The London Series #2

​The flight was scheduled to leave O’Hare at 7:30 pm, which as I wrote about last week, didn’t happen.  The flight included two meals, dinner and breakfast.  Flying overnight to London makes perfect sense because you leave in the evening, get whatever shut eye you can manage, then land in London about 9:00 am, have a regular day, then off to sleep at night, hoping to trick your inner clock.
Because the flight was delayed dinner wasn’t served until 11:00 pm CDT-Chicago by a crew who worked extremely hard to meet our needs.  That meant having dinner at 5:00 am London time.  Breakfast was served about 4:00 am CDT- Chicago which would be 10 am London time – not bad.  The problem is that flying overnight your inner clock needs to re-set by 6 hour.  That 6 hours disappears, I don’t know where, but it is lost – gone forever.
On arrival day the only tour activity is to have a welcome dinner in the hotel and an informal introduction to your fellow travelers.  After dinner we strolled around the hotel and took in the sights and sounds of Kenningston.  Everything felt fine until I actually tried to sleep, I was wide awake.  I decided I wanted to watch BBC News from London and wanted to continue to follow the flood devastation in Houston.  My choice may have been a mistake because it’s not easy to watch others have that level of disruption and suffering in their lives.  I finally feel asleep about 11:00 pm – London time, which would be 5:00 pm CDT-Chicago and there’s the problem.
My inner clock simply refused to adjust.  I slept initially for about 3 ½ hours and was up again, random thoughts bouncing around the room.  About 4:30 am I dozed off again to wake up at 6:30 to get ready for 7:00 am breakfast.  I slept a total of 5 ½ hours, far short of normal and not what I needed to walk and tour during the day.
This pattern continued for three days and our fellow travelers worried about our health and the signs of exhaustion that refused to go away.  Finally, on Thursday we left the hotel at 9:00 am and didn’t return until after dinner and the theater at about 10:30 pm.  Thursday was the first full night of sleep and it made a difference.
I’ve traveled to Ireland, France and Egypt and don’t recall such a struggle with jet lag.  It may be because I’ve aged and my inner clock isn’t as adaptable as it once was.   Looking back on my experience I am of the opinion that I let myself over think the jet lag problem.
Next time, I’m asking my physician for drugs.