Long flights and jet lag: how to handle them better
A badly handled long flight costs you the first two days of the trip. These are the things that genuinely make a difference.
Choosing a seat
Aisle if you'll get up often or have long legs; window if the plan is to sleep, since you can lean and nobody wakes you passing. Avoid the back row, usually near the toilets and sometimes non-reclining. Emergency exit rows give extra space, though sometimes with fixed armrests.
What to carry in the cabin
An eye mask and earplugs or headphones, which help most with sleeping. An empty bottle to refill after security. A jumper or large scarf, because cabins are cold. And thick socks: feet swell and taking your shoes off helps, but the floor is freezing.
Hydration and food
Cabin air is very dry. Drink water often and go easy on alcohol and coffee, which dehydrate and worsen rest. Eating less than you're offered helps: heavy digestion at ten thousand metres sits badly and makes sleeping harder.
Move around
Get up every two or three hours and walk the aisle a little. It's awkward and it's the best thing you can do for your circulation on a long flight. If you have circulatory risk factors, ask your doctor about specific measures before travelling.
How jet lag works
Your body takes time to adjust to the new schedule, and the rough rule is a day of adaptation per time zone crossed. Travelling east is harder than west, because bringing bedtime forward is harder than pushing it back.
What works best on arrival
Adopting local time from day one, however hard. Eat at local hours and don't go to bed until it's night there. And above all, natural light: getting outside in the morning is what resets your body clock fastest.
The nap trap
Landing in the morning and sleeping for three hours is what most prolongs jet lag. If you really can't go on, set an alarm for twenty or thirty minutes and go outside afterwards.
Prepare beforehand
If the time change is large, shift your bedtime by an hour a day toward the destination's time over the two or three days before. Little effort, and noticeable on arrival.
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