Jet lag, also known as flight fatigue, time zone change
syndrome or desynchronosis, occurs when travel across time zones disrupts your
internal body clock, resulting in mental, emotional and physical symptoms such
as:
- Daytime sleepiness and lethargy followed by nighttime
insomnia
- Anxiety, irritability, confusion and poor concentration
- Constipation or diarrhea
- Headache, nausea, indigestion, dehydration and/or general
malaise
The mental effects are fairly well-established, but recent
research suggests jet lag can have a significant effect on your physical
performance as well — a finding of particular importance for athletes who
travel to participate in games and races.
By Dr. Mercola
Jet Lag Takes Toll on Physical Performance
Looking at Major League Baseball data culled from more than
40,000 games over two decades, including the players' travel schedules,
researchers found "subtle but detectable" effects when players traveled
across one or two time zones for a game. As reported by Time Magazine:
"For example, teams from eastern states who had just
returned home from a game out west tended to have fewer stolen bases, doubles
and triples, and were subject to more double plays, than those who hadn't
traveled as recently …
The effects are enough to erase a team's home-field
advantage … The effects of west-to-east travel were stronger than those of
east-to-west travel, supporting the argument that they are due to the body's
circadian clock — not just time on an airplane or scheduling issues in general
…"
According to Dr. Ravi Allada, associate director of the
Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology at Northwestern, the reason for this
decline in physical performance is likely due to the fact that your muscle
cells are tied in to your circadian clock.
Hence, "it makes sense that one might see an impairment
in muscle activity or muscle efficiency, as a result of this
misalignment," he says.
Helpful Tips to Minimize Jet Lag
As a general rule, your body will adjust to the time zone
change at a rate of one time zone per day. To prevent athletic deterioration
due to jet lag, Allada suggests baseball teams may want to make sure their
starting pitchers are on location a day or two earlier when cross-country
travel is required.
This would allow their internal body clocks to adjust to the
local time zone, allowing them to perform at their best. Other athletes would
be wise to follow the same advice — especially if you're traveling eastward,
which tends to desynchronize your internal clock more severely than westward
travel.
If you cannot squeeze in an extra day or two, you could fake
it by pretending you're in your destination time zone while still at home.
This suggestion may be particularly helpful if you're
traveling with young ones. It's hard to rest and recuperate when you have one
or more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed children rearing to go at 4 a.m. once you
reach your destination.
To do this, simply wake up and go to bed according to the
destination time rather than your local time. In the morning, be sure to expose
yourself to bright full-spectrum light. If the sun is not yet up, use a clear
incandescent light bulb along with a cool-blue spectrum LED to shut down
melatonin production.
As an example, if you were to travel from New York to Paris,
start going to bed an hour earlier each day, three days ahead of your flight,
and avoid bright light for two to three hours before going to bed.
This may necessitate closing the blinds or shades, and
turning off all lights and electronic screens. Avoid stimulants such as
caffeine and nicotine. When you wake, be sure to get some bright sunlight
exposure.
If it's still dark out, use a light box or the artificial
light combination mentioned above. Also be sure to shift your mealtimes
accordingly.
Wear your blue-blocking glasses on the plane if you are
traveling at night and continue wearing them until you get to bed. The excess
blue light without the balanced red and near-infrared will seriously impair
your melatonin production.
Once you get to your destination, it is best to get up close
to sunrise and go outside and look in the direction of the sun. You can safely
do this for about an hour after sunrise.
This will help to reset your melatonin production. If
weather and circumstances allow, it would be best to do this outdoors with your
bare feet on the ground.
Effects of Chronic Jet Lag Can Be Severe
Other research has investigated the health effects of jet
lag by focusing on airline professionals like pilots and flight attendants, who
end up struggling with jet lag on a chronic, long-term basis.
Here, population-based studies have found flight crews have
higher rates of cancer than the general population, including melanoma and
cancer of the breast and prostate.
While cosmic radiation exposure is thought to be a factor
that increases this risk, circadian rhythm disturbance also plays a significant
role. Animal research has confirmed that chronically jet lagged mice indeed
have higher rates of breast cancer than non-jet lagged controls.
Chronic jet lag also appears to speed up cognitive decline —
an effect associated with elevated cortisol levels.
In one study, long-distance flight crews were found to have
higher cortisol levels than ground crews, and flight crew members who had
worked there the longest scored lower on memory tests compared to those with
fewer years on the job.
Inconsistent Sleeping Habits May Have Similar Effects
It's worth noting that you don't necessarily have to go
anywhere to experience the effects of jet lag. A very similar scenario is
created if you stay up really late and sleep in on the weekend and then have to
get up early on Monday morning.
If you have something important going on that day, say an
athletic competition, written test or a presentation, your performance may
suffer.
Ditto for those who work night shifts on a rotating basis. I
reviewed the ill effects of working the night shift in November last year, and
why you'd be wise to avoid working them if possible. If you have no other
choice, then the following suggestions can help minimize the health risks:
• When you get up at night, get some blue light exposure, as
this will help wake you up. I suggest using a conventional clear incandescent
bulb in combination with a bright cool white (blue-enriched) LED bulb.
You need both, not one or the other, as the LED will give
you the blue and the incandescent the balancing red and near infrared spectrum.
Ideally, start with incandescent light immediately after
getting up, thereby simulating sunrise. After half an hour or so, add the LED
light, mimicking the sun´s ascent toward high noon. Using the LED light for 15
to 30 minutes will help you to establish your new circadian rhythm.
Once you feel the photonic energy boost, you can stop the
LED use, since too much will do more harm than good. (Bluish LED light
generates excessive amounts of free radicals if not adequately balanced by red
and near infrared light.)
• After this, avoid further exposure to blue light. This
means using only incandescent bulbs at home and at work. Alternatively, wear
blue-blocking glasses to avoid any additional exposure to LED or fluorescent
bulbs.
These strategies are better than nothing, but please be
aware that by working nights, you are depriving yourself of natural sunlight,
which is a really crucial component for health.
The sun's rays not only are the catalyst that allows your
skin to produce vitamin D, but sunlight also plays a role in mitochondrial
health, biological energy production, and is really important for healthy
vision.
What About Using Melatonin?
Your master biological clock resides in the suprachiasmatic
nucleus of your brain (SCN), which is part of your hypothalamus. Based on
signals of light and darkness, your SCN tells your pineal gland when it's time
to secrete melatonin and when to turn it off. Melatonin is often recommended
when traveling across time zones to help reset your internal clock.
According to a government survey, 3.1 million Americans
report using melatonin supplements for jet lag and insomnia. However, it's
important to realize what you're really doing here. More than being a simple
"sleep hormone," melatonin is a biological marker for darkness.
Routinely exposing yourself to bright lights and simply taking melatonin is
inadvisable. As reported by The Guardian:
"Researchers at MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who
originally patented synthetic melatonin as a sleeping aid in 1995, reported the
ideal dose to be between 0.3 mg and 1 mg, and argued that prolonged use of
larger doses could change how the body responds to the hormone, potentially
undermining sleep."
That said, if you're traveling or rotating on and off the
night shift, it can definitely be useful for helping you realign your internal
clock.According to a 2002 Cochrane Database review, people who traveled
across five or more time zones who took melatonin close to bedtime at their
destination experienced less severe jet lag symptoms compared to placebo.
The greatest benefits were reported by those traveling
eastward, those crossing the greatest number of time zones, and those taking
doses closer to 5 mg (which is FAR more than typically recommended). Epileptics
and those taking warfarin (a blood thinner) need to beware they're at increased
risk for harmful side effects when taking a melatonin supplement.
Ancient Trick to Eliminate Jet Lag
