{"id":544142,"date":"2026-07-11T08:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T08:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/544142\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T08:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T08:13:08","slug":"life-hack-how-to-deal-with-travel-fatigue-and-how-to-tell-it-apart-from-jet-lag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/544142\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Hack: How to deal with travel fatigue \u2014 and how to tell it apart from jet lag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The summer holiday season is in full swing, and it is likely we could see record-breaking numbers of passengers travelling through Dublin and Cork airports over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>With those higher numbers comes more of a chance that Irish travellers who opt for destinations closer to home may experience travel fatigue \u2014 and mistake it for the jet lag usually associated with long-haul flights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">What is jet lag?<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu internal_BodyNoIndent\">Jet lag happens when your normal sleep pattern is disturbed after a long flight. The main symptoms of jet lag include difficulty sleeping at bedtime and waking up in the morning, tiredness and exhaustion, difficulty staying awake during the day, and concentration and memory problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu internal_BodyNoIndent\">Sometimes, jet lag can cause indigestion, nausea, constipation, changes in appetite and mild anxiety. It usually improves within a few days as your body adjusts to the new time zone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">What is travel fatigue?<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu internal_BodyNoIndent\">Travel fatigue is different to jet lag as it is not always caused by the travel itself. The combination of early alarms, airport stress, disrupted routines, dehydration, poor sleep and packed itineraries can leave holidaymakers feeling exhausted during trips that are supposed to be restorative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cPeople often assume that travel-related exhaustion is caused by jet lag and crossing time zones,\u201d says Dr Elisabetta Burchi, psychiatrist and head of research at Nurosym.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cBut there is another phenomenon known as travel fatigue, which can occur regardless of distance. Even a two- or three-hour flight can expose the body to multiple stressors that affect the nervous system and disrupt normal recovery processes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWith jet lag, the trigger is specific: The core circadian system falls out of synchrony with the environment, which disrupts sleep, alertness, appetite, body temperature and hormone release.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">&#8220;Travel fatigue produces overlapping symptoms \u2014 brain fog, poor sleep, exhaustion \u2014 but arises from the cumulative stressors of travelling itself, which is why you can feel it after a short-haul flight that crosses no time zones at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            Travel fatigue differs from jet lag because it is not caused by changes in time zones. Instead, it stems from the physical and psychological demands of travelling itself.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">According to Dr Burchi, these disruptions can affect the autonomic nervous system, which regulates essential functions such as sleep, digestion, alertness, energy levels and recovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cMost people assume travel exhaustion is just tiredness. But what we often see is a broader disruption to the body\u2019s homeostasis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">&#8220;A meaningful sign is a decrease in vagal tone as indexed by a decrease in heart rate variability \u2014 and because the vagus nerve bidirectionally links the brain and internal organs, HRV serves as a reliable, integrative marker of both mental and physical resilience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWhen that adaptability drops, people experience poor sleep, low mood, digestive discomfort, brain fog and difficulty switching off, even on holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The issue may be particularly relevant during the summer months, when travellers often try to maximise annual leave by fitting multiple destinations and activities into a short break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cMany people expect to feel relaxed the moment they arrive,\u201d explains Dr Burchi. \u201cBut recovery isn\u2019t a switch you flip on landing; if you\u2019ve travelled sleep-deprived, dehydrated and overstimulated, the body needs time before it can genuinely settle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">This is particularly felt as new data shows that the average length of an overseas holiday has fallen from 6.2 nights to 5.5 nights, as travellers choose more frequent getaways throughout the year over longer annual holidays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">How can I prevent travel fatigue?<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu internal_BodyNoIndent\">To help support recovery while travelling, Dr Burchi recommends the following steps:<\/p>\n<p>                Prioritise sleep in the days before travelling<br \/>\n                Stay hydrated before, during and after flying<br \/>\n                Get outside in natural daylight after arrival<br \/>\n                Keep the first day deliberately unscheduled<br \/>\n                Build genuine rest into shorter trips<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The summer holiday season is in full swing, and it is likely we could see record-breaking numbers of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[101911,103,61,60,1821],"class_list":["post-544142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-summer-travel","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-life-hacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}