Jet lag is a temporary sleep disorder caused when someone rapidly travels across two or more time zones. It is primarily caused by the fact that it throws our normal functions out of sync. While travelling across multiple time zones, the body clock experiences changes to what it's accustomed to such as routine changes in daylight and darkness, resulting in disturbances in eating, sleeping, hormone variation and routine body temperature variation. Often, jet lag occurs among travellers travelling across five or more time zones. It worsens during eastward travel than on westward travel. Jet lag is often characterized by daytime fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, sleep disturbances, general malaise and sleep disturbances.
Travelling across multiple zones leads to a lack or mismatch of synchrony among the internal activities of the generating system as well as the environmental or social factors.
Travel direction often influences the jet lag’s onset. Travelling eastward worsens jet lag than travelling westward.
The number of time zones travelled can be correlated with circadian disarray. A higher number of time zones an individual travels worsens the jet lag.
Sleep time lost during travel is an important factor as travelling overnight causes sleep loss. Symptoms of jet lag will, however, not worsen until the circadian rhythm is resynchronized at the destination.
Idiosyncratic tolerability is observed among younger people than older adults. Local light exposure is very important for the realignment of the circadian rhythm, which is affected by the work schedule and activity level of the passenger.
Risk Factors
Probability of experiencing jet lag increases if an individual has previously suffered from it. Jet lag worsens with an increase in time zones crossed in one or more flights in a few days.
Prevention
If you are travelling eastward, start sleeping 60 min earlier than your usual time and do the opposite if you are travelling westward.
Change the time on the watch to your destination immediately after boarding such that, at least psychologically, you get used to the time difference.
If your flight is at night, try to sleep; if it is the daytime, try to stay awake.
Stay well hydrated because dehydration can worsen symptoms.
Keep moving and do not remain stationary.
If feasible, break your trip into different parts.
While it is impossible to avoid jet lag, there are ways to hasten the recovery process:
Sunlight is the most important circadian rhythm regulator. On a westward flight, get bright morning light at your new destination and avoid afternoon and evening light exposure. On an eastward flight, avoid early light exposure in the morning and get as much light as possible in the afternoon and early evening. The light helps shift your body’s circadian clock.
Melatonin is a hormone that is being studied for its use in treating jet lag-related symptoms; however, its availability as a treatment in multiple countries is an issue.
Avoid beverages such as caffeine as it offsets drowsiness; therefore, it is advisable as per the requirement.
After You Arrive:
Avoid taking important decisions on the first day.
Eat meals as per the time zone you are in.
Stay in daylight rather than sitting indoors.
Drink lots of water.
If you are sleepy during the day, take shorter naps (20–30 min) so that you can still sleep at night.
Diagnosis
Clinical criteria for jet lag diagnosis as per the international classification of sleep disorders are listed below:
Generalized tiredness or presence of somatic symptoms that occur in two days of recent travel.
Increased sleepiness during the daytime or disturbed sleep cycle along with a reduction in total sleep time, can be related to air travel across two or more time zones.
Any other disorder that cannot be attributed to a disturbance in sleep.
Jet lag is often misdiagnosed as travel tiredness.
Treatment
Pharmacotherapeutic management of jet lag can be performed by the following agents:
Hypnotic agents - Hypnotic agents enable sleep during a jet lag-like situation, e.g., benzodiazepine drugs such as triazolam, lorazepam, temazepam, and chlordiazepoxide. Another class of drugs known as non-diazepine z drugs, such as zopiclone and zolpidem, is used for treating jet lag. Drug dependency and detection are certain leading risk factors for using hypnotics.
Stimulants - Bright light helps in facilitating the phase shift effect of the circadian rhythm. Light has a beneficial impact on sleep timing, mood, and alertness; therefore, an individual should be in bright light after air travel through one or more time zones. However, the avoidance of light during critical times is equally important; this can be the use of glasses that block powerful phase-shifting wavelengths of light.
Caffeine, a psychoactive substance, can be used to maintain alertness while managing jet lag. Caffeine has demonstrated reliable results, improving performance and attention, logical reasoning, and reaction time.
Both modafinil and armodafinil are used in the clinical treatment of excessive sleepiness. They have good effectiveness in daytime sleepiness and shift work sleep disorders. Moreover, these drugs are reported to improve both the patient’s memory and mood.
Chrono biotics - Chronobiotics are drugs that shift rhythms. Melatonin, an agent that can induce sleep during the daytime, has phase shifting and hypnotic effects, which are ideal for a jet lag drug; however, the timing of melatonin to maximize its impact can compromise phase-shifting effects. The use of melatonin at an appropriate time of sleep and light treatment on shifting schedule preflight can help manage jet lag.
Lifestyle Management
Lifestyle management during travelling across more than one time zones can often help for decreasing the severity of jet lag. Some lifestyle management methods are listed below:
Resetting the circadian rhythm:
Symptoms of jet lag gradually subside with the synchronization of the circadian rhythm in the new time zone. By naturally resetting the existing clock mechanism, small differences between different time zones can be compensated by the natural body clock.
Importance of light exposure - An individual should be exposed to bright light after the westward flight travel and the morning after eastward flight travel.
Customized sleep cycle - Practicing the same sleep-wake home routine when an individual arrives at the destination in a different time zone; however, this is not always possible because of business or social obligations.
Caffeine intake - Caffeine can be used as a stimulant to treat jet lag-induced sleepiness and enhance alertness and help combat jet lag.
Exercise - Exercise can have a beneficial effect on managing jet lag.
Prognosis And Complications
Prognosis
The prognosis of jet lag is that it is at its worst right after air travel; it then gets better over four to six days as the individual adjusts to the new time zone. The time to recover from jet lag is more when additional time zones are crossed.
Complications
Jet lag can be associated with complications such as gastrointestinal disorders, being overweight, disturbing sexual activity and fertility and cardiovascular disorders; however, the risk of complications from jet lag is much less than the night shift disorder.
Alternative Treatments
There are no Alternative treatments for jet lag.
References
BMJ Clinical evidence. Jet lag [Internet] Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006102/ (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006102/)
Journal of family medicine and primary care. Jet lag: Heuristics and therapeutics. [Internet] Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6069654/ (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6069654/)
Drugs. Approaches to the Pharmacological Management of Jet Lag [Internet] Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6182450/ (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6182450)
Internist (Berl). Health problems due to night shift work and jetlag [Internet] Available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15252716/. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15252716)
A new research says that doing some exercise can shift the human body clock and help you adjust to the shifted schedules. But while you can alleviate the symptoms of jet lag, beware, frequent jet lags can cause a lot of health problems.
Do you find it difficult to cope with jet lag or your shift based work? According to a new study, doing some exercise can help shift the human body clock. Apart from exercise, we tell you how foods can help you when you are jet lagged.
In today's world, travelling across time zones is inevitable and so in the jetlag due to that. So here are some tips to prevent a jetlag or recover from it.
'Air rage incidents are more likely when the plane has a first class cabin,' said lead researcher Katy DeCelles, associate professor at the University of Toronto in Canada.
A new research says that doing some exercise can shift the human body clock and help you adjust to the shifted schedules. But while you can alleviate the symptoms of jet lag, beware, frequent jet lags can cause a lot of health problems.
Do you find it difficult to cope with jet lag or your shift based work? According to a new study, doing some exercise can help shift the human body clock. Apart from exercise, we tell you how foods can help you when you are jet lagged.
In today's world, travelling across time zones is inevitable and so in the jetlag due to that. So here are some tips to prevent a jetlag or recover from it.
'Air rage incidents are more likely when the plane has a first class cabin,' said lead researcher Katy DeCelles, associate professor at the University of Toronto in Canada.
We bet you didn't know about these health effects of flying. No, we arent's talking about jet lag!
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