Overcoming Jetlag
There’s nothing worse.
You’ve planned, scheduled, and packed, flown a few thousand miles to recharge the batteries, compete overseas or joust with transcontinental colleagues, and the jet lag is just hammering you.
Your sleep patterns are all out of whack, you’re dozing when you should be dominating and wired when you should be tired.
Here’s a 4-point process for sleeping better, no matter how many timezones you’ve crossed, and the non-negotiables I pack on any and every trip I take.
1 - Hydration with electrolytes
Nutrition habits in general drop off significantly when we’re traveling. Limited/poor food options, weird schedules and unfamiliar environments make for erratic energy levels and higher than average probability of GI (gastro-intestinal) disruption.
Easily the biggest contributor to jet lag and travel-centric fatigue, however, is dehydration, and associated electrolyte deficiencies. When we travel, we’re typically moving more, lugging bags around and awake for longer, expending more calories and sweat.
As little as a 2% drop in total body hydration equates to a 20% drop in cognitive performance. Yes, timezone changes can screw up our circadian rhythms and leave us feeling sluggish and foggy, but it’s just as likely that drops in hydration and electrolyte balance are causing their fair share of those symptoms too.
Cover your bases by taking a decent sized water bottle with you wherever you travel. Most airports these days have public filtered water stations scattered about so you can keep stocked up.
Travel sachets of electrolyte powders from companies like LMNT and IQ Mix are an awesome option for adding to water on the go, and their high sodium content keeps things running smoothly in the old grey matter.
2 - Conscious caffeine consumption
Caffeine is the traveler’s crutch when it comes to feeling remotely human the first few days after long trips across one or multiple timezones. It can be an absolute game changer, for sure, but can easily throw off way more of your week than necessary if used inappropriately.
The morning after a long travel day, the tendency’s to load up on caffeine as soon as possible and to keep drip feeding it throughout the day just to make it through. Hold your horses Java Joe, you’re digging your own jittery grave.
That first morning, if you want to get back into an effective rhythm of sleep, cognition and performance, you’re going to have to front up a little.
That means so caffeine in the first two hours of the day. Get yourself ‘up’ by getting outside, as soon as you can, and getting natural light in your eyes. This will set the clock on your daily circadian rhythm and key your system to power down 14-ish hours later.
Also, get moving. Get a workout or a power walk in. Twenty minutes of movement to moisten thy brow will rev up your body’s natural adrenaline production. Bye bye brain fog.
90-120 minutes after waking, get your first caffeine in. The delay takes advantage of high morning cortisol and avoids the frequent flyer’s nemesis (and everyone else’s), the mid-afternoon tumble down the hole of despair.
The knock-on effect is then not feeling the need to climb out of said hole with a 4pm quad-shot sure to keep you wide-eyed and bushy tailed into the wee hours of the following day.
Caffeine is energy on credit. Use it wisely.
If you do need a pick-me-up in the afternoon, take a short (~20-30 mins) nap, go out for a walk, take a cold shower, or shoot for a beverage with lower caffeine content such as black, green or yerba mate tea. What the hell, do it all.
3 - Napping
On the subject of napping, a simple rule to follow. No longer than 30-minutes, no later than 3pm. This goes whether you’ve been traveling or not, but particularly when adjusting to a new, or back to your usual timezone is the priority.
A lot of people, myself included, can find it tough to drop off in such a tight window, so unless you’re nodding off where you sit, using a guided Yoga Nidra (Yogic Sleep) script from Spotify or Youtube can really do the trick.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1MAUZvLMjqTU43uhhzqnJ4?si=01d89cf703da4c4a
Unless you’ve been to the hotel or AirBnb before, the location of the room and quality of the blinds can be a bit of a crap shoot, regardless of how much research you’ve done.
That’s why the absolute non-negotiable dynamic duo of travel accessories for me are at least one pair of silicone ear plugs and a solid eye mask. Yep, super attractive, but man, I sleep like a baby! I struggled with sleep masks until I found the contoured versions that keep the material from pressing your eyeballs into the back of your head. Absolute game changer!
https://www.blockbluelight.com/products/contoured-eye-sleep-mask
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088B7XRW8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
4 - Book-end your day with natural light
I’ve left this to last because it’s the one I want you to walk away with, lodged most firmly in your memory.
Next time you fly, regardless of the time of day, conduct a short full body interoceptive awareness scan. Start from your feet and just check in with every part of your body, scanning casually up your legs, torso, arms, shoulders, neck and head. Other than the usual swollen ankles and stiff neck, you’ll likely notice your eyes feel like they’ve taped open for 24 hours.
It’s partly due to the air conditioning used in planes and airports, but the main culprit’s the billion watts of artificial light flooding your sockets at any given moment. Not only is it bloody uncomfortable, it completely screws with your natural circadian rhythm, making a good night of deep sleep all but impossible.
Unless you’re willing to wear blue blocking glasses on every flight you take from now one, the next best course of action is, once you’re at your destination or back home, set a strict schedule of limited screen time starting at least an hour before bed, and get your eyes in front of natural light early in the morning and as the sun’s setting in the evening.
https://www.blockbluelight.com/
Exposure to early morning sunlight at the very least, and ideally evening sunlight as well, for 10-minutes a-piece will, set you up to rise and fall (asleep) on schedule. It might take a day or two, but will set you up to right your rhythms naturally.
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Written by practicing sport psychologists, mental performance coaches and mental health counsellors working across professional and youth sport, strength and conditioning, and health and wellness.