DR. AUX’S MAGICAL, CURE-ALL JET LAG ELIXER

People always ask me, How do you combat Jet Lag?

Well, there are no easy answers, and no real sure-fire remedies.  But over the decades I HAVE come up with what works best for me, and is standard advice I give everyone.  It’s simple, easy, and if you follow it, will cut your jet-laggishness by gobs:

1.) Sleep as much as you can, When you can.

2.) Wherever you are, THAT’S what time it is!

Th-th-that’s all, folks!!!

Embellishment:

1.) Tired on the plane?  Cat-nap.  Exhausted when you arrive? Snooze!  Can’t keep your eyes open at din-din?  Fall asleep in your pasta bowl.  DON’T “plan ahead” and try to “manage” your sleep!  For example, don’t force yourself to stay up on the plane ride till local bedtime, when you can hardly keep your eyes open.  ‘Cause, what if local sleepy time comes around and NOW you got your second wind?!  Now you CAN’T sleep, when you need to!  And that first day doing Vienna’s "Sound of Music" Tour's shot.

The more you sleep, the quicker you’ll adjust to local time!

Conversely, if you pop up wide awake at 3am, there’s no sense in tossing and turning for the next three hours.  Go take a serene walk  around the Eiffel Tower!  There’s something sublimely serendipitous about being awake and experiencing the magic of life in a strange corner of the planet when the rest of the world is asleep around you!

2.)  Set your wristwatch to LOCAL time, and FORGET about the time at home!!!  I can’t stress this enough.   Psychologically, you are curious about the time at home, and your body wants to adhere to that schedule, which is completely irrelevant and temporarily obsolete!

When in Rome, do when the Romans do!

 Yes, these two rules can conflict, so Rule 2 is subordinate to Rule 1.  Just do this to the best of your ability!

As for pre-planning, if you have the flexibility and the fortitude, getting to bed an hour earlier each night for a few nights (9pm, then 8pm, then 7pm...) for a trip Eastbound (conversely 1hr/day later Westbound) might help...but it's a lotta work and tough to schedule.  Good luck with dat!

For me, Part of the joys of world travel is getting COMPLETELY lost and disoriented in a new corner of the world--language, locale, time...I lose even my own identity, become that feather on the wind in “Forest Gump”; it's an amazingly liberating and psychologically freeing experience to Let Go of ALL structure in your life!  You’ll find that that very same structure is its own gilded cage, and you have the POWER to cast it off at will!!

And you’ll come home, refreshed, with a whole new attitude and appreciation for your life!  Just make sure you schedule a couple of days to "recover" from your "R&R!"

Oh, yeah, you can do this stuff, too.  Except for the avoiding naps thing.  Du -umb!

A side note on sleep aids.  Just about everything I've tried SUCKS!  Most drugs just give me crappy sleep and I awake groggy and more fatigued than when I went to bed.  But, two things that seem to do it best for me are 1.) ignatia amara, a homeopathic remedy that allows you to relax rather than force you to sleep (thanks, Lisa, for this one!) and 2.) nothing beats a simple Tylenol PM!  Melatonin seems to work for many, though for me it's a bit "hit and miss."  (Ideally, take 3 hrs. before local bed time...)

If, at bedtime, you're not feeling it, try one of the above sleep aids.   It's all one big experiment when it comes to your own body and world travel...

And that's part of the big adventure--self-discovery--ain't it?!

Oh, and PS: The best travel tip I ever received came from my dad.  He was not a pilot, not a real world traveler (though he served on a Destroyer in the Pacific in WWII.)  He said,  "When you plan a trip, first lay out on your bed everything you want to take.  Then, put away half the clothes and take twice the money."

I've never gone wrong taking that advice!

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PS:  Today some of you may have seen references to "Kony 2012."  Check this out!:

http://www.kony2012.com/