Finally starting to feel human again after a very long, sleepless (and late) flight home from San Francisco. I had a nap for an hour this afternoon which generally speaking made me feel worse rather than better, but after a lovely risotto and a glass of wine, I'm feeling much more normal.
I am fully cognisant of the fact that this feeling won't last, and that jetlag will kick in at a moment of maximum inconvenience. I have some melatonin, which really didn't help on the flight at all – I didn't sleep any more having taken melatonin than I have in the past without it, so not hugely impressed. However, I'll take some tonight too, just in case maybe it does help.
Slightly weird that, in the light of this post, that the whole 'London bomb plot' thing is also repeating itself from two years ago. The fire that freaked me out in 05 came the day after the London bombings, and two weeks later we had the failed repeat attempts.
I think I'm going to avoid San Francisco in the summer of 09.
Meantime, I wait with bated breath to see which of our civil liberties the government's going to remove next, in the light of these recent events.
UPDATE: Hard to tell if it was the melatonin or simple exhaustion, but I slept like a log last night. Feeling a bit groggy today, but that's pretty normal. The key test will be tonight – it's always worse the second night.
Home, sweet home
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Hi Suw,
For the melatonin to work you need to take 9-10 mg. It also helps if you sit in a fairly dark room for about 20 minutes before going to bed. Hope you survive the jet lag!
Sonya
Hi Sonya,
Your comment prompted me to look up melatonin doses online, and it seems that doses as low as 0.5mg can be effective, but that 3mg and 5mg are the most commonly mentioned. Nowhere have I seen a dose as high as 9-10mg, and taking too much melatonin does seem to be implicated in sluggishness the next day.
If any doctors out there can shed more light on appropriate dosing, do comment!
Suw,
Sorry to hear about your jetlag problems, I know how it feels 🙁
I've always found the Nytol Herbal sleeping tablets work really well, I'm not sure what's actually in them but I've been told it's some kind of extract of Lettuce!
YMMV but it worked for me…
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