Journal · 2026-04-25
The Body That Thinks It Is Still Afternoon
Fly west into Schiphol late at night and your body may insist it is mid-afternoon. Why that happens, and how it changes the session you should arrange.
A traveller landing from Asia or the Gulf at eleven at night often feels oddly awake. The legs are tired, the eyes are dry, but the mind is clear and hungry and restless, because as far as the body is concerned it is four in the afternoon. Hours of wakefulness lie ahead no matter how dark it is outside. That state is the opposite of what many people picture when they think of a late arrival, and it calls for a different kind of booking.
Why it happens
The body clock is set chiefly by light and by meal times, and it moves slowly, roughly an hour a day. A flight that crosses six or seven time zones going west lands a traveller in a place where night has fallen while the internal clock is still somewhere in the afternoon. Sleep pressure, the plain tiredness from being awake a long time, pushes one way; the clock pushes the other. On the first night the clock usually wins until three or four in the morning.
What that means for a session
A traveller in this state gains little from a short booking at midnight. An hour ends at one, and then the long wait for sleep begins in a dark room, with a phone for company. A longer session, two hours or so, fills that waking stretch and brings the traveller closer to the point where the body finally gives way. Sleep then follows the session rather than arriving hours after it. The guide on choosing a length after a late landing sets out each option in turn.
The opposite direction
Travellers flying east from North America have the reverse problem. They land in the morning or late at night, and the body believes it is the small hours. They are sleepy at the wrong time and wide awake at three in the afternoon. For them a short session at night followed by immediate sleep usually works well, while a long one risks keeping them up past the point where sleep would have come easily.
Light, darkness and the room
Whichever way you flew, the room should help the clock rather than fight it. For the westbound traveller who needs to fall asleep earlier than the body wants, dim lights and closed curtains from the moment of arrival help. Screens do the opposite, which is why the hour before a session is better spent in a shower than scrolling through messages. For the eastbound traveller who needs to stay awake, bright light in the late afternoon and evening does the same job in reverse.
Melatonin, pills and other shortcuts
Some travellers carry sleep aids. Whatever you take, and that is a question for your own doctor, it is wise not to take it before a session, because feeling drowsy while a stranger is in the room is unpleasant and makes the conversation at the start less clear. Take it after she has left, if at all.
The second night
The second night is often harder than the first. The initial exhaustion has worn off, and the clock has only moved an hour or two. A traveller staying several days sometimes books a second session on that night rather than the first, in the city if the stay has moved there, and finds that it does more good. In central Amsterdam she is usually at the door forty to sixty minutes after the booking is confirmed, and a returning client asking for an hour or two the same day pays the whole fee on arrival.
Figures and deposit
Two hours for one guest with one therapist is a single fee, set out on her profile. At a room near the airport, half of it is confirmed in advance, and the rest is settled at the door. The cancellation policy sets out what happens to that half if the flight or the plan changes.
What does not change
Jet lag changes the ideal length and the ideal start, and nothing else. Your therapist decides what a session includes and sets out her limits before it begins. She may decline a booking and close a visit whenever she chooses. Everyone in the room must be twenty-one or over, and a photo document may be asked for at the door.
So if you land at eleven feeling strangely alert, do not fight it with a short booking and a long wait in the dark. Arrange something that meets the body where it is, and let sleep come when it is ready.