How to sleep in a new place

Jet lag.  All travelers know and despise it.  We've all heard the common advice of keeping yourself awake until it is time to go to sleep in your new time zone, but how many of us actually succeed at this?  Even more, how many people who have the self-discipline to do so actually feel bright-eyed and bushytailed in the morning?

Bushy tale? Check!  Bright eyes?  Errrrrrr.....
Photo credit: Doug

For the last three and a half years I have worked the night shift at the hospital.  This means I arrive at work at 7:00pm and get to leave at 7:30am.  This also means that unless I want absolutely no social life at all, I have to "flip" from a night schedule to a day schedule on my days off.

My method for surviving this crazy hellish schedule is simple: Listen to your body.  Sleep when you want to, get up when no longer sleepy.

Sometimes this means that, yes, I get home from a 12 hour shift and stay awake until the next night.  Sometimes it means I sleep from 8am until 9pm.  Sometimes I sleep for a couple hours, get up and then nap later.  Regardless, I always enjoy myself much more if I am not fighting sleep.

For those times when you are trying to sleep when everyone else in your world is awake...

Lewis N Clark Comfort Eye Mask

There's nothing better or more simple than an eye mask. I like the Lewis N Clark brand best.  The band is thick so it doesn't get rolled up in my hair, and it's adjustable so I never feel like it's trying to smash my eyeballs into my skull.  There is a thick comfy band that goes under the eyes, both blocking out maximum light and again preventing pressure on my eyes.  The downside is that I've yet to see any that are as cute as the ones I've picked up from Victoria's Secret or Swissco.  

Ear plugs.  I use the good old fashioned foam kind that you can buy in the home improvement section of Walmart.  I assumed that if they will protect me from going deaf while using a chain saw, they should cut down on snoring and talking.  Plus, you know that with something as small as ear plugs, you're going to lose them.  More recently I bought a pack at a drugstore that came with a tiny plastic case to store a pair.  This works if you are only going somewhere overnight, or maybe for the weekend.  Any longer than that and these kind of plugs stop working/get gross, and need to be thrown away because you can't clean their porous surface.

If the ear plugs don't do it for you, try a sleep machine app for your phone.  My favorite  is Sleep Machine for iPhone (also available in a free version just with less options).  You can mix different sounds together for a customized white noise.  I love sleeping when it rains so mine is a mix of heavy rain and wind.  The downside to this is that it may annoy your roommate and it will definitely drain your phone's battery.  But I still love it.

And of course there are always sleep aids, though you should check with your doctor even before trying anything over-the-counter, like Melatonin.