“Jet lag is the worst thing in my life,” DJ David Guetta once told The National upon postponing an interview when he arrived to play a show on Yas Island. “Everything is good in my life except this.”
Described as the effect of travelling across different time zones that causes a delay between the new time and the body’s own internal circadian clock, experts say jet lag not only disrupts sleeping and waking patterns, but can also upset appetite, digestion, body temperature, blood pressure and productivity.
If it can affect regular globe-trotters like Guetta, holiday-makers flying from or returning to the UAE may need to work harder to mitigate the effects of jet lag. Here are some tips and tricks from experts, airlines, fellow travellers and parents.
How do pilots and cabin crew manage jet lag?
There are directives on the Emirates and Etihad Airways websites, with the latter's guest services department offering the following advice to trainee cabin crew: “Plan to rest before your flight. Beginning a trip with sleep debt seems to increase the duration and severity of the jet lag. Stick to your home-base timings, which include meals, exercise and sleep if your stay is less than three days. If your stay is longer than three days, then adjust your timings to the local destination.”
The guide also suggests taking a brief nap once after arriving at a destination, and then being active until night-time, “so you will be able to fall asleep again and wake up fresh in the morning”.
Likewise the “after you arrive” precautions listed on the Emirates website advise travellers to maximise their light exposure if arriving in the daytime and “take a walk in the sunshine on the morning after your arrival if you have travelled eastward, as sunlight can help reset your body clock more quickly; and try to sleep at the new times and only have short naps during the day if you are very tired”.
Connection between food and flying
Experts say dehydration is one of the primary causes of poor quality sleep and agree that limiting caffeinated beverages before and during a flight, and avoiding alcoholic ones altogether, can ease jet lag. They advise drinking plenty of water instead to keep hydrated.
Conversely, Russell Foster of Oxford University, who co-authored a book on circadian rhythms, says coffee can offset effects when touching down at a new destination. “I’m not suggesting it’s an ideal thing to do, but caffeine will help override the sleepiness and cognitive impairment you might be feeling as a result of jet lag,” Foster told AP this month.
Eating at the same time as the locals is another effective strategy, with Emirates suggesting on its website that travellers “eat at the 'new' meal times. Some foods may promote sleep better, such as carbohydrates and milk, while high protein foods will improve alertness, but avoid caffeine after 4pm.”
The Etihad guide adds: “Eat light meals, and never go to bed on an empty or too-full stomach.”
Jet lag and children
The National's Melissa Gronlund travelled on two red-eye flights in a row, with her toddlers in tow, and offers the following advice: “Set your watch to the destination’s time zone as early as possible, and resolutely follow the new time zone – waking your kids at 7am, for example, rather than saying, well, it may be 7am here, but it’s 4am in Surrey. Surrey doesn’t matter any more.
“Then [go] outside. Just exposing your body to sunlight helps make it understand that day is day. If your kids are still napping, don’t let them sleep in their beds. The goal here is to make their nap as uncomfortable as possible so it doesn’t stretch into any night sleep. Put them in the stroller; leave them unblanketed on the sofa; let them stay in the car seat, if it’s safe.
“If they do wake up in the middle of the night, leave the lights dimmed, don't immediately make them breakfast, and do quiet things like reading books and colouring. Don't let them watch television – though, by gosh, if you've had a string of three nights of 2am starts, turn Paw Patrol on.”
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
The%20specs
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The specs
Engine: 2x201bhp AC Permanent-magnetic electric
Transmission: n/a
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 659Nm
Price estimate: Dh200,000
On sale: Q3 2022
MATCH INFO
Liverpool v Manchester City, Sunday, 8.30pm UAE
Mercedes V250 Avantgarde specs
Engine: 2.0-litre in-line four-cylinder turbo
Gearbox: 7-speed automatic
Power: 211hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 350Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.0 l/100 km
Price: Dh235,000
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
'Nope'
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
- George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
- Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
- Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
- Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
- Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
- The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
- Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
The studios taking part (so far)
- Punch
- Vogue Fitness
- Sweat
- Bodytree Studio
- The Hot House
- The Room
- Inspire Sports (Ladies Only)
- Cryo
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
