Jet lag is one of the most common disorders plaguing international travelers. Unfortunately, it can fog your brain and suck the energy out of you. You might even miss your memory foam mattress when you get to your destination. Jet lag occurs when the real-time zone and your circadian clock are misaligned. Usually, travelers encounter jet lag when they fly over five or more from their original time zones.

The inner clock of your body releases certain hormones at certain moments of the day. These hormonal changes control the temperature of the body, sleep, and other procedures. Hormone misalignment with time zone changes means that you may experience sleeping difficulties, headaches, fatigue, and concentration difficulties. While symptoms may fade away within two days, it can bring a little discomfort when you manage to keep your chin up for an urgent appointment with a client.

While there have been many discoveries, there are no jet lag remedies on the market that can fix it immediately. Swallowing a pill won’t help. The truth is taking melatonin supplements with improperly time often can delay your recovery from jet lag. But, it only takes time for your body to adjust. However, there are a few natural practices including using a sleep cycle calculator to speed things up and reduce the adverse effect of jet lag to your trip:

Symptoms of Jet Lag

Frequent flyers with severe jet lag may feel exhausted during the afternoon, wide awake all night even while lying on the best hybrid mattress, and starving during strange times. Irritability, headaches, and the absence of daytime concentration make it even more challenging to be geared towards a news destination.

Not only jet lag can influence your sleep, but it can also trigger hunger at strange times. It is because your digestion works according to your old time zone. Hence, you may have less appetite for regular meals and maybe even more difficult to digest your food.

Since our system conducts regular maintenance while we sleep, jet lag can severely weaken our immune system. With that, it makes you even more susceptible to germs and viruses in public transport. These prevalent jet lag symptoms the most travelers have reported: insomnia, daytime drowsiness, waking up too soon, lack of appetite, and absence of focus.

Natural Jet Lag Remedies

Though there is no instant solution to jet lag yet, you can take these measures before, during, and after your flight to shorten the time needed for you to recover.

1. Switch your watch

Once you get on the plane, adjust your watch and devices instantly to the time zone in your destination. Since our brain is powerful, giving some mental messaging to it can boost your circadian rhythm. While on a flight, you will strengthen the circadian clock of your body to your future time zone if you look at your watch several times.

2. Start on the Plane

You can start preventing jet lag even before the aircraft takes off. When you set your watch to your destination’s time zone, do your best to ensure that you’ll be able to sleep and eat depending on the new time zone.

Shut the window shade to mimic the darkness if you want to rest. Stand up, move around the airplane to prevent tiredness, and avoid falling asleep while traveling to your future target location during daytime hours. Resist the temptation to eat due to boredom. Keep in mind: your screen’s blue light will counteract your sleep efforts, so you might want to turn it off if you’re going to sleep.

3. Stay hydrated and eat light

While on a plane, skip the coffee and alcohol. Not only will these drinks dehydrate you, but they will also mess with your body clock. Instead, drink plenty of water and eat light and healthy snacks. It implies abstaining from sugar, processed food at the airport, as well as the food offered on the aircraft.

It is always best to have hand-packed veggie meals, healthy trail mix, granola bars, and fresh fruit along with several bottles of water for the entire flight. Herbal tea like chamomile can provide an additional immune boost. On the other hand, tea blends can make stay calm and sleep better at night.

4. Get some sunshine

Light is one of the most significant environmental indications to reset your cycle of sleep-wake. To synchronize your circadian rhythm better with a new time zone, expose yourself willfully. to bright daylight.

The quantities of daylight coming into your eyes determine your melatonin level and your circadian rhythm. Though you may feel tired after a long flight, watching television in your hotel isn’t the best way to spend your first day at your destination. Get a few steps, remain active throughout the day, catch the sunlight, and strolling to some places.

Before on your target flight, prepare yourself by buying lightboxes to shift your circadian clock gently to the moment. Although a portable lightbox can be purchased, exposing yourself in sunlight is a recommended light source. When you arrive at the destination for daytime arrivals, immediately leave your bags and bring your body outside. Soak up the sunshine for at least 15 minutes. It will feed your body with much-needed vitamin D and help your circadian rhythm from its initial synchronization.

5. Ground yourself with nature

Once you have enjoyed a little sunlight, let your feet Remove your shoes and wriggle your toes in soil or grass. Try to find a park where you can comfortably lie down and pay attention to the wind blowing through the branches. After a lengthy flight with recycled air, inhaling fresh oxygen will have benefits to your overall body.

6. Resist the urge to sleep in

Set up your clock and get up at sunrise, then go for a stroll if you have an evening arrival. It may seem like the last thing you would like to do, but a few morning practice stretches may work miracles. You could use a sunrise alarm clock to softly push your circadian rhythm back in the right time zone if you are coming home.

7. Avoid electronics at night

Your screen’s blue light can change the production of melatonin in your system. Instead of watching television, googling what is a latex mattress, or playing with a game console, reading a book in a hybrid mattress is a better choice to push yourself to sleep. Go and get the novel that you’ve always wanted to read and begin dreaming about the next day.

8. Keep moving

Do some physical activities while you’re on a long flight to increase the production of your endorphins and extend out the kinks that may have formed during the trip. Get up and move around frequently, stretch, and do a few static activities during the trip. It can assist you to feel more stimulated, particularly if you have to stay awake when you land.

But if you’re going to land near bedtime, you should avoid heavy workout in your living room rugs as it can make it more difficult for you to try to sleep.

Now you’ve found out how to treat jet lag due to international flights, don’t forget to change back before coming back home. If you regularly fly and suffer from jet lag, you should see a sleep specialist. They can help you shift the circadian rhythm of your body and reduce the symptoms of jet lag.

The Takeaway

Finally, the general rule is that you need a day to adjust entirely to every time zone you pass. If you have an incoming flight, use these natural remedies to manage jet lag properly and minimize your downtime. While most individuals can quickly adapt to their new time zone, it’s a good idea to consider consulting your doctor before taking any supplement.