The whole team came together for the first time and it has been a good reminder that beyond all the stressful moments of organising 45 trips for over 500 women a year and all the fires we need to put off on a daily basis, there is an amazing team.
Meg and I are so lucky to be surrounded by Anastasia, Stella, Jacobo and Gaby plus the team of over 25 female local guides and a myriad of partners that make it all possible.
 |
This was the first time the entire Solo Female Travelers team was together in the same place, in real life, but we will be together again (except for Jacobo), during our 10th anniversary Caribbean luxury sailing trip next February. Book your spot and join the SFT family on a trip to remember!
This week's episode of the podcast has me and Stella talking about the Greek islands that locals love.
If you ever wanted to visit, this is a handy list of island besides Mykonos and Santorini to consider.
How to beat (or at least try) jet lag
 |
I take a lost of long haul flights every year and this means crossing several time zones and suffering from the unavoidable jet lag.
This year, I have been to Japan, Southeast Asia, Ecuador, and Europe and for the second half of the year I will visit French Polynesia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Argentina and Antarctica. This is pretty much every time zone on the planet.
I wish I had the magic solution for jet lag, but the reality is that I don't and my strategy is basically to suffer it and not to fight it. It is a lost battle for me, and one that makes me more frustrated than if I simply let it run its course, so that is what I do.
I wake up and sleep when my body says so; If I am going east, I go to bed later and wake up later. If I am going west, I go to bed early and wake up early.
I know that I need around 5 days to get over the time difference, so I just survive however I can during those days.
Luckily, I can work whenever I can, so if I am up till late, I work in the evening and if I am up early, I work early. In case I have a set schedule because of the tours we run, I try to arrive a couple of days in advance to rest a bit and I just "suffer" through the rest however best I can.
Losing the battle does not mean I don't try. I have tried many things through the years and have also learned a few that work.
Below are some of the science-backed and personally proven ways to shorten the jet lag or make it more bearable.
Clock blocking
This concept tells you to tart living at the time of the destination from the moment you board the plane or earlier if you can. Set your watch to the destination or simply imagine you are there.
I try to do this as much as I can, by trying to go to sleep when it's night time at my destination rather than following the origin's time, but it can be hard in planes because they don't necessarily keep to that time.
Lights may be off when it's daytime, forcing you to sleep or at least making it harder to say awake, and they tend to serve the first meal based on the origin and the last one before landing based on the destination time.
For example, I take off from Barcelona to Singapore at 12noon and they serve lunch, then the plane lands at 7am the next day, even though it's only been 13h, and they serve breakfast. The time difference means that right after lunch, we should all go to bed, because it will be 11pm in Singapore, but who can fall asleep at 3pm? I certainly can't. When it's time to land, it's midnight in Spain so it's then that I want to go to sleep, but the day is just starting in Singapore...
I have also tried to slowly move to the destination's time zone in the days leading up to a trip rather than just when boarding the plane.
When I came back from Japan and needed to go to Ecuador 3 weeks later, I knew I had to change my body 16h hours, from GMT+8 to GMT-8, so I took the 3 weeks to slowly move, going to bed progressively later from the 8pm early night on the first few days back from Japan to 2am before heading to Ecuador.
I didn't manage to move the entire 16h span, because who can go to bed at 3pm, but I did reduce the time difference.
If you want an app to help you manage this, Timeshifter is a commonly recommended one. It tells you when to go to bed, when to wake up, when to start. stop drinking stimulating drinks like coffee, when to get sun exposure (which helps with managing your body's clock, etc.).
Strategic napping
Naps are great, but if not done the Spanish way (short), they will mess with your sleep schedule even more than jet lag.
If I arrive at a destination in the morning after not having slept, I will try to catch a nap as soon as I get to the hotel and then stay up for the rest of the day.
If my jet lag tells me to go to bed super early and I struggle to stay awake, I will take a 20min nap after lunch to make it through the rest of the day.
Naps are a great help, but if you succumb to a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, expect to be awake for the rest of the evening and struggle to fall asleep.
Melatonin
 |
If I can't sleep and I really need / want to, I take melatonin gummies. These have been proven to work for time shifts of 5 hours or more. I limit the amount I take to 3mg and take it 1 hour before bedtime so I am tired and ready. If you take more, the study shows you may feel very drowsy and have a hard time waking up, plus its effect does not improve with doses above 5mg.
Melatonin has worked pretty well for me to fall asleep, but I have found that it does not help me adjust faster, it just helps me fall asleep when I am flying east and need to go to bed when I am still pretty awake. I fall asleep and then because my body gets into the natural sleeping time, I stay asleep.
Sun exposure and exercise
One of the easiest, cheapest and healthiest ways to manage jet lag is sun exposure.
If I land in the morning, I always try to get as much sunlight as I can to tell my body's circadian rhythm that it is daytime. Likewise, if I land at night, I will try to limit light exposure, blue light from screens, etc. to tell my body it's time to go to sleep. I also try to keep my window down in the plane, so my body thinks it's night time.
I also like to pair sunlight with exercise and try to go out for a walk or to the gym. I also try to keep my regular exercise schedule so that I tell my body that it is afternoon time. I avoid exercising late at night when I should be sleeping and do it in the morning instead, or exercise in the late afternoon if I am trying to stay awake.
Limit alcohol
I know, I know, it's hard to say no to the champagne glass even if it's 8am, but alcohol has been extensively proven to mess with sleep quality and after wearing a Whoop every day for 2 years, I can testify to that: it always knows when I had a drink, especially close to bedtime, because my REM and my deep sleep metrics are completely off, therefore, limiting how much you drink is a good way to help your body adapt to the new time zone.
Tags: Solo Female Travelers
