Jet lag Cure

 Crossing multiple time zones while being locked in a cabin for hours unable to sleep, followed by landing in a country with an entirely different light-dark cycle, temperature, and culture has proven to be most disruptive to circadian rhythms.The symptoms of jet lag are similar to those experienced by shift workers, it results from improper synchronizations between the endogenous circadian timing system and external environmental cues.

Jet lag symptoms may include, irritability, diminished alertness, difficulty concentrating, lethargy, fatigue and insomnia.It has been reported that your body needs one day of adjustment for every time zone crossed.So how to help your body adjust, make sure that you have extra sleep before you fly. Before landing try to windup your brain with some involving mental gymnastics, business people probably already do this by preparing company reports, and speeches, whereas, the normal traveller may need to do some difficult crosswords, or other mental challenges, also do some exercises before you land, the isometric kind, not pushups!

Have a high protein breakfast, any carbohydrate eaten should be of the complex slow release kind. Eat breakfast at your new local time, not in your home zone time. Stay awake with the natives, don't try to catch up on your sleep by napping before you start your day, doing this fails to help your circadian rhythms slot into the new time zone. If you arrive at night, go to sleep at the same time as the locals, don't stay up till dawn because that's what your body is telling you.

During your stay, make an effort to walk in the bright sunlight and stay at it as long as you can, if you have to work indoors try to have your lunch break outdoors. However, if it's a gloomy day in London you might need to have a light therapy treatment. Light therapy has proven to be successful in treating seasonal affective disorder, so why not jet lag?

If none of the foregoing recommendations are possible to implement then melatonin tablets may prove to be the cure, it works for many people,  for some it doesn't. Another possibility would be if you could manage to get your travelling partner, if you have one, or call room service, to shine a strong light on the backs of your knees, While this may sound outrageous I read about it at Dr Joseph Mercola's site where he refers to a report from:Science 1998;279:333-334,396-398. It goes on to say that " light directed to the back of the knees prior to dawn advanced the circadian clock, so that by the next day the timing of temperature changes and melatonin release occurred earlier",  another cure for jet lag.                 

Read more:Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders