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A Road Warrior’s Guide to (Really) Avoiding Jet Lag
I’ve flown nearly 200,000 miles each year over the past 15— mostly internationally — from my homes in SF, NYC or LA. Before my life as a professional public speaker, mentor and investor, I grew up in the aviation industry. My dad is a great traveler and loves to explore, so from the age of 9 months, I’ve been completely at home on an airplane.
As a result, I don’t get jet lagged — not seriously, anyway. But I do see a lot of articles about how to beat jet lag, and most advice I read seems wrong or is overkill.
The below are real strategies from a road warrior on beating your jet lag. These are in order of importance, so just try and do as many as you can.
1. Stay Up All Day, The First Day
Regardless of the flight cycle, you must arrive at your destination and stay up until a reasonable bedtime before sleeping. Yes, you can go to bed on the early side of reasonable (say 9pm) but you need to get inside the zone of a good night’s sleep (~8 -10 hours before you must be up). If you arrive in the morning, you stay up all day. If you arrive at night, you go to sleep as soon as possible.
If you only do one thing, do this. And if you want to be on the destination schedule, DO NOT NAP the first day at your destination. Napping will prevent you…
