jet lag | Spinning Compass

About a week before we left home, I started thinking about jet lag. As someone who suffers from insomnia, I’ve read quite a bit about sleep—and the lack of it. And I’ve tried just about every trick in the books to help me sleep better. Some of them actually help, or at least my brain thinks they do, and that’s all that matters. So as I lay awake last week recalling sleepless nights in cities around the world, I pondered what I could do to alleviate jet lag with my newfound knowledge.

Probably the most effective trick I’ve tried is establishing a regular bedtime and wake-up time. I’m so proficient at this now that I can easily drop off to sleep at 10:30 each night and wake just prior to my alarm at 6:30. What would happen if I gradually started altering that circadian rhythm, shifting back an hour every few days or so—before we leave home? After all, I’m retired. I have nothing better to do with my time, right?

The first night of my experiment, I set the alarm for 5:30, instead of 6:30. No sweat! It was almost magical getting up in the dark before the rest of our world. We made coffee and [bonus!] I got an extra hour to read in the morning while I sipped. By 9:00 that night, we were drowsy and easily drifted off to sleep by 9:30.

This worked so well that two nights later we shifted again. I set the alarm for 4:30. We got up with the alarm, and fell asleep by 8:30 that night. We kept this schedule for another couple of nights. Piece of cake!

A couple of days before our departure, we were all set to pull back another hour until I realized that our flight to Dublin didn’t take off until 7:30—what would be our new bedtime. Dinner on the plane wouldn’t be served before 8:30, and we probably wouldn’t get to sleep before 10:00. We opted not to escalate our plan any further in order to minimize how much sleep we would lose on the night we traveled.

So, how did this little experiment work at our destination? Our bedtime at home had been pulled back to 1:30am Dublin time, which wasn’t ideal, but certainly better than the 3:30am bedtime it would have been without the experiment. And getting only three hours of sleep on the plane and exhausting ourselves by walking seven miles around Dublin the day we arrived also helped. We were asleep by 9:30 our first night. I set the alarm for 7:00—which I chose to ignore at 7:00—and woke more organically at 7:50. Not bad! On our first morning, my body was telling me it was time to get up at what was 2:50 at home.

Now, can we successfully repeat this experiment in the opposite direction when it’s time to go home? I have no idea, but I have twelve more weeks to lose sleep over that one.

So, flights from the US get into Dublin early. Ours, before 7:00.

Good news: no lines at Passport Control and Customs. In fact, Customs was not even open for business.

Bad news: Neither was anything else. What to do to while away the hours until we can check in to our apartment at 3:00? [This from our Airbnb host after I had already booked the place: No early check-in! NO EXCEPTIONS!!!]

First order of business: Check bags at Tourist Information so we can start to explore Dublin unencumbered. Took a cab from the airport to downtown. Hmm…TI doesn’t open until 9:00. It’s not quite 8:00. Fortunately there’s a Starbucks next door—the size of a broom closet. We, and all our bags, filled the shop for an hour precluding any other customers from sitting to enjoy their cuppa. I nursed a small coffee for an hour. The kind baristas never said a word.

great spot from which to watch Dublin go by

9:10. Off on an explore! We crossed the River Liffey to Dublin’s Southside: the shops of Grafton Street, a walk through St. Stephen’s Green, and a spot of lunch at the Camden Bites & Brews. We’d been told that the Guinness served in Ireland is nothing like the tasteless stuff we get in the US. I wanted my first Irish Guinness to be special, so I turned on my pub radar. No travel guidebook, travel app, or advice from friends is as reliable. It’s not just good food and drink, but the atmosphere in which you enjoy it, that makes a gastronomical experience, and to accurately assess the atmosphere you have to pound some pavement and peek in some doors. The results are worth it. And so was the Guinness!

It’s 2:00 now, and I’m starting to get fuzzy around the edges. I only got about three hours of sleep on our overnight flight. My feet are tired. It’s cold and windy and starting to rain. I’m not hungry. Another beer and I’ll be curling up in a corner of the pub. I’ve had all the caffeine I can safely consume. There’s nothing else I’m interested in doing at the moment. We wander around Trinity College a bit, barely seeing the stately stone buildings around us.

2:15. If we show up at the apartment early, will we be left standing in the rain or will there be somewhere we can take shelter? We’ll take our chances. We retrieve our bags at TI and hail a cab. The driver recommended a coffee shop in a grocery store near the apartment.

2:20. We’re toasty and dry and reading the grocery ad.

2:25. I break down and text our host: Is it at all possible to meet us earlier than 3:00? It will take him 25 minutes to get there, he says, but he’ll meet us at 2:50.

2:47. We drag our bags down the street and plant ourselves outside the apartment building.

2:50. Our host is prompt. Happy days!

Dublin, Day 1: Eight hours. 14,777 steps. 6.9 miles. A shower and bed never felt so good!