And I’m up at 0330 because my inner clock is screaming at me that it is 1030 hours and why am I still in bed? Going East is easy. Going West at high speed is not. In the old days on ships, you had time to shift and adapt gradually. Today, not so much with air travel.
I’ve tried different ways over the years, and one of the big problems is airlines that want you to sleep going West as it makes you easier to deal with. If you can break some of the “naps” up or just plain stay awake the entire time it helps. My day yesterday began at 0400 local time, which was 8 pm local time at destination. By that clock I traveled more than 24 hours. Sidereal I travled: 2.5 hours first flight; 9.5 main flight; and 2.5 hours final flight. Even with all the tricks I’ve tried over the years, I’m up and not happy.
When I say going east is easy, that predicates certain conditions. For me, it means a trip to Europe which means a landing and day in Western Europe. That’s easy. Take an evening flight, have a meal, and maybe take a benadryl or two. You wake up in the time zone of your target, have breakfast, then hit the ground running. The further east you go, the more interesting that gets. For me, adapting to the local time at target is key. That tends to be easier going east.
Going west, you are frelled from the start. It is almost impossible from the start. Not only are the clocks off, the airlines clock (lower your shades, do this on our schedules which are designed to make life easier on us and bleep you) is off, and it is quite hard to adapt. At a certain point sheer exhaustion deals in; but, we are designed to deal with that. So, not good.
For those who can handle it, great. For me, it generally means 2-3 days of adjustment/readjustment. I’m up now, not particularly happy, and determined to force things. I’ve set my alarm for 0600 local and plan to force things. The faster I force, the happier my body will be. Meantime, don’t be surprised at messages at odd times. It’s not a perfect world.
UPDATE: Nothing says “Welcome Home” like finding your shower full of cat poo because the housemate’s cats got in. He cleaned out the poo, but I did a LOT of cleaning behind him. The try at forcing failed, but am going to go to bed at my normal time and see how it goes. More soon I hope, and maybe even a bit more cheerful and coherent.
If you would like to help me with this trip, seminary courses, and more, feel free to hit the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo, use the options in the Tip Jar in the upper right, or drop me a line to discuss other methods. I’ve added Cash App ($CliffPow7) and Venmo (@Clifford-Powers-5). There is also the Amazon Wish List in the Bard’s Jar. Getting hit by lightning is not fun! It is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
Welcome home.
Jet lag can be a bummer. Our last trip to Europe got us going both ways. Going East is usually easy on me, but that particular flight my wife was seated in front of a lady who got up every hour and used the seat back for leverage so no sleep for her. I OTOH got a reasonable amount. Coming back during daylight it was hard to nap , so we stayed awake and roughed it out. But a couple days and we were back on schedule.
Hope to see more about your trip.
Thanks! There is more to come, but the jet lag really has hit hard this time. Got almost no sleep last night, so am working hard to stay awake all day and then dose up good and go to bed. Hopefully that will finish resetting things. Meantime, dragging. Got a lot more to share from the pilgrimage, though it may be next week before I am fully back into things.