Prevention and Treatment of J... Video Transcript

Participants

, Daniel J. Buysse M.D., Brooke Judd MD, Gary Zammit PhD, Allen Blaivas MD

Summary

Travel is a fact of modern life and that means that jet lag is too. Travelers with this contemporary problem can experience problems not only sleeping but functioning at their best in the new time zone. Today experts have a variety of ways to combat the effects of jet lag. Some of them involve simple ways to trick your body into adjusting. Travel may be inevitable, but suffering from jet lag doesn't have to be.

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Every day millions of travelers crisscross the globe. Some are on business, others travel for pleasure. But there's one constant for many of them: jet lag.

GARY ZAMMIT, PhD: The traveler has his or her own internal body clock and that body clock is normally synchronized to the traveler's home environment. When the traveler goes across long distances over a short period of time, the traveler is now in a situation where the body clock is entrained to the old home time zone, but the traveler is now trying to function in a new time zone. That's jet lag.

BROOKE JUDD, MD: Jet lag doesn't seem to have a predisposition for one type of person over another. Some people get it; some people don't. Probably one of the factors that plays a big role is how far you've traveled and how quickly you've traveled over the time zones.

ANNOUNCER: Jet lag can greet the traveler whether going or coming home. The main problem is in adjusting your sleep patterns to a new time zone.

GARY ZAMMIT, PhD: People who suffer from jet lag are probably experiencing difficulty with their sleep: difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Depending on the severity of that problem they can experience daytime performance impairments, impairments in attention, memory, concentration, or other cognitive functions.

ANNOUNCER: While you have no control over the time change when you land, there are some ways to lessen the problem even before take off.

GARY ZAMMIT, PhD: One thing is to try to anticipate life in the new time zone. Setting your watch to the new time zone before you board the plane might help you get in synch mentally with what's going to be happening once you land. The traveler also might want to gear his or her schedule of food intake so that it's consistent with the destination time zone.

ANNOUNCER: Having arrived, there are options to combating jet lag. One is as simple as night and day.

GARY ZAMMIT, PhD: The most important cue that entrains our body clocks is the rising and setting of the sun. Arriving at your destination time zone in the morning and getting exposure to bright sunlight is exactly what you want to do. If you're in your destination time zone, at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you're getting little exposure to light.

ANNOUNCER: Keeping busy and living life on the new time zone schedule is also important. Some experts suggest that taking melatonin, a naturally-occurring hormone involved in regulating your body clock, may be another way to help you readjust.

GARY ZAMMIT, PhD: Melatonin is normally produced at night and it begins to release around the time of bedtime and its release continues throughout the sleep period. People who use melatonin substances or health food products probably would take them just prior to bedtime in the destination time zone, in order to get some benefit from that product.

ANNOUNCER: Taking the melatonin at the new time zone's "bedtime" even before departure as well as for a few days after arrival is also advised for maximum effect. Another option is with medications specifically created to induce and maintain sleep. Some can be obtained over-the-counter.

GARY ZAMMIT, PhD: Over-the-counter products might offer some temporary relief from a sleep problem, but these products might be associated with adverse effects that the sleeper wishes to avoid as well, such as dryness, dry mouth, dry eyes, next day hangover or residual effects from taking the medication.