from jet lag is strange, like a seasick pirate.
Members of either profession are expected
to have built up immunity to any job-
related maladies before hanging up their
respective professional shingles.
Luckily, I don’t work in an office and my
profession usually allows me the freedom to
hide out until my brain catches up with local
time. But as you, dear reader, might have a
normal job (one in which showing up to the
office four hours late is frowned upon), here
are a few tricks I’ve used with various
degrees of success to lessen the severity and
duration of jet lag in my travels.
My most frequent flights are between
North America and East Asia. The
journeys last from 12 to 16 hours and
come in two varieties: Trips taking off in
the evening and landing around dawn local
Well, “lying” is too strong a term.
“Whistling in the dark” might be more
accurate. Twelve hours later my brain
thinks
it should be dark. The sun, clock,
and ambient sounds of human daytime
industry coming from just the other side of
my drawn drapes indicate otherwise. Still,
my brain isn’t buying the evidence and
insists that bed is the right place to be.
Jet lag affects people differently. For me, a
bout of jet lag generally includes nighttime
hyperactivity and daytime narcolepsy,
interspersed with a few inappropriately
timed productive spurts and unplanned
stupors. This is all perfectly natural, and
nothing normal travelers should be
ashamed of. But those of us with the word
“travel” in our job titles find admitting to
even the slightest tinge of jet lag
embarrassing. A travel writer suffering
few nights after returning
from a two-week trip to
Taiwan I was bouncing
around my bedroom at
3am like a handball.
“You told me you were immune to jet lag,”
my girlfriend moaned, pulling a pillow
over her head.
And indeed I had. But like most seasoned
travelers who claim to be immune to jet
lag, I was lying.
A
The Lighter
ʔሞ݊ਠਕ٤ʕ࠭ɛ
א
݊ࣚɛdࣛࢨֻֻϓ
ڗމ
࠭Б
ܝ
ٙМ˓ᓿi
༊ഹᜫ͛ଣࣛᙒટաͦٙήٙࣛගdίૉɪٙঘʕɝွdԨίͣ˂ٙঘʕ
ڭ
ܵ፴d
א
̙˸Ϟࣖдࣛࢨf
Side of Jet Lag
BY SAMUEL JOSHUA BROWN ILLUSTRATIONS BY LYNETTE LIN
ࣛࢨሜѶ˙
20
enVoyage
Perspectives
