How to beat jet lag the natural way

Christmas is over for another year and you’re back home after – if you’re lucky – a long, relaxing holiday abroad. You thought you’d maximise your time on the beach by landing from the long-haul flight and heading straight to the office. But after a couple of hours you feel horrendous. Yes, the dreaded jet lag has caught up with you.

As exciting as long-haul holidays are, jet lag can really bring you down. For some, it’s a minor annoyance, but for others it can cause severe fatigue, digestive upsets, memory lapses, insomnia, irritability and lethargy.

What causes jet-lag?

Your body is used to a regular routine of light and darkness at certain times of the day. But when you travel to a new time zone, this routine is disrupted. It throws off your circadian rhythm, which helps control when you wake up and go to sleep.

Jet lag occurs when your body’s circadian rhythm needs to re-align itself with a different light-dark schedule and daily routine. The more time zones you cross, the more likely you are to be sleepy and sluggish, and the more intense the symptoms are likely to be. They say that for every time zone you cross going east, you need a day to readjust. When going west, it takes about half that time.

The solution

Some of the best-known methods of overcoming jet lag include synchronising your body clock days before the flight; drinking lots of fluid to stave off dehydration; sleeping on the plane if it’s bedtime in your arrival city, or staying awake if it isn’t.

All too often, we resort to knocking back shots of caffeine to keep us awake, or medication to help us nod off, neither of which are anything more than short-term solutions. In fact, they prolong the vicious jet lag cycle for days on end.

You’re much better off turning to alternative therapies such as light therapy, aromatherapy, herbal remedies, homeopathy, and massage to combat the effects. Here’s how they work:

Light therapy

Light therapy affects the production of melatonin in the body. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the body at night, and broken down during the day. Its presence or absence causes you to feel sleepy in the dark and awake in the light. An intense application of light is thought to ‘reset’ the body clock by suppressing the production of melatonin, thereby keeping you awake during the daytime at your destination.

Aromatherapy

Essential oils can perk you up or relax you, depending on what you need. For example, oils that contain grapefruit, cardamom and rosemary are stimulating, and can help keep you alert and refreshed when you need to stay awake. While oils that contain lavender and mandarin have calming, sedative properties and can be used to aid relaxation if you’re having trouble catching forty winks.

Herbal remedies

Passion flower, camomile, valerian and lettuce tea are just some of the traditional herbal remedies you can use to help calm your mind and induce sleep after a long-haul flight. You can buy them as teas or tablets in any health shop.


Massage

We all know that massages are relaxing, but over and above that, they offer physical benefits. Reflexology and aromatherapy massages are particularly effective against jet lag.

Reflexology massage targets the central nervous system and the pineal gland. Stimulating this gland increases the production of melatonin, which is needed for a healthy sleep-wake cycle.

Meanwhile, aromatherapy uses essential oils that relax the mind and body. Inhaling them helps soothe the limbic system, regulate the body’s heart rate and balance blood pressure, all of which translate to a healthier sleep-wake cycle.

Combined with Swedish or Thai massage, aromatherapy can be an super effective way to encourage your body and mind to adjust back to your normal routine.

We can help you relax

We can help you beat your jet lag at Castle Thai Spa with one of our signature Thai Yoga Massage, or Thai Oil Massages. Call us on 0131 629 0794 to book yours today.

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