Okay, so this is the longest I haven’t blogged in a while, and I’m very much regretting not having more posts lined up to just publish effortlessly. I ran out of time (story of my life!)

This is because, in the past seven days, I’ve:

• Got stranded in a snowstorm in the Grand Canyon (more on that in a later post)
• Taken a ten hour flight from Vegas to London
• Taken a two hour train from London to Nottingham
• Been ambushed by five cats who haven’t seen me for a week
• Read three books and a trashy magazine
• Spent a day at work in the office
• Imported over 5,000 photos of my trip into iPhoto
• Taken a two hour train from Nottingham to London
• Been to see the new Star Wars film
• Gone to a geeky Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert
• Cleaned the house
• Bought the last of this year’s Christmas presents
• Planned a trip to Hungary and Slovakia
• Taken a two hour train from London to Sussex

It’s day five of being back from Vegas, and I’m still entirely in the wrong timezone. Travelling there was fine; we got up early most days (anywhere between 4:45 and 6am) and went to bed pretty early, but were totally functional the rest of the day. Flying back I managed to sleep most of the way and thought it would all be fine. How wrong I was.

(The above photo is one I took of the Nevada mountains at sunset. Short of resizing and adding text, I’ve left it entirely untouched).

Exhausted is not the word. I’m lucky if I can get to sleep before 4am, and getting up before 9am on weekdays and 10am on weekends isn’t helping one bit; I just fall asleep during the day…anywhere and everywhere. I’m eating one main meal a day, which isn’t definitely not what I should be doing, but my body doesn’t want to eat early at all. It’s decided 3pm is meal time and midnight is snack time.

What’s even harder is that I’m normally a great sleeper. I like routine. I normally fall asleep within a couple of minutes of turning my light off and wake up 6-8 hours later. One of the cats tends to wake me up twice during the night to let her out/in to my bedroom, but since she has a specific routine too, I’m used to it and fall back asleep straight away without even really waking up. Jetlagged Jenni is like an entirely different person in that respect. The cats find it almost impossible to wake me up now. I fell asleep on the sofa one evening and woke up about ten times to Halo gently clawing at my nose…apparently I kept falling asleep mid-cuddle and he wasn’t too impressed that it was the only way he could get me to wake up.

I fell asleep for a couple of minutes during Star Wars. I’m sorry. I honestly really liked it, I’m just having trouble staying awake as it is, never mind in a warm dark room with a surprisingly small screen (apparently we chose the worst cinema in London. Our TV might actually be bigger. I was genuinely surprised it wasn’t in black and white).

So if I’m totally failing at getting over jetlag, why is this post called ‘How to get over jetlag’? Simply because I asked someone who knows more about this stuff than I do.¹ And for once it wasn’t Google, but my good friend Alex. Who flies more than most people I know, and definitely more than me.

Here’s his advice.

How to get over jetlag

Regulate everything
Have a routine, and pay attention to the little things that are actually big things (such as when you sleep, what you eat etc.).

Eat lots in the morning, little at night
This works if you’re travelling West to East, like I did. I’ve also found that balanced meals and snacks work better, as opposed to just sugar or just protein.

Caffeine in the morning, hot milk before bed
This one is pretty self-explanatory unless you do what I did and try to avoid caffeine. Don’t avoid caffeine.

Try melatonin
I haven’t actually tried this one, but I’ve been told it’s worth a go if you’re really struggling and need a quick fix.

Go to bed at a sensible time
Alex even suggested going to bed early, around 7:30, and trying to get 11 hours’ in at one go. If your schedule is flexible enough, definitely do this.

Try a ‘coffee nap’
I’d never heard of this before, but apparently it’s good if you have an overwhelming desire to nap during the day, as I have. Have a cup of coffee and then nap for half an hour. The caffeine will kick in later and make it easier to wake up. Genius.

How not to get over jetlag

Avoid doing these things. Trust me, I’ve done all of them.

Skip meals
I normally eat fairly early on in the day, so my body wanting to eat lunch at midnight has really confused me. I’m working at not skipping breakfast and then eating more just before I go to bed, especially because eating is really important to body clock cycles.

Eat when you’re hungry
I normally just eat when I’m hungry, which usually coincides with mealtimes when I’m not jetlagged. I’ve really had two and half weeks of not eating normally because of being all over Vegas and Arizona and only eating one proper meal a day in a lot of cases because the portions are so huge and we had nowhere to store leftovers.

Avoid caffeine
This was a big mistake, especially with so much work and travel straight after getting back (I was back in the office within ten hours of landing). Caffeine first thing in the morning is the way to go, although I try and restrict it from late afternoon onwards to prevent myself getting addicted again.

Leave it to nature
My first plan was to just let my body settle back in its natural rhythm. After a day of feeling like I was walking through a thick brainfog, I gave up on that idea.

Brain on jetlag: 'Why did we go to work in the middle of the night & why did you buy a tuna sandwich for breakfast & leave it in the shop?'

— Jenni (@madebyjenni) December 18, 2015

Try to carry on as normal
Forget what you usually do, at least for now. Need a break? Give yourself a break. (I’m still learning this).

Sit around all day
In Vegas, we got up early and were out and about all day. Not only were we distracted, we were very rarely in a situation where we were tempted to nap. Coming back home to horrible rainy cold weather has meant I’ve avoided being outside where possible, whereas in reality I should start my day with some cold fresh air.

Only plan for your trip
In the lead up to the trip I was rushing around like crazy. I had about 45 things on my to do list. But all of those things were pre-trip tasks, which meant we got back to a house with basically no food (and no blog posts either). The run up can be be super busy, but the post-trip days shouldn’t be neglected either, especially if you’re trying to be consistent with food.

Have you ever flown longhaul? What are your tips for getting over jet lag?