A Matter of Time

Biological aspect - human clock - Lagging Behind: The Effects of Jet Lag

"I think a major element of jetlag is psychological. Nobody ever tells me what time it is at home." David Attenborough

Imagine that you are going on a trip to a faraway place. Pick a place that is at least a few time zones away. It could be anywhere. You are taking a plane, and you are packed and ready to go. You get on the plane and settle down for a long trip. How do you suppose you will feel once you reach your new destination? If you left in the morning, chances are you might find yourself in the middle of the night when you arrive if you flew east or you might find yourself arriving at just about the same time of day that you left if you flew west. For the first few days of your trip, you may find it difficult to adjust to when it gets dark outside as well as to when it gets light. Why does this happen? The trouble that plane-travelers have when trying to adjust to a normal day in a distant land is called desynchronosis (“Jet Lag”). It is more commonly referred to as jet lag.

What jet lag entails is a type of alteration of a person’s 24-hour circadian rhythm. It is probably one of the most extreme ways in which our biological clocks are forced to adjust. Less severe forms of desynchronosis happen to people who switch between day shift and night shift work. Jet lag is caused when our internal biological clock becomes desynchronized with our external environment as a result of traveling through multiple time zones in a short period of time (“Jet Lag”). The symptoms' severity are affected by the number of times zones you cross. The greater the number of time zones you cross, the more severe the symptoms will be. As mentioned above, jet lag can be problematic for travelers trying to adjust to a schedule in a distant place. The triggers provided by the rising and setting of the sun—as discussed in the article on biological clocks— run havoc with our biological clocks because the sun's time, here and now, is different from our biological clock's time, here and now. So, we feel stuck in our old circadian rhythm as our body tries to adjust to the new one.

Common symptoms of jet lag are disorientation, fatigue, inability to sleep, headaches, and onsets of lethargy or restlessness. Someone suffering from jet lag may feel like they want to get a good night’s rest and sleep for nine hours when it is only mid-day. This can happen when they leave on their journey in the late afternoon and arrive at their destination ready to fall asleep, but due to the changes in time zones it is only mid-day in their new destination.

Trainers for athletic teams that compete across time zones are well aware of the problems with being a non-host team. To help their players adjust and minimize the effects of jet lag, they change the times their team members go to bed before the trip and try to arrive at the host site a few days ahead of the competition. Once on the plane, they also have their players set their watches to the host country's local time so that they mentally tune in to the new local time as quickly as possible and begin to adjust their behavior accordingly. It usually takes a week for someone to completely rid themselves of feelings associated with jet lag (“Jet Lag”).

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