I couldn't believe what I was hearing!
A reporter from the New York Times no less, was having trouble getting the simple message. If you want to beat jet lag the first and foremost thing you need to pay attention to is timed light exposure. What does that even mean? I was shocked I mean I knew light exposure mattered, but that much! Not the potions and lotions you've been sold on. Not sleep, not massages, not acupuncture, none of that matters if you don't have timed light exposure as the first thing to do to.
It wasn't me hearing this firsthand I was listening to Mickey Bayer Clausen a guest on my podcast, but it was still hard to hear. This was the New York Times, a respectable newspaper with pretty smart journalists by any standard. Mickey had to have 3 separate chats with the journalist to set them on the straight and narrow truth about jet lag.
Yet still, the narrative persists. Who is Mickey you might ask, and what makes his word gospel? Mickey is Co-Founder of the Timeshifter App that NASA relies on to train astronauts! Oh just another snake oil salesman wanting to sell you stuff... not so fast! I dare you to try the app and not see the difference yourself.
The great conversation with Mickey drew out some other great distinctions chief of which was Sleep Science is not Circadian Science and while Sleep Science is useful and supportive of Circadian Science if you want results in beating jet lag you have to pay attention to Circadian Science. The takeaway is don't put the cart before the horse, you'll get a whole new level of results, then you can build all the other good stuff in to help that work life balance.
Another great point we covered was morning types and evening types, and the potential harm we might be doing to ourselves when we don't live in harmony with our circadian rhythm (as a frequent business traveller tell me about it!! ). If you can't leave the 21st century behind and live under a rock, chances are you are going to have to live with adaptations to get by. If this is the case then getting to know what your chronotype is would be a good start to setting up your stall.
Once you have that sorted out you can make the modifications that suit your lifestyle and your health and sleep goals. That is when sleep coaching school can be of help in fine tuning your sleep protocols, yep I called them protocols because you should fall asleep the same way every time you go to bed.
At NoJetStress I am currently taking a few committed travellers through their paces of setting up their sleep strategy as a productivity tool for successful business travel. If you are curious click the button below to have a complementary chat.
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