After spending over 200 days on the other side of the world, heading to the backcountry in search of our next adventure, we decided to make a surprise return home to Wisconsin. This adventure home took us to 13 time zones and took us 24 hours.
Hong Kong to Dallas to Minneapolis by plane, then to Minneapolis to Southridge, Wisconsin. We spent 200 days ago on the other side of the planet, but without a big jump in time zones.
After a whole day, we finally got home. It was late at night and we couldn’t wait to surprise everyone early the next morning. We quickly got six hours of sleep and rushed to surprise Lena’s parents at their house.
Everyone was surprised, even stunned, but all we could do was knock off the nap (an unsuccessful effort) and embark on the task of resetting our internal clocks to Central Standard Time.
We asked ourselves why we slept 200 hours in a bed that missed 6 days. The answer is simple, we are affected by jet lag.
What is jet lag and how does it affect you?
Jet lag is the fatigue and other physical effects a person feels after a long flight across multiple time zones. Everyone is affected differently by jet lag, but common symptoms often include:
Fatigue and disorientation: Fatigue and disorientation for a few days after arrival. Feeling unmotivated about any activity that requires some skillful effort, such as driving, reading, or even working. (for our work on the blog)
Disrupted sleep: Crossing time zones can cause you to wake up during the night (for me at 3-4 am) or make it difficult to fall asleep. Then you end up feeling sleepy during the day and end up napping. (For Lina, a 2-hour nap around 3 pm) NASA estimates that for every hour you cross a time zone, it takes a day to get back to your normal rhythm. For us, this means that in 13 days, we should readjust to Central Standard Time.
Confusion and vagueness: Forgetting to do a basic task, or checking two or three times to see if you’ve completed that task. Also zone out when people try to talk to you.
Mood: Jet lag can affect your mood, causing you to fluctuate from one minute to the next. Some people experience the full spectrum from joy to madness to sadness in a short period of time. Fortunately, it’s short and easy to take a nap.
