I was reading a post one our friend in China wrote on jet lag and thought I would share a few tricks I have learned from having traveled to more than 30 countries worldwide with more than six 18 hour+ flights and never had issues with jet lag.

In the article linked above, our friend, Biscuet, mentions one of the key things about avoiding jet lag, and that is to adjust to the destination time zone starting with you flight.  I go about about it a little differently than he does, and my method may not be possible for all or for the faint of heart, but don’t worry; it does not involve anything crazy, just determination, willpower and creativity.

Biscuet recommends sleeping on the flight during the destination time zone’s night.  While this is a great method if you can do it, some may find it more difficult than others.  I have huge problems sleeping on planes as I can never get comfortable and usually wake up about four or five times and hour with a neck ache, back ache or some extremity coming painfully back from falling asleep via circulation issues.

Sleep Deprivation For Jet Lag Prevention

I use sleep deprivation to effectively reset my body clock within 24-36 hours.  What I do is stay up for the entire flight.  I find that if I put my mind to it and occasionally with a little help from a coffee or caffeinated soft drink I can do this rather easily.  Here are some ideas for things to fill the time.

  • Watching movies
  • Reading magazines
  • Reading RSS Feeds
  • Listening to music
  • Listening to Podcasts
  • Drawing/sketching
  • Playing games/cards
  • Talking to people/flight crew
  • Occasionally walking the aisles
  • Thinking about the future
  • Thinking about past experiences
  • Writing down thoughts and notes/goals and ideas

Upon arrival at my destination, I will, as Biscuet suggests, stay up until at least 9 or 10PM at the destination time zone and make myself get up before 10AM.  The following day I am usually a little sore from the flight and slightly fatigued, but after the following night I have no issues and can go about my activities with no ill effects.

I hope this method will be helpful either for you or someone you know.  We’d love to hear you ideas and recommendations for beating jet-lag below.

Awesome Time Zone Tool

While searching the inter-webs for images to use for this post I found this awesome site I wanted to share with you.  It gives you a dead simple to understand visual of the different times zones and you can easily move the time around in order to figure our when a good time to call or meet someone in a different time zone would be.  It works in most modern browsers that support HTML5 and works great on the iPad as well.  Hope it’s helpful!  Check it out here.