Jet lag wasn't an issue years ago when travelers covered long distances slowly, by railway, steamboat, ship and land. But now that we can cross umpteen time zones in a single 747, our bodies can't always keep up.

If you were tired before you left home, if you crossed three or more time zones or if you had a rigid schedule on either end of your flight, you are probably experiencing the fatigue, insomnia, lethargy, headaches, decreased appetite, hunger pains and strange sleeping patterns associated with the hell we call jet lag.

Here are a few tips to help ease the effects of jet lag while you're traveling.

East to west is best: For many travelers, flying west is easier-the body's internal biological clock can adjust much quicker-since they're typically gaining hours in the day rather than losing them. For example, it's a six-hour flight from Boston to San Francisco and from Boston to London. If you left Boston at noon, heading west, you'd arrive in San Francisco at 3 p.m.-a reasonable time change. But heading east, you'd arrive in London at midnight local time, which is just 6 p.m. by your Boston clock-now you have to either stay up way past London bedtime or force yourself to sleep before your body is ready.

Of course, you can't really help where you're flying, but it's nice to know why you're feeling more miserable in certain cities than in others. -------------------------------------
Kari J. Bodnarchuk is a freelance writer in Boston who's traveled to 30 countries in the past 10 years. She's author of Rwanda: Country Torn Apart and is currently writing Tales from A~broad, about her 18-month solo backpacking trip through Asia and Oceania.

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