What is jet lag and how to cope with it in a natural way

How to recognize it?

Usually not required to pass a special examination to see if there have jet lag or not. If you have crossed several time zones and watch at any of the above symptoms are likely to jet lag you have. Do not be scared and immediately leave, give your body a few days to adjust. But if in addition to these symptoms you are concerned about something else, consult a doctor.

How to prepare?

• A few days before the trip, change your normal sleep. If you are traveling in an easterly direction, lie down and get up earlier, and if in the west - later.
• Try to choose the flight so as to arrive not too late in the evening and go to bed at 10 o'clock local time.
• Before boarding the plane, change the time on the time of the time zone where you are flying.

What to do while traveling?

• Spend the first day after the arrival on the street. Sunlight strongly affects our biological clock. It will help the body to adjust to the new time zone. If all the time to stay indoors, jet lag symptoms will intensify.
• Move. Sport activities in the morning or late afternoon will help to cheer up and reconfigure the body's internal clock. But exercise shortly before bedtime only further frustrate your daily cycle.
• Try not to sleep during the day. If you still want to relax, sleep no more than two hours. Not to sleep, set the alarm.
• Dissociate itself from the superfluous sounds and light using a mask and earplugs for sleeping. Restful sleep - the best way to reset your body clock.
• Give up alcohol and coffee for a few hours before bedtime. These drinks stimulate the nervous system and hinder the body's adaptation to the new conditions. Prefer herbal teas. A cup of yerba mate, or a decoction of ginkgo biloba and ginseng cheer in the morning. Chamomile, lavender and valerian help you sleep at night.
• If you leave for a couple of days, do not do anything. Try to eat and visit in the sun at the same time as the house. This will prevent the occurrence of jet lag symptoms after returning to his native time zone.

Myths about jet lag

• Jet lag can be cured. You can relieve symptoms and speed recovery time, but the only cure for jet lag - the time. Indeed, the body needs to reset the biological clock and change the sleep mode, and it is not too fast.
• Alcohol or sleeping pills to cope with jet lag. And then, and more will only help to fall asleep during the flight time, but with jet lag can not cope. In addition, it is not known how it can affect your health.
• If you fly first class, jet lag will not. Of course, you better night's sleep on a folding chair, but your biological clock stray in the same way as in the economy class passengers.
• Abrupt change of power will help to reset the biological clock. Many sites are advised to change the diet before the trip, promising that it will magically save from jet lag. To this end, there is proposed at a certain time of the day, then increasing, then reducing the size of the portions. However, scientific evidence that this method works, it is not revealed.