Jet Lag – Another Common Sleeping Disorder

What Is Jet Lag

Jet lag is the second most common type of sleep disorder and affects people traveling between countries when they change from one time zone to the other. This kind of travel usually confuses the body clock as when you travel from one time zone to another you might just add or lose a whole day depending on the direction in which you are traveling especially when you are crossing between continents moving over the international date line.

Women are more prone to be affected by jet lag than men and this is attributed to the levels of the naturally occurring hormone estrogen that is to an extent affected if there is any disturbance to rhythm of sleeping and waking up along with any changes to the type of eating patterns. Some people might take a long time extending from a few days to an entire week to come to a semblance of normalcy and get adjusted to the new time of day and night in the place that they have traveled to.

Jet Lag Disorder Symtoms

The symptoms experienced by people suffering from jet lag can differ from one person to the other and generally includes dehydration coupled with other symptoms like appetite loss, disorientation, feeling groggy, fatigue, headache, nausea, vomiting and sinus irritation. They can also suffer from other symptoms such as depression, irritability and stomach problems.

Jet lag is not associated with the time taken to complete the flight but on the distance traveled between time zones. For example, if you are moving between Los Angeles and New York the time taken is about five hours and some amount of jet lag is felt as Central and Mountain Time zones are crossed over. It is common for people to experience severe jet lag when they are in places like Russia or Alaska. This is owed to the fact that Russia has totally eleven time zones and will throw a person’s internal systems out of gear if they were to be traveling between Tokyo and Copenhagen. Alaska has very little time in which you can see daylight which makes it difficult for people who have arrived out there.

People who tend to have more chances of jet lag are prescribed some sedatives during their flight so that they will sleep during their journey and wake up when they reach their destination thus reducing the possibilities of jet lag.

How To Prevent & Get Rid Of Jet Lag

Sleep, good diet and exercise are some of the methods by which one can cope up with jet lag and come out of it as quick as possible. Many people have the tendency to sleep during the flight will end up sleeping for many hours once they land and begin to feel disoriented. Exposing to adequate sunlight will help in making the body get adjusted to the new time zone and help overcome jet lag.

The severity of the condition varies from one individual to the other and people who travel more frequently from one country to the other have lesser possibility of developing jet lag as they are more used to having changes in the time zones. It is more likely that people who travel occasionally or on vacation to have more possibility of developing jet lag than people who travel more often on business purposes.

It affects business travelers much less even though they are catching flights at all odd hours which is more likely to cause trouble for the occasional traveler.