jet lag is killing me

As I work from wherever I happen to find myself, I have plenty of flexibility in my life. And so I never, ever take the red eye back to London. Living in America for nearly three years now has taught me that if you fly back to England during the day, jet lag is minimal.

After all, you have all those extra hours on the plane to nap, relax & watch movies, arriving bright eyed & bushy tailed. I'm always quite tired as I never sleep well the night before I fly, and so I can go to bed, exhausted, at the usual UK time (as opposed to still being awake five hrs after everyone else has gone to bed) and wake up normally the next day.

Take the red eye and it's a whole different story. Tired from sleeping badly the night before you arrive at the airport early evening, fly at 2130hrs, twitch fitfully for a few hours in between meal services and arrive at 9am the next morning doing a version of the living dead.

Good luck with trying to stay awake all day. If you are anything like me, you will succumb to your heavy eyelids around 3pm, wake mid evening, fall asleep again at midnight and wake too early the next morning.

I arrived back on Friday morning and I really do not know if I am coming or going. I woke at 5am on Sunday morning. Yesterday I fell asleep at 2230hrs, woke this morning at 0330hrs, fell asleep over my laptop at 1030hrs and woke up again five hours later, having missed most of the traditional working day.

Given that I have now lost umpteen hours of work, it seems clear that as a sanity preserver using an extra day to fly back during daylight hours is a very clever decision. God how will I ever cope if I have children?