Scientific Tips to Help You Navigate Time Zones: How to Recover From Jet Lag Quickly?

As the peak of COVID-19 fades away, a surge of travel excitement is sweeping in. Those whose jobs involve frequent travel, both within the country and abroad, are ditching virtual meetings for the real deal. Yet amidst this travel renaissance, one old nemesis remains —— jet lag. It is the reason why sometimes we find ourselves craving sleep for 15 or even 20 hours after a long flight, hoping to recharge. However, the demands of work and our schedules rarely allow such luxury. Upon touchdown, we are often expected to be sharp and ready for action right away. 


If you are someone who frequently crosses time zones – be it for business or for fun – you are likely pondering: How can I regain my energy as soon as possible in a new time zone? To address this question, Dr. Yishan interviewed Dr. Daniel Blum, a sleep expert. He will help shed light on how aligning our diet and fasting patterns with exposure to daylight can be our secret weapon against jet lag.



Two Types of Circadian Clocks:

1.  Predominant Circadian Clock - responsive to light

This is the one most familiar to us, residing in our brain. It is the superstar of clocks, highly attuned to light cues. Operating on a 24-hour rhythm, it resets each day in response to the sun’s rise and fall. When daylight breaks, our master clock resets, and as the sun sets, melatonin levels rise, lulling us to sleep.


2. Secondary Circadian Clock - responsive to feeding and fasting rhythms

Aside from light, food intake also influences our master clock. After a good fasting stretch, introducing food sends a signal to our body’s organs, signaling morning. The sweet spot for this fasting span is around 16 hours. The reasoning here is that our body recognizes this extended fasting as the overnight period. Once we eat again, it is like signaling the start of a new day.


In essence, we are resetting our circadian clock in the morning not only with light, but also with some food, ensuring our body operates optimally throughout the day.


Strategies Helping You Recover From Jet Lag:

Research involving rodents has shown that adjusting their food intake alone can shift their sleep patterns by 12 hours, as if sending them around the world, simply by changing when to give them food within two to five days. It appears that altering food patterns could lead to shifts in sleep patterns. For humans, however, it is a bit more intricate.


Importance of Alignment

For us, it seems impossible to separate the predominant and secondary circadian clocks apart from each other. In other words, it is when there is alignment between both daylight exposure and fasting rhythm that our body adjusts the best to a change in time zone. This means that if we are getting light in the morning, we would also want to make sure that we are getting food in the morning. Also, all the processes that fluctuate in our body throughout the day should all align to the same time zone.


When we fail to achieve the alignment, such as with jet lag, it can lead to a lot of short-term disruptions: sleep struggles, difficulty focusing on tasks, relationship challenges, and mood disturbances. And the long-term consequences? Individuals with constantly shifting time zones have a higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer.


Consider the act of skipping breakfast. Say you wake up at 8 am but do not have your first meal until noon – this instantly throws your clocks off by four hours. The result? Circadian clocks are out of sync, mirroring the challenges of jet lag.


Applying Fasting Techniques

As we have mentioned above, Dr. Blum suggests that a 16-hour fasting period would be the most ideal way to get over jet lag. Yet how can we apply this technique to different scenarios? Here are some practical scenarios for various travel situations:


You can start a 16-hour fast before boarding the plane for a flight. Begin the fast upon boarding and break it upon morning arrival. For example, if departing the West Coast in the morning and arriving on the East Coast in the afternoon or evening, your final meal could be around 4pm East Coast time. Fast until 8am the next morning to reset your metabolic and light-dark systems, helping you adjust to the new time zone quickly.

This approach is effective even for longer international journeys. Consider flying from the West Coast to Asia with a 16-hour time difference. You can fast during the flight and break it in the morning upon arrival. A notable research on this includes the Argonne jet lag study conducted with military personnel flying from Minneapolis to Seoul. Those who practiced 16-hour fasting, compared with those who did not, had reduced jet lag effects in terms of both duration and intensity.

When the situation is reversed, like arriving in Asia at night after fasting during the flight, it is advised to eat upon landing. Consume some food on the plane, then fast until local morning, starting your day with breakfast. To illustrate, if traveling from Asia to the US, have your last meal on the plane around 3 or 4pm local time, then refrain from eating until the following morning. Stay hydrated with water, but avoid caffeine, alcohol, and snacks.

For a common flight scenario, departing from the West Coast on an 11pm or midnight flight to Seoul, landing at 5am local time, you could have your first meal at 6am or 7am after passing through customs. This requires a 16-hour fast before the flight, totaling 14 hours of fasting due to the 12-hour flight and 2 hours after landing. Thus, start your fast two hours before boarding your flight.


Conclusion:

As we step back into travel’s embrace post-pandemic, jet lag emerges as a central challenge. Dr. Blum’s insights illuminate a novel approach: uniting our internal circadian clocks with eating patterns. While light syncs with the primary clock, a supporting clock synchronizes with the rhythm of fasting and feasting. A 16-hour fasting window, followed by a morning meal, emerges as the bridge to rapid time zone adaptation.

Please feel free to reach out to Dr. Yishan if you have any sleep-related inquiries. Hope you can embark on your future journeys without the jet lag drag!

This blog article is organized based on Dr. Yishan’s interviews with Dr. Blum from Stanford Medical School, by Christine Gao.

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Dr. Yishan Xuinsomnia, sleep, jet lag, time zone, international flight, international travelComment