The science of jet lag exists and it can help you arrive at your best. It’s time to replace guessing with science.
Last year, almost 1/2 billion passengers traveled on long-haul flights, and when asked, 93% of them said they struggled with jet lag. Jet lag is caused by a disruption of the 24-hour circadian rhythms in our brain and body.
Unfortunately, jet lag is not just about feeling “off” for a couple of days. In reality, the consequences are wide-ranging and can be costly.
The actual amount of recovery time depends on the distance you traveled. It can take up to a day for each time zone crossed for your body to adjust to the new time zone. From the East Coast of the U.S. to Central Europe, a 6-hour time difference, you can thus expect it to take at least 6 days to recover fully, which might well be the entire length of your trip. This basic calculation might not hold true for every person in every situation.
There are many persistent misconceptions about how to cure jet lag: ”Get as much sleep as possible on the plane”, “stay hydrated and eat only certain foods”, “use sleep medication”, “get onto local time as soon as possible”, “get out in the sun if arriving during the day”, “use caffeine to power through”, etc.
“Unfortunately, no generic solution can help you tackle the underlying cause of jet lag, and might even be counterproductive, making your jet lag worse.”
Dr. Steven Lockley is a renowned expert in circadian rhythms, sleep, and jet lag. He has spent 25 years studying sleep and works with clients such as Formula 1’s elite and NASA.
“Most life on earth is adapted to the daily light/dark cycle caused by the rotation of our planet. We have a 24-hour circadian clock, also called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), that helps us manage the regular rhythm of our day. Jet lag is caused when the sleep/wake and light/dark cycle shift too quickly for our circadian clock to keep up.”
Surprising to many, light is the most important time cue for resetting your circadian clock. Managing when you see and avoid light is critical to adapting to new time zones quickly. The right light exposure at the right time can significantly accelerate your adaptation. Seeing light at the wrong time will make your jet lag worse.
In addition to light, the right type and dose of melatonin, at the right time, can help you shift faster and sleep better.
Phase response curves (PRCs) are the foundation of jet lag science. Phase response curves will show you how bright light and melatonin can help produce phase advances or delays.
Using timed light and melatonin is the only way to eliminate jet lag. However, even if you have shifted your circadian clock to a new time zone, you might still experience fatigue due to insufficient sleep. There are a couple of ways you can boost your energy level if you feel fatigued.
Caffeine is a powerful stimulant and can help you stay awake at times when you should see light, to help reset your clock more quickly. But be careful, using caffeine at the wrong time (too close to your bedtime) or in excessive quantities can have negative effects on your sleep quality.
Naps can be an additional tool to help maintain high levels of alertness and performance, but they need to be scheduled at the right time to give you maximum recovery without affecting your scheduled night-time sleep.
Astronauts and elite athletes were the first to start timeshifting. We have defined Timeshifting as the action of someone who times light exposure and light avoidance, sleep and napping episodes, melatonin use, and caffeine intake to quickly “reset” the circadian clock to a new time zone.
One of them is retired NASA Astronaut, Mike Massimino, who went on two missions to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, and was the first person to tweet from space. Today, he uses the Timeshifter app to timeshift when he travels internationally.
The challenge is to find out the right timing for when to see and avoid light, take melatonin, enjoy caffeine without it compromising one’s sleep quality at night, etc. Solving this challenge is deceptively complicated, and can only be determined based on the traveler’s sleep pattern, chronotype, and itinerary. An app like the Timeshifter jet lag app can create personalized jet lag plans with all of this in mind. By precisely identifying the actions to take and the timing of those actions, Timeshifter helps travelers tackle the underlying cause of jet lag.
Although travel is part of your life, jet lag doesn’t need to be.
