This week my wife and I came a step closer to becoming Swedish, as we signed on the dotted line for a Swedish apartment.

I’ve been so busy preparing the apartment in my final week in Sweden that I did one of those travel sins.

I didn’t select my seat on my first flight, 24 hours before take-off.

And so I discovered that my seat was assigned to ‘E’. In the middle column, in the middle seat.

When I entered the plane, there were already two guys sitting either side of my seat. The young guy politely gets up to let me in. But on my seat are:

• a thick blanket

• a travel pillow

• a pair of on-ear headphones

• and an erect water bottle

These were assembled such that if I didn’t move them before I sat down, I would have the bottle go up where the sun don’t shine. So here I am, awkwardly trying not to sit on the water bottle, move my backpack under the seat in front, and move all the shit out from underneath me so I can sit on the seat I paid for!

All this appeared amusing to the older guy in my row, who chuckles “It’s a lot of stuff”.

I reply “I didn’t realise I’d have to play Twister on the plane to earn my seat” - to which he laughs, and introduces himself as - who I will call - ‘The Northman’.

The Northman

After the ‘Twister’ reference, The Northman and I get on like a house on fire.

He’s from the most north-eastern town in Sweden - where Sweden and Finland meet at the top of the world.

The Northman says he’s from a ‘shitty town’ that’s only known as being an important spy town during World War II.

The Northman now lives in Stockholm.

But The Northman doesn’t always live in Stockholm. His work is international, as he works to help developing countries.

He’s been to many places round the world - 99 countries to be exact. He tells stories of various situations in some of the 20 African countries he’s visited, and speaks a lot of his time in Kabul in Afghanistan, and other hot spots.

Today - The Northman is bound for Cambodia.

And on a 7-hr flight, it doesn’t take long for him to learn what I do for a living - and that inevitable question about how he can reduce his jetlag at his destination …

The Midland Swede

During the first 90-minutes of our flight, the younger guy in our row is listening to our conversation. He’s waiting for the right moment to jump in.

How Swedish of him to be patient enough to wait 90 minutes to do so!

He’s originally from the middle of Sweden, so I’ll call him the ‘Midland Swede’.

After trading stories about Tim Tam Slams and Surströmming, The Northman and I learn that the Midland Swede is an air traffic controller.

The Midland Swede speaks about how BMI is one of the selection criteria for becoming an air traffic controller, and if it’s too high, you have to do a sleep study. And if you have sleep apnea, you have to use CPAP.

When the Midland Swede arrives at his final destination, he’ll embark on 6 days of rotating shiftwork.

The inevitable question from him is - what can he do to make his nightshifts easier.

The Southern ‘Swede’.

Off the coast Sweden - south of Stockholm - is an island called Gotland.

As alluded to at the start of this article, over time, Gotland will become a new home for my wife and I.

So in this scenario, I’m calling myself the Southern Swede.

The Southern Swede is similar to The Northman and the Midland Swede, in that all three of them have a body clock that is aligned to Swedish time.

All three of these Swedes consider themselves to be night owls (for the new kids who just joined us - a night owl is not a dolphin, bear or wolf).

But travelling eastward is not the best for night owls.

The Midland Swede will move to a new timezone that is only 1-hour different.

The Northman has a timezone difference of 5 hours.

The Southern Swede needs to adjust his body clock by 8 1/2 hours.

Free Theoretical Advice

For the Midland Swede, he has 2 day shifts, followed by 2 evening shifts, then wraps up with 2 night shifts.

So how can he feel better during his nightshifts?

Truth be told - it’s a little tricky. And sorry to say it, but this sort of special training is dedicated to our WINK Members. The sort of info where we can follow up and have a discussion about how you deal the compounding of jetlag plus shiftwork.

Because I’ve often said that when it comes to the consequences of poor sleep, I only worry about surgeons and people who drive big vehicles.

But now I’ll include people who have to make frequent 10-sec decisions for the around 80 airplanes trying to land safely within a 2-hour period at one of the world’s busiest airports.

For The Northman, his work is expected him to start work on Day 1 at 7:30 AM.

For the Southern Swede, he’s gonna be in an even worse situation as he needs to travel farther. So the same applies for him - but he just needs to do extra.

Again, what the above ingredients entail is there for our WINK Members … Hey! Don’t swear at me! It’s only fair to our WINK Members. Tutt! This whole ‘give me free shit’ attitude is Steve Jobs’s fault. Gave away iTunes for free and now everyone expects ( … voice fades to black … ).

Conclusions

I’ve interpreted the 1000s of hours of research into technology-and-sleep - that our group and other groups have performed - as not-so-bad-for-sleep.

But on this 7-hr flight, these three Swedes did not once bury their faces into their phones nor watch the entertainment system residing inches from their faces.

I’m not sure what I paid for that leg of my flight on the way home, but it was worth it.

I got an education into so many things, all because of a menacing and erect water bottle.

I visited the sleep lab at Stockholm University during my stay in Sweden, and learned from Professor John Axelsson that IRL conversations increase alertness.

I know that former PhD graduate Dr Cele Richardson discovered the value of connection for sleep before COVID was a thing.

And there’s been fantastic work been done into the connections between one’s neighbourhood and sleep by Professor Lauren Hale.

My 3-weeks stay in Sweden taught me the value of human interactions and tolerance. And I’ve witnessed the respect that Swedes have for others.

If you’ve been paying attention to world news, you’ve probably heard that the ‘Swedes’ have pissed off millions of people of the Muslim faith around the world.

But just like as I try to teach you to dig deeper into research studies, you also need to dig deeper with this news story. If so, you’ll find Sweden still respects others.

And being immersed in this Swedish culture has produced a sense of calm in me. The sort of calm many of us inspire in our clients and social media followers. The same sort of calm to help them drift into the gentle and refreshing waters of sleep.

And I have no clue how to design a research study to test this. But if I did, I think I would miss the point …

• Prof MG