Jet lag in Vietnam: Losing rhythm across time zones

Time travel to yesterday

Right now, as I am writing, it is 2:36 AM Vietnam time, which is tomorrow 3:36 PM Eastern time. So in Vietnam we are 13 hours ahead of Montreal, Canada, for example.

I am terribly disoriented

It is our 3rd day in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and I am still lacking sleep. Trying to keep the Eastern time schedule is harder than I thought. I have lost the sense of time. My original plan was to fall asleep at around 10 PM ET and get up around 7 AM ET. But things are now so out of control that I cannot clearly say what time it is in ET: is it 1 AM or 1 PM. It is partly because of the lack of sleep as I spend more energy thinking about things but getting the same results. I am also worried that I might get food poisoning or a food-related illness. That part, I am minimizing the risk as much as I can but sometimes the mind just weaves stories, especially if it is under-rested.

Another funny thing is that I cannot tell how many hours ago I had my last meal. Usually I fast for 16 hours, but this disorientation has affected my ability to keep track of my fasting hours. The biological clock has been totally messed up. Usually, when I wake up in the morning I drink my decaf coffee, have breakfast, and go about my day. Now, when I wake up, I cannot keep that rhythm anymore. My eating schedule is Vietnamese but my sleeping schedule is being forced to follow the Eastern time zone. So when I wake up (which happens 2-3 times every day instead of the regular once a day), I need to take a strong coffee, and so I feel drugged the whole day.

I feel so messed up, and so is my body.

I need a rhythm

Ok, At this stage, I think I need to make a decision, which may or may not go against the original one. I cannot function like this anymore, especially since we are planning to stay here for a month or so. If I continue like this, not only could I permanently damage my brain cells due to lack of sleep, but also my immune system will weaken and I could get sick easily, which is the last thing I want when I am traveling abroad.

The good old Sun

Back at home, in my quiet mountainous village where I live, the Sun shines so weakly and rarely throughout the winter and spring. So on those cold sunny days I cover my body up to the teeth, which means I do not absorb any sun rays. But here, hallelujah, the Sun exists in abundance!

In parentheses, I have always wondered why many developing countries, despite having abundant sunlight, underuse its potential, while many developed countries,though not the sunniest, have all the technology needed to exploit the limited sunlight they receive.

Anyway, back to my story: the strong almighty sun shining in the sky of Vietnam not only is making my daily intake of two 1000 IU vitamin D3 redundant, but also it is strongly defying my will to follow the ET rhythm. It deals directly with all 3 trillion cells in my body to adjust my body rhythm to local time, where my limited willpower probably can only manipulate a ridiculously tiny fraction of the body cells that have already joined the Sun army.

I cannot compete with the almighty glowing star which is roughly 4×10^28 times heavier and larger than me. Who am I in comparison!!

Final words

I'm still proud of myself for trying to function on the ET time zone and for daring to challenge the big boss, but now that I am reevaluating things, I accept defeat with dignity, like a brave warrior. I confess that the new rhythm I talked about above needs to be closer to the local time.

So I might try to go to bed at around 3 AM and get up about 10 AM.

More to follow.