We’ve been in London since Sunday morning and I have yet to experience a full night’s sleep whereas my husband and daughter are more or less back to their routines. While I could chalk this up to misfortune and wait longingly for my Saturday lie-in (not sure husband knows about this yet!), I know that jet lag always affects me badly upon returning to Europe. So I’ve decided to do some research to see what I’ve done wrong for future reference.
Immediately, I realized my first mistake was to nap as soon as we arrived home. While this is acceptable for Sophia since 4-year olds need much more sleep overnight, I started on the wrong foot by waking up at 1pm after a near 3-hour snooze. Instead, I should have resisted the urge to hibernate by heading outside in the sunshine as this helps the body adjust to the new time zone. If you’ve read this blog previously, you know that I’m slightly (ok, very) obsessed with coffee so of course my primal instinct was to inhale as much caffeine as possible. Normally, this wouldn’t be too problematic but as I was super dehydrated from the horribly stale plane air, I felt like I was on a desert island after the first cup. Next time, I’ll have to hypnotize myself to remember to drink water only (or at least limit myself to one small cup of coffee which is the more likely option!). Finally, I read somewhere that strenuous exercise is actually detrimental when trying to recover from jet lag. I guess that 1.5 hour power yoga class I took yesterday morning that left me so sore that walking is now a chore wasn’t a great idea. This is actually somewhat counter-intuitive to me because I thought an increase in heart rate would help energy levels but as it turns out, my lack of sleep calls for a lighter work-out until my body fully recovers. Who knew? Here are some more practical tips for flying the (un)friendly skies: Overcoming Jet Lag
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