I’ve often heard people talk about jet lag, how flying halfway around the world throws the body’s clock out of sync. Flying east, I heard, was worse than flying west. Having made the trip from California to Boston a few times and not noticing any ill effects, I mostly discounted the tales of insomnia and keeping weird hours for a few days after coming back from Asia.
Boy, was I wrong.
I got home about midnight on Monday. My body was convinced that the time was 2:00 pm, and it took me three or four hours to calm down and get to sleep. Even then I kept waking every couple of hours. I slept most of Tuesday, was actually functional on Tuesday evening, and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning Wednesday. Today was a repeat of Tuesday, except that I’m going to crawl into bed at 11:00 pm (immediately after I write this) so that I can get back on a normal schedule tomorrow in preparation for a trip on Friday.
I can tell you from experience that jet lag is real. Flying back through a 14 hour time difference will throw you off, and you’ll most likely be worthless for at least two days. Build that assumption into your schedule if you’re planning a long trip.