It’s that time of the year when many of us travel.
If it’s even a short trip, we get jetlagged for days. How do you beat it? Here’s a theory based on my “diaries”. Diaries? Yes, diaries. Let’s find out.
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Since 2012, I've kept a meticulous diary—well, two diaries.
One diary is lavishly drawn in watercolours and on paper. The second one, however, has photos and searchable text. This means I can go back in time to find all instances of jet lag.
Curiously, we've never had jet lag in Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Hanoi, Mumbai, Paris or Singapore. And not even in Sweden.
Why Sweden, in particular?
About seven years ago, I was invited to speak at a conference in Sweden. At this point, you need to bear with me because the following details have many numbers.
Our house is about an hour from the airport.
- We get to the airport about three hours in advance.
- The flight from Auckland to Singapore was almost 11 hours, plus a 4-hour and 50-minute stopover.
- The next flight isn't to any place in Sweden but rather next door to Denmark. And it's another 12 hours and 35 minutes.
- Another stopover, then it's another hour to Stockholm, Sweden and yet another two hours before we get to our room.
- Roughly speaking, that's 35 ½ hours of travel time.
The very next day, I was scheduled to make a presentation.
It seems like the timing of the presentation is a bit of a blessing because it's not until 2 pm local time. Except for that 2 pm Swedish time, it happens to be 2 am New Zealand time.
What makes it slightly worse is that I have a cold.
Amid all exhaustion, time differences and illness, one factor was missing. Neither of us had jet lag.
“But that's the whole point, isn't it?” you might say.
We were so exhausted that you have no choice but to sleep. Yet, that's not what a tourist tends to do when visiting a different country. The moment you step into a hotel, you dump your bags, and within a reasonable time, the tourist goes out and explores.
They might take a short nap, but there's no time to waste. There is unusual food to be eaten, places to see and things to do. When that day is done, that tourist may fall to pieces and crawl into bed after sunset.
The key to avoiding jet lag is to be a tourist.
According to my diary, we've only ever had jet lag in New Zealand. It doesn't matter if we've flown east or west; the result is almost the same. At one point, we even took some anti-jet lag pills, hoping it would help, but the jet lag still set in. It's because we're no longer in “tourist” mode when we get back home.
We don't go out to explore the city, we certainly don't eat at a restaurant, and more importantly, we sleep because we're tired from the trip. If we behaved like tourists, we'd keep ourselves up through the day and crash from sheer exhaustion at night.
Aircrew have to deal with jet lag as part of their job.
When I spoke to the crew from Singapore to New Zealand, their goals differed. In about 48 hours, they must return to Singapore (their home base). It makes no sense to get used to New Zealand time.
Hence, they sleep and wake up during Singapore time while in New Zealand so that their sleep is not disrupted when they get back. On the other hand, we sleep when we're tired, and it can take a good part of a week to get over the jet lag.
What's the answer to jet lag?
Be a tourist.
When you land at home, go visit someone.
Go out for lunch even if you're exhausted.
Then, as the sun sets, go to sleep.
And you're unlikely to have jet lag.
The diary, it seems, never lies.
