坐经济舱如何倒时差？

I was flying home to London from Australia last weekend when a nice man from Qantas asked me to put a name tag on my suitcase during a stopover in Dubai. “This pen of yours is fantastic,” I gushed as I scrawled my name on the tag with one of my favourite types of pen. “Thanks,” he said. “But it’s actually yours.” Disturbingly, it was. In my jet-lagged stupor, I had somehow managed to forget I had fished it out of my bag only minutes earlier.

最近，我从澳大利亚飞回伦敦。经停迪拜期间，澳洲航空(Qantas)一位和善的男士让我在行李箱上挂上姓名标签。“您的这只笔真是棒极了。”看到这是我最喜欢的一种笔，我一边在标签上潦草地写上自己的大名一边夸赞对方。“谢谢，”他说，“不过这其实是您的笔。”尴尬的是，这还真是我的笔。时差搞得我心神恍惚，以至于忘记了自己几分钟前把这只笔从包里掏出来。

In my defence I had just flown overnight from Melbourne for 14 sleepless hours, strapped upright in a seat beside a row of sobbing infants. But it was a worrying moment considering that this week, in an awful case of bad timing, I am due to make another day-long flight, to the bottom tip of Chile for work. Even for someone from Australia, a nation of long-haul specialists, these back-to-back treks looked daunting. So I decided to take stock of all the jet lag tips that truly work, as opposed to the vast load of twaddle on the topic.

为我自己辩白一下，当时我刚从墨尔本出发的夜间航班下来，在飞机上度过了无眠的14个小时——安全带让我只能直挺挺地坐着，旁边还有一排哭哭啼啼的婴儿。但那一刻我还是心生忧虑，因为特别不凑巧的是，那周我还得飞行一整天，到智利最南端的一个地方出差。即便是对一个澳大利亚人来说——澳大利亚是长途旅行专家之国——这种紧挨着的长途飞行也令人生畏。因此我决定梳理一下真正有效的倒时差窍门，而不是有关这个话题的大量胡扯。

Starting with the latter, it is astonishing how often people are still advised to prepare for a big flight as if they were Olympic athletes or jobless. The UK’s National Health Service is a typical offender. Its jet lag page blithely suggests flyers “start going to bed and getting up an hour or two earlier or later than usual, in line with the time of your destination”.

先从后者开始，令人吃惊的是，现在人们得到的建议依然常常是像奥运选手或者没工作的人那样准备迎接长途飞行。英国国家医疗服务体系(NHS)就是一个典型。NHS有关时差的页面写着一条漫不经心的建议，要搭乘航班的人应该“开始提前或延后一、两个小时就寝或起床，尽量向目的地时间靠拢”。

This assumes phenomenal levels of willpower and more importantly, a boss who lets you skip work to stay in bed. It is as practical as British Airways’ ultimate jet lag adviser, an online calculator that tells you when to shun or seek out light.

这条建议假定人们都拥有极大的意志力，而且更重要的是，你还需要有一个让你翘班睡觉的老板。这条建议就和英国航空(British Airways)的终极时差顾问一样“实用”——后者是一个在线计算器，告诉你何时避开光照，何时接触光照。

As a former Financial Times aerospace correspondent, I do not doubt all the research suggesting a dose of light at the right times can help shift one’s body clock to curb jet lag. But good luck making it work in real life. When I tried BA’s calculator after returning from Australia, I received the bewildering advice to “seek light between 0:00am and 2:30am”.

作为英国《金融时报》前航空航天记者，我并不怀疑大量研究的结论，即在正确时间接触光照能够调整生物钟，从而抑制时差反应。但在现实生活中没什么机会用上这样的建议。从澳大利亚返回之后，我尝试了一下英国航空的计算器，得到一条令人困惑的建议，“在凌晨0点到2点30分之间接触光照”。

It gets worse once airborne. There, one is frequently told to engage in two mutually exclusive activities: glug water constantly and sleep as much as possible. Maybe this works for people with an iron bladder and sleeping superpowers. Ordinary mortals can forget it, especially those in steerage.

针对飞行期间的建议更糟糕。人们常常被建议在客舱内做两件相互抵触的事情：持续喝水，尽可能地多睡。也许这对那些有个铁膀胱和超强入睡能力的人管用。普通人就算了吧，尤其是坐经济舱的人。

Speaking of which, there is a special brand of unhelpful advice from chief executives such as Yang Yuanqing, chief of the personal tech group Lenovo.

说到经济舱，一些企业掌门人提出一类特别的无用建议，比如科技集团联想(Lenovo)的首席执行官杨元庆。

“Choose a midnight flight and take a good nap on the plane,” he told China Daily. This makes sense if you have a bottomless supply of business class tickets. Sadly I do not, which is a shame because I have reluctantly concluded that by far the best weapon against jet lag is a seat in business.

“选择午夜航班，然后在飞机上好好小睡一下，”他告诉《中国日报》(China Daily)。如果你有无限的商务舱机票，那么这条建议有点道理。遗憾的是我没有，这很可惜，因为我不情愿地得出结论，对抗时差的遥遥领先的最有效武器是坐商务舱出行。

In its absence, I have three other tips. Breaking up the flight with a stopover is by far the best. I had never tried this until an Australian friend based in the Middle East said he swore by it, normally stopping at an airport hotel for long enough to get eight hours’ sleep before hopping back on the plane. It obviously takes more time and money, but rarely as much as an upgrade. It won’t work for my flight to Chile, sadly, because I have to fit in with other people’s travel schedules. But having just done it in Dubai, after which there has been no repeat of the pen embarrassment, I am a convert.

在没法坐商务舱的情况下，我有另外3个小诀窍。把飞行旅程分成两半，中途停留一下是遥遥领先的最佳办法。我以前从来没有这样尝试过，直到一个落户中东的澳大利亚朋友表示，他对这种做法推崇备至。通常他会在飞行旅途中在机场酒店停留足够长的时间，以便睡上8小时，再登机进行下一段飞行。显然这需要更多时间和金钱，但额外的花销很少超过升舱费用。可惜的是，这一趟我飞往智利没法用这个窍门，因为我得和其他人的行程保持一致。但我刚刚在迪拜尝试了一下，之后就没有再重复认不出自己的笔的尴尬事件，这让我成为这种方法的忠实信徒。

My second tip is from another road warrior friend: act like a new mother. Snatch sleep whenever and wherever possible, regardless of the time in your destination. It does not work as well as a stopover but still helps.

我的第二个诀窍来自另外一个常常旅行的朋友，那就是向新手妈妈学习。随时随地抓紧一切机会睡觉，无论你的目的地现在是几点几分。这个诀窍的效果不如中途停留，但还是有帮助的。

Finally, forget all the guff about resetting your body clock with light, melatonin or whatnot and concentrate on doing it with food. Eat as little as possible at the airport and on the plane, then tuck in at the first meal time in your destination, preferably breakfast at least 14 or so hours later.

最后，忘掉一切让你用光照调整生物钟、褪黑激素或者其它什么东西的胡扯吧，把注意力放在食物上。在机场和飞机上尽可能地少吃东西，然后在目的地的首个进餐时间大快朵颐，这一餐最好是早餐，在你出发至少约14个小时后。

I came across this ploy fairly late in life from a chef and wish I had discovered it sooner because it is far easier than it sounds and curbs the worst of jet lag. There is even research to back it up, though admittedly it was done on mice.

我在人生中相当晚的时候才从一位大厨那里得知这个策略。我真希望能早点得知，因为这个诀窍做起来远比听上去简单，而且能抑制最严重的时差反应。甚至还有研究支持这种做法，尽管应该承认那些研究是在老鼠身上进行的。

I do not claim to be the last word on all this. Suggestions on other useful remedies will be gratefully received, as long as they work in economy and preferably if they come this week.

我不会说我在调时差方面已经是一个权威。读者对于其他有用解决方法的建议，只要在经济舱管用，我都会怀着感激之情收下，而且最好能早点发给我。