Jet lag - what is it and how to minimize its effects?
Jet lag - the traveler's enemy
Whether you’re a businessperson travelling often across continents, an athlete playing many competitions per year, a tourist wanting to see the world or visiting your family on the other side of the planet, chances are you’re going to experience jet lag at least once in your life. It happens because your body’s internal clock, which tells you when to sleep and when to stay awake, is not synchronized to the new time zone. Jet lag usually occurs when flying across three or more time zones in a brief period of time and its symptoms can last up to a few weeks, although most people feel better after a few days. Most commonly, you feel sleepy when you should be awake or vice versa. This can impact your mood, cognitive abilities, fatigue levels, as well as cause headaches, anxiety and stomach problems. But how can you overcome jet lag quickly or even mitigate its negative effects?
First thing’s first – jet lag doesn’t affect all people equally. Why some people are more prone to experiencing the effects of circadian rhythm disruption in not clear. Also, because of a wide variety of factors involved in the severity of jet lag such as age, sleep, stress and arrival time, it is hard to predict who will experience more severe jet lag symptoms. Regardless, what can you do minimize the risks of jet lag and increase the chances of having a great and productive time at your destination?
Well, first – you can prepare in advance. Ideally, in the couple of weeks prior to your trip, you should try to shift your sleep/wake schedule by around 30 minutes (forward or backward depending on where you are travelling) every 2-4 days in order to try to at least partially mimic the destination’s time after adjusting those couple of weeks. This means that if you went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 7am normally, now you would push it to 10.30pm and 7.30am for the first 2-4 days, and then to 11pm and 8am for the next 2-4 days and so on for a couple of weeks. Of course, you can do the same in the other direction (asleep at 9.30pm, 9pm…) if your destination requires so. If a couple of weeks is too long for you, try doing the same routine 5-7 days in advance of your trip by shifting your sleep/wake 30min every 1-2 days. Of course, minimizing stress during packing or travel is also a good idea.
For most people, simple solutions such as preparing in advance and rapidly adjusting to the destination’s time zoneare more than good enough to minimize the effects of jet lag.
Regarding pharmacological substances, studies have found that melatonin (0.5g-5mg) taken close to the target bedtime at the destination reduces jet lag in people flying 5 or more time zones, especially in the eastern direction. As a note, melatonin should not be taken with alcohol.
What about chronic health consequences of jet lag? People who don’t fly frequently are unlikely to develop serious chronic health problems as a result of jet lag, but if you frequently experience jet lag and lose sleep, it may elevate the risk of various cardiometabolic, neurological and psychiatric disorders that chronic poor sleep is associated with.
Overall, for most people, simple solutions such as preparing in advance and rapidly adjusting to the destination’s time zone are more than good enough to minimize the effects of jet lag or resolve them within a few days. If this isn’t helping, you can try taking melatonin (if there are no interactions with your current drugs) for a few days after arriving at your destination. In any case, enjoy your trip and bon voyage!
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About the author
Alen Juginović is a medical doctor and postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA studying the effect of poor sleep quality on health. He is also organizing international award-winning projects such as Nobel Laureate conferences, international congresses, concerts and other, as well as participating in many events as a speaker. Feel free to contact him via LinkedIn for any inquiries.