Because of the increasingly negative aspects of air travel these days, if jet lag were a disease, we’d be in the middle of an epidemic. What was once a swift sky way to go is now an ordeal full of long lines, body scans, cancellations, lost luggage, high prices with costly add-ons and bad tempers.

Those bothersome situations all contribute to the causes of jet lag. The original description of the condition was that it is brought on by air passengers who interrupt their usual sleep habits by booking long-distance flights at odd hours. They’re wide awake or try to get quick naps during schedules that involve long cross-country and international flights. Late night flights are called-red eyes, because that’s usually the way passengers’ droopy, staring orbs look when they finally crawl off the flight. Examples:

1. Mechanical problems made your first flight late. Just missed your connecting flight, which would have had you home in an hour. It’s now three in the morning, and the next flight won’t leave for five more hours.

Jet lag may cause you to spend those hours curled up awake on a waiting room bench. No sleep, because a dozen wet and wailing babies nearby are also suffering from jet lag.

2. You booked a red-eye flight because the fare was much lower, and you’re usually able to curl up in the cheap seat and get some sleep. However, as soon as comfortable, your 400-pound seatmate overflows into your space. This not only makes sleep impossible, but also causes the entire five-hour flight resemble a packed sardine can.

3. Jet lag isn’t just from lack of sleep. Another cause is change from normal eating habits during flight schedules. Prime examples of this is when your airline or airport waiting room seat is next to mothers with childen.

It’s after midnight and the wide-awake kids in flight are not only hungry, but restless because this isn’t their usual mealtime. It will take hours to settle them down, and everyone involved will arrive at final destinations suffering from jet lag.

Solution: Avoid jet lag. When boarding a red eye flight, come prepared to sleep. The day before stay awake, eat light, dress comfortably, load your Smartphone with soft music, put on your eye mask, relax, curl up and snooze.