Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Best Cure for Jet Lag: not Vicodin and a bottle of wine

The conspicuous lack of posts in the past week is probably killing all of you(since there's nothing better to do than read my blog, right?). The suspended animation of a dysfunctional circadian rhythm(your sleep cycle) has left me dazed, drained and unable to concentrate all week. I finally fixed my jet lag problem today with a most unusual remedy: I stopped eating.

The first day I fell asleep at 10 am and slept till 4 pm, and then I fell into a strange cycle that would have made sense if I had been on Tokyo time. I was crashing at 6 pm and fully awake at 4 am. I felt like hell.

I finally looked it up on the internet when my sleeping pills had no effect and discovered that much of the sleep cycle is dependent on when you eat. Your first meal sets your morning cycle, so changing when you eat will determine how you sleep and when you crash. Twelve hours of fasting should do the trick. For example, if you want to change your waking time to 4 am, then stop eating at 4 pm. When you wake up to your alarm at 4 am(or if you haven't slept at all), eat right away.

After a week of terrible sleep, a single meal changed my whole day. 

2 comments:

DJPJ said...

Take care of your health man. I wasn't aware of how eating affects your sleep habits. Well, I'm just glad to know your alright. Also, I've decided to actively follow your blog. So, look out for fun inappropriate comments, hurray!

Tim Malone said...

Michael, I agree with DJPJ, though I know that our lives sometimes do not allow for such luxuries of r&r. Nonetheless, I am glad to hear that you have discovered such a cure. As for me I cannot stop eating lately. I ate so much the other day that I felt sick to my stomach. Maybe fasting could be a source of aid for me as well. Esp. with Lent coming quick...