Marion Freijsen A blog about Sports, Fitness & Health

Jetlag

Everyone has their favorite ways of dealing with jetlag – most people just succumb to it actually, you see them walking round like zombies for days. And sometimes that was after a mere 1 hour flight But seriously, jetlag can be really awful and if you fly longer distances it’s a good idea to try and not get into a battle with it. You’ll lose.

There’s different ways of dealing with it – one is in tablet form – the melatonin’s of this world. These little tablets provide a natural substance that will help regulate your body’s normal sleep/wake rhythm so that you can move more quickly into a normal hours pattern instead of spending your nights finding your way round the kitchen in search of food, and your days half asleep over or under a desk somewhere.

What works for me is a super simple little routine. First of all, I don’t even try and calculate what time it is whereever I have just come from. Maybe something to do with the fact that my math never was that great, but mostly because I find that if I do constantly remind myself of how awfully different the time is where I am at the moment, I never get over it. So I just live by the time it is on my (re-set!) watch and force myself not even to think about other times it may be. That’s half the battle won.

But exercise (ofcourse, you didn’t really think I’d write a blog here without mentioning the word, right) is also a fabulous help in overcoming jetlag. When I fly West to East – so losing a lot of time as a result – I usually land early am. From then on, I stick to a normal day – and then about the middle of the afternoon when I get really tired, I go out for a gentle run or an easy bike ride. Both the exercise itself and the fresh air re-energise me at least for a while meaning I manage to stay awake till later that evening allowing me to go to sleep at a normal time of night and wake up at a normal time the next morning. Bye bye jetlag – within 24 hours I am back in my normal rhythm.

Flying the other direction a similar thing also works – when I land in the afternoon, again just some easy exercise helps you loosen up after a generally longer flight, and means you last till the evening – plus it helps you get a good night sleep…

Now, if you’ll excuse me… I have to get out there before I have QWERTY imprinted on my forehead!

Music for today: Leaving on a Jet Plane, John Denver