We arrive at our vacation destination after plane hours and instead of enjoying our trip, we just want to stay stranded in the hotel in the grip of exhaustion and discomfort. What's happening to us? We have surely crossed two or more time slots and experienced the effects of jet lag .
What is jet lag?
Jet lag is the disorder suffered by our internal clock, the one that regulates our states of sleep and wakefulness due to an intercontinental trip that leads us to cross two or more time zones. That is to say, our internal clock continues to work according to the time of the country from which we depart and needs an adaptation time to get hold of that of the country we have traveled to.
What are the symptoms of jet lag?
The most common symptoms of jet lag are the following:
- Sleep problems (you can have problems falling asleep, waking up too soon, etc.)
- Tiredness and drowsiness during the day
- Lack of concentration
- Loss of appetite
- Heavy digestions
- Humor changes
- Problems with regularity (constipation, diarrhea)
- General feeling of discomfort
When there is more jet lag, when do we travel east or west?
It is easier for our internal clock to “retune” when we fly west (towards America) than when we fly east (towards Asia).
What to do to avoid jet lag?
Avoiding it is difficult and depends on the sensitivity of each individual. But all of us, to a greater or lesser extent, can notice the effects of a long trip (from 3 o'clock but especially the 5-hour flight). But there are some recommendations that can help you mitigate its effects:
- Get plenty of rest before leaving for your trip. If you're already sleep deprived, your jet lag may be more intense.
- Adapt your schedule little by little. If you travel east to Asia, try to go to bed earlier for a few nights (on average, an hour each day). And if you are going to travel west, to America, do the opposite, go to bed a little later each day.
What to do to overcome jet lag?
It will depend on which direction we fly. In principle, it is easier to adapt when we fly west than when we fly east.
Doctors José Haba-Rubio and Raphaël Heinzer, doctors specializing in sleep disorders at the Center d 'Investigación et de Recherche sur le Sommeil (CIRS) in Lausanne (Switzerland) and authors of the book Sleep with Sleep (Ed. La Esfera de los Libros ) make the following recommendations:
- If you travel to the west (America). In this case "we will have drowsiness in the afternoon, but waking up will be early", so the doctors recommend "expose yourself to natural light in the afternoon and eventually take melatonin just before going to bed", thus, "prolong sleep in the second part of the night ”.
- If you travel to the east (Asia). We will have "more difficulty falling asleep at night since 10 pm in Bangkok corresponds to 4 pm in Central Europe." For this reason, doctors recommend "avoiding the afternoon light and taking melatonin at the beginning of the night to 'prepare' our brain for sleep."
Why do you have to regulate the exposure to natural light?
What synchronizes our internal clock is precisely light - or its absence. The body relies on sunlight to know how much melatonin , that is, how much sleep hormone, it needs to make us sleepy at night (the production of this hormone increases at night). So to adapt to the schedule of our destination country, we have to take into account when to expose ourselves –or not– to natural light.
What is melatonin?
It is not a plant, as is sometimes thought, but a melatonin supplement, a sleep hormone , that you can find in pharmacies. This supplement can help us sleep when we are awake or, depending on when we take it, to extend the duration of sleep. The recommended dose for adults is 0.5 to 5 mg, taken just before bedtime (always check with your doctor before taking any medication or supplement).
How long does jet lag last?
Each person reacts in a different way, so it is difficult to give an answer to this question, but the more time slots we have crossed - that is, the further we have traveled - the more it will cost us to readjust our internal clock. But, in general, it is usually not more than one to three days that we need for this adaptation.
And think that the outward journey is followed by the return. Therefore, you must apply the same prevention and adaptation measures that we have recommended but in the opposite direction (if you have flown to the east, you have to apply for the return those that we recommend for the west; and vice versa).
