Time Change + Long Distance

What is time change? Where does it come from? People that don’t travel often are pretty unaffected by the time zones and time change, so it can be confusing.

I feel like I grew up always having to think about time zones, as we had to calculate that time it was in the UK to see if we could call our grandparents or not. If you got it wrong, you could be waking them up in the middle of the night- and you would hear about it! If you have ever been in a long-distance relationship you know that you seem to have two clocks in your head, the time with you and the time with them.

 

What is time change?

The earth is round and rotates around the sun. When your location on Earth is facing away from the sun you experience darkness, and when you face the sun you experience light. The basis of time follows the daily patterns of light and dark. Since all locations on the round Earth cannot all face the sun at the same time, different places will have light at different points in the day, and therefore different times.

We are used to gradually going through our day and experiencing all stages of light from sunrise to high noon to sunset.

1/Sunset on Java, Indonesia

 

What is jet lag?

Jet lag occurs when you travel to a place where the time is different to the one that your body is used to. As I said, we are used to the natural progression of the day and when we lose that our body clock gets confused. If we wake up at 8, travel 6 hours, and all of a sudden it is midnight, our body is on a time zone that it is not used to, and you will not be able to fall asleep. You will not have the same sleep pattern as those around you, and therefore experience jet lag.

This fabulous self-portrait below was taken 5 hours before my first day back at work after being in Asia for 3 weeks. I only gave myself a day in between which was not enough, and as such I hadn’t slept at all before going to work. In Winnipeg it was the middle of the night, but for my body it was the middle of the day.

 

2/2am selfie post-Asia!

 

How do I deal with jet lag?

I heard once that your body takes one day to recover for every hour that it was displaced. For example, the time change between Winnipeg, Manitoba and the UK is 6 hours. This suggests that it will take me 6 days to recover from that flight and be on their time zone completely. I can’t say that it has ever taken me that long, but a variety of factors can influence jet lag.

They say to stay hydrated and I think it really helps. Everything about your body functions better when it is properly hydrated, and I think jet lag is included. For the past year I have had the intention of going through jet lag before my trip, but haven’t done it yet. Hopefully on my next international trip I will get to try this out! One week before my trip I would start waking up 30 min to 1 hr earlier than normal. (I say earlier because central Canada is one of the later time zones, but it could be later depending where you are and where you are going.) Right before my trip I might be waking up at 3am or 4am, but this would really help me adjust to European time faster- I will let you know if I try it out!

But for jet lag after the journey try to get onto their time zone as soon as you can and avoid having a nap in the middle of the afternoon and not sleeping during the night. Even if you can stay awake until 8pm or 9pm this will really help you get up to speed and in a few days you should be ok! Having things planned to keep you busy will help you stay awake, but don’t jam-pack your first days to be so full that you are exhausted from the tourism and exhausted from the jet lag.

 

How to deal with a loved-one in a different time zone?

Long distance relationships are hard, and throwing in the time change complicates things further. Usually if one person is in North America and one in Europe, the European half will be getting up for work when it is the middle of the night in North America, and by the time the North American one gets off work, the European one is sleeping. What can be done?

• Once both of you have a bit of a routine, figure out gaps in the day and if it is convenient for the other person. Have this little bit of time reserved everyday for at least some interaction or check-in. If you have this time reserved it will avoid the “….how about now?” conversation happening EVERYDAY which would leave everyone frustrated and no meaningful conversation actually happening.
• After that figure out at least once a week when you both have a little more time (probably a weekend) and can have a real conversation. Again, try to make it a reserved space in your calendar to make sure it happens. Things are much harder to shuffle with time zones involved.
• Become ok with conversations without an immediate response. It is really nice to receive a lovely message when you wake up, don’t be afraid to send a message before your go to sleep for the other one to wake up to. But do know that you probably won’t get a response right away- and that has to be ok.
• Imagine a long distance relationship even 10 years ago without WhatsApp and picture messaging? (Even worse- long distance relationship with only MSN!). Pictures are so easy to snap and send now that it would be very easy to document your day-to-day things, like your cat or your extra large cup of coffee. Seeing this will make the other half feel more there with you and more part of your life, even from so far away.

 

3/Take pictures of everyday objects in your life!

• You might have to set some rules. If you have to make big decisions together, and this is the only thing that you talk about when you speak, it might become overwhelming and someone will get upset. Set some rules, like putting ideas into a Google Doc for the other person to review when they have time and can be later discussed once they have thought about it. But telling someone at 11pm your 3958202+ ideas that you thought of that day will make them annoyed and unresponsive.
• If the time change is annoying to figure out all the time there are lots of apps that can do this. I have also seen people hang another clock on the wall displaying the foreign time zone!

 

Learn more…

Watch this super interesting video (narrated with a beautiful accent) all about time zones and its weird facts!

 

How do you solve time zone troubles?