How-To's By Problem Area: Back and Hip Pain Neck and Shoulder By Sleep Position: Back Sleepers Side Sleepers Front or Stomach Sleepers Torso Uses Total Sleep System! SALE - $49.95 2+ You get FREE Shipping! More... Order Now! Introduction to Uses Yoga Prop/Pillow FREE Gift w/ Order! Testimonials Compare FAQ's Tracking Sleep Information Test Sleep IQ! Introduction Aging Back Pain Circadian Cycles Debt Disorders Jet Lag Mortality Napping Shift Work Sleep Links Sleep News Sleep Tips! Link to this page: Just copy and paste the code below.

Sleep and Jet Lag

WE ARE CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK AND WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SHIP ANY ORDERS FOR THE NEXT 5 PLUS WEEKS. SORRY FOR THE INCONVIENCE.

Jet lag, scientifically named circadian dysrhythmia, is caused by a sudden shift from one time zone to another while traveling. Before mass transit air travel, people traveled so slowly across time zones it did not really bother them. As is the case with many of our sleeping problems today, jet lag is a modern problem brought about by the industrial revolution and associated technologies. Not all is lost though, as there are some jet lag tips you can use to help combat jet lag, and you can read some in the second section of this web page.

Potential Symptoms of Jet Lag:

• Inability to go to sleep at your normal scheduled bedtime, either early tiredness or feeling wide-awake at normal bedtime. This will depend primarily on the direction in which we are traveling (discussed below).
• Feelings of nausea
• Lessened ability to concentrate
• Unusual tiredness or wakefulness at certain times of day
• Feelings of hunger or there lack of at unusual times
• Lessened reaction times
• Headaches
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Irritability

These are just some of the symptom we might experience if we have jet lag.

Basically, when we travel across time zones, our biological clocks stay the same, yet the time on the outside clocks change. This change can throw us out of whack in respect to the times in which we are tired, alert, sleeping, or awake. "Out of whack" is our new scientific term. You like? What is thrown out of whack is NOT our bodies' systems. Our systems are just fine. What is out of whack is our sleep/wake cycle in respect to the new local times and the cultures wake/sleep norms. This surely can make us feel we are out of whack, especially when we travel through multiple time zones!

Let us look at a few examples below. And then we will discuss a few tips for the traveler in terms of dealing with jet lag.

Let us look at a traveler from California to New York, which is across two time zones with a three-hour difference in what we will call 'outer time' or local time of the traveler compared to our 'inner' biological clock. When traveling east, it can be a lot more difficult on the system.

First, let us say that our normal bedtime is 10 P.M. and wake time is 7 A.M. everyday, which should give most of us the proper amount of sleep. Ok…obviously a hypothetical situation! Our schedule works very well for us, because every night we jump into bed and fall asleep in about 20 minutes or so, and we wake the next morning usually without our alarm clocks, which we have in the background just in case we do not wake up on time. Of course, in our 'ideal' hypothetical, we always wake up without the need for an alarm clock, as our bodies are finely tuned machines equip and ready for super duper, high performance. Ok…maybe not, but if we are dreaming, why not make it sound really good?

Now, let's travel from California time to New York time and see what happens. We arrive in New York, look down at our wristwatch, which has not been set to the new time zone and matches our inner clock schedule. It says the time from which we came is 6 P.M., and as we look up to the clock on the wall in the New York airport, it says the time is now 9 P.M. Remember, that is only one hour before our normal sleep time! You think when 10 P.M. outer time rolls around we will be tired and ready to go to bed? Nope! Our inner clock is flashing, "7 P.M., Silly, not bedtime yet " and we have another three hours before our bodies are ready to get some sleep. Before we know it, it is midnight in New York and we are two hours passed our normal bedtimes, and we are still not tired! Wait until morning time comes and we try to get up on time. We find ourselves dragging out of bed at a time that is three hours earlier on top of the three hours lost of sleep time! This might not be bad for a one night, but our systems will take some time to adjust to the new schedule, if we are even staying in New York long enough for this to happen.

Traveling east as in the above example has a tendency 'push back' our sleep times, so that we will not be able to fall asleep at our regular bed time, and in the morning we might find it more difficult to wake up on time, which is the 'new on time'.

On the other hand, if we travel west, we will be pushing our clocks 'forward', and find ourselves becoming very tired three hours earlier than the outer clock regular sleep time. So, if we travel from New York to California, all of the sudden 7 P.M. rolls around and we are ready to sack out and get some sleep as our inner clocks are in the habit of doing.

It should be easier for most of us to adjust to traveling east to west than west to east, because it is probably easier to stay up a few hours later than force ourselves to go to sleep when our clock-dependent alerting system has us wide awake. Mornings are a different story of course, but overall, it is still easier on the whole to adjust to the new time schedule when traveling westward than eastward.

Next, let us go ahead and give you some tips for dealing with potential jet lag.

Jet Lag Tips

We are already one step ahead with our knowledge and understanding of what the affects of jet lag are, which can help us reduce some of the frustrations we might feel from this change in our schedules. We can start to be more proactive and work with our systems in an appropriate way instead of letting our frustration work against us.

Eastbound Travel Tips:

• Plan on staying up and waking up a later.
• After waking up, expose yourself to sunlight, which can help advance you biological clock.
• For the businessperson, try to schedule business meetings later in the afternoon, instead of early mornings, as you will probably be more alert later in the day.
• Give yourself at least one day for each time zone you cross to adjust to the new time zone.
• Change your sleep schedule a few days before you travel.
• Take into account your overall sleep debt and how that might affect your feelings of tiredness as well as the jet lag. Actually, a large sleep debt can help when traveling east. When you do fall asleep, the chances of getting more sound sleep with less intermittent awakenings are lessened.
• A day or two before or when leaving, set your watch to the destination's time so that you can start to psychologically adjust and anticipate the change.
• Eat your meals at 'destination times' before you leave to help you adjust.
• Do not nap while on the plane or for long trips nap accordingly. More information can be found on the subject of napping on the Sleep and Napping page.

• Allow yourself to stay up until your normal sleep time, even though your body may be saying "Go to SLEEP already, why don't ya".
• If able, take a nap while on the plane. This can shift your sleep cycles forward, and when you arrive, you might not be as tired as early.
• If you arrive and the sun is still up, go ahead and expose yourself to the sunlight, as this can help delay sleep onset.
• Sleep later in the morning if you can, and then expose yourself to sunlight after getting up.
• Eat at your destination's regular times. Remember, you can also do this before you arrive at your destination.

If you are going to be visiting your destination for only a few days, you might want to consider not attempting to change your biological clock at all. Otherwise, when you do shift your clock and travel to another time zone, you will only have to change your system when you get back. This can be more stressful in the long-run, so we hope you keep this option in mind as well.

You will notice the list of sleep tips for traveling west is a lot shorter than for those traveling eastward. As stated above, it is a lot easier to delay our sleep cycles than speed them up. You can read more about your biological sleep system on the Sleep Cycles page. But, do not worry, we will send all of this information and more with your free Stasis Sleep Book© that comes with every order of your new pillow(s).

Oh, and if you have not checked out our revolutionary Stasis Sleep™ Pillow, we hope that you do. Just press the pillow on the top of this page and it will take you to our home page!

Travel safely…

[Back to Top]