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Jet lag can dampen the most exciting holidays. Almost everyone who has traveled through time zones knows what it's like. The experience lies somewhere between eating an oatmeal cooked one day and heal a hangover.
These metaphors about food and drink are not just a coincidence. It turns out that jet lag affects more than just our sleep. it also affects our internal organs. Given what is known about the importance of intestinal bacteria (the microbiome) and their relationship to immune function and well-being, it is clear that any discussion of jet lag and How to treat it
The problems begin with the fact that air travel across time zones disrupts our circadian rhythm – the human internal clock that has evolved over millennia to match the light cycle of 24 Earth hours. cycle is that maximum sleepiness coincides with a low point of body temperature, which is usually unrelated to external temperatures. Body temperature decreases as you sleep and is usually lower two to three hours before waking (which also coincides with your deepest sleep). Low body temperature seems to be a turning point in determining how sleepy or resting you feel, depending on when you wake up.
When you arrive in a new time zone, the temperature of your body does not recognize changing and instead continues to dive according to the time of the place you have left. If you are awake or waking before swimming, you are much more likely to feel groggy or uncomfortable, especially if you are exposed to light while your body temperature decreases. This is because the signals of light and temperature conflict with each other: The light tells you that you are awake; the temperature signal tells you that you are about to enter the deepest point of your sleep. It is then that you feel especially the unpleasant symptoms of jet lag.
Although there are not many high quality studies on adjusting to new time zones, experts say that tinkering with our exposure to light can help Carefully transition and synchronize the various signals
The basic idea is to stay in the dark before the core temperature drops in response to your regular sleep schedule, and to obtain exposure in the light after the bath
East of Washington in Paris, which normally has a dip at 5 am, he will experience this hollow at 11 am in Paris. Ideally, this traveler should avoid light (using black glbades or lampshades while waiting for a connecting flight, or pulling the curtains of a hotel room) until 11 o'clock for the body to rest, aligning the light signals with the temperature signals. When you are looking for light after this point, you put your brain to sleep so that you feel less sleepy as your body temperature begins to rise.
This approach allows to quickly change the body temperature.
Conversely, flying to the west, exposure to light comes first, followed by a planned shift to darkness with the help of sunglbades or blinds. If you travel from Paris to Washington, your central temperature could begin to fall around 4 am Paris time, or 22 hours. D.C. hour. Thus, you will want to maximize your exposure to light up to about 22 hours. Washington time, after which you should look for darkness.
Because your body adjusts over a series of days, it can be difficult to understand complex patterns by yourself. But there are website calculators that present a clever plan for adjusting light exposure before and after the finish.
Remedial sleep, before or after a flight, is another way of reducing jet lag. Extrapolating from studies of shift workers with often irregular hours at night, it may be thought that a nap before departure can essentially be used to repay some of the early sleep debt
. they are OK with longer naps as long as they do not prevent you from adjusting to the desired sleep patterns in the new time zone.
Studies of itinerant athletes and shift workers show different effects of nap duration on the mind and body. performance. Some results suggest that naps of no more than 10 minutes help, while others indicate nap benefits as long as an hour and a half.
The same approach applies to jet lag after sleep deprivation, when it is time to compensate for sleep. Travelers should try to delay their sleep until the night at the new place, then optimize the darkness and reduce the noise exposure to get a good night's sleep catch-up. Also avoid using caffeine to avoid this time difference: Although it can help you feel alert during the day, it can affect the quality of sleep if it is caught in six to eight hours before your sleep.
show that melatonin supplements, which can be purchased over-the-counter in pharmacies, can induce drowsiness and prolong sleep.
Some experts recommend that melatonin be used in advance to take another three days. before flying. Experts say that a reasonable amount seems to be one to three milligrams five hours before bedtime.
You can also start treatment after arrival. For travelers flying to the east, the dose of melatonin is two to five milligrams before bedtime at the new destination.
For travelers flying west, a few studies have found that five milligrams of melatonin on the day of departure between 10 am and noon and then again tonight between 10 and midnight at local time may improve drowsiness and feeling of well-being.
Travelers often use other sleep aids, such as prescription sleeping pills. The quality of the studies is not sufficient to recommend them for the adjustment of jet lag, although they may help those who suffer from insomnia in the middle of the night.
Beyond drowsiness at the wrong time, jet lag affects our internal organs: the pancreas, heart and gastrointestinal tract have their own daily rhythms.
Although these rhythms are regulated in part by a primary pacemaker in a tiny region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the change of weather may affect different organs differently. The most obvious sign of this is the "bowel delay" – being hungry (or having no appetite) at the wrong time, experiencing constipation or experiencing the need to use the room bath at unexpected times. There is even evidence that gastrointestinal lining can affect the intestinal microbiome (these bacteria that colonize our gut) and make us more susceptible to traveler's diarrhea. This is partly because disrupting the daily rhythms of our 100 billion intestinal microbes can adversely affect their immune function.
As with jet lag, there are some things you can do to manage intestinal delay. en route, to avoid the possibility of indigestion of unusual food schedules. This can be difficult for souls deprived of sleep: It is well known that eating is often a way to compensate for lack of sleep. (People who are sleep deprived tend to gain weight.)
For some, eating before you go can prevent hunger before you arrive.
Bowel habits will adjust more quickly if you eat immediately during scheduled meal times. the new time zone. Exercise can also help regulate bowel function, with the added bonus that it can make you feel less sleepy. Whatever you do, drink plenty of water or other liquids: People often dehydrate in flight, which can aggravate constipation, a well-known feature of the intestines. If it persists beyond a few days, mild laxatives (such as Miralax or senna) may be helpful.
A final warning about advice about jet lag and lag in the digestive tract. Despite the incredible influence of the cycle of darkness and light, we are all slightly different. Some people are naturally early birds; others are of course late risers. There's even an online quiz on "morning and evening" that tells you if you're a lark or an owl, and the results may explain why jet lag advice might not work for everyone in the world. same way. , our fabrics have multiple clocks with varying effects, and some of our internal parts take longer than others to adapt to changing times. Given this complex interrelationship involving our brain, our other organs and the rhythms of light and darkness, there is no single advice for travelers. It can take several trips across time zones and experiment with light exposure, sleep patterns, melatonin and diet before determining what works best for you.
Wellbery is a family physician and badociate professor at the University of Georgetown School of Medicine.
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