By Amanda Lasater
If you’re anything like me, then you want to do and see as much as humanly possible on your travels. Every trip is a new adventure full of excitement and opportunity – and you can’t afford to miss out on any of it! While this is a great motto, it is much easier said than done. Your nomadic soul wants to experience everything, but traveling takes a lot out of you, so your body starts to fight back. It’s an unfortunate reality but staying energized during your travels can feel impossible and that mid-trip power-down can leave you missing out on some epic adventures.
To avoid missing out on the great adventures that lay ahead, follow this list of pre-travel tips and stay energized during your next trip.
Why do I feel tired when I travel?
First off, we all feel tired when we travel, so you’re not alone here. We jet off with so much energy and excitement, just to find ourselves crashing a few hours after we arrive at our destination. While there are numerous reasons for this, we can narrow it down to a few main causes. One major reason is stress. Before we even leave for our trip, we are living with pre-tip anxiety: planning the trip, organizing the travel, and packing your bags – it’s all stressful. Aside from pre-trip stress, we also have to deal with travel fatigue, because the act of traveling, whether in a car, bus, or plane, is exhausting.
From the very beginning, we are stressed out by simply trying to make sure that we get to the airport or on the road at the right time. Then we have to navigate our travels – and, whether we’re trying to find the right terminal in the airport or the right exit on the highway, it’s a lot of pressure.
We’re stuck cramped and uncomfortable in a plane or a car for the new few hours. All of that is truly exhaustive and stressful, and that’s just getting to your destination. In addition, most of us end up adopting very poor eating habits when we’re away from home. Something happens when we travel, we consume abnormal amounts of fast food and processed junk, and our body becomes tired and sluggish.
Lastly, mid-trip exhaustion occurs because our sleeping habits suffer while we travel. Our normal bedtime routines are interrupted and the amount of quality sleep we receive is often decreased, which leads us to feel drowsy throughout the trip. Overall, there are numerous reasons why we have a hard time staying energized during our travels.
Pre-travel tips to stay energized
- Get enough sleep leading up to your trip. It may seem obvious, but you need to be well-rested for your travels. Without the proper amount of sleep, you’re going into your trip already suffering from drowsiness, brain fog, mood swings, and memory loss – a certain recipe for a bad trip.
- Stock up on tools to help you sleep. Buy yourself a quality sleep mask, Bose noise-canceling headphones, earplugs, a travel pillow, and some calming essential oils for the trip.
- Plan time for rest. Too often we overextend ourselves on trips. When you are planning your trip, schedule time for one nap, a relaxing activity, and nightly wind-down every day.
- Pack healthy snacks. When we have to grab something on-the-go, most of our options will be unhealthy. Pack your favorite healthy snacks and energy bars for the trip so that you aren’t forced to eat junk.
- Pre-arrange all of your travel. It can cause a great deal of stress when you have to arrange for your travel on the spot in a foreign location. Whether you are flying or driving, it may come in handy having someone else driving you around to sightsee or bar hop, so prearrange all of your travel ahead of time.
Whether you are on a much-deserved vacation or a career-making business trip, excessive exhaustion can completely ruin the experience. Although it may feel like traveling and fatigue come hand-in-hand, there are ways to avoid that mid-trip fatigue that we have all experienced. Use these five pre-trip tips to stay energized during your next trip and you’ll be able to cherish every moment of your travels
Amanda Lasater is on the editorial and research team at MattressAdvisor.com, a mattress reviews site with the mission to help each person find their best sleep ever.
