Jet Lag Light

Preventing jet lag

Jetlag: the most important factor for productiveness and fun when traveling through timezones. Frequent popular medicines are bruises, aroma therapy and light behind the stifle. Luckily, recent research on the circadian rhythm has proposed a dependable way to decrease or even eliminate jet lag. The Circadian Rhythm is the approximately 24 hour period of biologic rhythm that causes changes within the human body and most other organism.

People, for example, have circulation beats of vigilance and bodily warmth. Normally, these cycles follow the ambient light and darkness cycle: sleepiness appears around 5:00 am, when it is often darkness. Jetlag appears when our rhythm no longer matches the surrounding area. Fly from Vancouver to Moscow - 12hrs ahead - means that top fatigue starts at 17:00 if you normally want to be vigilant.

Even though researchers have known about the circadian rhythm for hundreds of years, recent research has shown that we can use it to minimize the adverse impact of shifts and jet lag. Movement, light and light determine whether the circulation rhythm adapts to the surrounding area. Light irradiation is the most effective method to cause a change in phases - progress or retardation in the circulation rhythm.

Early light in the early mornings wakes you up sooner ("phase shift"); light around bedtime wakes you up later ("phase delay"). Helen Burgess and fellow researchers from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago investigated whether jet lag can be avoided by phasing before departure. Following three day's light effects in the mornings, the circulation rhythm of the competitors changed by an additional 2.1 hrs on avarage.

That means that they would have felt less jet-lagging, and would have been fully set to the new timezone about two and a half day before. Searching for and preventing light at the right moment can thus help reducing jet lag. In order to search for light, subject yourself to light and constant light by going out in the sun or using a standard light well.

In order to prevent light, keep away from the sun inside the house or put on a pair of black glasses. The calculation of the period for the search and avoidance of light is dependent on the number of timezones traversed, the driving directions and the normal waking and bedding periods. Assuming you get 7 or less hrs of rest per day, this is 2 hrs before your normal waking period.

When you sleep more, expect this to be 3hrs before your normal waking period. Decide whether you need to drive or slow down your circulation rhythm. When you fly eastwards (into a later timezone ), e.g. from Los Angeles to New York, you must bring the stage forward. Otherwise, if you fly westward, you must observe the phasing lag.

When you need to make the phasing move, try avoiding light 4hrs before your lowest bodily temp and looking for light for 4hrs. Postpone your estimate of your bodily warmth at least one extra hour per head per night as the period progresses or one and a half extra days as the period is delayed.

Naturally, most humans try to adapt to the new timezone without checking their exposures to light and darkness. You can also undergo an antidromatic retraining when the circulation rhythm shifts in the opposite directions. Thus, for example, accidental light can cause persons to suffer a stage lag and not a stage feed, which worsens jet lag.

In view of this understanding of Circadian rhythm, one can - as an Articulate claims - outsmart "Mother Nature" so that one can travel around the globe without jet lag.