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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Tuesday 7 August 2007

Jet lag sucks

I am currently suffering a bad case of jet lag. Each night I get no more than 3hours of continuous sleep, and last night was my worst yet. As usual since arriving in New York, I woke up at 2am after only about 3 hours sleep, and insomnia robbed me of sleep for the following 4 hours until dawn. It's the same almost every night, and I'm behind in sleep at least 20hours now. It doesn't help that I'm a light sleeper either. I try not to nap during the day in the hopes that I'd be able to sleep at night, but I think that at this moment, sleep is more important and I will have to take naps during the day just for my health's sake.

I did a lil research on jet lag, and they say that recovery from jet lag generally takes one day for each timezone crossed. So if 1hr difference = 1 timezone, and the time difference between Tokyo and NY is 13 hours (11 timezones?) that would mean I'd need 11 days to recover from this jet lag! 5 nights down, 6 more to go? I think this is the one time where I'd voluntarily take a supplement to help me here - apparently you can get melatonin in a tablet form over the counter in US which would help with jet lag. I might just do that - you'd know I'm desperate when I'm actually considering taking supplements. Sigh, I suffer from most of the symptoms of jet lag: fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, headaches, and insomnia. Hopefully it'll get better soon...

4 comments:

  1. I think they say a vitamin B will also help you there, but me, I'd just take a multivitamin, go exercise some and collapse somewhere nice and comfy.
    I'm kind of a heavy sleeper though... I annoyed the guy sitting next to me by sleeping through takeoff on my flight to brisbane...

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  2. Yeah I heard VitB (12?) too but I am tending towards melatonin coz melatonin is already a natural hormone produced in our bodies that induces sleep when it gets dark. Unfortunately exercise only helps to further exhaust my already tired mind and body, but not help me sleep. For some stupid reason, my body sometimes consider sleepiness and tiredness as two different things. I'm kinda wary about exercising atm and further exhausting my immunity reserve, but I did a 1hr weights session at the fitness room earlier today anyway. I just took some melatonin so hopefully I will have a good long sleep tonight. Wish me luck!

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  3. I've heard about the wonders of melatonin. They did a full on study on it, and found that it does help some people. Good luck being in the portion of people it helps!

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  4. Haha, looks like I'm in the portion of people where melatonin doesn't help much! Ah well, it was worth a try. And 5hrs sleep is better than 3!

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