Marcel Proust

Travel Tips and Tricks

What Does Jet Lag Do To Your Body

  Jet lag, also known as desynchronosis, is one of the unintended consequences of long-haul flights that every avid traveler is familiar with. It is a temporary sleep disorder that occurs when you cross multiple time zones within a short period of time. Our body is naturally equipped with an internal clock (circadian rhythm) that regulates when we sleep and when we wake up. When we are in a different time zone, our body’s clock is still synched to our old time zone and it expects to sleep and wake up as usual. For instance, if you traveled eastwards, at the end of the day, your brain can tell it’s late in the evening where you are, but your body knows it still midday where you just came from, and that mismatch can cause some confusion to your internal clock. Luckily, this is short-lived and most of us can live with it. So, how does jet lag feel? Travelers describe being jetlagged as an experience of not being able to fall asleep when you should be sleeping and not being able to wake up when you should be awake at your new destination. Basically, walking around in a daze as your body tries to operate at its usual rhythm but in a different space and time. Read More