Flight attendant's tips to curing jet lag

How flight attendant's cope with jet lag. Photo / 123rf

There is nothing worse than losing the first couple of days of a holiday to jet lag.

There is also nobody better than a flight attendant to give advice on how to overcome it, which is what one flight attendant has done on the online discussion form, Quora.

According to Shreyas P, who claims he has worked for five major airlines where he has travelled to more than 50 countries, the first step towards beating jet lag is admitting you can't actually beat it - so stop trying. Instead, he said you're best chance at coping with different time zones until you adjust is to meet it somewhere in the middle.

"We [flight attendants] don't try to completely adjust to the time zones. If it is Europe then we get the time zone somewhere in the middle." he said.

"If you are used to sleeping at 11pm and in London that will mean at 4pm, we will try to sleep at 6-7pm London time.

"If you are used to waking up at 8am but in Europe that may mean at midnight then give your body a bit more rest and wake up around 4am and start your day with light exercise."

He also said you should absolutely not crawl into bed the minute you arrive at your destination if you flew overnight - no matter how tempting, news.com.au reported.

"If we have done midnight flights and land in the morning then we won't sleep like we have missed out on the night sleep. Instead, take a nap of two hours in the day time and then wake up to eat and get some sun, and then try to sleep early in the evening."

And finally, always, always set an alarm - and get up when it tells you to.

"Whatever happens make sure you wake up when your alarm tells you to wake up."