This year many thousands of people are going to be flying off to far flung corners of the globe to lie on sun soaked tropical beach, to trek through some of the most beautiful of the world’s wilderness areas, to see some of the wonders of the world or to simply explore new cultures and countries. And, sadly, hundreds of thousands of us will discover that the first two or three days of our vacation are taken up with trying to recover from jet lag.

But is jet lag an inescapable part of long-haul travel?

The answer to this particular depends very much on where you are flying from and to. If you begin your journey in Canberra, Australia and fly to Kobe, Japan then you are not going to experience jet lag because, even though you are traveling thousands of miles, your flight takes you due north so that both your starting point and arrival point are in the same time zone. However, if you fly from Brisbane to London, England then you will be flying east to west across ten standard time zones and will certainly experience jet lag.

Jet lag is really nothing more than the result of your body clock getting out of synchronization with local time and, while your body clock will naturally adjust itself to come into line with local time, any adjustment takes time.

If you fly over only two or three time zones then the time difference experienced will be small and you will probably not notice it greatly and your internal clock will adjust itself fairly quickly. However, if you travel over four or more time zones then the time difference will be significant and your internal clock will need more and more time to adjust as you travel across an increasing number of time zones.

In our previous example of flying from Australia to London your internal clock is going to need several days to adjust and, in the meantime, you are likely to find yourself suffering from insomnia, finding it hard to fall asleep at night and to get up in the morning, feeling tired through the day, possibly experiencing difficulty in eating with stomach upsets, nausea, a headache, dehydration, and a great deal more.

So exactly what can you do to fight jet lag?

There are numerous ‘traditional’ remedies for jet lag including jet lag diets, over-the-counter medication, sleeping pills, melatonin and much more and each has its followers and detractors, but do these so-called cures actually work?

In simple terms the answer to this question is no. These ‘traditional’ jet lag remedies are not effective and, in some cases, will actually make your jet lag worse.

Dealing with jet lag is not a question of turning to formulas and pills, but is a question of coming up with a plan focusing on your specific travel plans and lifestyle which allows you to assist your body’s natural process of adjusting its own internal clock. This means taking a series of steps before your departure, as well as en-route and at your destination. In some instances these steps are going to be enough to help you avoid jet lag completely and, in other cases, they will certainly help to reduce the effects of jet lag noticeably.

Posted: February 5th, 2009 under Cheap Airfares.
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Jet lag is the effect of travelling between time zones messing with the bodies biological clock. It is defined as:

“A physiological condition which is a consequence of alterations to circadian rhythms”

The effects of jet lag can vary. Some people experience few days of restless sleep whereas others may experience loss in appetite, headaches, constipation, anxiety and dizziness. Luckiliy there are several ways in which jet lag can be alleviated and the effects alleviated. Here are a few suggestions:

Tasimelteon: This is a new drug developed by Elizabeth Klerman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston along with researchers from Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Maryland. Tests have shown that those taking the drug were far better able to fall asleep when compared with others who had not taken the drug. It is thought that Tasimeteon stimulates the effects of Melatonin, the hormone responsible for regulating sleep.

Melatonin: The hormone Melatonin is now a popular remedy for sleep related problems. Melatonin supplements can be purchased (in the United States) without a prescription. Melatonin research has presented a clear association with sleep and supplements providing 0.1 to 0.5 milligrams of the hormone can be beneficial.

Fasting: Minimising the amount of food you consume before embarking on your flight can help lessen the effects of jet lag. Studies have shown that, when food is scarce, the normal biological clock may be overridden. It has been suggested that a period of fasting, for about 16 hours before taking a flight, should be enough to switch the new biological clock into action and this will lessen the effects of jet lag.

Orange Tinted Sun-glasses: It has long been known that Melatonin secretion in humans can be stimulated by light. Blue light has been found to be the most responsible for influencing a decrease in Melatonin production. It is therefore likely that wearing orange tinted sunglasses will encourage Melatonin secretion.

Toe Scrunching: Some travellers have reported that spending a few minutes tightly curling their toes while standing on a carpet or towel, just before going to bed, has a beneficial effect on jet lag. Some have reported that spending between 2 and 5 minutes carrying out this exercise has had an immediate beneficial effect on their ability to get off to sleep.

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Posted: January 28th, 2009 under Cheap Airfares.
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Jet lag arises whenever you are traveling and the time recorded by your body’s internal clock is out of sync with the local time at your destination. For example, if you leave London, England, at 9 pm and fly to Bangkok, Thailand, you will arrive some 13 hours later at 10 am London time the following morning. But, because you have traveled across a number of time zones, local time at Bangkok airport is now 4 pm that same afternoon.

After you have traveled to your hotel, checked in and taken a shower your body will now be telling you that it is time to have something to eat. Now, your body thinks that it is lunchtime and, despite of the fact that everyone else is eating dinner, it doesn’t matter to your body clock what you call the meal, it is only interested in the fact that it is time to eat. So far so good, however, three or four hours later when everybody starts going to bed your problems will start because your body clock believes it is now only late afternoon.

A time difference of 6 hours, such as that shown here, is sizeable and even the best of us will be experiencing jet lag. Actually, while a couple of hours will hardly produce any effect at all, anything over 4 hours can be expected to produce the symptoms of jet lag in most people.

There are of course various things which you can do prior to your journey, during the course of your flight and after your arrival at your destination to help to counter jet lag but one problem that researchers have noted recently is that when your body clock experiences a large shift in time it usually overcompensates when adjusting and thus leaves you suffering from a double dose of jet lag for a while before it eventually settles down. So, how do you compensate for this?

Well, it is possible to take this into account to a certain extent and reduce your jet lag symptoms by beginning to adjust your internal clock in advance of travel, although your personal circumstances might make this hard. An alternative course of action therefore is simply to plan to break your journey whenever you are traveling across more than four or five time zones.

For our illustrative trip to Thailand this could for instance involve breaking your journey half way and resting for a day or two before flying on. Today’s air travel may have made the world smaller but I’m afraid that it is going to take the human body a little longer to catch up to modern technology.

Posted: October 29th, 2008 under Cheap Airfares.
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Overcoming jet lag is quite simple for those of us who fly only occasionally, possibly once or twice a year on holiday or for the odd business trip, but for regular long-haul fliers and aircrews, jet lag can bring several health problems which can become virtually permanent.

Long-haul fliers will be more than familiar with the disturbance to their sleep pattern and the insomnia which can be produced by a long trip, as well as things like changes in mood, irritability, gastro-intestinal problems and difficulty in dealing with information. But, for the very frequent flyer these normally transient symptoms become a part of daily life and are frequently joined by menstrual cycle problems for women and also by short-term psychiatric problems for some individuals. So how do you go about managing jet lag?

The chief factors in influencing the degree of jet lag experienced, aside from how often you travel, are the distances traveled, the direction in which you travel and how old you are.

If you regularly travel across just two or three time zones then any affects will probably be extremely mild. However, as soon as you begin crossing more than three world time zones, and especially when you begin frequently traveling across six or more time zones, jet lag symptoms start to markedly increase.

Jet lag symptoms are also much more evident when you travel east and affect you less when flying west. For example, if you travel from London to Singapore on vacation you will experience more jet lag when you arrive in Singapore at the beginning of your holiday than you will in London when you get home.

Generally when you are traveling east you can expect jet lag to last for several days and a good guide is approximately two thirds of the number of time zones traveled across. For instance, if you travel across six time zones you ahould expect jet lag to affect you for roughly four days. Traveling west jet lag could be expected to last for about half of this time.

Another significant factor when it comes to jet lag is age and, as you get older, you will discover that you are increasingly affected by jet lag.

A true jet lag cure does not exist although there is a lot that you can do to help in reducing jet lag symptoms.

Posted: October 25th, 2008 under Cheap Airfares.
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