How to Get Better Sleep While Traveling
Whether traveling for work or leisure, often or just every once in a while, sleep and new locations seems to be a bad combination for many people. Many factors can impact your body’s circadian rhythm, and when you travel to a different time zone, getting a good night’s sleep can be a struggle.
Luckily, jet lag isn’t a new phenomenon, so scientists and ordinary people alike have devised several tips and tricks to help overcome it. Even though you might not have as great of a sleep as at home on your cool memory foam mattress, here are a few tips you can try.
Be Strategic
Getting a better night’s sleep while traveling starts before you even pack your bags. Three days before your flight leaves, you should adjust your bedtime to suit the time zone of your destination better. If you’re going to a place where you’ll lose time, go to bed an hour earlier and go to bed later if you’ll be gaining time. It can take a day or longer for your body to naturally adjust to each time zone you skip. So, for every time zone that you’ll be traveling over, adjust your sleep schedule by an hour every night before the trip.
Find an Accommodating Hotel
When most people are booking a hotel, they might look for free breakfast, premium cable television, or an Olympic-size pool. For business travel in particular, you should look into the sleep amenities of the hotel. Some hotels will offer things like blackout curtains, eye covers, a selection of pillows, and even a memory foam mattress king size.
Go Towards the Light
A core component of a good night’s sleep is exposing yourself to light. It’s how the body knows when to start shutting down and when to wake up naturally. When in a new destination, you should try and get as much light as possible during the late morning and early afternoon hours. Even if it feels like it’s still 8 p.m. based on your home time zone, this extra light should help recalibrate your internal clock and help keep you awake until bedtime. Just be mindful to avoid blue light from electronics late at night, as these can keep you awake and cause troubles sleeping.
Adapt to Your Environment
When you get to your destination, try and sync up with the local time and sleep habits. If you arrive at 9 in the morning yet it’s 3 a.m. home time, do your best to stay awake for the rest of the day to better sync up. You can try taking a shower or changing your clothes if you’re struggling to stay awake, and 20-minute power naps also prove helpful for some travelers. Consider sleeping on the plane to your destination so you’re more awake when you land and can hit the ground running.
If Only There for Two Days or Less, Stick to Your Schedule
In relation to the previous tip, if you’re only going to be at your destination for 48 hours or less, such as for a quick business trip, you should stick to your normal waking and sleeping schedule, if possible. It typically takes around two days to adjust to a different time zone, so by the time you would have adapted to the time zone, it would already be time to head home. Try and schedule meetings and other obligations during your peak waking hours to ensure productivity and alertness.
About Muse Sleep
Muse Sleep offers a variety of sleep solutions like their cool memory foam mattress and pillows. Founded in late 2016, the company strives to create products that provide a better sleep for any body and sleep position. Their innovative Diamond Breeze Fabric provides cooling support all-night long. Muse Sleep offers mattresses in a variety of sizes and firmness levels and their 120-night trial period lets you sleep on it before committing to the mattress.
To get a better sleep, visit www.musesleep.com