By John Salak –
There is good news and bad news when it comes to jet lag. A collaborative study out of Singapore found that while sleep duration recovers quickly, sleep timing and sleep architecture can take significantly longer to get back in line, creating extended problems for road warriors.
This has to be tiresome but somewhat expected news for the 94 percent of Americans who suffer from jet lag after long flights. Almost half of these travelers, in fact, report that their jet lag symptoms are severe.
The analysis resulted from a comprehensive study of sleep during 60,000 trips of over 100 kilometers (approximately 65 miles) and 1.5 million nights of de-identified data. It provided the first large-scale, real-world study of jet lag recovery to date.
Previous studies on jet lag fall short of providing deep insights, according to the researchers, because they were either been conducted under controlled laboratory conditions or involved specific groups like athletes or military personnel, whose characteristics may not reflect those of the general traveling public.
“We’ve known for some time that jet lag is a challenge for travelers, but this study provides data-driven evidence of just how persistent the impacts are, particularly when it comes to adjusting sleep timing to a new time zone,” reported lead researcher Adrian Willoughby, senior research fellow at National University of Singapore Medicine.
Jet lag is an obvious problem for travelers. Also known as desynchronosis, it can lead to insomnia, daytime sleepiness, loss of concentration, fatigue, irritability, disorientation, depression and gastrointestinal problems.
But travelers face other related issues beyond this. They often wake up early to catch flights, shortening sleep the night before departure. Even later-day flights cause problems because it is difficult to snooze on overnight flights, often leading to impaired performance and increased daytime sleepiness.
This all equates to restricted sleep, typically resulting in early bedtimes and extended recovery sleep the next night. Crossing time zones, however, complicates this recovery by disrupting the ability to fall asleep at the appropriate local time.
The good news is that the Singapore research team found that sleep duration typically returns to baseline within approximately two days. Unfortunately, getting sleep timing and structure right can take more than a week. Eastward travel and crossing multiple time zones only amplify the disruption.
The study also pulled out some other interesting nuggets. Jet lag, for example, is more severe following eastward travel, especially for shorter trips up to three time zones. The team also found that there were minimal differences between men and women in travel-related sleep disruption. Older travelers, somewhat surprisingly, experienced slightly less impact.
While the study laid out some additional insights on the impact of long-haul travel, it offered little in terms of ways to lessen its negative impact. Thankfully, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has some travel tips. These include starting to adjust sleeping patterns to reflect destinations several days before leaving. It also advises eating smaller meals while on flights, limiting alcohol, staying hydrated and moving about when possible during the flight.
