Jetlagged? Eat light, avoid alcohol: survey

Six thousand Asia-Pacific travellers took part in the survey, with four out of five saying they had flown long-haul in the past year. On average, participants stated they found that it took 2.3 days to recover from the effects of jetlag.

The most popular anti-jetlag technique was found to be eating a light diet of healthy fresh food, with 66 per cent of respondents stating they had tried this and it worked. Following closely behind was stretching and taking light exercise on the flight (65 per cent), setting their watch to the new time zone (58 per cent), staying awake for the duration of the flight (51 per cent), and exercising and getting fresh air before the flight (45 per cent).

More intriguing, 20 per cent of respondents even said they have tried taking Viagra, after historical reports that it could aid jetlag recovery, though doctors point out that this medication can be unsafe for some people to use. 

Sleeping tablets (32 per cent), herbal remedies (31.7 per cent), anti-jetlag pills (27 per cent) and melatonin (22 per cent) were also used by many of the air passengers in the survey.

Participants were also asked to rank which anti-jetlag techniques were most effective. 

While light exercise and healthy eating were popular activities for flyers, only about half of those who tried this said they were effective in offsetting the effects of a long-haul flight.

The survey had some eye-raising findings on the effects of alcohol at 9,000 metres. While a third (33 per cent) of travellers stated that they had consumed alcohol in an attempt to offset jetlag, only a third of those (13 per cent) said this worked.