Papa's Travel Tidbits Part I

Hi all,

Today's topic is Jetlag-- Here are your choices:

You get on a plane at 9:30 pm. Get served supper, watch a movie, play video games, try (and fail) to sleep a bit,
 get served a snack then land and it is 11:30 am in Europe!  BUT your body thinks it's 4:30 am!  So a few hours later you are very tired and it is only early afternoon but you "take a little nap" and you wake up at 10:00 pm and can't get back to sleep so you're tired the next day...

  and so on for days and days.  Your body doesn't want breakfast at two in the morning or to go to bed at four in the afternoon!

-OR-

You use the "jetlag diet."  Basically it involves 2 things. 

1. no caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate, aspirin) for three days before the flight. Then a caffeine "hit" (coffee, tea, hot chocolate) at exactly 6:00 pm the day of the flight.

 

2. Then at that moment you set your watch to Europe time (+6 hours) and think and act as if that is the time. Even though you'll be at the airport or on a plane, try to do what you would do if the time was what your watch says.  TRY to sleep on the flight.
Drinks lots of water. No alcohol or caffeine for a day.  When your watch says it's morning... wake up!  Do a puzzle, talk, eat, generally be awake.

 

It's part science (the caffeine trick pushes your body clock ahead six hours) and a large part 'mind over matter.'

The first day in Europe is hard but the time will pass quickly.  Eat meals at the normal time (by your watch.)  DO NOT NAP!   DO NOT SLEEP before 7 or 8 PM.  Donna and I will help by walking you around, showing you interesting sights and getting you ice cream.  You can help by jumping in the lake, having supper next to the lake, etc.

 

The next morning when you wake up at 7 or 8 am... your body will think it is... MORNING.

You will feel like having breakfast. You can have coffee, hot chocolate, etc.

You will enjoy the Alps! (You'll be a little tired because you didn't sleep much on the flight over but DO NOT NAP and by the following day you will swear you've been in Europe your whole life. 

 

It really works.  Take it from someone who did the wrong things on his first few trips and took the better part of a week to feel normal. 

It worked for Chloe and Chris and it will work for you.  Chloe didn't nap that first day so it can be done.

It's worth the effort.

Jetlag coming back doesn't matter much because all that seems to happen is, you wake up very early for a few days. (Which is good!)  Plus you'll have plenty of time to adjust back home in Westford.

 

Happy in Firenze

Love,

Papa