Typically, when I come back to the US from overseas I have difficulty adjusting my circadian rhythm. This time wasn’t an exception: I would fall asleep just past 7pm and would wake up in the middle of the night. Taking sleeping pills to fall back to sleep wasn’t of much help. On the brighter side, I did a few early morning cycling outings on my Brompton while the streets were still quiet.
While not very early in the morning, I got the chance to participate in the annual Bromptoberfest ride with BromptonNYC along with 90 other Brompton riders. Appropriately, the ride ended up at a beer garden where we had some fun.
After a few weeks at home the only remnants of my jet-lag is waking up around 6am. But… I am going overseas again; the time difference at my destination is +7h. Hopefully, it won’t take me long to adjust because I have to start my job upon arrival. Cycling on my Brompton to assuage my morning blues will not be an option, even though I am bringing it with me: this is an unfamiliar city with supposedly crazy drivers and long distances. I’ll first need to wrap my head around it.
The time between overseas trips in numbers:
881 km — distance cycled
20 000 — nerve cells that form the “master clock” in our brain
24h 11m — the natural human circadian cycle