I flew about 150K miles last year. For most people this may seem like a lot of time in the air. Yet, I’m fairly certain most of the other executives at SDL logged even more miles. Such is the life of an executive of a global company. For the most part, I would not want it any other way. In fact, I started Lift9 specifically so that I could travel internationally as part of my job.

Given all my travels, I discovered some helpful tips for long flights to help overcome some of the wear and tear on the body and spirit. In this blog post, I explain that fasting can be helpful in overcoming jetlag when traveling across many time zones. The basic premise is that our human brain have a second “feeding clock” that can over ride our “master clock” when food is scarce. In theory, then, avoiding food for long periods of time (usually 12-16 hours) can reset our “feeding clock” while our biological clock can only adjust a little each day. By not eating on long flights, therefore, you should be able to adjust to new time zones (resetting the feeding clock) more quickly.

Another very helpful aid to long-distance air travel is noise canceling headphones.  I’m surprised by how many people on long flights do not have these. These headphones should be essential for all frequent fliers. An airplane in flight makes a tremendous amount of noise. After some time, we get used to it and don’t realize the stress the noise is causing on us. Furthering the problem passengers try to listen to music or watch videos over the airplane noise at high volumes. All that takes a huge toll on our bodies.

I recently splurged and bought a Bose QuietComfort 3. It has been worth every penny. Using these I can survive long flights without nearly the fatigue as before. Other less expensive noise cancelling headphones work well too. The key is to have one. Whenever I briefly take my headphones off in flight, I’m shocked at how loud the airplane actually is.

Save yourself some wear on your body traveling the globe and invest in a noise cancelling headset. You’ll be glad that you did.