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David Ashton
I'd agreee abnout the sleep Frank. Years ago I was on a half full flight on a ...
T0BY
There is evidence that wearing earplugs reduces fatigue and jetlag on long ...
What were they thinking: Cures for jet lag
Brian Bailey
7/20/2012 9:47 AM EDT
Thankfully, I do not spend half my life on planes these days and as such enjoy a much better quality of life. But I do try and get back to England to spend a little time with my family each year. That time is fast approaching and I thought I would take a look to see if there were any new remedies out there for jet lag. In the past, I have found there is no substitute for relaxing on the flight and then getting as much sunlight as I can when I arrive at my destination. But I performed a search and here are some of the more interesting things I turned up.
One patent (5402190) issued in 1995 claims that only certain wavelengths of light influence the body clock and thus wearing rose tinted sunglasses when it is meant to be nighttime will stop the brain thinking it is in daylight. In the background it states:
I have determined that light wavelengths between about 480 and 530 nm reaching the eyes at an inappropriate time with respect to the biological cycle rather than all light wavelengths as had been previously thought, appear to be the wavelengths which cause the inappropriate resetting of the biological clock and allow the user to control, in conjunction with appropriately timed exposure to light capable of affecting the internal human clock, the timing of his normal functioning with normal wakefulness and alertness.
So that is a way to stop the body adjusting, but I want a way that helps. So, I continued my search. One thing I found was that Cephalon had been trying to get a drug approved for this very purpose. It is a slight variant of a drug designed to help people stay awake, and which will be losing patent protection soon. It was approved by the FDA in 2007 for the treatment of narcolepsy and disorders suffered by shift workers, but they declined to approve it for jet lag in 2010.
In 2005 Airbus filed a patent with the wonderful title of “Airplane seat, passenger bench, magnetic field resonance system, and use of a device for generating electromagnetic interaction in an airplane seat or in a passenger bench in an aircraft.”
First I hope Airbus is not planning on replacing seats with benches! Second, the airlines are still paranoid about the use of electronics on the plane, and now they want to start generating electromagnetic fields in our seats? Hmmm. As yet there is no word on its approval.
The hunt continues. Looking at hopeful research, Norway has found out that we are not the only members of this planet that suffer from jet lag. Mold does as well! They have found out that Lithium helps the mold deal with this problem. I am so glad that mold no longer has to deal with this issue. I can also see that mold might be better viewed through rose colored glasses and I hope there is none of the Airbus passenger bench.
Another site informed me that by middle age, the brain starts to have problems dealing with a key pattern of rhythmic neural activity and so I can expect things such as jet lag to get worse. I bet the mold does not have this problem to deal with!
Continuing to learn more, I find that possibly it is the adrenal gland that is responsible for some of the time keeping functions of the body, or at least squirting the right stuff into the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei – you keeping up with me here? When a group of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry switched off the adrenal clock in mice, the rodents adapted their behavior more quickly to the new time and made a more rapid return to their laps on the wheel in synch with the new external time. I can’t say I have ever done laps on a wheel.
So now I am confused. Are these people telling me that mold has an adrenal gland and that Lithium stops it?
Oh well, I guess I will just get some sun when I get there, but by all accounts the weather in England this year is so bad that it may affect the Olympic Games. Guess I will just have another pint of cider!
What are you favorite cures for jet lag?Brian Bailey – keeping you covered
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EREBUS
7/20/2012 4:49 PM EDT
When I travelled a lot, I learned to sync into the local time as quickly as possible. When I would go to the west coast from the midwest, I would take the earliest flight out so that when I got there I would be tired. I would then continue to conduct a normal work day so that I could easily sleep. Granted, I still awoke earlier than the residents, but it helped me function somewhat normally if I was there all week. Same thing coming back, get up early, fly all day, arrive at home and then get back into my normal cycle as quickly as possible.
It mostly worked, but there is no cure all for everyone that I have seen.
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BrianBailey
7/20/2012 5:54 PM EDT
Right. I used to have some coworkers who swore my Melatonin, but for me that provided no help at all. To each his own.
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Bucko
7/20/2012 7:08 PM EDT
To me the most important thing is to sleep on the plane, maybe tuning your sleep time to the time at your destination. My recipe is Melatonin (It *does* help me with sleeping), anti-histaminic and a few shots of hard liquor ( I use whisky :-)). Ibuprofen when you wake up (but it works better if take it 2 or 3 hours before, should you wake up then). And that's it. Now, understand me.... I am the opposite of a "legal junkie" and I *hate* medication (aside of Melatonin which is not really one) but I **hate** even more jetlag, and then some .
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Frank Eory
7/23/2012 4:39 PM EDT
Yes, sleep on the plane no matter what time it is.
For west to east flights, like from the western U.S. to Europe, it helps to take a redeye flight and go right to sleep after takeoff -- a couple drinks can help with this :)
When you wake up in Europe, it's mid-day but you feel like you've had a decent night's sleep and it's easier to push through the rest of the day until normal bedtime, local time.
For east to west flights, stay up late the night before you leave, take an early a.m. flight, and again go back to sleep right after takeoff -- to get the rest of the sleep you should've gotten the night before. When you land, the day is still young, but again you are rested and can push through the rest of the day until normal bedtime, local time.
The worst is going north to south or vice-versa, like from anywhere in the U.S. to anywhere in the lower half of S. America. The clock only changes by a couple of time zones, but you've been on a plane for half a day. No easy solution for jet lag in that case.
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David Ashton
10/5/2012 6:57 AM EDT
I'd agreee abnout the sleep Frank. Years ago I was on a half full flight on a 747 and there were 2 of us in a middle row of 4 seats. I slept on the floor between the seats and the other guy slept on the seats. We both slept all night. But they don't let you do that these days....
But I can't agree about North/South flights. At least you are still supposed to wake up and go to bed at the same times, even if you are tired. E/W and vice versa are terrible, even if you're sleeping OK your body just doesn't "get it".
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Hephaestus
7/21/2012 5:04 AM EDT
Nothing I have found prevents me from waking up in the middle of the night when overseas. I usually just have to go into work tired every day for the 1st week or so.
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Walter Greene
7/23/2012 9:51 AM EDT
When I traveled from California to Saudi Arabia and back, I would stay awake while en route. Then when I'd arrived, I would remain awake until the local day had ended. This would get me into time sync almost immediately. Pick flights that leave in the 'local' morning, and arrive whenever. Go to sleep or continue to work until local night. This only works properly when you do not miss a connecting flight and have a 24 hour layover. In that event your going to be lagged :-)
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cdhmanning
7/25/2012 1:11 AM EDT
Most people seem to call travel fatigue "jet lag". It is only jet lag when you travel E-W or W-E.
Having done manuy USA-NZ trips I think I have figured out two options that work well.
The key to adjusting well is to either:
* Sleep very well the night before you travel. That way you can pre-compensate for the time shift and also build up a sleep surplus to tide you through the shift.
- or -
* Sleep as little as you can the night before. That way, you just get on the flight and sleep well in the air no matter how many babies are crying or how badly you fit in the seat.
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Amcfarl
7/26/2012 5:34 AM EDT
As an electronics design consultantI used to spend a couple of weeks in the US then back home to Scotland for a couple of weeks and so on. My body clock had no idea of where it should be much of the time. I started taking Melatonin to help me sleep and it made a big improvement. It simply supplements the natural melatonin the body should be producing so no sleeping pill 'hangover'; ususally a cup of tea and some blue sky is enough to wake you up. As it has stated anti-cancer properties I now take it all the time.
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EdGr
7/26/2012 7:17 AM EDT
Going from west to east, US to Europe, you must sleep on the plane or you lose a day in Europe. So I take a generic ambien, antihistamines work for some people.Flights from the east coast are at night so that works, take earplugs and an eye mask. East to west I just stay up and try to be entertained then go to sleep early. Works for me. Sleeping east to west would put you out of sync with local time.
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GraemeC
7/30/2012 11:39 AM EDT
This very interesting report on some research suggests that adjusting your eating pattern to match that of your destiniation may have bigger impact than adjduting your sleep pattern ahead of time.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7414437.stm
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T0BY
10/5/2012 5:28 AM EDT
There is evidence that wearing earplugs reduces fatigue and jetlag on long flights by blocking the high ambient noise levels and aiding restful sleep when you need it. Moulded earplugs are more comfortable when worn for long periods of time and are often more effective than foam earplugs as they don't fall out.
http://www.zenplugs.co.uk/molded-earplugs/
T0BY
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