When jet lag strikes

You fly east from London across six time zones and arrive in Bangkok in the evening. You take a taxi to your hotel and decide to get an early night ahead of tomorrow’s sightseeing. Just like when you’re at home, you close your eyes at 10pm and wait to fall asleep.

And wait. And wait. But you can’t nod off.

You have jet lag. Your body clock is still set to UK time, where it’s just after 4pm.

What the Jet Lag Calculator does

At the heart of the Jet Lag Calculator is a formula. Enter your flight details and the algorithm creates a plan just for you. Here’s how.

How the Jet Lag Calculator works

Beating jet lag is a case of getting your body clock in sync with the time at your destination.

To do this, the Jet Lag Calculator works out a plan for you using the number of time zones you cross, the direction you travel, and your usual sleeping pattern.

The number of time zones you cross tells the algorithm how many hours ahead or behind your body clock will be after travelling.

Your direction of travel is used to work out how many hours your body clock can move each day. Going east, your body clock can move one hour daily; going west, your body clock can move two hours daily.

Several hours into your usual sleeping pattern, your body reaches its coolest point of the whole day – its minimum temperature (MinT). The MinT is also when you are sleepiest and it’s the time of day that the Jet Lag Calculator syncs with your destination to help you beat jet lag.

If you sleep more than seven hours, your MinT occurs three hours before you wake. Less than seven hours sleep and your MinT occurs two hours before wake-up time.

Once you’ve entered your details and hit go, the Jet Lag Calculator generates a plan for you to follow. This plots the quickest way for you to get your body clock in sync with your destination by using a combination of sleep times and exposure to light.

Exposure to light is the trigger that lets you move your body clock. Basically, light tells your body it’s time to be alert; dark calms your body. So you have to carefully follow your plan to get over jet lag quickly. Or else you could send your body clock the wrong signals and make your symptoms worse.

At the times shown in your plan, you should seek sunshine or strong artificial light. And you should avoid light by closing your blinds or wearing sunglasses.

The Jet Lag Calculator in action

Theory is one thing – practice is another. Using the earlier example of a trip to Thailand, you’d need to shift your body clock six hours from British Summer Time to get it on the destination time.

Heading east, your body clock can move one hour a day, so you’re looking at six days till you feel completely normal (three days pre-flight, your flight day and two days after landing). That is, if you follow the unique plan set by the Jet Lag Calculator.

Going home from Bangkok to London, your body clock can move two hours a day (so as not to interrupt your home life too much, we only move your MinT one hour each day before your flight). Using the same flight times, you could expect to feel right four days after the start of your plan.

Have a go on the Jet Lag Calculator and see how to beat jet lag on your next holiday.

Sources

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2829880/

http://www.ccjm.org/index.php?id=107953&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=364961&cHash=1457c781324647cd163d86de6d24bb4b

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012381522400016X

PR Enquiries

For any PR enquiries please contact [email protected]