4 Ways To Beat Jetlag
By Judy Lee ‘17
As classes start back up, it sucks to tackle jetlag on top of classes. After an 8-hour flight, here are some realizations I’ve had that may help you the next time you have important stuff to do after you land. Sometimes you just gotta:
1. Stick it out
This is the all-time easy solution: just stay awake and sleep when everyone else does. While this is overstated and difficult to accomplish, it is something that is almost surefire in resetting your circadian rhythms if done correctly (which means no naps!).
2. Eat on Schedule
Eating when the locals eat may just be helpful in making sure you’re on the same pattern of not just sleeping, but eating as well. Eating a meal can be energizing and keep you going longer than if you had tried to stick it out because you weren’t exactly hungry.
3. Get more Legroom
This sounds strange, but makes sense. It may cost more money to buy a seat on an airplane with extra legroom, but may pay off if you’re on a particularly long flight (7+ hours). The simple logic here is that the more room you have to stretch out, the closer position your body is in to where it normally is when you fall asleep—thus, making it easier to fall asleep on the plane. If this isn’t possible, try and get a seat in the middle of the plane rather than in the front or back (both sides move a lot during turbulence whereas the middle is better-stabilized).
4. Avoid caffeine at least 24 hours before long flights
This is probably the hardest one to pull off, but also makes a lot of sense. Caffeine takes a lot of time to completely exit the body, so drinking a cup of joe before a flight is not exactly smart as it may backfire when it comes time to sleep (or on the other end, backfiring by making you crash when it’s time to wake up). This lack of influence will allow your body to reset without foreign interference.
Want more from Trojans 360?
Visit Trojans 360 on Facebook & Twitter to stay up to date with more student content!
Check out our Instagram, where we feature a week in the life of a USC student each week!
Trojans 360 is USC’s official student-run blog. Content created by students, for students.
