I’m headed to California tomorrow to meet up with Christian bloggers at the God Blog Conference to talk about blogging, our love for the Savior, politics, and whatever else we have time to discuss. 
Upon my return from last year’s GodBlogCon, I wanted to curl up in a corner and wish the world away. This year, I want to make a triumphant return to the East Coast with lots of good things to share, and no jet lag. 
To make matters worse, we “fall back” to standard time this weekend. Traveling to California won’t be a big deal. It’s the return I dread. I’m in California from Thursday afternoon to Sunday/Monday.
Any advice you can give me — sound medical advice, home remedies, urban legends, anything — will be appreciated.
Update: I’m sure we’ll get around to talking about this mess at the conference. God’s judgment, indeed. I hope the ruling leads to some serious voter backlash. Be careful what you wish for…
Update II (10/26): I have a column deadline today, so between flying and writing, I probably won’t blog about the conference until tomorrow. I’m on two panels, I think. I may live-blog.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 38 comments }
How long will you be there?
I just got back from a long shoot in AZ. It took me a long time to acclimate myself to Pacific coast time, and when I came back I had to work the next morning. Honestly, I only survived because I took a long nap on the plane home (it was mid-day) and then I went to bed at 7:30 the next night. I managed to get everything done that needed getting done in between.
About three days, Jewels. It will be Sunday in the p.m. when I get on the plane to return to DC, and in the a.m. Monday when I touch ground at Reagan National.
Ok. The “red eye” is actually your friend.
No one sleeps well on an airplane and your trip is a “short” one so that you would not get a good sleep in any way.
As I recall, you are one of those horrid Cretans that gets up before all reasonable sanity anyway.
Here are the jet lag rules: No caffeine. Hold the sugar. Lots and lots to drink. Go back to the galley every hour or so and drink something. Nap. Don’t get your mind wrapped up in a book or movie that will keep working on you when you try to nap. Forget comfort. Walk those swollen ankles. The night is shot.
Monday, you need to get into the daylight. Your little biological clock needs a few hours to reset itself. Resist going to bed until about a hour before your normal bed time. NO naps. Drink plenty of caffeine free liquids and continue to take a short stroll every hour or so.
Wednesday may be the day you feel like crashing. Fight it.
Daylight, ignoring fatigue and not giving into sweets and caffeine are the best allies. And take Airborne. It works and you will be sitting in recycled air going and coming. I hate to add this, but jet-lag is also a state of mind. Don’t anticipate it too much. I am often more tired after short flights than I am on over-nighters. You can’t catch up on sleep you miss, so just push ahead.
Have a rewarding trip.
Have a wonderful trip, La Shawn! Here’s my travel tip for you: Drink LOTS of water before and during your flight. Somehow keeping well-hydrated helps with jetlag.
Enjoy your time at the conference!
Home remedy… let’s see… stay home?
Usually, I just keep my same Eastcoast schedule. So, I miss a few things… but that’s good discipline, too, in its own way.
De-stress your inflight time. Try to get a good seat on the plane so your trip is as comfortable as possible. Have you chosen it yet? If not, do so now on line if you can. Volunteer for the emergency exit row with more legroom or at the least, try to avoid the middle seat. Dress comfortably.
Start taking Vitamin C now. I take 500 mg. twice a day but you may not be able to take that much..whatever works for you. Carry hand disinfectant with you. It’s cold and flu time and do what you can to protect yourself.
I always found that the red-eye flights were great for fighting jet lag. I used to have to make the trek from San Fran to Baltimore quite a bit. Have a blessed trip.
According to the movie “Die Hard,†all you have to do is rub your bare feet on carpet (and kill several dozen terrorists) and your jet lag will work itself out.
Hope this helps, LaShawn
Regards
Buck
Google jet lag diet. Just read book, stop caffeine now, no drinks with any caffeine or chocolate. one day before flight eat a high protein breakfast and lunch and a high carbohydrate dinner. Keep total carlories under 800 for the day. Morning of flight drink 3 cups coffee, no more for the day. Day of arrival is feast day, eat big meals high protein breakfast and dinner and high carbbohydrate dinner. East bound reverse. See diet page. It works used it on China trip this summer. Kemp
One other thing, set your watch to arrival time when you get on the plane.
My advice…drink lots of water and have lots of fun.
Melatonin works for me. I take either 5 or 6 mg (i.e. one 5 mg tablet or two 3 mg tablets) about an hour before I want to go to sleep.
Your flight time will help you a lot in this case. Try to sleep on the plane so when you de-plane in the morning, it’ll feel like a normal day.
The intense weekend will have its effect on you too so don’t be hard on yourself if you’re tired when you get home. It’s only normal to take a little while to “decompress.”
Have an awesome time!
Actually, the time change gives you a break. Instead of a 3-hour time change, it’s really a 2-hour time change. You’re only going to do a two time zone move.
Now, in the spring, it would be a 4 hour change – much more brutal.
I fly from Israel to the west coast and back again at least once a year. It is a killer! But what I have found that helps is a reiteration of what everyone else has said: make sure you are well rested BEFORE your flight, drink LOTS of water or juice (but avoid the sugary sodas and juices), avoid caffeine and junk food, and take Vit C 500 mg starting a few days before you fly and a few days after your flight. When you reach your destination, try very hard to conform to the schedule there. That means resisting napping even though you are tired, and going to bed when it is normal to do so in that time zone.
Good luck and happy travels!
As much as possible, stay in your time zone while in Cali.
I’m in California (and will be seeing you at GodBlogCon!), and everyone says the jetlag is worse Westbound than Eastbound. I just got back a few weeks ago from Poland (9 hours ahead) and didn’t have much jetlag going there, even though we arrived at 10am and had a full day of sightseeing before we could go to bed.
Heliotrope has some great advice: You get there in the morning, you treat it like it’s morning. Forget the whole “what time does my body think it is” stuff, because that is the slimey pit that spawns jetlag. Set your watch to whatever time it is where you’re at, and then just deal with it.
See you tomorrow!!!
I’m sorry, I meant to say “when you reach your HOME destination” meaning, when you get back home, try to get back on your schedule. Braden is right that while you are in CA, you should try to stay on your home schedule as much as possible. This only really works if your visit is a fairly short one.
Take that airborne, LaShawn!
La Shawn:
Don’t drink too much water. You may have to go to the restroom just as the plane is landing, when the “fasten seat belt sign” is on and the Security Nazis won’t let you get up.
I don’t know if this applies to you, but many years of being on-call as an anesthesiologist have made me almost immune to jet lag. I went to Eastern Europe in 2001 (7 hour lag) and Russia in 200s (9 hour lag) and – I am not lying – I did not get jet lagged.
Do not eat anything on the plane at all or within the 2 hours before you fly and ONLY drink water on board – each way. It helps enormously.
Also – based on very recent experience – take Airborne to prevent picking up a bug from other travelers!
Just roll with it. I traveled across the country for twenty years while in the AF. I just did whatever my body told me. When I was tired I slept or napped. Not a good idea to fight your body. Try to plan an easy day on your return, this will give you some down time and you can recover that day. Worked well for me. No new diet, no staying off anything, why go through a whole new routine for a four day trip.
Love your blog!
I lived overseas for 14 years, and had to overcome jet lag many times. Here’s what worked for me:
1) Reset your watch to the new time as soon as your plane takes off (both ways). Don’t think about the “old” time.
2) While on the west coast, get to bed early, and get up early every day (if at all possible).
3) When you get back home, take 1 mg of Melatonin around your normal bedtime. You should start feeling tired within an hour.
4) Your first morning(s) home, get up and take a walk outside. If you’re lucky, it will be sunny. Nothing resets your internal clock as well as bright sunshine early in the morning.
Hope this helps!
Can’t add much, I agree that the Red Eye (when flying from west to east) is your friend. It sucks to do it, you have to just sleep if you can and understand that you’ll be tired. I used to do this all time while attending law school in AZ (which is west coast time 1/2 the year) and flying to Atlanta and Virginia. I even took the red eye and went straight to a job interview!! I never held off caffeine–just did whatever was neceessary to make it through day 1 on east coast with no naps–then went to bed at normal time. Flying west never seems as hard.
Have a great trip!
Have fun Lashawn, it sounds like a really great event. As far as jet lag, I’ve been a white knuckle flier for 30 years, so I have no advice. Sorry.
Try melatonin when you get back in VA. It’s an over-the-counter vitamin-like substance and it’s worked for me.
Get yourself engrossed in a good, no make that great— book. If you dig in and become enthralled with a can’t-put-down book….all sense of time will fade away anyway.
You are too busy turning pages, that the hours just melt away and you lose all track of time, jet lag becomes obselete at that point.
What is your all-time favorite novel, or book, page-turning, that once you stop, you won’t be able to put down? Start in on that, on the flight back, and jet lag becomes a non-entity.
Regarding the New Jersey decision: I don’t care what people do in their bedrooms, and two consenting adults can contract to whatever provisions/agreements they want. Consenting adults already have a flurry of rights.
That being said, I don’t find a constitutional right to same-sex marriage..anywhere in the Constitution.
If someone want’s to show me, where in our Constitution the words “Same-sex marriage” occur….I’d like to hear it.
What’s worse freedom of the voters is being usurped. Activist judges who subvert the will of the voters….completely unconsititutional. The New Jersey Supreme Court reminds me of the Florida Supreme Court in election of 2000.
A rogue court taking it upon itself to create new law, without the voters having a say-so.
And it sets a precedent now. Do we really want these State Supreme Courts coming in and making entirely new laws, not just on this matter, but on any other matter a State Supreme court wants, shoving the voters aside ????
OT:
Unrelated Update (7:00 p.m.): I just got some cool news I can’t blog about yet. (I know it’s not nice to tease, but the girl can’t help it.) I’ll fill you in later.
Don’t tell me you are going to run off and leave us hanging?!? 8-;
After you land, stretch for 15 minutes to some music and then take a longish brisk walk. When you return, stretch a little on the plane and then take a longish brisk walk when you return. Eat lightly while in California. Take a nap if you want one. You’ll feel like a million bucks. BON VOYAGE!
WALK! damay (ps: i don’t read your thoughts every day because you’re “black” (or do you say “negro,” as do the spanish, or “niger, ” as did the romans?); nor do i read them because you’re a woman. i read them because you write your thoughts simply and plainly–in everyday English words and sentences, so that anyone who can read the language can understand what you said and meant;ie., you have intelligent things to say and you say them well. for this, i thank you. dam)
Whew. You wanted advice, ya got it. I could write a book with all that’s here. It’s good that you’re flying in and out of Reagan, much less stressful than BWI. (although, I would hardly call flying out of anywhere stress free.)
Anyway, one last note for ya. I agree with all the talk about no sugary or caffeine filled drinks (other than what would be normal for you during those home ours) but a great pick me up food for the time that you get home is apples.
Yes, apples, believe it or not. I read somewhere that it will wake you up more effectively than even coffee. It works for me, I’ve driven for hours munching on them without getting the least bit tired. I prefer the granny smith, but I guess others would work too.
Ok, so there’s a home remedy for ya.
La Shawn in California:
Hurray for Hollywood!
Ready for your close-up…
Get up and move around often – keeps the blood from pooling in your legs. There’s an immune booster tablet you can take when you’re in confined spaces with lots of people – it was “invented” by a school teacher – and is called Airborne. Drink fluids. Take a snack since I read an article about air food safety! Do some stretching exercises several times during the flight.
You can also take a melatonin capsule to help you become sleepy once you get there and again when you come back.
Have a good trip – looking forward to your report.
This is only relevant to a long past question by La Shawn. A friend of mine is a legalized citizen from Mexico. He did not want to write, but commented that he regarded immigration the same way he regarded kids at his home. “If they would not leave when I asked, I would call the police.”
An old home remedy…
…Dramamine.
La Shawn,
I don’t fly. I can’t stand the idea of flying. However, I can tell you from my time driving a truck that the best way to get used to being back in your own time zone is prior to coming back to your own time zone plan your sleep based on being in EST.
Other than that, rest a lot the last day in California. Best of luck!
Jim
I used to suffer greatly on regular trips between Chicago and Germany. I tried nearly everything suggested above to cure jet lag.
In short, nothing worked.
Finally, I switched to flying from Chicago to Asia on a regular basis, which is where I learned what real jet-lag was all about.
The next Chicago-Germany flight didn’t seem so bad
My advice? Stay hydrated and just accept it.
This is far too late to help, but one of the best things you can do while traveling by air is wear noise-cancelling headphones or at least earplugs. The high-frequency engine noise in a plane fatigues you terribly. Also bring a pillow.
Comments on this entry are closed.