6 Circadian Hacks to Blitz Jet Lag
Do you sometimes feel like you’re sleepwalking through the first few days of an overseas holiday, as your body struggles to adjust to your Champagne taste? Jet lag is a phenomenon caused predominantly by your circadian rhythm (which is like the body’s internal day/night schedule) being out of sync with daylight hours. Shift workers experience something very similar if they need to be on-task during night-time hours and catch up on whatever sleep they can during the day.
Try these methods for ‘hacking’ your circadian rhythm so you can fast-track it back onto the timetable you want it to follow:
🌞 Make light work
Bright light in the blue end of the spectrum is the single most powerful cue for your suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is like your body’s ‘master clock’. If you’re adjusting to a new time zone, get outside and take in as much sunshine as you can early in the morning. This will stimulate the natural production of serotonin, sending a clear signal to your body’s systems that it is time to be awake.
📖 Jet lag can be prevented by hacking body clock with light – The Telegraph
💧 Drink plenty of water
The air inside an aircraft is notoriously dry due to the effects of climate control, making it an environment that can dramatically speed up dehydration. As with hangovers, dehydration worsens the symptoms of jet lag, so don’t be shy about asking the cabin crew for refills of fresh drinking water!
🍽 Hold off on chowing down
It’s more accurate to describe your circadian rhythm as not one single timetable, but a larger group of sub-schedules that work together to create an overall pattern. For this reason, both exercise sessions and mealtimes also have a powerful effect on adjusting when your body thinks it’s time to be active. Ideally, if travelling at the destination’s night-time, try to fast during transit, or stave off hunger by nibbling on small, nutritious snacks as you go. Once you arrive, switch directly to the local eating schedule.
📖 Travel tips: Ways to minimise jet lag – Harvard Health
🔦 Take half-measures
Strategic exposure to bright light at key moments during the night can partially shift your circadian rhythm to your new or desired time zone, theoretically giving you the best of both worlds. This can help shift workers to sleep more deeply upon returning home, but still awaken in the afternoon feeling refreshed and allow them to make some use of daylight hours as well. It’s also a great way to fast-track your adjustment to a holiday destination whose time zone is only different to home by five or six hours.
📖 How to reset your body clock – Business Insider
📖 Current Biology study on light cues and body clocks
🧠 Get technology on your side
Invest in a smart sleep mask or smart eyewear that uses light cues to reset your circadian rhythm in record time. If it’s just for one holiday, it might not be worth the asking price, but if you regularly travel for work or if you have a shifting roster that includes night-time hours, this might be the ‘miracle fix’ you’ve been looking for.
🔗 Illumy Smart Sleep Mask
🔗 Re-Timer Light Therapy Glasses
🌍 Reconnect with the earth
The concept known as earthing, or grounding, might seem a bit left-field, but its beneficial effects have actually been reproduced under laboratory conditions. Earthing involves balancing the body’s natural electrical charge with our planet’s faint electrical field by physical contact with the ground. The implications of ionic balancing are not fully understood, but research has shown that it has a measurable effect on improving sleep and stabilising the circadian rhythm. Take off your shoes and go for a barefoot stroll on the beach or in a park.
📖 NCBI Study 1
📖 NCBI Study 2
📖 NCBI Study 3
We have a circadian rhythm for a reason, and chronically disrupting this can have detrimental effects for our health. However, the reality of 21st-century life is that sometimes we push mother nature’s boundaries – so why not use every method you can to make the transition as painless as possible?
👉 Want help resetting your body clock naturally?
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