A Jet Lag Life

*this will most likely be the final newsletter of this season. I’ll be traveling so much this summer I won’t even know what time zone I’m in or when to sleep and I doubt I will have much coherent thought to share here. I’ll be in 6 countries, multiple US-states for work and for vacation and for college tours with my youngest, taking a full course load from Fuller, and have joined a year-long intensive leadership training program that launched last week. So, yeah, something’s gotta give. I’ll be back in September!

Does anyone else believe that there are no calories in food or drink consumed while traveling internationally or during the foggy 3-5 days post travel when jet lag has you up at 3:00 a.m. and all you want is a big juicy burger?

There are either no calories or if there are, it doesn’t matter because you are so tired and then so hungry at all the wrong times. So you just sleep and you just eat and who cares. Also, it never really matters. Eat whatever you want and also take good care of your whole body - the hungry parts, the sleepy parts, the spirit parts.

This is my firm conviction.

Jet lag means you run at 4:00 am and sleep at 4:00 pm. You have never been more productive and pump out page after page for seminary at 3:00 in the morning! And then you are a zombie with foggy eyes and slurry speech on the class Zoom call at 5:00 in the afternoon and thank the good Lord for spellcheck because whatever you produced at 3:00? Not that great after all.

Over 13 weeks, I will take 10 international flights across all kinds of time zones and 4 domestic flights. These are for work and for family and for personal things. I will be tired. I’ve warned my husband I may be crabby.

I promise I will be sleeping and eating at all the wrong times. Running in the middle of the night, zonking out at meetings, producing badly spelled papers by moonlight.

My jet lag hacks include coffee, running, and who cares. Except not really. I actually do set alarms for my naps and try to press through by standing up or walking in place when I want to fall asleep. My husband is the true “who cares” and he just goes with whatever his body tells him to do: sleep, eat, wake up. No alarms, no guilt. He is an Enneagram 7, if that helps explain it. I’m a 3.

Enneagram 3 jet lagging: setting the alarm during naps, forcing productivity when up at 3:00 a.m., gonna conquer this jet lag!

Enneagram 7 jet lagging: movies…sleeping…eating…whatever feels good.

We usually get over it at the same pace and somehow he is less crabby than me. I’m pretty sure there is a lesson in there for me.

What are your jet lag hacks? How does your personality impact your response?