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Here is an innovative new way to beat the scourge of long distance travel
When you’re going away on the holiday of a life time or an important business trip, the last thing you want is to waste away half the trip feeling groggy, not sleeping properly and being unable to concentrate.
These common symptoms are the result of jet lag and occur after travelling across time zones between the east and west. Your body clock is closely tuned to the time zone you live in. It is reset every morning when you wake up and tells your body when it is time to go to sleep. When you travel to a new time zone your body is no longer synchronised with the local light/dark cycle and your body may be telling you to sleep at lunchtime instead of bedtime!
In fact jet lag can disrupt more than 50 physiological and psychological rhythms leaving you feeling disorientated, lethargic and depressed. There is recent research indicating that memory and blood pressure could also be negatively affected. Unfortunately the symptoms can worsen with age, the over 50’s suffer most.
On average it takes your body one day per time zone to realign your body clock – for a trip within Europe this may knock 2-3 days off your trip and after long haul flights it may take weeks to adjust.
Thankfully clinical research by NASA and other institutions has shed light on an easy way to shorten the time it takes to reset your body clock. Using bright light in specific wavelengths and at particular times of day, your new time zone can be matched in a matter of days.
Light therapy works by suppressing melatonin – a sleep inducing hormone that helps control your body clock. As a rough guide, when travelling east you should seek light in the morning and when travelling west seek light in the evening. Avoiding light at certain times is, in many ways, just as important as exposure to bright light.
One light therapy device, The Litebook, is ideal for travelling due to its lightweight and totally portable design. Due to its revolutionary light emitting diode (LED) technology the specific wavelength of light produced closely matches the optimum wavelength of daylight for melatonin suppression. This means usage times are low and in just 60 minutes over 2 days your body clock could be back on track.
An online jet lag calculator also makes it easy to see when to use The Litebook and when to avoid light in order to switch from your old time zone to new.
3 simple ways to beat jet lag
* Seek bright light in the morning (destination time) when travelling east – and in the evening (destination time) when travelling west. Typical exposure times are 30 to 60 minutes on the day of travel and 15 to 30 minutes on the second day.
* Avoid bright light (sunlight) at specific times. This is just as important as seeking bright light. If you receive exposure to bright light at the wrong time, you will likely make your jet lag worse – your body clock could end up Tokyo time instead of Paris time! It is not important to avoid interior light, such as in a hotel room, office, or restaurant -- although many frequent travellers report best results when they avoid any source of light.
* Use The Litebook's Online Jet Lag Calculator to determine your specific usage times. Simply enter your normal waking time (e.g. 7 a.m.), your Departure City and Arrival City, and the Calculator will determine a personalized schedule for your trip, providing you with a window of time to Seek Light and another window of time to Avoid Light.
Light therapy is not only for those who suffer from jet lag. If you’re taking a break because you’re feeling down or find you miss the sun too much in winter, then you may be suffering from seasonal depression. Light therapy is used all over the world to treat the winter blues, as well as bipolar depression and other mood disorders.
Light plays an important part in our daily lives but for children the effects can be even more drastic because of the influence of changing hormone levels on the way in which the developing brain operates.
Current research is focusing on the use of light therapy to control ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) and improve concentration.
The problem for teenagers is even more easily recognised. Their body clocks shift naturally by up to 12 hours when they reach puberty and they also need to sleep a lot more to recover from growth spurts. Their alertness does not peak until around midday meaning they are groggy and underperforming during morning classes through no fault of their own. Light therapy can be used at breakfast, or on the way to school, to reset their circadian rhythm and get them ready for the day ahead.
Light therapy is offering a drug-free, safe and natural way to deal with today’s busy and jet-set lifestyle. We may be forcing our bodies to travel half way around the world, work 12 hour shifts or sit in an office from sun up to sun down – but there is now at least a way to make sure we get the light we need every day.
Sources:
Jet Lag: Minimizing Its Effects with Critically Timed Bright Light & Melatonin
J. Mol. Microbiol. Biotechnol. (2002)
January 1, 2002
Barbara L. Parry, M.D.
J. Mol. Microbiol. Biotechnol. (2002) 4(5): 463-466
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