Jet Lag and Other Perils

We landed in Dublin at 8:10 in the morning after a 6-hour flight.  Coming from Eastern Daylight Time in the US, we speculated (hoped) that our jet lag would be mild, since we were landing a mere five time zones away.

Excited to be on our way

When we boarded our 9pm red-eye, it appeared to be devoid of the usual annoyances of flight: no belligerent drunk guy; no really REALLY big person wedged into the seat between us; no sleep-depriving infants or toddlers; the flight wasn't even completely full!  We had good (near the front) seats on the Airbus A330 wide-body.  We got pillows and blankets upon boarding.   Todd and I did a little dance to celebrate our luck and comfort, both rare treats with air travel these days. The pilot promised to keep announcements to a minimum so we could get a few hours sleep.  And I would have done, except...

A CNN poll lists "chatty Cathys" sixth on the list of top airline passengers' complaints.  The Incessant Talkers on this flight topped my list of pet peeves.

One of the chatties behind me

Two women in the seats directly behind me struck up a conversation the moment they were seated.  The chatter went on until dinner, and they were silent only long enough to chew and swallow.  After dinner was cleaned up, the cabin lights were dimmed and passenger reading lights were off, but the two women continued to chit chat like it was afternoon tea time.

I plugged into my iPod, but even the White Noise app wouldn't drown their jabbering.  How could any sane and intelligent person on a long, overnight flight NOT notice that everyone else is trying to sleep?  I thought.  So rude!  I seriously don't want to listen to complete strangers prattle on hour after hour!

Had my mother neglected to teach me the basic manners that these women lacked, I surely would have acted on the fantasy repeating in my head:  "SHUT UP!  WOULD YOU TWO FOR THE LOVE OF PETE JUST SHUT UP?  NOBODY CARES THAT YOU HATED 50 SHADES OF GRAY, OR THAT YOU BOUGHT A SWEATER ON SALE!  IT'S 3 AM!  WE CARE ABOUT SLEEP! " I would yell at the two chattering clods, to the wild applause and back-slapping thanks of the other bleary-eyed passengers.

First bleary-eyed glimpse of Ireland

Traveling by air to a place where the time is five hours ahead of where you started deprives you of sleep unlike any other missed Z's.  Plus, add the hours of sleep you didn't get on the flight.  It isn't like staying up five hours past bedtime at a sleepover, or like pulling an all-nighter in college (studying for finals, of course); you don't get five hours back, they are lost; and you can't catch up on that much missed sleep a little at a time, and sleeping 5 hours that first morning only drags the misery out longer.

After 24 hours awake, your body is telling you, commanding you to get to bed and don't get up until noon.  But you can't because it's time for breakfast where you've just landed, so you've got to ignore the waves of exhaustion, fight the gravity pulling your head toward the pillow, resist the tugging at your consciousness, keep your heavy eyelids up, and instead have a coffee and go for a walk and then eat lunch and stay awake as long as possible, until bedtime, and force your circadian rhythm to the current time zone, which is quick and easy, like carrying a 70-pound backpack up 20 flights of stairs.  Under water.  In the dark.

Everyone who travels seems to have their own method for combatting jet lag, from going to bed and getting up earlier and earlier every day for a week before travel, to taking sleep medications on the flight, to taking stimulants after.  I know of no easy way.

Near our flat

Walking to shake the cobwebs

We made it to about 7 pm before collapsing into bed.  I awoke at 2am, which was 9pm back in Virginia, and my body was really confused, so I went back to sleep until 9:15 in the morning, Dublin time.  The second day was better, but still foggy, and I slept another 10 hours that night.


We've now been in Dublin five days, but thanks to jet lag I don't remember the first two, so I'm glad I took a few photos.  I feel back to normal, which is good, because I am really beginning to appreciate this journey.  And regular sleep.