Jet lag is one of those horrible facts of life that air travellers have to face. Known medically as Circadian Desynchronosis, it disrupts the body's biorhythms or internal 'clock' when one flies across several different time zones, particularly when travelling from west to east.
When you move rapidly through several different time zones, you either lose time or gain time, depending on whether you are traveling against or with the sun. This is simply because the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Let's say that you are traveling between London and New York, which have a five hour time difference. You leave London at 8:20 am and arrive in New York at 11:15 am, but you've been in the air for about eight hours. This means you have gained time. Then when you return to London, you leave New York at 8:20 am (while it is already 1:20 pm in London), and arrive at your destination at 9:05 pm. While the actual time spent in the air was round about eight hours, you have moved ahead more rapidly, and effectively lost five hours.
Your circadian rhythm is what makes you sleep and wake during a 24-hour period. So somehow you're going to have to reset your body clock to adjust to the time gain or time loss so that your body's circadian rhythm returns to normal.
Travelers need to accept is that jet lag is not just about losing or gaining time; it also has certain physical reactions. It is not something that we imagine, or something that is simply caused by the excitement of travelling or by a lack of sleep.
While some people are affected more severely by jet lag than others, the symptoms are generally the same - although fortunately you won't normally experience every indication.
Typical symptoms of jet lag include
- A feeling of confusion because you are disorientated due to the time gain or loss after crossing time zones.
- Severe fatigue that is often accompanied by insomnia. So you feel incredibly tired but you can't sleep.
- Irritability, largely because you are tired, and also because you body is simply out of synch with itself.
- Difficulty to concentrate and sometimes a lack of co-ordination and even memory loss.
- Headaches.
- Both constipation and diarrhoea are said to be caused by jet lag.
- Nausea and light headedness.
The dry, recycled air in the cabin also impacts on our bodies. Our eyes and skin seem to dry out and many people find their feet and hands swell. These symptoms, as well as dehydration and a loss of libido, are also sometimes attributed to jet lag.
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