Jet Lag? Finally Found Out the Cure

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2006-11-11 17:18 · Jet Lag

This is the second day of my trip. Just some random note about this long day, in several different entries.

Jet Lag? Finally Found Out the Cure

I am a typical jet lag person. Every time I fly west bound from Shanghai, I experienced serious jet lag.

I followed the advice from my friends and books not to sleep at day time no matter how sleepy I am, and wait until night to go to bed. According to the advice, this is the only way to get rid of jet lag. This theory is widely accepted, and practices. I followed the instruction every time - to stay awake for the first day, but still just suffer so much from it

This time, I felt really sleepy as soon as I get out of the airplane. I drove to San Jose, had Vietnamese noodle and went to hotel. This time, the first I did was to go to bed and slept. At around 9:00 AM Shanghai time (5:00 PM San Jose), I wake up, had dinner, and get back to bed to sleep again.

The next morning, I wake up (I didn’t wake up in the middle - I am the sleep guy anyway). What a magic! For the whole day, I didn’t feel anything - no jet lag, and I am still refreshed for the whole day - I even didn’t noticed that I am in another time zone.

Finally, I found out my cure to jet lag - to sleep as much as possible, instead of staying awake for the first day. It may also work for other guys who likes sleep.

A conclusion: do not aways listen to what others say. Try it yourself. It is a shame that I just found it out after so many times of international travel.

9 Comments

I am also experiencing the same effect of "jet lag" by buring the midnight oil during exam period. I can't sleep at night and feel sleepy during daytime :(

— Elaine · 2006-11-11 18:42

WJS, if you are flying to the US you are heading eastbound, to the western world...hehe

I find jet lag is worse when I fly from HK/China back home to Canada rather than vice versa..do you have this experience as well?

— dezza · 2006-11-12 12:34

Yes. Most people has the same feeling. My explaination is, people don't complain that much if the body feels to be morning, but it turned out to be night, so it has to rest twice - the case from North American to China. If the body thinks it is the end of the day and want to sleep, and then found out it has to work twice a day, it cause bigger problems.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2006-11-12 14:13

"I find jet lag is worse when I fly from HK/China back home to Canada rather than vice versa..do you have this experience as well?"

I have the same problem. Going from Austin to Shanghai, I am perfectly fine already, as long as I don't land during the night. Going from Shanghai to Austin, I am jet-lagged for a whole week, usually 5-10 days of trouble sleeping.

— Ben · 2006-11-12 14:29

We arrived in XuJiaHui last week and found the same thing about jet lag. Last year we tried to adapt to local time right away and had jet lag for nearly two weeks. This time we slept a lot and the only jet lag was getting hungry in the middle of the night, which we didn't ignore. Our bodies are very happy that we listened to them and adjusted really well, except that they (our bodies) want to eat Shanghai food all the time.

Even though we joined "Physical" in Mei Luo Cheng, we are gaining weight.

Can you give advice about where to buy tools like files, grinding wheels, drill bits and where to buy computer software like optical character recognition for Chinese?

Someday we will get brave and ask you for advice about how to buy an apartment. As you said, the American dollar is going down, and we don't expect it go up even if the war in Iraq stops, not until the debt goes down. If only we knew how to buy real estate. If only we could tell the future....

— zjemi · 2006-11-12 17:16

Advice (that Jianshuo may not know) :

Tools Paradise is in Bejing Dong Lu, just a few minutes walk north of Henan Zhong Lu Station (which maybe have changed name by now).

Computer software is in Xijiahui.

Bring a chinese to guide you through the jungle.

Weight gain - only one way, eat less and exercise more. That's it.

Your body is like a bucket of water, if you put water in it, it will gain weight, if you let it alone, it will evaporate. But the exercise will be like taking out the water of the bucket by using a cup :-)

Real estate business in China is simply a mess.

New regulations comes up at the most inconvenient times.

If you have to LEND the money, then leave that business (unless you're chinese).

By the way, guys out there, I would like to know if it is right that foreigners only can own ONE real estate property in China ?

— carsten · 2006-11-12 19:54

"By the way, guys out there, I would like to know if it is right that foreigners only can own ONE real estate property in China ?"

So far as I know, that is correct, and you must LIVE in that property. This is based on citizenship, not ethnicity. Somebody that actually owns an apartment (as opposed to rent) correct me. :p

— Ben · 2006-11-13 02:13

So you can't buy more than one property to hold onto or rent out even if you have ready cash for them? I mean as a foreigner?

— Propertybubble · 2006-11-13 10:33

Having ready cash IS the problem. Too much cash getting into the Shanghai property market and pushing prices way too high. Many people were buying and selling without even renting, just to earn the capital gain profit.

— Ben · 2006-11-13 14:01