Kristina Chetcuti, a registered health coach (UKIHCA) specialising in behaviour change and lifestyle medicine (ELMO), answers your lifestyle dilemmas.
Q. In a few weeks, my family and I will be flying from Brussels to Japan for our summer holiday. While I'm excited about the trip, I'm already dreading the jet lag. Whenever we travel long-haul, the children seem to adapt within a day or two, while my husband and I spend the first week waking up in the middle of the night and feeling exhausted during the day.
By the time we start feeling normal again, it feels as though the holiday is almost over. Is there anything we can do to make jet lag less severe? Or is it simply something we have to put up with as we get older?
A. You are certainly not alone. A flight from Brussels to Japan means crossing several time zones, and while your phone resets itself in seconds, your brain and body resist. I keep thinking of all those footballers currently moving through the World Cup fixtures, expected not only to adjust to different time zones, but to perform brilliantly at the same time.
There is no magic pill for jet lag, as yet, but there are strategies that help. I’m afraid they’re rather unglamorous, but they work.
Speeding through time zones
The problem when we speed through time zones in a short space of time is that our internal body clock simply does not have time to adjust. I have had to travel quite a few times to Ireland this year, which is one hour behind Belgium, but that is never really a problem because our body clock can happily cope with time shifts of around 60 minutes per day. More than that, and the system starts to feel a bit like that wide-eyed emoji: “What on earth is going on?!”
Cependant, if you travel slowly across time zones, it’s not a problem. In the novel Around the World in 80 Days, Phileas Fogg had no issue because he travelled by train, boat, carriage – all rather slow engines, effectively dragging his body clock along with him rather than suddenly displacing it. Jet lag, then, is a relatively modern biological mismatch created by modern transport technology — namely, planes.
Your body clock(s)
This 24-hour body clock is not just in the brain, although that is the master. There are clocks in almost every cell in the body, all linked to it. So, for example, the cells in your colon know that around 7am each day it is time to visit the bathroom, and the cells in your oesophagus have rather cleverly learned that shortly afterwards, you will have a coffee. All of this helps the body coordinate sleep, alertness, body temperature, hormones, digestion and even immune function. It is, when you think about it, quite an extraordinary feat of engineering.
The main power source for all these clocks is daylight. It tells the brain whether it is day or night. When we cross several time zones, this finely tuned system becomes temporarily out of sync: the outside world has moved on, but the body is still operating on ‘home time’ (which is why you may suddenly feel the need to go to the bathroom at 2am in Japan).
So, what you need to do is to politely persuade all your clocks to move along with you so you can enjoy your holiday. This is exactly why daylight is your most powerful ally after a long-haul flight: it is the strongest signal the body has for resetting itself and adjusting to the new schedule.
Some homework before you leave can also help. If travelling east to Japan, try gradually shifting your bedtime and wake-up time earlier in the days before departure. When travelling west on your way home, doing the opposite can help. Essentially, once on the plane, start thinking in your destination's time zone. Set your watch to local time and try to sleep when night falls at your destination and stay awake when it is daytime.
To eat or not eat?
Food can also act as a cue for your body clock, alongside light and sleep. The simplest approach is to start eating at local meal times as soon as you arrive.
If you land at breakfast time in Japan (2am in Brussels) you will not feel like touching any food. But please, you must. Order a coffee or channel your inner teenager and take yourself back to that time when you happily scoffed burgers at 3am after a night out.
Breakfast is particularly useful here, because with a proper morning meal – preferably protein-based – all your cells will go: “Ah, food, it must be morning then – hurrah!” In doing so, you are nudging the body to let go of the idea that it’s 2am and you should be under the duvet.
Also, if you find yourself hungry at 3am local time (around 8pm in Brussels, when your body is crying: “Dinner please!”), there is no need to lie awake, listening to the gaping echoes of your tummy. A glass of water, or something liquid, is usually enough. Whatever you do, you need to be a Sherlock, leaving clues for your body to pick up and adjust to the new time zone.
Incidentally, it also helps, to eat reasonably well in the days leading up to the flight: plenty of fruit, vegetables and whole foods, which tend to support a quicker recovery. One last thing: drink water! Cabin air is very dry and can be very dehydrating, so make it a point to drink regularly before, during and after the journey.
To sleep or not to sleep?
If you find yourself lying in bed counting sheep into the small hours, try this: breathe in for a count of four and out for a count of six. Do this for five minutes, and then another five if needs be. This helps activate the body’s natural relaxation response and makes it easier to drift back to sleep. (Between you and me, it also helps if travel is making you constipated.)
You might ask whether or not you should sleep on arrival, but it depends largely on the local time at your destination and how far it has drifted from your usual sleep cycle. As a general rule, it is best to align with local time as quickly as possible, even if you feel tired.
If you arrive in the morning or early afternoon, especially after eastward travel, it is often better to stay awake and get outside into daylight and push through to a reasonable local bedtime. Walk! Do yoga! Walk some more!
Sleeping too early can lock in the wrong body clock pattern and make the following night more difficult. If you arrive late at night, the opposite applies: go to bed as soon as you reasonably can and treat it as night, even if your body wants to party.
In both cases, light exposure the following day is what ultimately helps reset the system, but that first decision about whether to sleep or stay awake can either help or delay the adjustment.
Why are children so cool about it?
In your email you point out that your children don’t seem to struggle quite as much with jet lag. Isn’t that fascinating? Science is actually still piecing together the why but there are a few likely explanations.
Firstly, their body clocks may simply be more adaptable. Younger bodies tend to adjust more quickly to changes in sleep–wake schedules, while older adults hold on a little more tightly to their fixed patterns. Secondly, children tend to live more in the moment and are less likely to lie awake staring at the ceiling, thinking: “I’ve only had four hours of sleep”, or “Goodness me, this is going to ruin my holiday”.
Plus, children, let’s face it, are also less burdened by the logistics of travel. It is, after all, us frazzled adults who are navigating airports, sorting luggage, managing schedules and making decisions, while also fielding, on a loop, the broken record of: “Are we there yet?”
And finally…
Be kind to yourself. Jet lag is not a sign that something is wrong; it is simply your body’s natural response to crossing time zones. Yes, elite footballers are currently moving between time zones and performing at the highest level, but remember they also have a team of masseurs, nutritionists and people practically holding up their water bottles for them.
So, it is hardly surprising that the rest of us need a day or two to catch up. Give yourself permission to slow down, spend time outdoors, move your body, and be nice to your internal clock – it’s doing its best.
