Jet Lag – A common annoyance of all Travelers
Traveling is such an enriching experience for us. We travel for a host of reasons whether it is business, leisure, learning, as a hobby etc. Everything else can be perfect for traveling except for one. It is something which is unavoidable, every traveler faces it every time when they travel. It is Jet Lag.
Jet Lag a.k.a. Desynchronosis is a mental as well as physical condition in which the traveler suffers various issues like fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, constipation, dehydration, indigestion, headache, nausea, dizziness, confusion, memory lapses etc.
There is something called a ‘Circadian Rhythm’ in us, which is basically our biological body clock. It controls our sleeping and waking times automatically with the help of external cues like sunlight, light exposure, social engagement, mealtimes etc. When we travel a long distance and go in a different time zone, that rhythm is disrupted, resulting in jet lag.
One thing to note here is that Jet lag mostly occurs when we do east-west traveling. Because during the north-south we seldom change time zones. For e.g., as we travel from Toronto, Canada to Miami in the USA there is hardly any changes in time zone. But when we travel from Tokyo to London or from Paris to New York, we change many time zones.
Even in the east-west travel, you will suffer more jet lag when you travel from the west side to east as compared to when you travel from the east to west. Because in the east to west travel, for e.g. from New Delhi to Madrid, you ‘gain time’ and you are moving in the same direction as the body clock, hence adjusting is a little bit easier.
Whereas, in the west to east travel, for e.g. from San Francisco to Cape Town in South Africa, you ‘lose time’ and you are moving in the direction opposite to that of your body clock, hence adjusting is very difficult in this type of travel.
Generally, various studies have confirmed that it takes one day to recover from jet lag when you change one or two time zones in travel depending upon your previous experience with jet lag and your preparedness. That means if you have traveled 14 time zones, it will take anything between 7 to 14 days for you to completely recover from the jet lag and adjust to the new time zone.
So you see that traveling just 1 or 2 time zones will have a negligible effect on you if you prepare well. But if you are traveling large distances, like more than half the globe, especially from the west to east, you seriously need to take some preventive measures else the effect will be very severe and will last many days.
Overall, Jet lag is an unavoidable phenomenon, but it is temporary. On top of that, you can minimize it to a good extent with many preventive measures and cures after it sets in. Just see to it that the jet lag thing doesn’t diminish your enthusiasm or frequency of travel because true travel lovers will travel irrespective of any hurdles.
