thousands for inches

I have been fortunate to have avoided any real sickness or pain in my life, and for this I am extremely thankful. I do not ever take my good health for granted, and do my best, wherever possible, to empathise with those who are ill or generally worse off than me. Bearing all that in mind, and given that I don't have any other real points of reference, I can categorically state that the single most painful experience in the world is jet lag.

I would guess that jet lag affects people in many different ways, and traveller's definitions of what it even is probably vary wildly anyway. My definition can best be defined as what I imagine it must be like to be the walking dead.

What I know to be the best dateline-crossing technique for me, is to fly, try one's darndest to sleep while doing so, and then when one arrives at the destination of choice do NOT sleep until evening in that time zone, as per the local's routine.

I've been doing this for a while now and it is, without doubt, the fastest way to integrate your body with the time zone of another country quickly. The problem, though, stems from trying to survive the initial, often many, hours from landing to bedtime.

I do not handle this period well. Particularly when one lands at 7AM and has a full 14+ hours to remain conscious until bedtime.

This period, for mine, is about as torturous as they come, in fact I do not know a stress greater than this. As I sit here in that state now, writing this journal entry my eyes are blinking 4 times as often as they should, my head is nodding back and forward like the greatest high seas, and my body is aching as it would through a flu. Trying to stay awake is, literally, causing pain and discomfort.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Well sometimes we have to, as was this case where one was forced to the city of angels for business. Interestingly the effects of jet lag can be lessened by simply travelling for pleasure, instead of business. Not entirely, but somewhat. Interesting.

Therefore, maybe

(anticipation + excitement) / intoxicating bewilderment on arrival = comfortability level.

Thus in the case of Los Angeles for me (0 + 0) / 0 = level 0 comfortability. In difference to, say, Paris where (10 + 10) / 10 = level 10 comfortability.

Uh huh. Just like that I made a new formula.

Sorry, tired. Review of Another Week in LA coming soon. Maybe.