on airline travel
The phenomenon I am about to describe is not to be found on short haul flights; Europeans experience a mere mental shift in their sense of their biological age, which may explain their ill considered behaviour after they reach their destination in Ibiza or Benidorm etc. No, to really experience the travel regression syndrome one has be an Australian or New Zealander on a 24 hour flight somewhere.
The syndrome progresses as follows:
Shortly after boarding the plane the traveller regresses into the teenage state, typified by a desire to block out any other humans by donning headphones immediately and by mastering all available technology. Attention spans seem to be small and channel surfing and media hopping occupy the bulk of first few hours. The next stage, about 4 hours into the flight, is the child state, now tech is beginning to pall, but a strong sense of adventure emerges with a desire to make friends with strangers, here is where passengers want to run about and get under foot, narrowly missing being run over by the weary nannies (cabin crew). Excitement is present and passengers actually find the constant mini treats on offer novel and rewarding. However 10 to 14 hours in and the pleasure is dimming, the traveller through exhaustion is moving into the toddler stage. Simple tasks become too difficult to accomplish, technology which previously was enjoyable now becomes incomprehensible and the entertainment plot lines filled as they are with adult constructs are increasing difficult to grasp, communication becomes challenging, a strong level of fractiousness emerges. Resentment from being constrained in your little seat and fed bite sized pieces of food and small bowls of gloop starts to build; this the point where tantrums could erupt. Parents will recognise the overtired state, where although exhausted sleep is hard to achieve. The sense of oppression from the surrounding mass of large bodies can grow. Travellers grow now increasing infantile, constantly uncomfortable but powerless to make any changes that improve this, a numb misery takes over. A dropped handkerchief is irretrievable and everything necessary for comfort seems unobtainable or out of reach, the desire to scream is present but generally suppressed. 20 hours in and with 2 missed sleeps, standing up causes dizziness and disorientation, crying seems the only option but the dim sense that this is not appropriate prevents this. Time seems no longer to have any structure, day and night have no meaning any more. Passivity is increasing and short periods of torpor are interspersed with longer periods of deep silent suffering; the edges between these states are blurring and, reality and the nightmare state can become confused. 24 hours and the infant state is shifting to the foetal. Foetuses dream in utero but this opens the question, what do they dream about? Past life experiences or is it like long haul travelling,where awake merges into sleep seamlessly, here essentially dreams are more of the same. A study into travel and sleep deprivation could be insightful in studying this . Still in this foetal helpless state, hapless passengers are suddenly forced through the aperture into an alien world, full of large purposeful adults talking but not making any sense. Worse yet is the expectation that the traveller also has to be purposeful and take control of valuable possessions, fill out forms and find vital documents in a strange new environment . So when you see those white faced shell shocked strangers clustered around customs and more frighteningly in transit lounges, be compassionate, gentle, and know their befuddled brains are in an enormous catchup mode .
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