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Copying with jet lag is not any new topic, but still you just need to look around after a long international flight to realize that not everybody is aware of its effects and how to avoid suffering from it. People's faces speak by themselves!

First of all, we need to look at the difference between traveling in a north-south line or in a east-west one. Feeling quite sluggish after a long-haul is something we may attribute to general air travel stress and dehydration.

In any case, you will normally find the most funny faces after a east-west flight or vice versa. The reason is quite simple: you are traveling between different time frames and your body becomes confused and finds it difficult to know what time it is and this causes internal confusion to all your internal functions, specially affecting your brain and digestion.

In any case, the worst situation is presented when flying from east to west, as your body is used to go to sleep later than normal, but it gets a very strange feeling from going to sleep earlier.

Jet lag is not something we can eradicate, but we can minimize it's effects following certain rules:

1. Reseting your watch to the time of your destination place before you board your flight will help your brain understand the new rules.

2. Avoid by all means drinking alcohol before, during and after the flight. Instead, drink plenty of water.

3. Don't stand up late on the week before you go on your trip. Sleep well and, if possible, exercise.

4. For the persons with problems to sleep on a plane, is is recommended to take your eastwards flight in the morning if possible.

5. After the flight, when arrived to destination, there are some rules you can follow to make the effects disappear in maximum 2 days. Basically it consists in following a program on when to look for bright light and when to avoid it.

The way it works is the following:

a) Traveling West:

Write down the time that you are used to wake up in the morning. Add 18:30 hours to this time and then take away a number of hours equal to the number of time frames you have crossed. From this time result and during 3 hours you should seek bright light. After this, you should spend 4 or 5 hours looking to hide from the light. This should be done during your first day at your destination. If the time difference is more than 6 hours, on the second day you should do the same planning but adding 3 hours to the established times for day 1.

b) Traveling East:

- 6 hours or less time difference:

Write down the time that

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