What Is Jet Lag & How To Cure It?

We often hear the word jet lag especially when someone crosses the world by airplane to a different time zone. By the time you have arrived at your destination, the sensation that you feel becomes much worst.

You will definitely feel confused and exhausted at the same time. This is the symptom of jet lag or its medical term, desynchronosis. Due to this feeling, you will often feel disturbed while traveling and it will feel more annoying for those experiencing it firsthand.

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Why Does Jet Lag Happen?

First, we must understand why such an occasion could occur to your body. Our bodies are controlled by what is called internal circadian rhythm or biological clock as explained on TV. Our bodies release protein, sugar, and hormones in a fixed and controlled manner according to this circadian rhythm.

This is also why you will be able to sleep at night and wake up the next morning. However, if this circadian rhythm is disturbed, you will place your body in a loop that will give impact your eating behavior, digestion, and sleeping pattern.

Some of the common symptoms that you may experience will be headaches, fatigue, loss of focus, and confusion. So what actually spurs your circadian rhythm? This will be the sun and melatonin which is a chemical produced by the body that is responsible for the sleep cycle and keeping you going.

Sunlight will cause the suprachiasmatic nucleus in your brain to reduce the production of melatonin. As you get less sunlight throughout the day, it will produce even more of this hormone.

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The further away you travel, your body will become less in line with this day cycle that we commonly experience. Therefore, when the sunlight enters the retina at the wrong time, your whole body will become disturbed and ultimately feel jet lag.

Ways To Overcome Jet Lag

Based on research at eLife, it was found that changing the light-sensing gene will perhaps cure jet lag. A rat with the gene Lhx1 cures much faster from an 8-hour jet lag compared to ordinary rats.

A bit of tweaking to the gene will soon perhaps reduce the effect of jet lag. The downside is that it disturbed the neurons and communication cells of the rat. Other studies suggest the intake of melatonin and food that is rich in insulin to reduce the slow effect caused by jet lag.

This might be a more practical way of handling things than changing your body's genetics. Insulin can help the stomach's biological clock to be in order at night time. Eating food that is rich in carbohydrates will increase the production of insulin which will help our biological clock to enter the sleeping phase.

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Whereas light snacks that contain protein will help the body to keep awake much longer. Aside from that, a recommendation issued by NASA and National Sleeping Foundation(NSF) suggests that to overcome a daily rhythm disturbance and aline your biological clock, one should:

Go to sleep at the normal local time and wake up at the same local time as well. This will help the body to adapt to the new time zone.
Turn off the light before going to sleep and use a bright light in the morning.
As you arrived at the location, do not stay entrapped in your room. Instead, expose yourself to sunlight as this is the most efficient way to correct your biological clock.
Try not to sleep too much throughout the day. Use an alarm clock.
Avoid the intake of caffeinated drinks and alcohol since this will make it much harder for you to sleep.

Hope these tips help you with your jet lag and you can definitely travel around the world with no issues.

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