Nothing ruins your vacation like wasting the first day trying to recover from traveling. Time zones, cramped planes and altitude changes can all take tolls on your body, making you feel sluggish, tired or sick. Read on for simple travel practices that make big changes in how you feel when you land.
1. Save the Alcohol for Landing
While post take-off tequila shots are the perfect way to kickstart your vacation, they might be doing you more harm than good. A plane’s humidity can drop as low as 5%. On average, we live in 30-50% humidity, which means alcohol and dehydration kick in a lot quicker up in the air, making arrival rougher. Stick to water until your arrival destination. No one will judge you if your first stop after landing is to chug an airport bar margarita.
2. Skip Your Morning Coffee
We know it sounds like a sure fire way to completely ruin your day, but it actually may do the opposite. Caffeine stays in your system hours after enjoying the first sip, causing sleep to be a little more difficult to achieve come boarding time. Caffeine, like alcohol, also aids in dehydration, so save the java jolt until after you arrive.
3. Force Your Body to Adjust
Jet lag tends to only happen when traveling across two or more time zones. To avoid the dreaded feeling that goes along with it, prep yourself a few days before you leave to force your body to adjust. If traveling east, move your bedtime earlier, and when traveling west, make it a little later. Depending on which way you’re traveling, depends also on whether to get some shut-eye on board or not. For example, if your destination city is experiencing daytime while you’re flying, keep your in-flight activities to working, reading or relaxing.
4. Turn the Movie Off
If you plan to nap the flight away, be sure to turn off electronic devices an hour before you hope to sleep. The lights are stimulating and can disrupt your circadian clock causing the struggle to sleep to be at an all time high.
5. Avoid the Back
Unfortunately, sometimes you have no choice when it comes to choosing where you will remain for the endurance of your flight. However, when possible, stick to choosing a seat at the front of the plane. Bumps and turbulence are felt more in the back and it goes without saying that a smooth ride is a better ride.