7 top tips on avoiding jet lad triggered insomnia

My wife has just returned from a long haul trip to the States with work. After a couple of weeks with her struggling to sleep and waking me up in the middle of the night to look at paint samples I thought I’d better start looking at how I can stop this from happening again!

So I’ve decided to pull together some facts on the causes of jetlag and some tips on things that you can do to avoid it. Even if you’ve not got a long flights across timezones coming up soon – hopefully you can remember the tips and they will come in handy in the future.

So what is jet lag exactly?

Well, one of the downsides of long distance travel across different timezones is that it confuses your body clock – this can lead to throwing peoples sleep patterns.
The syptoms manifest themselves as severe tiredness and fatigue as well as minor disorientation.

7 Top Tips on avoiding jetlag

The tips below have been proven to help with minimising the effects of jetlag.

1. Your watch
Change your watch to your destination time as soon as you board the plane. It’s a small thing but it really helps you mentally adjust to arriving at your destination.


2. Eating
Eat after you land, rather than just on the plane. This will help your body clock adjust. It will also help you feel dozy as long as you keep to a light meal. A salad is often good as lettuce has been found to actually help people sleep.


3. Bedtime
When you arrive at your destination – force yourself to stay awake. It’s best not to sleep until it is bedtime in that timezone.

4. Routine
If it is bedtime when you arrive, follow your normal bedtime routine. This will encourage sleep.

5. Dehydration
This makes jetlag worse. It is important to try and avoid too much alcohol on your flight and instead drink lots of water.

6. Light
If you have arrived in daylight when it should be dark in the time zone you’ve come from – try and avoid light as much as you can the first day or so.

7. Active
Finally, be as active as you can during daylight hours. This will help you naturally feel tired at night time in the new timezone. Fatigue can be a great way of getting back into a sleep routine.

Hope these tips come in use at some point in the future

Dan Kennedy has written a free ebook on how to Cure Your Insomnia. To download it visit www.cure-your-insomnia.com