A little back story:

As many folks know (at least anyone who follows me on Twitter), I spent a week and a half in Australia with my wife to celebrate our anniversary. Returning home, however posed a challenge that I hadn’t really had to deal with for quite some time.

You see, my normal practice for combating jetlag is that I make it a point to spend as much time as possible in natural sunlight. Yes, there are other tactics, but, whenever possible, I schedule my flights, such that my last flight deposits me in my destination with enough time to get at least an hour, if not multiple hours of natural sunlight.

So where did I go wrong? Well, my flight home! I talked a little about my back to back 14 hour flights, but I didn’t really mention the fact that, due to a variety of reasons, my flight into Washington-Dulles arrived at such a time that I didn’t even get an hour of sunlight, let alone a few. Despite the 787 delivering me well rested and reasonably hydrated, it didn’t ultimately help me with my jetlag.

The result, unfortunately, was that I was jetlagged, not one day, not two days, in fact, not even three days, but I was still feeling the remaining effects of jetlag on Thursday (after having arrived back home on Saturday!). Now part of this is my fault. Monday after work, I got home and after doing some work around the house, collapsed for not fewer than 3 hours. Epic fail, in my opinion. That right there, in my opinion, cost me at least a day, if not two, in trying to re-acclimate to the local time.

Wrapping Up

So, what is the point of this post? Well, really it is just to share that, there are a variety of strategies for avoiding or combating jetlag. But, in order for those tactics to work, you actually need to be able to do them. For me, my chief tactic for combating jetlag is to get natural sunlight. Well, winter-time with fewer hours of sunlight, is kind’ve a hard time to make that happen.

Do you have a strategy for avoiding or combating Jetlag? If so, please share it in the comments!