Trying to plan for a long-haul trip is one thing but planning for the jet lag you’ll experience on either one or both legs of your journey is quite another.
Especially when a lot of advice tends to be along the lines of ‘force yourself to stay awake’ which is, in my experience, MUCH easier said than done.
However, new research may have the answer to not getting through jet lag but perhaps even avoiding it all together?! I know, it sounds too good to be true to me, too but some simple steps can help you to avoid jet lag or at the very least, not feel the overwhelming impacts of it hitting you.
Honestly, we’ll take it.
How to avoid jet lag
So, what is this miracle solution?
Well, according to research by scientists at Northwestern University and Santa Fe institute, the answer to solving the grief of jet lag actually lies in... your stomach.
Yep, if you want to avoid those grim mornings and restless nights, you need to use your stomach to essentially trick your brain into skipping the jet lag phase of a trip.
So, what do you need to do? Well, simply follow these three steps:
- Have a large breakfast earlier in the morning of your new time zone and ensure this is your biggest meal of the day
- Don’t change your meal times too much
- Avoid eating at night
So this works because it turns out that we have several internal clocks and the brain’s clock responds to sunlight while the clocks of peripheral organs, like for example our nerves, depend more on mealtimes.
So when we go on holiday and live differently to how we do in our regular life by, for example, eating when we’d usually be fast asleep or being in a hot country when it’s much cooler weather at home, our bodies get confused but by following these steps, we can keep our bodies on track while still enjoying our time abroad.
Consider us sold.