Jet Lag Prevention Protocols: Must Include Coffee!

Jet lag is a soul-crusher.

You know the feeling: you’re so excited to be on a trip you’ve been looking forward to for ages, but you’re too tired to enjoy it.

You’ve been up for hours and hours, trudging through airports, breathing questionable recirculated air at high altitudes, running to make connections, eating somewhat unrecognizable food, twisted like a pretzel in an uncomfortable seat and unable to sleep, trying to maintain a sense of optimism about your luggage arriving with you if you checked a bag or schlepping your heavy carry-on into the overhead compartment, using all of your remaining brain cells to figure out how the ground transportation – train, taxi, metro ride-share? All of that takes a big toll on your mental capacity and your body’s ability to stay awake.

Jet lag really sinks its teeth into you when you finally arrive in your nice, clean hotel room with the big, beckoning bed. Your whole being cries out to you, “Sleep. Sleep now. You won’t regret it.”

But the thing is, you WILL regret it. Or at least I did, the very few times I gave into that seductive suggestion of sleep-upon-arrival as a cure for jet lag. One time, in Scotland in the winter, I took a ‘power nap’ that turned into a 6-hour slumber-fest, and when I awoke at 7:30 p.m., I thought it was 7:30 a.m. I had a hilarious phone conversation with the front desk person when I asked if breakfast was available yet (they tried really hard not to treat me like I was a stupid American traveler) – and I never could get properly adjusted to the time zone on that trip. Jet lag was my master. It was a hard lesson, but a good one to learn early.

Jet Lag Avoidance Measures

I’ve been traveling internationally for almost three decades now and have honed a set of routines to minimize the effects of jet lag, and more importantly, to live my very best life, even on the first travel day:

• Never nap after arrival! Stay up until a regular bedtime for the locale.
• To accomplish this, keep moving. Walk, walk, walk and when you’re tired, walk some more. The views, customs, people and architecture captivate the imagination, activate your curiosity and help stave off weariness.
• Plan an activity for the first afternoon or evening that you’re looking forward to. On a trip to Paris in 2014 with my son, his first international trip, we went to the Eiffel Tower in the late afternoon on the first day. Jet lag had started to attack him like an angry boa constrictor, but as we rounded the corner of a large building across the street and he got his first view of that iconic structure, he wrestled free of it and came to life for the rest of the evening. It’s a moment we will both remember forever.
• Coffee. Always coffee. As soon as you can after arrival, have coffee at a local coffee shop and soak up the culture of the place. Talk to the people and/or the proprietor and get started on the travel serendipity magic.
• When you do sleep (only at night!), use an eye mask. It gets light very early in Northern Europe, and doesn’t even really get fully dark in some places in the summer (check out this post about what’s called “nautical twilight” in Aberdeen). An eye mask helps send the signal to the brain that it is dark and time for shut-eye.

Coffee at Funder Café in Copenhagen

My son is a devotee of these jet lag prevention strategies, too, and we each proved them again on a recent trip. He was already in Europe, having joined his Dad and Bonus Mom in Latvia for ten days, and I met up with them in Copenhagen. As soon as we got to our hotel, Thomas and I took off to seek a coffee shop. I didn’t even look twice at the bed. In fact, I carefully looked away from it while I stowed my stuff. I had no time for its destructive siren song!

After a stroll of just a few minutes, we chose a place called Funder. What a treat! It wasn’t just a jet lag killer, it was a true FIND.

The decor at Funder was jazz, jazz and more jazz, with a huge variety of classic albums framed on the wall. We LOVED it! If you’ve followed the blog for a while, you know that jazz is central in our lives, especially my son’s. Rather than go into that now while I’m opining about jet lag and caffeine, here’s a link to dozens of posts about jazz and his music career. Take a look and maybe a listen, if you have time.

We sat outside to people-watch. It was awesome. The coffee was awesome. I didn’t feel the three flights, 20 hours of travel or lack of sleep while airborne. I felt ALIVE and lucky to be there, drinking coffee with my kid, appreciating the that we had six full days of European vacation ahead of us. Funder coffee was a great way to spend my first hour in Copenhagen after arriving at the hotel. You can’t read it well in the sign below on the window because of the shade, but it definitely lives up to its tag line: “Just a nice, feel-at-home kind of café.” Yes!

The coffee was spectacular, perfectly made and as vibrantly refreshing as any I’ve ever sipped, anywhere. As a plus, we had a wonderful conversation with the barista, an international journalist who was working at his friend’s coffee shop between assignments. His journalism role involves covering wars and conflicts, so making fabulous coffee for people must be a refreshing way to relax and recharge. You meet the most interesting people when you travel!

If we had had more time in Copenhagen, I would have come back with a book to read in the little nook off of the main room. Funder was that kind of place – a “feel-at-home kind of café,” just like the sign said.

More to Come on Copenhagen

We followed the walk, walk and walk some more strategy on that first day in Copenhagen, too, and were enchanted by it. But that’s a post for another day.

More Jet Lag Prevention Tips from the New York Times

I saw an article today in Apple News about jet lag, via the New York Times: The 6 Best Strategies for Coping With Jet Lag. That was the impetus for this post.

I was gratified to see that Times article outlined some of the same strategies I use, and there are also a couple of suggestions about exposure to light and starting to modify your bedtime a few days before you travel. It’s a good read. I think I’ll just stick with my approach, though, because it has worked for me.

Do you have any tips for coping with jet lag? Please share!

© Glover Gardens, 2024