Defining Jet Lag

What it is, and Why Passengers Suffer from Jet Lag and Sleep Disorders

Feeling tired and sluggish after your ten hour flight? It may not just be the dry, recycled cabin air that is making an impact. Or the lack of sleep. It could be your body reacting to the sudden time changes from spanning a huge distance in a short amount of time. It could be jet lag.

Jet lag is a physiological condition that results from rapid changes to the body's natural circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle). It most often occurs after passing through several time zones quickly, as with long flights, and tends to be exacerbated when journeying in an eastward direction. Because it is about upsetting the sleep-wake cycle, jet lag is also seen in shift workers.

With jet lag, you've thrown your body clock's time off, it no longer can follow it's usual routine. Several time zones later, the body is not keeping time with the destination - night and day may be completely flipped. If you are now 10 hours ahead, it isn't just sleep that is disturbed - but hormones, and eating patterns too.

Moving through 3 time zones or less is not usually a cause of jet lag. But it is possible to suffer the symptoms. As it is with shift workers. I have worked 4am shifts, and 4pm shifts in the same week and all too often feel as if my mind has been tossed about like a beach ball. Jet lag is not confined to the air.

A flight from Chicago to Los Angeles with a time zone difference of 2hrs may not recreate jet lag symptoms, but certainly any flight of a few hours or longer can result in the fatigue and overall sluggishness that is associated with jet lag. Jet lag is usually associated with crossing at least 4 time zones, but long flights within the same time zone (north - south directions) can produce the same sorts of symptoms.

With jet lag, your body needs time to help reset its clock, to make the adjustment through several time zones. And every individual requires a different amount of time to do this. You may simply go for a long sleep and wake up refreshed, while someone else takes a week to feel "normal" again. Jet lag is physical reaction to a rapid change in time zones.

Your body may make you well aware of jet lag with symptoms ranging from disorientation to headaches to tiredness - there are a variety of jet lag experiences. Unlike many conditions, jet lag does resolve - whether quickly or not - as long as your body gets a chance to catch up or reset its circadian rhythm.