Jet Lag Revisited
A life in permanent transit has its ups and downs. It’s nice having two cities to love instead of just one, but you always miss the one you’re not in.
I no longer experience that tired-all-the-time feeling thankfully, because I’ve been doing this long enough to have adapted. But I notice that I’m generally a bit stupider for a few days after I’ve arrived somewhere. This isn’t all bad. It’s kind of like walking around a little bit drunk all the time. Today, for example, I got lost on my way to Random House, a place I’ve been to many times. I actually walked back and forth down Broadway between 56th and 58th three times before I realized where the building was. But it was a nice walk and I enjoyed the fresh air.
Which brings me to the only piece of jet lag advice my slightly impaired brain is able to conjure at this moment in time:
When arriving in a new time zone, get outside and walk a bit. The light and air will help you acclimatize to your new (if temporary) reality.
That is all for today.
That’s good advice indeed. I had always been too busy to really conciously heed it until my my most recent trip to Tokyo. Scheduling and an overnight layover allowed me to spend some time in the evening, and then again the morning of my connecting flight, on Haneda airport’s open-air observation deck. Usually on the second day I crash real hard and take a long nap in the afternoon. This time I didn’t need one.
Another good thing to do is to drink lots of water before, during, and after the flight. Dehydration is a bigger factor in jetlag than people think, and it can take a few days after the flight to get your body back in balance. People often avoid coffee and alcohol on the flight for the same reasons, although I usually have a cup with breakfast.
My husband swears by caffeine to help get over jet lag. I remember it working pretty well, but I’m off the stuff now for different reasons.
My advice re frequent time zone tripping is to leave your watch set for New York time. By so doing, I am able to stay cognizant of and in tune with the rhythm of the place and lives I have left. And, by staying in tune with New York time, you are staying in tune with a universal epicenter. Indeed, even if I had to suffer through weeks in some godforsaken locale like Great Britain, France or any other place that is not New York, I would still leave my watch exactly as it was when I boarded my outbound flight at JFK.
Spoken like a true New Yorker, Rocketeer. And it meshes well with my other strategy, which is to barge into an English tea shop and demand a bagel and a cup of joe then complain in a very loud voice when they try to explain why they don’t have these essentials. They love that.