Jet Lag Sucks

They say that for every hour of time change you make when you travel, it takes that many days for your body to recover from jet lag when you get home again.

Does that make sense? If your trip has a time change of four hours, then it takes four days to recoup when you get home again. So Hawaii time is three hours behind Alberta time. If it is 5pm in Alberta, then it is only 2 in the afternoon in Hawaii. The language of ahead and behind is rather confusing to me, but anyways there is a 3 hour time change from Edmonton to Honolulu.

We all handled it remarkably well. The boys seem to keep the same schedule as at home. They were in bed around 7 or 7:30 and they were up between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning. James, Matthew and Ethan were wore off their feet every night and it was like ten o’clock back at home so they were pooped and then they slept in until 9 or 9:30(Alberta time) every morning, but it was reasonable for Hawaii time. Between going to the beach, playing with their cousins, riding their new Christmas scooters and playing in the waves, those kids were asleep before their heads even hit the pillow. Ethan stayed up a few nights as per usual. Something about sitting on a lap for five minutes? He also usually had a nap during the afternoon.

The house on the Pipeline is fairly soundproof, as all you can hear is the sound of waves crashing against the surf. Although if you were sleeping in the basement, you could hear chairs scraping and the sound of little foot steps upstairs, (sorry Uncle Emil and Aunty Char about the hide and seek!). Richard and I did well, too. Unfortunately, for me, I brought along a new pillow for the trip and that caused some neck and sleeping problems. I have not slept well in weeks now, so I am getting tired.

And then on Tuesday we traveled from Honolulu to Los Angeles which was a two hour time change. The baggage guys were in our room at 5:30am to collect our luggage and our flight left at 8 that morning. Wednesday, we traveled from LAX to Tampa, via Phoenix, and our alarm was set for 4:15am that morning. Yowzer! Two very early mornings, two, very long travel days, and a tonne of baggage to collect both days makes for one very tired Momma!

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Well, now we are in Florida and I can not seem to beat the jet lag! From O’ahu to Florida it is a total of 5 hours of time change and it is kicking my butt! We have been “sleeping”in so long that we have to ask the housekeeping staff to come back later, but come evening, I go to sleep for a few hours, then wander around the room from midnight to about 3am with restless leg and arm, so tired, but just not able to sleep. Melatonin is not working either, even after I double dose, twice during the night! Then I fall asleep again, somewhere around 4am only to feel like I have just gone to sleep again around 9am, feeling so tired. I am talking about joint achy, nodding off during a short car ride, running on empty, tired. It doesn’t help that we have five people sharing a room. I hear every cry, every bed shuffle, every snore, every fart, everything!

We desperately need to get on our boat so everyone has their own room!

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This is how I feel every morning!

Who knows, maybe tonight will be better! I will be double dosing on the melatonin and trying some sleeping pills this time!

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

L

 

 

5 thoughts on “Jet Lag Sucks

  1. Aw, Leah, I totally understand. There is nothing worse than being bone-weary tired. Fingers are all crossed and praying you get the rest you so badly need!

  2. I’ll do better than that and pray for you Leah! I have really enjoyed reading your guys’ posts so far, what an adventure and it is only the beginning! In a few weeks you will look back to this and just vaguely remember how hard it is on you right now. We started back Heart to Heart last week, it is nice getting back with our groups and weird to know that you are not going to be there for a while. We will keep you and your family in our prayers at our meetings…. I hope and am sure that you will start sleeping better real quick! Keep sending the posts and pics…..living vicariously thru you…..!!

    • Everyone can find their own way to exceed the drift… all it takes is finding the thing that isn’t “normal” that excites you, build a plan and execute the plan. Our hope is that our adventures will inspire others (or at least one other) to dare to dream and then pursue the dream. It isn’t easy, isn’t always fun, but its worth it.

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