausea and diarrhoea.
It takes our bodies one day to adjust to a time difference of one hour, so Gardiner recommends pre-emptively adjusting our clocks at home: one hour a day towards the time zone to which you are travelling, no more than three days before travelling. “If the duration of travel is less than the number of time zones you travel across, you need to plan – getting your body used to the new time zone will help you adjust much faster.”
Mind what you eat – and when
“Diet plays a large part in setting the body clock,” says Lisa Artis, an adviser at the Sleep Council, which promotes healthy sleep habits. “Once you are on the plane, set your watch to the local time at your destination, then eat according to normal meal times at your destination.” Heavy meals increase our sleep drive, so a balanced diet helps kickstart our body clock into its destination timings.
Avoid caffeine and alcohol
Be sure to drink plenty of water. Gardiner says that our body clocks can be set off-kilter by dehydration. “People don’t drink enough water on planes and often replace it with alcohol, which is a depressant and dehydrating, or they drink too much caffeine, which keeps you awake,” she says. “Your body needs to re-adjust naturally to its new time zone and it’s not advisable to manipulate it.”
Schedule light exposure
Taking in half an hour’s natural light the morning after arriving is helpful. Photograph: Lost Horizon Images/Getty Images
Dr Guy Meadows, a co-founder of the insomnia treatment service Sleep School, recommends getting 20 to 30 minutes of natural light exposure the morning after arriving at your destination. “Our body clocks are connected to light-receptive cells in our eyes, so making sure to darken down throughout the day is a very powerful way of synchronising with your new environment,” he says.
Go west
If you are adamant about avoiding jet lag, travelling west – and therefore lengthening your day by going backwards through time zones – will alleviate the symptoms. Timings your flights is also important – Meadows says that we need at least 10 hours of wakefulness to induce a restful sleep. Factoring this into your flight time, and arriving after sunset, will help adjust your schedule.
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