Everyday Systems

Dear All,

I'm sure this has been addressed in another post, but what do you all do during Jet lag? I'm 9 hours off schedule and only sleeping 4 hours a day.... Am hungry at all the wrong moments.... Any good advice out there?

Lyra wrote:Dear All, I'm sure this has been addressed in another post, but what do you all do during Jet lag? I'm 9 hours off schedule and only sleeping 4 hours a day.... Am hungry at all the wrong moments.... Any good advice out there?

Although I haven't been jet lagged since I started No S, I have been jet lagged and on and off night shift many times in my life. I also did spend the first 10 months on No S sleeping very little due to having a newborn. I was up between 3 and 7 times a night for most of the first year, and often was both tired and hungry at odd moments.

Some things I learned in that crazy year:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. If absolutely starving in the middle of the night (to the point of stopping you going to sleep) drink a small glass of full cream milk (I mean about 150ml)
3. If really hungry in the middle of the day, do something incompatible with eating (shower, yoga, walk the dog), if still hungry after that, try the milk, tea or coffee trick.
4. Check the clock, not your stomach, to work out if it is meal time.
5. Absolutely no caffeine within 5 hours of the time you hope to go to sleep.
6. Do not reach for sugar when what you need is sleep.

Contrary to what you body is telling you, you will not starve! In fact, keeping to normal meal times can help you get back into the local time zone quicker.

Try googling "jet lag kids." I looked up advice for getting a preschooler through jet lag, and found the advice was more sensible and body-respecting than the usual advice for adults. Basically have the child (or in this case, you) be outside or have the windows open all the time, and then trust their internal clock about when to sleep and when mealtimes are; don't try to force the child into the new schedule by manipulating their sleeping and eating patterns.

This seems to me to sit well with the no-s philosophy; and it made our family's recent transatlantic adventures pretty painless.

violet crown wrote:Basically have the child (or in this case, you) be outside or have the windows open all the time, and then trust their internal clock about when to sleep and when mealtimes are; don't try to force the child into the new schedule by manipulating their sleeping and eating patterns.

While I agree with being gentle on yourself (and especially a child) I do think planning main meals at local meal times can help you adjust to the local time. Then again, if my internal clock for eating worked, I wouldn't need No-S

I would say get on the local schedule as quickly as possible. The first day or so may be weird - eating breakfast when you feel like it's time to go to sleep or vice versa. It will still take some time to fully adapt, but adapting bis easier than fighting it.

Hmmm... I guess what's important is to choose a strategy and stick with it. So I've decided to allow myself one mini-meal in the morning to bridge the 3 am to breakfast-time gap. So far, this has worked pretty well.

In the blush of first time No S-ing, quite pleased to be here!