By Roy Stevenson

Jet lag seems to adversely affect almost everyone. The Upjohn Company in cooperation with United Airlines and British Airways surveyed 784 experienced long-distance travelers, and found that 94% of them suffer from the effects of jet lag, while 45% find their symptoms extremely bothersome.

These statistics are not surprising when you consider the multiple side effects of rapid transit across world time zones. When our body clock becomes desynchronized we suffer from many symptoms including tiredness, exhaustion, lack of energy and motivation, dehydration, poor performance, interrupted sleep, digestion problems, disrupted bowel activity, swollen limbs, headaches, ear, nose and throat problems, irritability, irrational anger, mood changes, loss of concentration, lack of alertness, inability to judge time, and disorientation—definitely not what we need when we arrive in a new country!

Couple these side effects with travel fatigue, dry skin, nasal irritation, and stress from making flight connections, and you’re a real mess when you arrive at your vacation destination.

What is jet lag, and how can we cope with it to better enjoy our overseas vacation or business travel? We’ve known that the human body follows inbuilt physiological cycles for over 50 years. Our body rhythms, known as Circadian Rhythms, are normally synchronized with the light/dark cycle, enabling us to sleep, work, and perform more effectively at certain times of the day than others.

But, when the light/dark influence is changed, such as when we cross several time zones rapidly as in intercontinental flights, our Circadian Rhythms become disrupted. Our body clock (which is very stable and slow to shift to new time zones) becomes disoriented, affecting our body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and hormonal secretion patterns. The more time zones we cross, the worse the disruption.

Scientists believe that to completely adjust to a new time zone (known as entraining), it takes one day for every time zone you have passed through. So if you cross the United States, your resynchronization will last 3-4 days. Crossing the Atlantic will take you five to six days to re-adjust.

But, as with many things in the human body, our rate of entraining varies widely from person to person. We respond differently to jet lag according to our age, lifestyle and personal characteristics. Symptoms may even appear at different times of the day in different people. Some people shrug it off while others suffer terribly by worrying about it.

And to further complicate things, not all symptoms of jet lag disappear at the same rate while we are entraining. The resynchronization of our cortisol levels and temperature, for example, take five to eight days. Brain waves resynchronize within five days, and respiratory rate rhythm takes 11 days.

Strategies for coping with jet lag center around readapting our Circadian Rhythms to the new time zone by making arrangements to travel as comfortably as possible, manipulating our diet, readjusting our sleep schedule, getting sunlight exposure in our new destination, and exercising lightly in the first few days. If you take these steps, the worst of your jet lag symptoms should disappear within 3 days. Here are some ways to minimize its impact.

Before Leaving

• Try to pre adjust to your destination time zone by going to bed earlier or later before you leave. This means you get up and go to bed earlier several days prior to eastward trips (which are harder on the body than westward trips), and you get up and go to bed later for westward trips.
• For this to work, you should go to bed an hour earlier each night for 3-4 nights before you leave on an eastward trip, and vice versa for a westward trip.
• You should also be well rested and minimally stressed before you leave. This means getting to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

While Traveling on the Plane

• Set your watch to your destination time, and eat and sleep according to the local time at your destination, as soon as you can.
• If you travel when it would be night at your destination, spend as much time as possible asleep, and eat as little as possible.
• Some people take sleeping pills to help them sleep, although I’m not a fan because of possible side effects of these medications, the main one being grogginess upon waking. Your physician will be able to offer better advice than I can on this controversial issue.
• If you fly during what would be daytime at your destination, stay awake.
• Get up and walk around the cabin and do stretching exercises in your seat. When possible, take an aisle seat.
• Drink plenty of water or fruit juice to prevent dehydration, which can worsen the effects of jet lag. Likewise, completely avoid alcohol and caffeinated drinks.
• Do not overeat while on the plane.
• Buy a set of noise reduction headphones that fit over the ears to reduce your exposure to hour after hour of aircraft noise. These devices cut out almost all aircraft engine, vibration, and slipstream and turbulence noise. This constant, loud drone ranging from 60-88 decibels, takes its toll on your nervous system and I suspect is almost as fatiguing, at least in the short term, as jet lag.

When You Arrive

• Take a walk outdoors in the sun (without sunglasses) to help you reset your biological clock more quickly. Early morning walks really help with this.
• Exercise lightly because it helps you keep awake during the day and sleep better at night. Exercise helps the circadian rhythms resynchronize, which of course helps you sleep better.
• Although easier said than done, avoid napping because it delays your body’s adjustment to the new time zone. If you must nap, limit it to one hour or less.
• Take a shower and have something to drink and a brief nap.

There is some promising news for exercisers regarding the effects of jet lag. One study found that long-term fitness training helps elderly people, who suffer from sleep problems related to circadian rhythm disturbances, adjust better than unfit people.

Other advice on dealing with the effects of jet lag would include not driving a vehicle in your first 24 hours at your destination. The statistics on the effects of sleep deprivation on driving are quite disturbing—it’s like driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.05%!

You’ll also need to pay attention to what you eat. High protein foods (meat, eggs, milk, fish, cheese, beans, etc) are best eaten at breakfast and lunch, because the body utilizes protein more efficiently early in the day, for hormone and tissue growth while high carbohydrate evening meals will help you sleep better.

If you’re traveling to participate in a sport that requires a high amount of mental and physical skill (e.g. soccer, gymnastics) ideally it should be performed in the mornings rather than afternoons. For some reason we experience a temporary decline in physical and mental performance between noon and 1:30 PM.—definitely not the ideal time for a grand masters chess match or championship gymnastics competition!

Does Taking Melatonin Minimize Jet Lag?

We’ve been hearing about the effects of melatonin on jet lag for years. Melatonin, secreted by the pineal gland in the evenings, helps us sleep better because the release of melatonin into our body acts as a sleep inducer.

But does taking melatonin actually reduce the symptoms of jet lag? The answer probably depends on whom you talk to. Some travelers (and doctors) swear by this serotonin hormone, while others feel it makes little or no difference. There is some evidence that it reduces the effects of jet lag on travelers by acting as a natural soporific (sleep inducer), without the hangover effect of many prescription drugs.

Other research shows that melatonin reduces assessments of jet lag symptoms after real or simulated flights, and improves sleep in the laboratory, but no evidence yet exists as to whether it actually readjusts your circadian rhythms to your new destination.

If you try Melatonin, take it only in evenings when you arrive at your new destination, about half an hour before bedtime. Avoid taking high carbohydrate food after taking it. Dosages range from 0.5 to 5 mg, with 3 mg being the standard adult dose. These are readily available in your local drug store.

Melatonin can even be taken on the plane to help you sleep. Considering that it has no reported undesirable side effects such as residual grogginess, this is something you can experiment with on your next trip.  However, it should be avoided if you are taking warfarin (coumadin) or any medicines used to treat a seizure disorder since it may theoretically interact with these medications.

Other pharmacological remedies that are claimed to counteract jet lag are found in travel and vitamin stores. The combination of sleep loss, travel fatigue, and jet lag, is likely to be a negative influence on you when you reach your vacation destination immediately after a time zone change of more than 5 hours. An awareness of these influences and use of the countermeasures described above will minimize the insidious effects of jet lag.

Roy Stevenson has a master’s degree in exercise physiology from Ohio University. He has taught health and nutrition at Highline Community College and Lake Washington Technical College for 18 years and currently teaches exercise science at Seattle University in Washington State. As a freelance writer, Roy has more than 200 articles on health, fitness, running, sports and triathlons published in over fifty regional, national and international magazines in the U.S.A, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.