My Heart has a Jet Lag!

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Is it true that “Jet lag is for amateurs.”

After the long trip from Nigeria to San Francisco via Dubai and vice versa, it never occurred to me that my heart and body would play tricks on me.

It’s about 7hrs to Dubai from Lagos and 15hrs from Dubai to San Francisco. Approximately, a sum of 24hrs (one way) and 48hrs (return) trip!

The physical and chemical composition of my body may have witnessed some extreme reactions. Did the hormones secret too much or too little?Getting up was a Herculean task. Even the spirit was in slumber.

“I refer to jet lag as 'jet-psychosis - there’s an old saying that the spirit cannot move faster than a camel.”

For about four days, I was eating at 12 midnight and able to wake at 10am. It looked like the days were faster and I was slower, yet struggled with the brief trauma. Trance or Flux?

Caption: Onboard TV Screen showing flight time and distance to San Francisco
Caption: Onboard TV Screen showing flight time and distance to San Francisco1440×2107 94 KB

And I remembered that “it takes your sleeping self years to catch up to where you really are. … when you go on a trip, in your dreams you will still be home. Then after you’ve come home you’ll dream of where you were. It’s a kind of jet lag of the consciousness.”

Yes, different ideas, numerous experiences to help cure this temporary sickness:

“As soon as I reach my destination I have a cup of tea, something to eat and then sleep for about 13 hours. I make that an absolute rule and I always feel fresh afterwards and never have jet lag.”

Still searching for the best treatment; “I’d love to get ideas on overcoming jet lag.”

Meanwhile, my favourite quote about jet lag is definitely from Karen Marie Moning, she said “My heart has jet lag.”

Yes, my heart has a jet lag because I am overwhelmingly happy for Connect Live 2018!

How did you feel after your trip and what’s the best way to overcome jetlag, from your experience?

Caption: Photograph showing a Local Guide in an airplane wearing blue denim jacket, glasses and headphone
Caption: Photograph showing a Local Guide in an airplane wearing blue denim jacket, glasses and headphone1419×1093 251 KB

Xoxo
Emeka

P.S I played with quotes here. :blush:

#localguidesconnect #localguides

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Hey @EmekaUlor , very interesting post, thanks for sharing. I really like the sentence : “My heart has jet lag!”.

As I remember from school, one of the main signals that help to regulate our body clocks is light, which helps us to reset our internal clocks each day to match the sun. To help your body clock reset to the new time zone, it’s important to seek out and avoid light at the right times of day. If you’re traveling east, you’ll want to advance your body clock, so seeking morning light and avoiding late afternoon light will help your body clock adjust to your earlier time zone. If you’re traveling west, you’d want to do the opposite.

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I know exactly what you mean @EmekaUlor

My heart (and body) have jet lag too…and I live here. Flew nowhere.

Last week I found myself completely exhausted and couldn’t quite pin it down. Then I think back to the two weeks prior. One leading up to the momentous week, filled with arrivals and greetings for friends new and old. The excitement was building!

Week of Connect Live starting officially on

I look back at those two weeks and am surprised I got any sleep!!! Can’t wait to do it again!

I’ve linked the Google Photos albums with photos of all! Hope you will enjoy the memories as much as I do!

~Kimmy~

I told all the newbies that this event would be life changing. What I didn’t realize is that it would continue to be so for me as well.

My heart is happy for all of the wonderful people I reconnected with or added to my circle of friends. Now they’ve all gone home and it’s sooooo quiet here. Miss you guys, come back soon!

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@Ivi_Ge wow, I just learned a new one from you. Light.

I will keep that at the back of my head but I hope I get the East and West lighting right.

Cheers

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@KimberlyAnnG sure you understand.

I really admired your energy and patrotism. San Francisco should be proud of you. One thing I liked about you is your hair! Colourful as California

Thank you for taking time to give details and photo links.

Cheers

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Hello @EmekaUlor
As @KimberlyAnnG says, in addition to the influence of the airplane, it was an exciting party, so invisible overwork of several days not resting accumulated.

I have sleep problems due to PTSD caused by traffic accident several years ago, so I do not have stress even if I can not sleep. Here are some tips. We do not have to go to bed if you can not sleep (You can do add the place on the map all night as I do😂). When we become sleepy, we just sleep🛌

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Hey @YasumiKikuchi good to read from you.

You are so funny, I guess we may need to continue mapping until sleep comes! You are energetic enough, so I won’t doubt you being up all night

How’s Japan today?

Cheers bro.

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Hi @EmekaUlor

It’s very peaceful today🗾

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Jet lag is the worse. I’ve been travelling my whole life and still can’t get used to it. I have recently realised that when I fly EAST, I get jet lag and it takes me about two weeks to adjust; but when I travel WEST I don’t get any jet lag at all. I was so jet lagged in San Fran but I was also very excited and happy to meet all of my new Local Guide friends.

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These are indeed true feelings @EmekaUlor - its even worse when changing hemispheres. My general advice to minimise the impact (you can’t stop it as you’re messing with your body clock)

  • drink a lot of water on the plane - if you’re not getting up to pee at least every two hours you’re not drinking enough
  • avoid alcohol on long flights
  • consume multi-vitamins and melatonin on the plane and each night before bed at your destination for the first few days and again when you get home
  • when you land, obey the local time zone immediately, avoid going to sleep early - get out and get active until bed time

As for how your heart feels, there’s only one way to address that - continue to be an absolutely awesome Local Guide, get recognised by the team during the year in Maps and here in Connect so that you can go to Connect Live 2019 :).

Regards Paul

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@PaulPavlinovich Thank you. You are sage! I have taken more of your travel advice. I couldn’t go to pee because I sat close to the windows and had more orange juice.

Happy you understand the hearty feelings. I’m definitely going to work on it.

Gracias!

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That’s the other tip @EmekaUlor the window seat is wonderful when taking off and landing, but on long flights the aisle is so much better :slight_smile:

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I arrived day before yesterday at 3 AM after having a layover in Toronto and Istanbul, so you can imagine how long the return leg of this journey was and I felt Jet leg for the first time, i didn’t feel it when i came to SF and maybe it is because of all the adrenaline and excitement, but i clearly remember being in bed last night and being in a sense of trance, i felt my body is sleeping but my mind was awake with vivid dreams and i was re-living the whole CL18 all over again.

The trip to the Golden Bridge gate with @KimberlyAnnG and @ValeriaA to witness the magic that @PaulPavlinovich created was amazing. I did pass out on our way back to the hotel from the cold and exhaustion but it was worth it!!

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Hi Emeka,

Nice piece there and yes the quotes added spice and some #NaijaStew (hahahahahaha!! just couldnt resist that)

About how I overcome jet lag, I am not sure I ever really do because just like you said when you come back from such an exhilarating experience like the Connect Live event was, you will keep reliving the entire ordeal all over again.
Add that to the premise of having a stack full of new friends to keep up and in touch with - different time zones and etc

So, my advice is this - try to take a chill pill for the next few days (I dont see that happening though) and just savour the moments experienced and enjoyed.
Pace yourself with new targets for having a repeat next year - that should keep the blood to your heart pumping in a constant flow.

All the best and welcome back home

xoxo

Lerato

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That was a fun little outing @Tula - it was fun to go out to play so late at night, especially since we had a car at our disposal thanks to @KimberlyAnnG - little shared snapshots of life is what Connect Live is all about :slight_smile:

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Totally agree with you @PaulPavlinovich . @KimberlyAnnG for the WIN!!

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@PaulPavlinovich I agree with you. Will keep that in mind henceforth.

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Hey @Tula happy to know you arrived safely.

Talk about CL18,it’s like a Total Recall each day. Probably a consolation for the lag! Yea?

Nice to know you were part of the crew that made the sensational award winnning light imagery @PaulPavlinovich created.

See more you.Keep in touch

Cheers

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@Lelekena thanks for the commendation. Trying to cook but no #stew.

Sure, the aura and experience of meeting 151+ overwhelms the jet lag palaver. The later is temporary while the former is forever (Pinkie’s voice).

Thanks!

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@EmekaUlor Yes, i believe CL18 has opened up amazing opportunities to connect and make new friendship and a away of keeping in touch and have something in common!

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