What is jetlag, anyway? Is it for real, or just an excuse to take an extra day off after that big vacation to recover?
Every person has an internal clock. This small cluster of brain cells helps control the timing of biological functions — like alertness, or sleepiness. The rhythm of your body as determined by your internal clock is known as your circadian rhythms. Read more about circadian rhythms here.
When your body clock is thrown out of sync — by travel to another time zone — you may feel fatigued, disoriented, confused and fuzzy-headed, and tense. You may experience physical symptoms like swollen limbs and dehydration. (The new travel rules prohibiting bottled liquids sure aren’t helping travelers stay hydrated!) All these symptoms of jetlag aren’t going to help you enjoy your business trip or family vacation! Activities that require mental effort, like driving or reading, may be difficult. I can remember on my first trip overseas (I went to Italy), I would fall asleep every time I sat down. Lucky for me, we had some long bus rides planned!
The folks at NASA suggest that you may need one day of adjustment for every hour of time zone change you make in your travel. In other words, if you travel from the east coast to the west coast (a three hour time change), you’ll need three days until you feel normal again. For a lot of people, that’s half the vacation!
Your personal recovery effort will depend a lot on your travel plans and whether you’re more of a night owl or a morning person. How flexible you are will also play into it. If you aren’t the sort of person who takes change well, you can expect to have a harder time with jet lag. Travel experts say that going west is often easier than going east, because you are “gaining” time instead of losing it.
The time of your flight also influences how jetlagged you are when you arrive. Some people have an easier time recovering from a day flight than a night flight.