Overall it was really enjoyable. We had a 14 hour flight direct DOH-JFK. Overnight in Manhattan, which allowed me to catch up with my Uncle (who moved to the states about 15 years ago) and his wife.
Interesting parallel - my Uncle works in the airline industry and has an American wife; I work in the airline industry and have an American girlfriend. Curious, huh?
Then LGA-ABQ, with a 10 minute transfer window in Chicago. Luckily the two gates were next to each other or we'd have been stuck. As it were we the last three on.
Albuquerque was dusty as expected. It also snowed, which I wasn't expecting.
Went to a Casino on the last afternoon. Lost 160 dollars in about 20 mins, which was a bummer to say the least. All on slots too - they didn't even attempt to make it interesting, they just took my money while (metaphorically) laughing at me.
One of the guys I was traveling with knew the manager of the casino. He suggested we go to the cable car nearby (longest suspended one in the world or something). It was about 10 mins by car, so he called us some transport......
..... which turned out to be a huge stretch limo! Seriously - the only car he had available. It drove us to the foot of the cable car and waited for us to get back.
I also had 6 ours to kill in Washington on the way back so I went to the Air and Space museum on the edge of the airport (owned by the Smithsonian now I think). Really worth going too, especially the space exploration section (if that's your thang).
11 hour flight home. Slept for 8 of them. WIN.
Anyway, just realised this was a really dull post, so check this out:
Made me chuckle.
(e:Rory) what no Bugs Bunny Jokes about how you got lost because you should have gone left, HA.
In Terms of Jet Lag the way I understand it is, that it isn't like staying up all night. Ones Body has a time that it naturally wakes up at and when you also want to sleep (yes alarms violate and change this). So you wake up and your watch says it is one time and your body thinks it is another. Or in a football example a west coast team comes to the east coast and plays a 1pm game there body thinks it is 10am because to the body it is, so they aren't awake and they lose the game. I also wonder how sun light and the darkness of night factor into it.
Jetlag is not just due to lack of sleep. It's disruption of endocrine functions for eg. melatonin and your internal clock regulation of things such as body temperature. That being said, sleep and sleep deficit is an important part as well.
If you travel across multiple timelines, your body has missed a circadian natural rhythm of day-night-day and gone into a day-nap-day routine pretty suddenly. It's no different from partying, staying up all night studying, being on-call and on your toes >40 hours. Some people handle it better than others.
The only difference is on the day you arrive at your destination, unless you are on holiday and can afford another sweet nap, you actually go out and work/attend conferences/classes/meet people like it was actually the next day (but its night by your body's clock). Not only that, your body is actually confused by the fact that its light out when its supposed to be dark. Ref: :::link:::
It took me a whole week to recover when I flew here because I had a really crazy flight from Delhi-Paris-California-New-York-City-Rochester (seemed like a good idea to naïve me, back when I booked this trip. But boy, was I ever "wrong-er"). I was completely drained and had lost an entire night of sleep apart from acquiring this nasty bilateral pedal oedema. The next day was international orientation and classes started the day after. It was simply as if one night somehow got robbed or never existed.
There was massive sleep deficit, all my meals were at unaccustomed reverse times. It was just awful. Probably why I hate flying SO VERY MUCH!
I think frequent flyers and those in the flying professions develop physiological defences against the toppling of their circadian rhythms. Their sleep patterns compensate for endocrine imbalances and try to maintain homeostasis. :::link:::
However, some studies point to the fact that former/present flight-attendants and pilots actually have more circadian-rhythm related problems than the general public.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18085072
Jetlag is not just due to lack of sleep. It's disruption of endocrine functions for eg. melatonin and your internal clock regulation of things such as body temperature. That being said, sleep and sleep deficit is an important part as well.
If you travel across multiple timelines, your body has missed a circadian natural rhythm of day-night-day and gone into a day-nap-day routine pretty suddenly. It's no different from partying, staying up all night studying, being on-call and on your toes >40 hours. Some people handle it better than others.
The only difference is on the day you arrive at your destination, unless you are on holiday and can afford another sweet nap, you actually go out and work/attend conferences/classes/meet people like it was actually the next day (but its night by your body's clock). Not only that, your body is actually confused by the fact that its light out when its supposed to be dark. Ref: :::link:::
It took me a whole week to recover when I flew here because I had a really crazy flight from Delhi-Paris-California-New-York-City-Rochester (seemed like a good idea to naïve me, back when I booked this trip. But boy, was I ever "wrong-er"). I was completely drained and had lost an entire night of sleep apart from acquiring this nasty bilateral pedal oedema. The next day was international orientation and classes started the day after. It was simply as if one night somehow got robbed or never existed.
There was massive sleep deficit, all my meals were at unaccustomed reverse times. It was just awful. Probably why I hate flying SO VERY MUCH!
I think frequent flyers and those in the flying professions develop physiological defences against the toppling of their circadian rhythms. Their sleep patterns compensate for endocrine imbalances and try to maintain homeostasis. :::link:::
However, some studies point to the fact that former/present flight-attendants and pilots actually have more circadian-rhythm related problems than the general public. :::link:::
I seriously don't understand what jet lag is. I mean, you're sleepy, you sleep, you feel better the next day. How is that any different than staying up all night partying?
ps. I was a flight attendant for a few years, so I know travel. Just don't know jet lag.
'snot so bad. I'm lucky enough to be one of those people that gets sleepy within 10 mins of being on a plane.
I'm a champion sleeper. I once did 22 hours non-stop.
The jet lag from something like that must be epic