Jet Lag and the Question of Breakfast

The clock in the room says nine in the morning. The body says it is two at night, or eight in the evening, or some hour that does not exist. Hunger arrives at odd moments and then disappears. Travellers with a layover session to fit in often ask whether to eat before it, and the honest answer is that it depends less on the clock in Amsterdam than on the clock you brought with you.

Why jet lag confuses appetite

The body runs on internal rhythms that are tied to light and to meals, and a long flight pulls them out of step with each other. Appetite is one of the rhythms that lags. A traveller from the west may feel no hunger at all at breakfast time and then be ravenous at three in the afternoon. A traveller from the east may want a full dinner at eleven in the morning. Neither is wrong; both are carrying a clock from somewhere else.

The rule for the session

Whatever the hour, the principle is the same: a light meal before, a proper one after. Lying face down on a full stomach is uncomfortable, and a session after a heavy meal loses half its point. Something small an hour or so before, such as fruit, yoghurt, a piece of bread or a bowl of soup, keeps hunger from distracting you without weighing you down. The proper meal comes afterwards, when the body is relaxed and ready for it.

Room service timing

Airport hotels usually run room service around the clock, and it is a useful tool on a layover. Order the proper meal to arrive after the session has ended, not during it. A tray left on the desk through a session is a distraction, and the food will be cold by the time you reach it. If you order as she leaves, it will usually arrive while you are in the shower.

Water, above everything

Cabin air is very dry, and most travellers step off a long flight mildly dehydrated. That makes muscles tighter and a session less comfortable. Two glasses of water on arrival in the room, before the shower, make a noticeable difference. Keep a glass by the bed during the session. Coffee and tea count for less than they seem, and alcohol counts against you.

Flying west, flying east

A traveller who has flown west, arriving in the afternoon, often finds that the body wants to sleep early. A light meal, a session, and then sleep works well. A traveller who has flown east, arriving in the morning, may want a short sleep first, then food, then the session. The guide to ordering a layover lays out both patterns in more detail, and the jet lag page explains why the direction matters.

What she will ask

At the start of a session she may ask whether you have eaten recently. It is not an idle question. If you have just finished a large meal, she may suggest starting on your back rather than your front, or adjust the pace. If you are very hungry, say so; a session with a rumbling stomach is not relaxing for either of you, and ten minutes for a snack is time well spent.

After the meal

The meal after a session is one of the quieter pleasures of a layover. The body is loose, the mind is slow, and food tastes better than it did on the aircraft. Eat slowly, drink water, and then either sleep or make your way back to the terminal, depending on what the stop allows. If you are heading back, leave time; a relaxed body walks more slowly than a tense one, and the security line does not care.

A snack in the cabin bag

Hotel kitchens at the airport are reliable, but they are not always quick at six in the morning or during the lunchtime rush, and a traveller who lands hungry may not want to wait forty minutes for a tray. A small snack carried off the aircraft, such as a banana, a pack of nuts or a cereal bar, solves the problem of hunger before a session without the weight of a meal. It also saves the awkward moment of realising halfway through a session that the last food was eight hours ago on the other side of an ocean.

The booking, briefly

None of this changes the booking itself. Lengths and fees stay as the therapist's profile lists them, and half is still paid ahead on every airport booking. Journey and hour are both settled in writing first. The first message only needs to say when you land, where the room is and how long you want, and the rest can be settled in the thread.