Jet lag: A story of redemption. Or is it.

[isladar]

What the fuck can I do about this jet lag? Its been a little less than a week since I've been back in the States, and I still feel like the walking dead, minus the cool part where I'm impervious to anything but a shotgun blast to the head. Though feeding on the flesh of the living sounds fairly awesome at this moment.

Anyway, I've been trying to force myself back into my regular sleep schedule, but it seems no matter how tired I am going to sleep at 11:30 I'm wide awake by 3 am, toss and turn and hate Jesus, and then its another day of forcing myself to stay awake until bedtime and not give in to the sweet, forgiving arms of naptime.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Alleya]

Sleep, relaxation, moderate exercise, and sensible diet. This is what a psychologist would tell you.

There's probably a million homegrown remedies, but their effectiveness is mostly psychological.

If you've been lagged for about a week it won't last much longer. Rule of thumb is about 1 day per time zone, but you're young and a woman so jet lag hits you harder than anyone else.

If you really wanna know though, there was a study where hamsters had the duration of jet lag cut in half by taking Viagra so...yeah...

[Norelco]

Dunno...what is the saying? 1 day per hour changed? Or is it 1 day per time zone?

[Xanthe]

Pull an all-nighter with no naps the next day. That's what I did when I returned from a few different trips abroad. It's effectively resetting your circadian rhythm, which was disrupted by your jet lagged travel. Good read.

[isladar]

Thanks, Alleya, I'm-- (math time happened here, but due to the magic of the internet seemingly no time has elapsed!) --7 hours ahead, so.. yeah, hopefully I'm just about to hit the end of this.

It was fine going over -- the flight was "overnight" body time and I arrived early enough to trick the internal clock into the new schedule. Coming back I've felt as if I were brushing my teeth with a freight train while gently exfoliating with glass dust. Also I'm tired.

Circadian rhythm? I DONT WANT CICADAS IN MY RHYTHMS.

We can now turn this thread into horrible travel stories, or, alternatively, how everyone here would have sex with Dr. Girlfriend at a moment's notice, and if you raise objections about the voice you're a filthy liar.

[edit]: Just reading through that wikilink only to find another reason to hate estrogen. Fuck you, bring on the viagra.

[Xanthe]

Did you happen to travel west and then return east? Eastbound jet lag is considered to be much worse than westbound since it's usually easier for people to stay up later than to get up earlier.

[Nirokun!]

OTC Melatonin, look it up

[Xanthe]

OTC Melatonin, look it up

The reviews are kind of mixed on that. I'd avoid drugs from something as droll as jet lag.

[Krye]

This one time I had jet lag and I didn't know what to do but then I just went to fucking sleep.

[dritero]

When I came back from Europe I pretty much forced myself to stay up for about 30 hours. When I landed back on the west coast it was night time, and I just crashed for about 10 hours, waking up the next morning jet lag free.

[isladar]

Went to Germany (shocking, I know) and back, so eastbound THEN westbound. I'd rather not try staying up all night, even though I'm practically doing that anyway, because then I'll be augmenting myself with caffeine to the point where it'd be worse than just sleep deprivation alone.

I think I'll try suffering the next few days and hope that it alleviates itself, and THEN start considering more drastic (read: drugging myself into incoherency) measures.

[Krye]

Oh my God! Germany! Isladar! GET IT?!

That is fucking hilarious.

[sb]

It's probably too late for this technique but maybe you can work on an at home already variation of it.

You can manipulate your sleeping schedule by keeping your self hungry. What your supposed to do is not eat before your flight and eat very little during it, the human body will help you try and keep itself up as its is "foraging". Then eat a big meal a little before the target bed time. By manipulating your eating schedule, your body will attempt to manipulate your sleeping schedule to adjust to it.

[Xanthe]

Yeah if you're going to use the stay up all night approach caffeine would be detrimental to the cause. The point is to work yourself to the point of complete exhaustion by the time you'd normally go to bed. I suppose you can also attack the other end of the problem and take a sleep aid at your normal bed time to make sure you sleep through the night. The point is to remind your body that you need to sleep at one time and wake up at another.

[stinkypoo]

If you really wanna know though, there was a study where hamsters had the duration of jet lag cut in half by taking Viagra so...yeah...

Is it sad if, when I read that, I had to stop and ask myself if they simply simulated the effects of jet lag by disrupting their sleep pattern/environment, or if they actually put hamsters on planes and flew them all over the world?

[isladar]

Oh god, now I have to know.

[Feielle]

You want to know the secret to surviving air travel? After you get where you're going, take off your shoes and your socks then walk around on the rug bare foot and make fists with your toes.

Edit:

...or if they actually put hamsters with erections on planes and flew them all over the world?

fixed.

[Jotaru]

You want to know the secret to surviving air travel? After you get where you're going, take off your shoes and your socks then walk around on the rug bare foot and make fists with your toes.

It supposedly works, friends. Have flown to / from Sydney/New Zealand and the midwest United States (parents liked to move around a lot) but I was a kid then, nothing like your parents encouraging an all nighter when you're 13 years old :D

[isladar]

I'm all for miracle cures, but really, how the fuck is that supposed to work? The bare-feet-on-carpet thing?

[Alleya]

I'm all for miracle cures, but really, how the fuck is that supposed to work? The bare-feet-on-carpet thing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_ef ... ebo_effect

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_wive%27s_tale