When you’re travelling to study abroad, people often look at all the major things that go into that process. They think of their accommodation, college, where they can buy groceries and many other factors. One thing that a large portion of them neglect or outright forget is the effects of jet lag and what it can do to their internal clock. It feels weird when your body tells you it’s 10 am, and you see it’s 5 pm, right?

This guide will give you an idea of jet lag, its causes, factors, and risks, some jet lag remedies to help you work through it, and what it’s doing to you so you can tackle your new international student life with vigour and without a constant need for coffee.

Jet Lag, What Is It?

Before we get started, you may ask yourself, “What is jet lag?” Simply put, jet lag is when your internal clock gets confused while trying to adapt to a new time zone. This often causes you not to realise what time it is, and it will heavily affect your sleep schedule.

Is Jet Lag A Real Thing?

Scientifically, yes! Besides the general confusion it causes, it also affects you physiologically. It may even cause physical symptoms such as headaches, lack of focus, lack of appetite, and inexplainable fatigue. 

Keep in mind that the older you are, the more jet lag can affect your internal clock, while children might not even be impacted in the first place! While it isn’t anything alarming, not dealing with jet lag may cause you more trouble than it’s worth.

When Is It At Its Worst?

You’d assume that jet lag applies to you on the same, or at least similar levels, no matter what, right? Studies have shown that jet lag is worse and more exhausting when travelling eastward, as your timezone changes so that you go to sleep earlier. 

Travelling westward will simply make your day longer, something that is naturally easy for you to adapt to. If you’re travelling to the east, however, you sleep earlier and wake up earlier, which will heavily impact your internal clock on a normal day, never mind if you're in a new timezone.

How Do I Know I’m Jet Lagged?

While it affects us all in different ways, it’s usually easy to tell when you have a strong case of jet lag. The further away you are from your original timezone, the stronger the symptoms as your body adapts to a new schedule. Another factor is how comfortable your airplane ride was. If it isn’t comfortable, then it will most likely contribute to making your jet lag fatigue stronger.

Jet Lag Factors and Risks

Now, you have a general idea of what jet lag is, but what goes into it? Several factors determine how severe your jet lag will be and how it can affect you.

Jet Lag Factors

• Trip Details:

  • The distance you have travelled and how far it is from your original timezone.

  • The number of layovers during the flight.

  • The direction you’re travelling (east or west).

• Arrival Time:

  • The time of day at the destination can affect you greatly.

  • For example, if you took off at 10 am, travelled for 5 hours, then got off the plane and it’s only 11 am.

• Age:

  • The older you get, the more severe it can be.

  • Children may not even experience jet lag at all.

• Pre-Travel Sleep:

  • Getting poor sleep before the flight can increase jet lag risk. 

  • Poor sleep during the flight may increase the risk as well.

• Stress Level:

  • Stress can disrupt natural rhythms and hinder sleep, causing you to be jet-lagged on arrival.

• Caffeine Quantities:

  • Consumption of large amounts of caffeine can disrupt sleep and exacerbate jet lag.

Jet Lag Risks

While it can go away by itself, jet lag can cause more than its fair share of issues if not treated properly when needed. At its core, it is a short-term issue. It doesn’t last very long, and most people can get over it without doing anything noteworthy.

Issues arise when jet lag does not go away after a while, and in some cases, it grows more severe as time goes on. This is when you should be alarmed and start looking into remedies for your health.

Long-Term Exposure

If you’re travelling once or twice, the chances of jet lag causing you long-term issues are slim to none. If you’re a frequent flier, pilot, flight attendant, etc, then jet lag may get to you eventually.

If your internal clock is constantly out of sync due to changing timezones on a quick enough basis, you can expect insomnia to be one of your first and, hopefully, only complications, as diabetes and depression can also become risk factors. 

Jet Lag Remedies

Now that we’ve established what jet lag is, what causes it, and what its risks and factors are, all that remains is answering the question, "How do I treat it?”. There are a few tried and tested tips that can help you get over jet lag with fewer symptoms than the norm. 

Can I Completely Prevent It?

To put it simply, no. You can’t completely prevent jet lag, even if we all want to. The best we can do is work on ways to avoid it and alleviate the jet lag.

How Long to Get Over It?

Getting over jet lag usually takes a few days from the time when you get off the plane. To try and gauge it, as a general rule of thumb, you can count it as one day of adjustment per new timezone. Therefore, if you cross four different time zones on your way to your destination, then you will take approximately four days or so to get over your jet lag.

Tips for Recovery and Alleviating Symptoms

Researchers have not yet discovered a real, effective cure for jet lag. However, most symptoms will go away by themselves. If you just let your symptoms be, without any cures or remedies, they will likely disappear within a few days without requiring any real treatment.

The following jet lag remedies are only for when you’re taking too long to recover or need to recover quickly to get back to your studies immediately.

• Preparing In Advance: As you should be aware of what time it will be in the new time zone before you even arrive, it would help to prepare your schedule in advance. Slowly adjusting your schedule at home to match that of the new time zone, such as changing your meals to be earlier or later and doing the same for your sleep schedule, will go a long way towards how quickly you can adapt to the new time zone.

• Plane Activity: Keeping your body active during the flight, especially if it’s a long one, can help with jet lag symptoms once you’ve arrived. Try walking around the cabin or doing simple stretches and breathing exercises. Even if they don’t assist too much with jet lag, they will at least keep your body limber and avoid being tense and fatigued when you arrive.

• Adapting: The simplest and most obvious solution is to immediately ensure that all your watches and clocks are set to the new timezone. This guarantees that you’re constantly surrounded by the new timezone, so you can try to adapt to it as soon as possible.

• Getting Some Sun: Once you’ve arrived at your destination, you may be tempted to stay indoors, but it’s actually better for you to stay outside and take in the sun. Sunlight increases alertness and helps your body recognise the time you should be awake, increasing the speed of your adaptation.

• Quality Sleep: After you get your fill of the outside, getting some quality sleep will go a long way for you. This is even more recommended if you did not or could not get any sleep on the plane. To help with this, you may want to get some accessories that increase the quality of your sleep, such as noise-cancelling headphones, eye masks, earplugs, and comfortable/familiar pillows and blankets.

• Keep Your Space Comfortable: Whether you’re about to sleep in your new, unfamiliar bed or sit in the living room, make sure that everything is comfortable for you. Adapting to a new environment is already difficult enough; if the environment you’re adapting to is uncomfortable as well, then you only make it harder on yourself.

• Avoid New Foods: While jumping into new cuisine as soon as you arrive may be tempting, it’s actually better for your adaptability to stay with familiar foods for a day or two at most before attempting new dishes. The familiarity will help ease you into the new surroundings.

• Drink Plenty of Water: Dehydration is no joke by itself, but it can actually make your jet lag significantly worse if you’re not properly hydrated for an extended period of time. Drink plenty of water, do your best to get your daily fill of water, and don’t ignore any moment you feel thirsty.

• Ask Your Doctor: Most obviously, if you have any medical conditions or simply any concerns about jet lag as a whole, then it would not hurt to ask your doctor about it. As someone with medical expertise and knowledge of your personal health, he can give you his own suggestions for dealing with jet lag when it occurs and how you can best avoid it or alleviate the symptoms when they occur.
  
  

As we’ve now established, jet lag is an inevitable issue that all travellers and students face on their way to a new destination abroad. We’ve gone through what it is, what it does, what causes it, what it can do to you and how to remedy it as best as possible. Hopefully, this has helped you with all future international travel.

If you simply regulate your schedule, keep yourself hydrated, and work on being aware of the symptoms and how to alleviate them, you will not fear jet lag or international travel in the future.