Jet Lag: Causes, Symptoms And Remedies To Prevent And Relieve It
Jet Lag is a temporary sleep disorder, very common among people who travel across different time zones in a short period of time. It is characterized by symptoms that are transitory and usually decrease naturally.
However, and as a consequence of the great mobility that characterizes our current societies, science has done a lot of research into its effects as well as some ways to remedy it. Below we explain what Jet Lag is (and why it is called that), how long it usually lasts, what the symptoms are and what remedies exist.
Jet Lag is a Temporary Disorder of Circadian Sleep Rhythms (CRSDs are its acronym in English), also known as “Judge Lag Disorder”, which usually affects people who travel across different time zones in a short period of time.
It is known as “Jet Lag” due to the Anglo-Saxon terms “plane” and “delay”, which could more or less be translated into the expression: “jet lag due to traveling by plane”. This is because the most common case is precisely that of having taken a plane trip from one country to another, whose time difference is significant (from east to west, or vice versa).
However, Jet Lag can also be caused by car trips through the same time zone, but which modify our waking and resting schedules. For example, if a trip takes place overnight.
Some of its symptoms may even occur without the need to travel, if our daily activities require us to significantly modify the times in which we activate and fall asleep.
It is characterized by some symptoms related to physical and mental performance, for example, difficulties sleeping (at the usual times of the destination), which in turn causes a lot of fatigue and tiredness, little energy, especially during the day, and feeling of being less alert or less attentive.
Generally all these symptoms are temporary, however, if it is a person who has the need to constantly take long trips, Jet Lag can cause more severe sleep disorders, as well as some alterations in cognitive functions and even other damage to the body. health related to the gastrointestinal system, especially as the traveler’s age increases.
Main causes
As we have seen, the cause of Jet Lag is having made a long distance trip in a short time, which implies a significant change in the schedule of wakefulness and rest.
The latter is due to the fact that our “biological clock” is exposed to a very drastic modification that it cannot assimilate quickly. Specifically, our circadian rhythms are affected, which are the changes that occur in our body according to external natural cycles, for example, as light and darkness change.
Thus, Jet Lag results from strong changes in the internal rhythms of our body, as we are not used to sleeping in the day and night cycles of the destination. Although they are very drastic changes, the body can get used to them naturally over a few days. In this process, there is a hormone that plays a very important role: melatonin.
Remedies and treatment
While our circadian rhythms are quite flexible, Jet Lag decreases on its own, without the need for specific treatment It is estimated that for every hour of difference between the country of origin and the country of destination, the body takes an entire day to recover, although this can vary according to each person’s body, as well as according to the specific journey that has been followed.
Our circadian rhythms are regulated by a gland found in the center of the brain of all vertebrates, which is responsible for organizing various physiological and neurological processes. This is the pineal gland.
This gland produces and secretes a hormone called melatonin, which plays a central role in regulating sleep rhythms.
1. Functions and benefits of melatonin
Among other things, melatonin helps our body synchronize with external natural cycles (light and darkness), which influences the time it takes us to sleep and stay awake or at rest.
For this reason, it has been a highly researched substance recently. Some studies have found that melatonin helps “reset” the biological clock that is, it favors the synchronization of circadian rhythms with the schedules of the destination.
Being a hormone whose production is inhibited by light, and is stimulated in the dark, the intake of melatonin has more effects when at night. In fact, taking melatonin during the day can have the opposite effect (making it difficult again for circadian rhythms to synchronize with external natural cycles).
Melatonin has gained a lot of popularity in recent times, which is why it can be found in tablets or capsules, although there are many foods that promote its natural production within the body, such as rice, oats, corn, tomatoes or bananas. .
Recommendations to prevent it
It is important to take the hours of rest that the body asks of us It can even work to take a whole day of rest before starting the work or activities we have planned.
On trips from west to east it is advisable to lengthen the days and avoid light in the mornings; unlike trips made from east to west where it is preferable to avoid any type of light at night.
