How to beat jet lag
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. “You want to know the secret to surviving air travel?" the man sitting next to Bruce Willis on the plane asks in “Die Hard", a film from 1988. “After you get to where you’re going, take off your shoes and your socks, then you walk around on the rug barefoot and make fists with your toes." Anyone who has flown across longitudes will be familiar with the havoc air travel plays on your circadian rhythms, causing you to jolt awake at four in the morning and tape your eyes open at four in the afternoon to keep from nodding off.
Those in jobs that require them regularly to traverse the globe may find their brains muddled for days after every trip, leaving them tired, disoriented and at elevated risk of irate outbursts. Less clear is what can be done about it. Dubious advice abounds, from eating chocolate for breakfast and taping plant seeds behind your ears to swallowing Viagra (though a study in 2007 did show that the “little blue pill" helped rodents to overcome jet lag faster).
Does anything really help? There are, unfortunately, no miracle cures for jet lag, despite an obvious market for one. Nevertheless, your guest Bartleby has a few tips you might find useful. If you can, be under the age of 25, though that trick may not work indefinitely.
When heading from west to east, take a melatonin tablet and go to bed early for a few nights before you travel (you will almost certainly ignore this advice, as your columnist usually does); when travelling the other way, go to bed a few hours later (much more fun). When you arrive, coffee or an equally caffeinated beverage will be essential. Remember, though, that there are limits: you may want to stop when your eye begins to twitch, for example.
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