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When I travel east, I’m not sure I do not get over jet lag naturally. I landed in Madrid Monday at 7 AM, and, in the days I’ve been here, I’ve moved toward even more of an American time zone schedule than Spanish. Here’s my sleep since I got here on Monday:
Technically all those AM’s are the next day.
Monday: noon – 4 PM, 2 AM – 4 AM
Tuesday: noon – 6 PM, 3 AM – 9 AM
Wednesday: 2 PM – 5 PM, 6 AM – 1 PM
Thursday: 3 AM – 5 PM with a brief wake up at 5 AM where I popped melatonin
I know what I need to do, set an alarm for tomorrow and get onto a more normal sleeping schedule, but I would have expected a more normal one by now.
This is one reason I love traveling north/south to South America. There’s rarely more than a two hour time change in either direction–though in the winter West Coast to Buenos Aires is five hours–so there’s no jet lag. I also don’t mind traveling west. I tend to be a night owl, so I stay up to when I would have stayed up anyway, which is usually a reasonable time in my new time zone. It’s just traveling east that kills me.
All this isn’t to say I haven’t had an amazing week in Madrid so far. I went to the second leg of the Champions League Semifinal–the second biggest soccer game of the year worldwide–and had a blast. It could have only been more fun if Real Madrid had won.
I am excited for Madrid’s restaurants eventually, but I’ve been able to cook for myself all week, which is something I had been missing the last month of staying with friends and family.
I’ve been able to sample the infamous nightlife of Madrid twice this week, and I’m rested up for this three day weekend that starts tonight.
But I sure would prefer to be on a more consistent, earlier sleep schedule. That’s the goal for next week!
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Try Las Vegas it’s GREAT that’s why I go there @ 2am or 10am or 4pm something is always going on and they don’t care about Jet Lag from China or the EU. and 15 hr. direct flts from Germany .
Always Fun if you can stand the pace .
Try Las Vegas it’s GREAT that’s why I go there @ 2am or 10am or 4pm something is always going on and they don’t care about Jet Lag from China or the EU. and 15 hr. direct flts from Germany .
Always Fun if you can stand the pace .
More than the weird hours that you have slept, I think HOW MUCH you have slept is crazy! More than 10 hours a day for the last 3 days! And 15 hours on Thursday? That’s crazy. I like my 8 hours a night but I think my body would be sore if I slept that much in 3 days.
I learned long ago to just be a vegetable for 24 hours when I arrive in Europe. Eat, sleep, drink wine, read, sleep some more. If I can do this at a hotel with a warm water pool to spend an hour in right after arrival, it’s even better.
You’re probably making up for not getting enough sleep before, as well as the jet lag. If you don’t set an alarm, I think your body will naturally try to catch up, so if you had a lot of 4-5 hour nights recently, that may be part of it.
“I Am Embarrassingly Bad with Jet Leg Says the Man Who Woke Up at 5 PM”
What is Jet Leg?
Joe
Jet Lag.. I think Jet Leg is a female thing so be careful as in Lawsuits ..
Just remember it takes one day for each time zone crossed to get adjusted. Also, most people take melatonin wrong – take it 12 before you want to sleep. Taking melatonin creates a spike in levels that says to the body…wake up! Last point, most people take way too small a dose to be effective.