What not to do when jet lagged

I’m writing this at 4 o’clock in the morning. At least that’s the time here in New York. It’s 10 am at home in The Netherlands. Great time to wake up. But waking up at this hour is no fun when you’ve got a whole day ahead of you. And I’ve been doing this all week. Simply because I’ve been doing everything, but everything, totally wrong. There’s an advantage to doing things wrong. Always supplies input for another posting.

1. DON’T USE YOUR phone AS A CLOCK

Once awake you grab your mobile to check the time. And your eyes are immediately blasted by a flood of light that wakes you up even more. Since you’re at it, you might as well quickly look to see if there are any new WhatsApps or whether the latest Instagram post has delivered any new followers. By then it’s actually too late.

 2. do not compare

Applies to both currency and time difference. Don’t convert. You’re in another country and there you pay with ‘wokkels’ (Liesbeth’s name for every other form of money besides euros; how many wokkels is that?), keep the temperature in Fahrenheit (at least in NY) and live by their clock. Don’t secretly set your watch to your home time. Then it will never work. Believe me, I’m living proof that it doesn’t work if you keep on converting.

 3. don’t go to bed too early

Last night I was ready for bed by nine o’clock. The day was done and it was a fine time to go to bed. Don’t. For then you’ll wake up seven hours later. To be precise, at 4 o’clock in the morning. You don’t want that.

 4. KEEP ON REFUSING AID

For one reason or another, I think I’m a better person for not getting help with earplugs of sleeping pills. That is, until night time when I hear the alternating ksssjt, kssj, pfff, pfff shrieking through the central heating pipes and, sleeping lightly ‘cos of jet lag, I am instantly wide awake again. What do I do then? Go back to step 1. I know, I’m a hopeless case.