Jet Lag and Exercise
.Usually going east is tough for me in terms of jet lag. This is related to my being a night owl—going east means it’s harder to get up in the morning and easier to stay up late, and I have enough issues with both those things already. This time it’s been a little easier, I think physical activity has a lot to do with that.
About six hours after I arrived, I started a hike around Glendalough, in Wicklow, that was something over two hours long. It wasn’t a particularly tough hike, but it had a fair amount of uphill, as well as being beautiful in a classic Irish landscape way—lots of barren rocky greenery. I got up at 10:00 yesterday morning, way earlier than I usually can when suffering from jet lag, and this morning I got up at 06:00 and did a CrossFit workout (“Helen”) at 07:00. I feel as if the exercise has really helped, and while I’ve still felt tired, the tiredness hasn’t had the same weight that jet lag normally brings for me.
(An alternative explanation is that being deprived of internet access has made me go to bed earlier…)