Dear Readers, well here we are, back from Toronto, and as usual the jet lag going east is much worse than the jet lag going  west. I woke up at 2.35 a.m. and fell asleep again at about 5 a.m., so I guess I got a few hours of shut eye, but getting up at 7 a.m. was a slog. Still, I’m vertical and I’ve been out and about this morning, and I have a pile of UK Christmas cards to write, so hopefully I can keep going until this evening. 

That intense tiredness that I feel reminds me of when I used to work the 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift at the night shelter in Dundee when I was a young person. By the time I left the shelter I would be longing for my bed with an intensity that I find it hard to describe, except to say that sinking under the duvet was blissful, and that I’d fall asleep almost instantly. I imagine that sleep-deprived parents with small children, or those suffering from insomnia, might yearn for sleep in the same way.

It makes me think about how insulated from sheer physical want we often are these days – when I started doing intermittent fasting a few years ago, I realised how rarely I was actually really hungry. I’d gotten into the habit of snacking whenever I felt a bit bored, or lonely, or stressed, but often what I wanted wasn’t actually food, it was something else – a chat with a friend, a walk around the block, a few minutes reading a good book.

Similarly, I have rarely been physically exhausted this year – in previous years our trips to walk in the Alps in Austria meant that every afternoon we would be tired and aching but happy. This year, my broken leg has put limits to my exercise, although it’s amazing how tiring a walk around the block can be when your tibia is healing. There’s a special quality to being properly physically tired that’s different from just being worn out by mental overwork and emotional shenanigans.

My personal cure for jet lag is to go out and see people in the morning, however spaced out and tired you feel. There is a theory that the combination of light (even sunshine if you’re lucky) and pheromones from other people help your body clock to reset itself, and even if not, a flat white coffee helps me to keep going through what can feel like a very long day. Any other suggestions, Readers? What do you do that helps if you’re lucky enough to travel long haul (I know not everybody can or wants to hop on a plane to the other side of the world).