We arrived to Regensburg, the home of my husband's Aunt, at about 2230 local time. Ethan, our son, fell asleep once we were settled but was wide awake at 0330 (oddly familiar since this is the time he woke up when we were there two years ago both in Europe and back home in Arizona). We played, made breakfast and went for a walk and by 0900 he was asleep. He slept for four hours and then again at 1500 he took a nap for four hours. Prior to leaving I had read to let children follow their own natural sleep rhythm and not attempt to force them into any schedule of sleep. For two to three days Ethan took two naps a day of about four hours each waking up at 0300. On day three, at 0500, we decided to go for a run along the Danube. Oh, but I am getting ahead of myself. Ethan started vomiting on day two, which incidentally lasted until day three. Diarrhea started on day four. So at the beginning of day three, Saturday, the "beginning" being 0330, we played, he vomited and started acting sleepy about 0500 at that time we decided to go running since we had not been able to enjoy the outside since arriving. Little did we know -- it would be our last beautiful sunny day until three weeks later. As a side note, we never get up and go running at 0500 and be happy about it -- but we were in Germany and going to run along the Danube...what was there not to be happy about.? Well.... Ethan decided to throw up instead of go to sleep 15 minutes into our bliss. After our temporary diversion of cleaning up the toddler and getting him comfy in his very thick stroller sleeping bag by JJ Cole (it looks so comfy even I want to curl up in it) we were back to our bliss of running along the Danube...at 0530 in the morning.
In spite of the jet lag we ran about 6.5 miles that morning. Ethan converted to the local time by that night and was back to taking one two hour naps per day. It was raining, cloudy and cold for the next five days which seemed to exacerbate our (the parents) tiredness. I had read somewhere about a theory (or maybe it is a fact not theory) that sunshine helps to shake the jet lag and reset your circadian rhythm (or something like that) so it seems as though the cloudiness may be the culprit for not completely shaking off our lethargy. Unfortunately, the Bavarian region was experiencing very unusually cold weather for May, and we anticipating summer weather, only packed light clothing. Apparently the Germans did not expect cold weather either because we tried to shop for warmer clothing and all we found were swimsuits and shorts (it was 14 c or 50 some degrees Fahrenheit). My very observant husband noted that Germans appeared to be eagerly anticipating the warm summer weather as well.
I believe the sunshine theory may be true for once we were back home in Arizona, land-of-perpetual-sunshine-and-home-of-blistering-hotter-than-hell-eight-month-long-summers, our jet lag time was dramatically shorter. We arrived home at oddly, 2230 local time, and we were in bed by midnight. Surprisingly we were up at..... you guessed it.....0330! This time however there was no running at 0500 since it was already 87 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Ethan had one two hour nap about 1000 and went to bed by 1930 -- he slept all night. As for my husband and I we were slightly tired for a few days but not nearly as run down as we were in Germany (9 days of tiredness). Needless to say, as I said it at the outset, but I'll say it again: the sun was shining from 0500 to 1930. So maybe the sun did have something to do with a shorter jet lag time.
In spite of the jet lag we ran about 6.5 miles that morning. Ethan converted to the local time by that night and was back to taking one two hour naps per day. It was raining, cloudy and cold for the next five days which seemed to exacerbate our (the parents) tiredness. I had read somewhere about a theory (or maybe it is a fact not theory) that sunshine helps to shake the jet lag and reset your circadian rhythm (or something like that) so it seems as though the cloudiness may be the culprit for not completely shaking off our lethargy. Unfortunately, the Bavarian region was experiencing very unusually cold weather for May, and we anticipating summer weather, only packed light clothing. Apparently the Germans did not expect cold weather either because we tried to shop for warmer clothing and all we found were swimsuits and shorts (it was 14 c or 50 some degrees Fahrenheit). My very observant husband noted that Germans appeared to be eagerly anticipating the warm summer weather as well.
I believe the sunshine theory may be true for once we were back home in Arizona, land-of-perpetual-sunshine-and-home-of-blistering-hotter-than-hell-eight-month-long-summers, our jet lag time was dramatically shorter. We arrived home at oddly, 2230 local time, and we were in bed by midnight. Surprisingly we were up at..... you guessed it.....0330! This time however there was no running at 0500 since it was already 87 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Ethan had one two hour nap about 1000 and went to bed by 1930 -- he slept all night. As for my husband and I we were slightly tired for a few days but not nearly as run down as we were in Germany (9 days of tiredness). Needless to say, as I said it at the outset, but I'll say it again: the sun was shining from 0500 to 1930. So maybe the sun did have something to do with a shorter jet lag time.
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How about being at the mall before the stores even open. It was really nice for a while to be up early, it was so peacefull and quiet at 3am in the night.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the 6am run along the Donau an the day that I should have run the Regensburg half marathon but I couldnt because of a vomiting and jet lagged toddler.