Mumbai :  With the arrival of the festive season, most travellers have begun drawing up their holiday plans.  However more often than not, what can act as a dampener is the phenomenon of ‘jet lag’ which when flying out to long haul destinations takes the fun out of travelling. In fact, the findings of a leading global travel search site reveal that 2 out of 5 Indians have said that it takes them 2 days to get over jet lag.  The survey undertaken by Skyscanner sheds light on the most popular anti-jetlag techniques used by Indian air passengers.

Though it takes Indian travellers on an average 2 days to overcome jet lag, 40% of the younger generation (18-24 year olds) admitted to requiring 1 day whilst 8% of travellers in the 55+ age group required a minimum of 4 days. Out of the 1000 Indian travellers that took part in Skyscanner’s survey, close to 900 travellers said they had flown long-haul in the past year and 37% of the travellers said they experienced the worst effects of jet lag when flying west to a later time zone.

Eating a light diet of healthy fresh food was seen as the most popular anti-jetlag technique amongst Indian travellers with 3 out of 5 travellers said they had tried this to offset the effects of a long-haul flight. Following closely behind was stretching and taking light exercise on the flight (45%), exercising and getting fresh air on the day of travel (41%) and setting their watch to the new time-zone (40%). Extreme forms of combating jet lag such as staying awake throughout the flight and sleeping only when they arrived at their destination was seen by women more than men with 29% of women resorting to this measure as compared to 24% of men.

Tony Gherardin, National Medical Adviser at the Travel Doctor – TMC noted his tips for effectively combating the effects: ‘In an ideal world, to prevent jetlag we should begin taking on the habits of destination time zone before we leave home. That is, eating at the same time and sleeping or resting at the same time as what you would be doing at that destination. Of course this isn’t always possible at home or even while flying. What works reasonably well is to eat light meals and keep hydrated, avoiding heavy foods and alcohol.’  Regarding sleeping tablets, Tony advises that ‘safe use of sleeping tablets or melatonin once you’ve reached your destination can also assist in getting your body in sync with the time zone.’

Though herbal remedies (20%), sleeping tablets (15%), anti-jet lag pills (13%) and melatonin (12%) were used by many of the Indian air passengers in the survey, most passengers found them ineffective.  In fact, more intriguing facts were revealed by Skyscanner’s survey with 11% of respondents saying they have even tried taking Viagra to combat the effects of jetlag, following historical reports that taking Viagra could aid jetlag recovery.*

Further the survey raised some eye-raising findings on the effects of alcohol at 30,000 feet. Whilst the majority of travellers (60%) said they had avoided alcohol on-board, one in five travellers stated that they had consumed alcohol in an attempt to offset jetlag with more men (25%) than women (13%) admitting that this remedy had been successful in negating the effects of jetlag.

Kavitha Gnanamurthy, Skyscanner’s Marketing Manager for India, commented, “With most Indian travellers making their end of year holiday plans to long haul destinations, our survey comes in handy for those who do not know how to combat the inevitable.  Though we all have our own way of dealing with jet lag, simple measures such as eating light healthy foods and hydrating oneself whilst avoiding alcohol can go a long way in starting your holiday on a good note.”

Source : Rohini Saldanha