Decades ago, when travel was by steamship, people had no difficulties adjusting to new times zones. It was all so gradual, so civilized. Jet travel changed all that. And today, with the growth of the global economy and in international travel, more people are crossing more time zones more often than ever before.

In general, our bodies need one day to adjust for each hour different in time zone. If we fly from Seattle to Washington D.C, we will need three days to adjust east cost time. Some of us, of course are more sensitive than others to time zone changes. But everybody will need time for their homeostatic rhythms to adjust.

Traveling from east to west is easier on the human body than traveling in the other direction. Our bodies run on a 24.5 hour internal clock, so we naturally want to stay up 30 minutes later each night. For example, if you fly from Baltimore to Denver, you cross two time zones. The clock will say its 9pm, but your bodies will feel like 11pm. Therefore, to maintain your normal sleep time, you’ll need to stay up two hours later. This might be tough after a long day, but your body’s natural tendency to stay up later will, in effect, make it 30 minutes easier. When you come home, however, you’ll be fighting the body’s natural tendency.

Time zone travel disrupts the body’s homeostatic rhythm. Our hormone secretion is tied into the sleep wake and light dark cycles. Our internal body temperature rises and falls with these cycles. When the rhythm is broken, we feel sluggish, tired and groggy in short and is called jet lagged.

Often, our own habits and the needs of the life make things worse. Before leaving, we stay up later or wake up early to pack, take the dog to the kennel, and drop the kids at grandma’s, stop the mail, pick up fry cleaning, and work on the speech to the board of directors. Once airborne, we’re excited especially if it’s a vacation and we often have a drink or two. By the time plane lands, we are tired and sleepy especially if it’s a business trip. Yet there are thing to see and so, and we fall further behind in our sleep.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 6:36 am and is filed under Jet Lag. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.