Welcome to the A to Z challenge, a blog post everyday of April apart from Sundays, covering every letter of the alphabet. My theme is travel, that thing that we haven’t been able to do over the last 12 months, so it seemed appropriate to reminisce about past travels we’ve taken, looking forward to when we can travel freely again.
I couldn’t think of anywhere we’d visited together for the letter J, so decided instead to tackle that thing that is a side effect of long distance travel, the dreaded Jetlag.
If you’ve ever flown long-haul, you’ll more than likely have experienced jetlag to some degree.
Lets get the science bit out of the way – jetlag happens when you fly across time zones and your circadian rhythm is disrupted.
You’ll also probably have been told lots of different ways to handle it, from the sensible to the extremely bizarre.
The flight we take that both of us get jetlag from, is the flight from the UK to Australia – flying back isn’t nearly as bad. I guess it’s something to do with missing half a day, because Australia is 9 to 11 hours ahead of us, depending on the time of the year. When we plan a holiday to Australia, the excitement is always tempered by knowing that we’re going to be spending almost a whole day on and off of planes.
We’re complete opposites when it comes to the flight, with my beloved falling asleep before the flight takes off, and me sleeping at best, an hour or two for the whole flight.
We often fly with Emirates which means a stop in Dubai for a few hours. If we show our boarding pass we get discounted meals in lots of the restaurants and if we’ve got time we find a lounger and try to get some sleep – well my beloved sleeps and I just end up reading.
Advice we’ve been given to cope with jetlag is that we should try and sleep on the plane at the same time as we would in the place we are heading to, but as already mentioned, neither of us achieve that. We make sure we drink plenty of water, and get up and walk around regularly.
We stop in Sydney for a few days with my lovely friend Kierstan, and these two photos show how we cope with jetlag once we’ve landed. Kierstan and I catch up with champagne, food, and a movie, whilst in a seat nearby my beloved blissfully snores.
The other advice which I have to agree with is no matter what time you arrive in your country of destination, even if it’s early in the morning, you should stay awake until normal bed time. My beloved finds this really difficult and falls asleep anywhere. I don’t blame him, as when jetlag hits it feels almost like you’ve been drugged, and I really have to fight it to stay conscious – coffee helps a lot.
Once he’s awake we get to enjoy my homeland, which is another good tip for beating jetlag, get some sunlight to help your circadian rhythm get back to normal.
Do you have any great remedies for helping recover from jetlag or like us do you just muddle through.
Thanks for stopping by and make sure you visit other bloggers who are crazy enough to be doing the challenge with me – Click Here to visit the master list of participants.
Stay safe and have great day.
Previous A to Z posts:
2018 – J is for Joy and Jaffa Cakes
2017 – J is for Jemimaville
Tasmanian Abroad 
Wow! This is new and exciting! I shall also try it sometime…
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Thanks for stopping by and glad you liked it.
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You’re welcome & All the best!
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Jetlag is a major downside of traveling. Especially where Australia is involved.
I couldn’t even tell if flying East or West bound is worse, I suffer both ways, even though I try to follow every advice from adjusting to the time at destination already en route to staying awake till proper night time. It’s hard. You still end up waking up in the middle of the freaking night, wide awake and hungry, only to feel sluggish and hungover the next day at 3pm.
This is why IF you decide to spend time at a far away location, you need to stay for at least three weeks!
https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/2021/04/a-z-2021-some-score-from-east-german.html
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Yes, minimum of 3 weeks when we go home to Oz. It’s such a weird feeling when it hits, and yes the waking up in the middle of the night is so annoying – it’s quite funny when we both wake up at the same time.
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I haven’t tried any other jetlag “remedies” other than the ones you’ve already mentioned.
Even when taking domestic flights and staying in the same time zone, I experience a type of jetlag… just the weariness of airport travel and being cramped on a plane. Ugh
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I know what you mean about any flights – there’s never enough room on smaller planes, and living out of a suitcase is very wearing.
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I’m a fan of push through and stay awake once you arrive. It makes for a tiring day, but then I’m usually good to go with the new time zone. Of course, I’ve never done the long distance flights that you have (at least not yet). My longest trips have been in the 6-8 hours range. Weekends In Maine
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The stay awake method definitely works for me, as I do seem to get over it quicker than my beloved.
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Wow, jet lag is definitely the down side of a great adventure! Still, you’ve got to take the bad with the good! And a great adventure is definitely worth a dose of jet lag. Nice story and great photographs.
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Thanks Alice, and I agree, jetlag is a small price to pay for going on an adventure.
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I don’t travel so I have not experience jetlag but I think I would be like your beloved – sleeping a lot. I find moving around a lot makes me sleepy. Even with jetlag, you at least, get to see the world.
Have a lovely day.
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I do envy my beloved being able to sleep so easily, and getting to see the world is worth it.
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