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Episode 413 – How to avoid jet lag

• Hello my friends and welcome back
• If you have been listening to my latest episodes you may have heard me mention that I have travelled a bit lately
  • And I have another 2 trips coming up
• Most of them have been to the east coast, which involves a 3 hour time change
• Towards the end of last year – I also travelled there a few times and I have to tell you – I struggled
• The first night I just could not go to sleep, which, of course, affected my performance the next day
• Twice I flew in a day early to get a day of climbing in before my events and I don’t even know how I did it
• I climbed some of the scariest stuff those days on hardly any sleep
• And without proper sleep, we cannot be at our best
• This makes sleep a relevant topic for QFY
• Maybe one you don’t expect – but I have talked about sleep before
  • If you want to listen to that episode, you can find it on my website
  • It was episode 285 tilted Lack of sleep
• Lack of sleep affects me profoundly, maybe more than others
• I have friends that can function well on 4 hours of sleep
• However, I still see it on their faces the next day
• sleep is a fundamental need we all have and insufficient sleep affects all of us –
• Our bodies recover and recuperate while sleeping
• Its super-important to me and it makes a world of difference
  • without good sleep, everything else becomes harder
  • its almost as if the body runs on low battery mode and its trying to conserve energy as much as possible
  • this means it affects my willpower which is not good
  • without much sleep – I don’t make healthy eating choices
  • My workouts are no good, if I do them at all
    • Even though I did climb those days on major jetlag – which shows how resilient our body is
  • I will have a low tolerance for problems or delays – the things that require more energy for me anyways
  • For you those might be other things
  • I will simply not be my best self
• With more travel to the east coast this year, I think I have figured out a few tricks that have helped me to adjust to a sudden time change much quicker
• I have actually heard this topic discussed on other podcasts and the recommendations given never seem quite useful for me

• So be prepared – my tips today do not involve supplements or crazy breathing exercises
• I am not saying these don’t help, but they seem like bandages
  • Quick fixes after the fact – when you are already in the new time zone
  • I have never counted so many sheep before than during those first nights on the east coast last year – I think I was up in the thousands
  • And I don’t know how many times I started over

• One podcast suggested to run in the morning to ease into the new time zone
• I don’t want to ease into it when I am there only for a few days
• I want to roll into it as seamless as possible which finally worked on my last trip
• Plus, I am less likely to go running when I am tired

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• I finally realized – its all about preparation
  • What we do prior to going on the trip
• A 3 hour or longer time change is a sudden change for our body – so we need to prepare ourselves for it
• After many trips and lots of experimenting on monitoring my body –
• I noticed that groundwork involves all the essential elements in life that make up a good nights rest:
  • Sleep itself – specifically sleep the days prior to departure
  • Diet – the food we eat while travelling that affect our adjustment to the time change
  • Movement and exercise
  • And general planning around the day of travel
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• My top suggestion for you is the one I think makes the biggest difference:
• begin adjusting to the new time while still at home
• I know people that fly in days earlier because of the time change so they can adjust while there
• I think we can accomplish the same from home by adjusting our schedules days in advance
• Here is what I did:
• For the 5 days prior to departure I went to bed a little earlier, and got up a little earlier every day.
  • Same amount of slip, just a slight shift in the timing
• My goal was 30 minutes every day but I didn’t get that together quite as exactly
  • but a little bit helps
  • just do what you can
• I also took my flight into consideration, which I get to in a minute
• Flying anywhere far involves usually an early flight, trip to the airport, check-in, etc
• So on the day of flying we usually get up pretty early
• In the past I would try to go to bed early just for that last night because I knew I had to be up early
• Again – a drastic change and I was never tired so early
• So – take your day of departure into consideration and work your way backwards
• If you are planning on getting up at 4am and you normally get up at 6, you have 2 hours right there you can work on adjusting slowly over the course of 1-2 weeks
• I alluded to my second recommendation which aligns with the first
• book an early flight out – no matter where you fly
• get up as early as possible, the earlier the better
• this helps especially if you are flying east – where it is already later in the day
• I used to travel for work to the east coast a lot and I was always on one of the first flights, as early as 6 or 7am
• I did that not just because of the anticipated jet lag, but I simply like to get in early
  • If there are travel delays it doestn set me back so far
  • I may get in later but not to late unless something really goes wrong
    • This is especially important if you have a critical meeting the next day
    • I would never aim for a late flight
    • Flights are frequently late or sometimes even cancelled and the later in the day you fly, the riskier it will be to get onto another flight and get out
  • I also like to see my new area in daylight
  • Maybe stop and go grocery shopping along the way or go for a walk to check out the area
  • And then I simply want a little bit of time to settle in
  • Maybe even get a workout in – but we will get to that
• However, getting up and out early helps greatly with jet lag
• This time I booked a 6am flight
• That meant I got up at 3 and was in my Uber at 4.00 and at the airport by 4.45 and in the plane by 5.30, with my coffee in my thermos
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• 3am is early but I had adjusted all week already
• I was up by 4am the day prior, so this was just an hour earlier
• On the plane I was surprisingly awake
• I even did some work
• Which brings me to suggestion number 3
• Try to treat your travel day just like a normal day
• I see lots of people sleep on those early flights
• Its understandable – They didn’t get enough sleep the night before so they are tired
• But when you already adjusted all week – you wont be
• I get some of my best work done on the plane
  • I have written an entire episode on a plane
  • I have finished major portions of books
  • Sometimes I do work if I need to
• If I fly during the day – I treat the flight like a normal day
• Sleeping, if I can even sleep, only makes me groggy
• And even if I am tired, like I was on my 6am flight – I forced myself to stay up
• A 20min nap is fine – and I usually fall asleep when the plane takes off, but I don’t stay asleep for long
• If you do – set yourself an alarm and wake up – and then get some work done
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• Next – number 4:
• Food
• If you know me a little, you know that food is a big deal for me
• I plan all my food ahead of time
• And I bring all the food I am going to eat on the day of travel
• Our body responds to food and when we eat just as it does to sleep
• The same principle applies here
• Try not to throw yourself off schedule to much
• I get to the airport and I can’t believe how people are able to chow down a burger with fries at 5am in the morning
• Do you normally eat a burger at 5am?
  • Maybe you do, because you work shifts
  • Maybe you got up at 2 am and now you are really hungry
• I highly recommend to eat when you normally eat, or even a little later
• Our body may think its time to eat just because we are up early
• I also have that feeling of hunger when I get up really early – but its just my body thinking it will get some food
• it usually goes away after a while
• the trick is water
  • I drink a ton of water prior to boarding
  • I mean – a ton
  • Flying is extremely dehydrating for the body and the couple of glasses of water they bring you on a 5 hour flight are not nearly enough
  • So I hydrate my body properly before even getting on the plane
  • That kills already some of the hunger cravings that may come up, and some of which are partially due to the body just being dehydrated so early in the morning
  • I bring my 40 oz hydroflask bottle on every flight – long or short
  • I fill it up after the security screening and drink more water
  • I make sure I can go to the bathroom before boarding which tells me that I am well hydrated
  • I mentioned earlier- I do spend some money on a nice coffee in the airport but I don’t drink it – not yet
  • I bring my thermos to keep it warm
  • I will have it around 8 when I normally have coffee
  • I normally eat breakfast between 9-10 and that’s exactly when I eat on the plane
  • Which is already close to landing time
  • But recently I have noticed that I feel better on the plane when I don’t eat at all
  • Because we can move around so little, food just sits in my stomach and sometimes causes indigestions
  • If I have to eat, I keep it light
    • a hardboiled egg, maybe some chicken and some raw veggies
    • I don’t need many carbs – I am not active
    • Unused carbs only make me tired
  • When I get to my destination, I am then really hungry but the wait is worth it
  • Once everyone gets in, we go and enjoy an early but nice dinner somewhere
  • I look forward to it
  • And it taste so much better when you’re a little hungry
  • Now your clock is tuned into the new time zone
  • Instead of having already eaten a ton of food because you got up so early, you waited and now you eat when its dinner time in your new time zone
  • Boom
  • A big dinner will add to the tiredness – the body is full – it can relax
  • On top of that – you are tired from travelling and getting up early
  • And hopefully you adjusted your sleep time so now its much easier to go to sleep
  • Last tip
  • Exercise
  • This doestn have to be a gym workout
  • The walking alone in and around airports for that day is enough
  • It adds to the exhaustion and it will ensure a good night rest
  • I noticed that the days that I struggled sleeping usually didn’t involve much movement
    • From Uber to plane
    • From plane to rental car
    • Rental car to door
  • Some airports require more walking than others so try to get some steps in if you notice that you are sitting all day
  • maybe take a walk once you get to your destination
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  • I usually don’t take longer than one day to adjust to a new time zone
  • If It does take you longer, use exercise as a medicine
  • Go for a run in your new timezone or hit the gym
  • Exercise tires the body out
  • Even just walking more helps
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  • So these are my recommendations
  • I hope you find them useful and applicable next time you have a trip come up that involves a major shift in your schedule

• Try to prepare ahead of time as much as you can
• And when you get there
• Adjust to the new time – meaning don’t take a nap even if you’re tired
• Wait until bedtime and go bed then
• Eat your meals when its time to eat, even if you go hungry a little bit
• And lastly
• I usually don’t struggle going back home
• Flying back to the west coast from the east just means a longer day that day.
• I try to take that into consideration and try not to fly in so late so I can be in bed on time
• But by the time I get home, I don’t have trouble sleeping
• If you do, try to prepare a little for your return the same way you did for your departure.

Much love