The Way Through Jetlag

It was a particularly long trip to Oz this time. We left at 3pm on wednesday afternoon and finally arrived at our destination friday night after midnight. 20 hours flying time and 6 hours driving plus stopovers. By the time we arrived I was delirious from lack of sleep. I didn’t really sleep on the plane at all. We had been delayed from the start. Our onward plane was late which always makes the journey longer.

The kids are bigger now and there’s less room to spread out. The plane was very full and it just didn’t have the space for us to move to other seats.

The travelling to the future bit is fine as long as you get some sleep on the plane while you’re doing it.

Monday morning was the first day that I woke up well before I should. It is usually day four that the jetlag will hit you when you travel to OZ from the USA in my experience. Up until then you are getting up and going to bed almost normally although perhaps a little earlier to bed due to exhaustion. By the fourth day your body has pretty well caught up on required rest and wants to wake up when it’s used to waking and that can be inconvenient. 4:30am is not a nice start to the day.

However it is still easier to travel with the clock rather than against it. When we go back home to New York after a month I will be walking the boards at 4 am for weeks, probably with both kids 🙂 It’s just how it works.

The King refuses to accept jetlag, he won’t succumb to it, ever, but that’s just his stubborn spirit :).
It is something that exists, you just have to learn how to handle it. Some suffer worse than others and your first time is always the hardest.

There are products that are sold to try and combat it but I have no idea whether they work or not. The real secret is to adjust to local time immediately and the broken sleep and early hours wake up will not last long. Besides that, you’re on a holiday and getting up early is really a good idea to see the most you can, right?

Try to eat well and at local meal times, get plenty of water to combat the plane dehydration and relax, sleep will come. Exercise always helps, go for a nice long walk or hit the gym. If you can exert some energy and get the blood pumping your body can handle the stresses much easier.

Most importantly it won’t last and you will get back to normal soon enough… Just enjoy your time away.

 

Resourced materials:

http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/jet+lag.html

http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/jet-lag-and-sleep 

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