Back to Back JET LAG!

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We have been suffering from an extended bout of jet lag. In the past (almost) four years that we have been living abroad in Japan, we have done a fair amount of travel. And… if you consider geography, and the location of Japan, a lot of the travel we have done (for meetings etc.) has been at least 8 to 13 hours time difference from our home in Tokyo. That… translates into many days… weeks… suffering from “jet lag.”

Though we are nearly back to “normal” now after a few days home from our latest flight, it has been a pretty tough time. This “episode” of jet lag actually started for us over a month ago with a 10-day trip to London. My husband had a business meeting there, and we flew from Tokyo, via a connection in Shanghai. There is an 8-hour time difference between Tokyo and London. We slowly acclimated to the change, and by the time we left 10 days later, we were feeling pretty good again. Then after a week of more jet lag after our return flight to Tokyo, we left again for another meeting in Atlanta — and a brief visit “home” for a week. There is a time difference of 14 hours between Tokyo and Atlanta. After that, we returned to Tokyo — another almost 14 hour flight, and 14 hour time difference.

For us (and if you Google it, for many people) the worst jet lag results from traveling west to east. I know there is actually a scientific explanation of this, but it is very complicated. All I know, is that it takes longer to recover, and I feel much worse after a west to east flight, than an east to west flight. After our flight to ATL last week, our one week stay there was not nearly enough time to fully recover before our east to west return flight to Tokyo. The weirdest thing about our flights back to Atlanta, is that (because the time difference is about the same as the flight time) we end up arriving back in Atlanta at about the same time (in ATL) as we left Tokyo. It is an odd little bit of “time travel” for us… lol.

We normally travel in premium economy, which is a step up from regular economy with more leg room, but not like business class where you can fully stretch out for sleep. We have on rare occasions been in business class. Regardless of which class, however, I find it difficult to sleep much — or very effectively — on an airplane. And… though sleeping on the airplane can help with jet lag symptoms (at least the tiredness), it does not prevent jet lag. Once we get to our destination, we still experience days of jet lag.

Of course jet lag affects your sleep patterns — and especially for our 13 or 14 hour time difference when our days and nights are completely reversed. ***[During daylight savings time the time difference is only 13 hours.] But jet lag affects so much more! Almost all body functions are tied in some degree to that internal circadian clock, so when that body clock is totally flipped, everything is disrupted. It affects sleep, appetite, digestion… everything. And it takes days to get everything back to normal again. Most sources say to expect one day of recovery time for every time zone crossed. So… it is not at all surprising that after this last bit of travel, our bodies were completely mixed up. We didn’t have enough time to recover from one trip before we traveled again… and again… and again.

There seem to be many suggestions online about how to minimize jet lag, or recover faster, but nothing seems to work consistently. Some suggest that gradually adjusting your time schedule BEFORE a trip is the way to fix the problem, but doing that is in itself disruptive to our lives before we travel. We simply can’t change our daily schedule to accommodate our future travel… to the degree that would be necessary to flip our days and nights. Just not practical.

So… we deal with it. We deal with the sleepless nights and the sleepy days… the appetite changes, and the wonky digestion. It all works itself out eventually, and we get back to feeling better. These things are just one *minor* downside of travel, and I am willing to put up with them for the opportunity to see and do new things.

Now, I realize this blog post isn’t finished. But it’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and the jet lag is kicking innnn… againnn… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.