When I flew to Asia a couple weeks ago, I was worried about jet lag. Not only when I arrived in Hong Kong and later Shanghai, but also when I returned home to Chicago after eleven days away.
See, in the recent past I’ve only been away from home for seven days when I’ve flown to Hong Kong. I would wake up every night in Hong Kong at 3am, but would fall back to sleep until 6 or 7am, and would be pretty alert during the day. When I returned to Chicago, I would still be on Chicago time, so wouldn’t experience jet lag back home.
But eleven days in Asia would most certainly put me on Asian time at some point during the trip, so I worried about returning home and having to take care of my kids all while trying to battle a time zone half a world away.
Only I never got much jet lag, neither in Hong Kong and Shanghai nor back in Chicago.
So what gives?
Back when I lived in Hong Kong, I would pop a Melatonin whenever I flew back and forth to the US. But I know better now and won’t take Ambien or other sleeping pills.
Now I have four drug-free strategies for combatting jet lag.
1. Hydrate
When I fly with my husband Tom, he drinks wine, beer, and coffee, alternating it with water, but always feels terrible when we arrive in Hong Kong.
I, on the other hand, only drink water and Gatorade (which, Tom taught me, contains the World Health Organization’s cholera rehydration formula) and lots of it. In the US, I can take Gatorade onto the plane, but all liquids are confiscated on international flights originating in other countries. So the Gatorade only works on flights from the US.
2. Get plenty of rest
On my most recent flights to Asia, I slept more than I watched movies or read. I used to think that if I slept too much on a flight, I wouldn’t be tired when I arrived at my destination. But who really gets solid sleep while flying coach? No matter how much I rest on the plane, I’ll never get into a deep sleep. But I still think it’s best to rest up as much as possible on the plane (in between drinking tons of water and Gatorade) so you go into your destination on a sleep deficit as small as possible.
3. Stay up until the nighttime of the new time
Flying into Hong Kong is easy in a way because the flights from Chicago arrive around 8pm. After clearing customs and getting to my hotel, it’s usually close to 10pm. This is a good time to go to sleep, but on my recent trip I stayed up even later and walked around the neighborhood until I was sleepy. So I went to bed around midnight and–apart from waking up at 3am for 10-15 minutes–slept until 7am. Not bad.
4. Stay busy during the day
When I travel with Tom, he likes to take an afternoon nap no matter where we are. But I’ve found with international travel it’s best to stay out and not stop until after dinner. This is also true when I return home. I thought I would need hours of afternoon naps upon my return to Chicago. But I found I wasn’t tired all day until around 8pm because there were just too many things to do. My mom also gave me this advice when she returned from our trip. She felt much better getting out than staying home and trying to sleep in.
It’s been over a week now since I’ve been back and jet lag never really hit. I woke up for a week around 2am, but always fell back asleep before long. I’ve had worse insomnia without having traveled half a world away.
Do you have other tips for battling jet lag? Or things I haven’t mentioned that contribute to jet lag?
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Thank you, Susan! Good advices! I will keep Gatorade in mind. I always have bad jet lag, I will try your advices next time!
Gatorade always makes me feel better. Tom says it’s the best thing to combat dehydration and I think jet lag is worse when you have dehydration.
Thanks Susan for the advice. I usually don’t sleep or nap on the plane, especially going from US to HK. That way, once arrived at HK and stay up till 11 pm and go to sleep. I usually adjust the next day.
Coming back is similar. Most planes from HK to US arrived at Chicago around 1 to 2 pm. So I need to stay up till at least 9 pm. To help that, I take half a pill of JetAlert (that would be 100 mg of pure caffeine, you may need more if you are used to drinking pop or coffee, which I don’t usually). That would help to stay till night and then crash to sleep…
That’s a good idea to stay up during the whole flight. I used to watch four movies and nap in between, but on the last flight the guy next to me slept the whole time, so I felt weird keeping the tv on. I’ve never heard of JetAlert. I don’t drink pop or coffee, just tea. Is it safe?
I’ve never tried the Gatorade strategy–will keep that in mind next time. Thanks for the tip, Susan! In Taiwan, my family always drank Pocari Sweat (no Gatorade there either) for upset stomachs, and despite the horrible name, is actually quite good.
Since I get motion sickness, I take Dramamine which knocks me out (even the non-drowsy kind) for an entire day. Terrible for short flights, but helpful for long flights.
Hope you had the chance to eat dim sum and other amazing food! I’ve only been to Hong Kong once when I was young, and my only memory is that the dim sum was out of this world. We didn’t speak Cantonese and the waiters didn’t speak Mandarin so we ended up just pointing to random things on the menu (no carts , surprisingly) but every single dish was fabulous.
That’s the way I order dim sum! Even if I try speaking Cantonese, very few people understand. I know Pocari Sweat, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried it. Or if I did, it was many, many years ago. I just replied to your e-mail. So sorry for the delay!
This is great advice! I always found it strange that I never got jet lag in India nor in the US! And I’ve been back and forth way too many times. 🙂
I also keep hydrated. While I indulge in one cranberry-apple juice, I drink only water aside from that. I sleep way too much. When you are on these kind of long adventures, you cannot afford to be afraid of someone seeing you sleeping. Sleep as much as possible!
It helps when the airline enforces that the windows are kept closed, to help passengers sleep at times when the sun is shining bright.
It’s also important to get up and stretch, go to the bathroom, and don’t worry about disturbing whoever is sitting next to you – they have to go to the bathroom from time to time too.
Definitely stay awake until night time, and definitely no naps for the first few weeks (if you intend to stay for awhile). It really does help with the transition!
Great advice! You nailed it. 🙂
Thank you so much for your great comment! Oh, yes, I never worry about sleeping next to strangers on planes. When I boarded my flight from Hong Kong to Chicago last week, the man next to me apologized in advance for snoring on the upcoming flight. I said, please, don’t even think about it. As long as I can get up and go to the bathroom, that’s all I care about. My husband is paranoid about getting blood clots on long flights, so he’s inspired me to get up a lot and to pump my legs often. I’ll have to be diligent about no naps. I didn’t nap on this recent trip, but when I’m with my family, they like to nap. I’ll have to just go shopping! Thank you again!
Thanks for sharing your advice! Gatorade is new to me — I will have to give that one a go!
It’s Tom’s cure-all for upset stomachs, dehydration (which comes with upset stomachs), and jet lag. When we were in Hong Kong last year, we found a delicious grapefruit flavored Gatorade, I think made in Guangzhou. We’ve never seen it in the US. When I was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, I looked for it, but only found the orange and lemon/lime flavors.