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Regina Barber filling in from Marielle Sagara.

0:27

If you're lucky enough to have traveled several

0:29

time zones in a matter of hours, then

0:31

you've most likely experienced jet lag, feeling

0:33

groggy out of sync with your surroundings

0:36

and overall crappy. This

0:38

year Taylor Swift caused a stir for answering a

0:40

question after the Super Bowl about her flight on

0:43

a private jet, no less from Tokyo to

0:45

Las Vegas. After she performed when

0:47

asked, how do you not have

0:49

jet lag right now? She said,

0:52

maybe jokingly jet lag is

0:54

a choice. She

0:58

is very wrong in this instance because

1:01

jet lag is very real. It's not a

1:03

choice. It's very biologically ingrained. That's Jade Wu,

1:06

a behavioral sleep medicine psychologist and researcher at

1:09

Duke University School of Medicine. I

1:13

asked her to tell me what jet lag actually is. Circadian

1:16

misalignment is a umbrella term

1:18

for any time your body clock is out of sync

1:21

with the clock on the wall or solar

1:23

clock, which is like where the sun is.

1:25

Basically in the sky. So

1:27

jet lag is one form of it. Shift

1:30

work is another form. You

1:33

know, being an extreme night owl some

1:36

days of the week is another form. So

1:38

jet lag is just the easiest to understand

1:40

form of circadian misalignment. Even though world travel

1:43

is nothing new, the

1:45

speed in which humans travel across the world has drastically changed in

1:47

the last hundred years. We haven't evolved

1:50

fast enough to keep up. Our bodies are constantly

1:52

trying to adapt to our outside environment. So,

1:55

you know, our bodies are designed to be. adaptable

2:00

like that. We can adjust if

2:02

we go gradually. So if you're

2:04

taking two months across the ocean, then you'll

2:06

have adjusted already by the time you arrive

2:08

here. But if you're flying

2:10

in a few hours, you know, your

2:13

body wakes up, you know,

2:15

in United States Eastern time, and then

2:17

goes to bed London time, it's going to

2:19

be very, very confused. The

2:22

speed at which we cross time zones is

2:24

not meant to be this fast. In

2:28

this episode of Life Kit, jet lag. We

2:30

talk with Jade about the signs of sleep,

2:32

prepping your shut eye for traveling both east

2:35

and west, and what to do on that

2:37

first night and day in a new location.

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4:49

So can you tell me exactly

4:51

like what's happening in our brains

4:54

and our bodies when we're experiencing

4:56

that jet lag? Right.

4:58

So in a nutshell, our

5:00

bodies during jet lag, we

5:03

are basically misaligned with our

5:05

outside environment, which means the

5:08

internal body clocks, which

5:10

we have billions of them, all of our

5:12

cells have their own clocks, our organ

5:15

systems, our hormone systems, our brain,

5:17

you know, cognitive function, blood pressure,

5:19

everything that runs in our body runs on

5:21

a clock. And ideally what's happening

5:24

is all of these clocks are synced

5:26

up to each other and running on

5:28

a predictable, consistent schedule.

5:31

And what happens during jet lag is suddenly

5:33

all of these clocks are confused. Like, wait

5:35

a second. I thought it was daytime. Why

5:38

is it night? Or I thought it

5:40

was supposed to be dark. You know, why is it so

5:42

bright in the environment? So then our

5:44

brain gets confused. The master clock in

5:46

our brain called a suprachiasmatic

5:49

nucleus, the SCN is

5:51

that suprachiasmatic nucleus gets confused,

5:54

then all of the clocks get confused. So

5:56

think of all the clocks in your body as like, it's

5:59

like the person orchestra

6:02

and the master clock the SCN

6:04

is the maestro and if the

6:07

maestro can't keep time then the

6:09

entire orchestra falls apart right? Wow.

6:15

So take away one. Jet

6:17

lag is a result of our circadian rhythm being

6:19

off. Flying to a new time

6:21

zone is giving that master clock in your

6:23

brain confusing signals which can throw you off.

6:26

So that's why we feel sluggish.

6:28

We can't sleep when we want to sleep

6:30

but we can't feel awake when we want

6:32

to be awake. Our thinking

6:34

is slower. Our mood is worse. Our

6:37

metabolism is not as good. You know

6:39

so everything basically functions

6:41

a little bit worse. So

6:43

how does one then prepare or

6:45

like mitigate these effects? Yeah

6:48

so there are a few things you can do. Before

6:52

travel, during travel and after travel. So

6:54

first of all I would say it

6:56

depends on how far you're going and

6:58

how long your trip is. So if

7:00

it's like a one to

7:02

two hour time difference and you're only going for

7:04

a few days you might as well just stay

7:07

on your regular schedule. Like recently I went

7:09

to see my best friend in Colorado. I

7:11

usually live in North Carolina. I

7:13

just stayed on my regular Eastern

7:15

time schedule. So from her perspective

7:17

I was like a super early

7:19

morning riser and I went to

7:21

bed really early but I

7:25

didn't have to do any adjusting

7:27

back and forth. It was easy peasy.

7:29

But if you're going like at least three

7:31

time zones over then that requires

7:34

I think a little bit of preparation. Part

7:37

of that preparation can be booking a flight that

7:39

isn't going to disrupt your sleep too much if

7:41

you can swing it. Once your flight

7:43

is set it's time for takeaway number

7:45

two. Prepare for jet lag by resting

7:48

up beforehand. That means time shifting

7:50

your sleep little by little but also

7:52

getting more sleep before your trip. So

7:55

this is called banking sleep. I wouldn't you

7:57

know push it too hard like you don't

7:59

force your The to sleep when you're not

8:01

sleeping. I. Make sure you do get lots of

8:03

opportunity and if is your body really even have a

8:05

little bit of desire to sleep? Let it do. So

8:08

you can even take some supplemental. Naps so

8:10

bank sleep for xbox and then

8:12

you can also sent gradually sustain.

8:15

Your timing towards the target

8:17

time zone so sure it's

8:19

traveling six hours. East Europe from

8:21

the east coast here on. You.

8:24

Can start getting up, you know, Fifteen

8:26

or thirty minutes. Ah, earlier. Everyday are

8:28

going to bed sitting to thirty minutes

8:30

earlier every day and do that for

8:32

a few days may be a week

8:34

or so. you won't be all the

8:37

way adjusted over. Maybe it's but you'll

8:39

be closer and you'll be more ready.

8:41

To adjust to your new local time by the

8:43

time you get their. Take away number

8:45

three. Remember. Good sleep

8:47

hygiene, Avoid

8:50

alcohol if you can because it can disrupt

8:52

your sleep. Maybe Don't have that cup of

8:54

coffee at six pm. Before your Flight

8:57

Jaded generally discourages using caffeine

8:59

to fight jetlag because it can

9:01

lead to unpredictable outcomes so sometimes

9:03

making you exhausted or fired

9:05

or both. But if you

9:08

must, you could aim to have some

9:10

caffeine if you're heading eastbound To stay

9:12

up, Avoid it if you're going west.

9:15

Speaking of direction, it's helpful to keep

9:17

in mind which way you're headed. yes,

9:19

of resulting because. His:

9:21

you're going West, Then you're delaying

9:23

their sleep phase, Red John you're

9:25

making your body stay up later

9:28

and and wake up later as

9:30

he wants to be attuned to

9:32

the local son. And if you're

9:34

going East, you're having to become

9:36

more of a morning person. You

9:38

have freight get to sell sleeping

9:40

and waking earlier so less were

9:42

troubled pence to be easier and

9:44

faster research showing that on during

9:46

March Madness. Teams

9:48

that are traveling west to play games.

9:51

Perform. better than as they're

9:53

traveling east because they're somehow less

9:56

jetlag last saturday in this alignments

9:58

on and that because our body

10:01

clocks actually run a little

10:03

bit longer than 24 hours. It's

10:05

more like 24.1 to 24.3 hours. So

10:09

that means we're always trying to delay

10:11

a little bit. If we

10:13

all lived in a dark cave with no clocks

10:16

and no regular routines, we would just

10:18

go to bed and get up 20 minutes later

10:20

every day. And so that's why going West is

10:22

easier because your body already kind of wants to

10:24

go to bed later. So going West is, you

10:27

know, but going East is hard because then you

10:29

have to fight, you know, the, the

10:31

fight upstream kind of doubly hard. So

10:34

if you're traveling West, if it's a long

10:36

flight, I would try to take a

10:38

short nap on the flight if you can, because

10:40

then you can go to bed at the desired

10:42

local time. You can stay up long enough once

10:44

you get to your destination to go to bed

10:46

at whatever is conventional. And

10:49

hopefully you're sleepy enough that you can sleep a

10:51

nice solid night and wake up the morning local

10:53

time. And then you're on your way. If

10:56

you're traveling East, try to stay up during your

10:58

flight. And that might be hard because you

11:00

might have gotten up really early to go to

11:02

the airport and you know whatnot, but try your

11:04

best, you know, uh, watch movies.

11:07

And then when you land, you're going

11:09

to not be sleepy yet by the

11:12

local bedtime. So you might

11:14

need to take a sleep aid to help

11:16

yourself fall asleep that night, or

11:18

you could just rough

11:21

it and just go to bed really,

11:23

really late and sleep a short night and then

11:25

just get up early and hit the ground running.

11:28

That brings us to takeaway number four,

11:31

do your best to match your sleep schedule to

11:33

local time, even if that means staying up late

11:35

or going to bed super early. So

11:37

what, what do you do that day after? So

11:40

the best thing to do is get lots of

11:42

light for thing in the morning, local time. So

11:47

ideally you go outside, you exercise,

11:49

you walk, you hike, you go around town.

11:51

Um, the quicker

11:53

you sort of get actively engaged in

11:55

the rhythm of the local schedule,

11:58

the more quickly you'll adjust. especially

12:00

when it comes to getting light in your eyes.

12:03

So not just inside a bright building

12:05

with big windows, but actually outside. Air

12:08

on the side of staying up too

12:10

long so that you save up lots and

12:12

lots of sleepiness in order

12:14

to adjust to the local time rather than

12:16

going to bed too early before you're sleepy enough.

12:19

So if you want, just stay

12:21

up that whole first day. Even

12:24

if you feel sleepy, just stay up during the

12:26

local day. And so you make sure

12:28

you have lots of sleep drive saved up for that

12:30

night. My daughter and

12:32

I went to Scotland and we stayed

12:34

up the entire day and by the

12:37

time it hit like 9 o'clock Scotland,

12:39

Glasgow time, we started feeling like,

12:41

we started hallucinating almost because we'd been up for

12:43

like 30 hours. Oh wow.

12:46

We were like 25 hours or something like that. Yeah, we'd been up

12:48

for like 25 hours and we were

12:50

like, the walls feel like they're moving. Maybe we

12:53

should go to bed now. Yes,

12:57

that is one good way to do it.

12:59

Although I would say 25 hours is definitely

13:01

on the long side. Maybe

13:03

there was a nap opportunity somewhere before then.

13:05

I think we did nap. We did nap.

13:08

But it wasn't like straight 25 hours, but

13:11

it was moving and traveling for 25

13:13

hours. Yeah, that's tough. But

13:15

we did it. We did what you said and it was good. We

13:18

were fine the next day and

13:20

for the rest of the trip. Beautiful. So

13:24

I have family in Taiwan. Oh

13:26

yeah. Going even more

13:28

and more west that it becomes the east. That's

13:32

right. And the time zones aren't,

13:34

you know, just a few time zones. There are

13:36

many, many, many time zones. Like 12 or 13.

13:39

Yeah, 12 or 13 hour difference. What

13:43

do you do? Because there's that

13:45

saying that like for every one

13:48

hour that's different, it'll

13:50

take one day to adjust. So it would take

13:52

you two weeks, but it took me shorter than

13:54

that. So what are some

13:56

misconceptions about jet lag? Well,

13:59

one. misconception is that well

14:01

as long as you use these

14:03

techniques then it's fine. No harm,

14:05

no foul. But I

14:08

think it is worth remembering that every

14:10

time we experience jet lag it is

14:12

putting burden and stress on our bodies.

14:15

So yes we can use these kind of

14:17

tips and tricks to try to mitigate

14:19

how bad it feels in the moment but

14:23

jet lag is never a good thing and

14:26

circadian misalignment is never a good

14:28

thing. You're always taking a hit so

14:31

you kind of have to think you know is it

14:33

worth it and often the answer is yes you want

14:35

to visit your family in Taiwan or you want to

14:37

go on a big hiking vacation in Europe like I

14:39

wouldn't pass that up you know but

14:42

I think we do we

14:44

don't want to be cavalier about like oh so-and-so

14:47

is a jet setter

14:49

for their career and they they travel

14:51

multiple time zones all the time it's

14:53

fine it's really not fine

14:56

I wouldn't advise someone do a career

14:58

like that for multiple you know years

15:01

and decades because that's you're basically then

15:03

a shift worker and shift workers have

15:05

a higher chance of having cancer for

15:08

example then wow then they workers yes

15:10

in fact shift work is one

15:14

of the only if not the only non

15:17

biological non environmental carcinogens

15:23

so it's it's literally recognized

15:25

as a carcinogen when

15:27

we have circadian misalignment so

15:30

jet lag not great if

15:32

it's occasional not a big deal but

15:34

hopefully someone is not doing this you

15:36

know all the time so that's one

15:38

misconception is that it really is a

15:40

problem for your body and

15:43

then in terms of how long it takes to

15:45

adjust I think it's different

15:47

for different people some people are more able

15:49

to adjust quickly right right I've seen that

15:52

right because I'm okay

15:54

with jet lag but my mom She's

15:56

over 70 and she doesn't really even get jet

15:59

lag. She's always. That way but you know she

16:01

does travel a lot of giving her. Foot.

16:03

Like you said, some people are just

16:05

more susceptible than others. Why do you

16:07

think that is all for it? I

16:09

I think there is an age as

16:11

that so your mom must be on

16:13

a magical creature. See it really is

16:15

a sort of outside of the rules

16:17

as he or she I was outside

16:19

the rules of like a such as

16:21

a centrally as we get older. We

16:24

we tend to be on.

16:26

In. A week tenses sister are so

16:29

tedium. Rhythms less bread elites in

16:31

part because though some money. That.

16:33

comes into our eyes that from

16:36

and them moon signal that have

16:38

her brain what time it is

16:40

outside so you know someone who

16:42

adjust quickly is able to responsiveness

16:44

like signal. Very, very quickly.

16:47

Clough a cast. You

16:49

actually address this, but I'm and ask the question anyway.

16:52

So in the end, experiencing jet lag for

16:54

like many people as actually like a symptom

16:56

of the like. It's it's traveling vast distances

16:59

in a sort of our time site. Like

17:01

you said, there's some serious consequences to not

17:03

paying attention to your body if you need

17:05

sleep. so. What? Other

17:08

serious consequences are there if you're

17:10

depriving your body asleep. So

17:13

if we're looking at sleep

17:15

over, then not getting enough

17:18

sleep is depriving our bodies

17:20

of very vital functions that

17:22

keep us healthy and happy.

17:25

So during sleep our brains are doing.

17:27

Since. I clearing toxins from the

17:29

brain are consolidating our memories you

17:31

know are releasing growth hormones and

17:34

sex hormones. The regulates are in

17:36

on reproductive systems and immune systems

17:39

on were are metabolism is regulated.

17:41

We need sleep time even just

17:43

for our cortisol levels. The come

17:46

down for body temperature, The come

17:48

down blood pressure to calm down.

17:50

All of these things are necessary.

17:53

For are very and lice soap

17:55

cutting that source. Or.

17:58

Having it at a regular time. Really?

18:01

Cartels are ability to function and Ashley

18:03

it's I'm so glad you're doing an

18:06

episode on Jetlag because we focus so

18:08

much on how much sleep people need.

18:10

We don't focus on the timing of

18:12

sleep and the timing is just as

18:15

important. If not, were. Important. A

18:19

recent really big study came out following.

18:21

you know, if you thousand people to

18:23

see, you know basically their behaviors at

18:26

Five Point One, and then looking at

18:28

how well they're doing years later and

18:30

it turns out the regularity of their

18:33

sleep at times like one is even

18:35

more productive of whether they have cancer,

18:37

whether they have died, whether they have

18:40

heart disease is later than how much

18:42

they slept. At one point One. This

18:45

is like terrified me, but it's also

18:48

intriguing me so. Taylor Swift really wasn't right.

18:50

Said jet lag is a choice. It kinda

18:52

sounds like she's. Super Super Size

18:54

safeties.com A. While

18:57

I think probably for her she can

18:59

deal with jetlag more easily because she

19:01

has you know the comforts and the

19:03

resources or resources exactly. And I'm sure

19:05

she has a whole team at managing

19:08

her nutrition and her you know exercise

19:10

and on herb. See everything right? So

19:12

is Summer with resources like to add

19:14

on the plane I'm sure as very

19:16

comfortable and nice and so it's A

19:18

for her. Maybe jet lag is a

19:20

little bit more of a choice and

19:23

you know a little bit more manageable

19:25

size. It is still a biological. Reality.

19:27

Excellent. Okay

19:39

Jet Setters, it's time for a recap.

19:41

Take away one. Remember jet lag as

19:44

a result of our security and rhythm.

19:46

Been off find to a new time

19:48

zone is giving the master clock in

19:50

your brain confusing signals which. Can. Throw he

19:52

walks. Take away number

19:54

to get lots of rest before. Your

19:56

trip, think some sleep. study shift

19:59

your bedtime by little to adjust to

20:01

your new time zone. Takeaway number

20:03

three, are you flying west or east?

20:06

If you're traveling west, a short nap on the

20:08

flight might not hurt since you're going to bed

20:10

later. Going east? Try

20:12

to stay up on the flight so you can go to bed

20:14

earlier. Take away

20:17

four, do your best to match your sleep

20:19

schedule to local time. It might

20:21

mean an early bedtime, but then you'll be rested

20:23

the next day to enjoy the rest of your

20:25

journey. For

20:31

more Life Kit, check out our other

20:34

episodes on Insomnia and another one about

20:36

Kathy. You can find

20:38

that at npr.org slash Life Kit. And

20:40

if you want more, subscribe to

20:42

our newsletter at npr.org/Life Kit

20:45

newsletter. Also, we'd love

20:47

to hear from you. So if you

20:49

have episode ideas or feedback you want

20:51

to share, email us at lifekit at

20:53

npr.org. This episode of

20:55

Life Kit was produced by Andy Tagle. Our

20:58

visuals editor is Beck Harland and our digital editor

21:00

is Malika Green. Megan

21:03

Kane is our supervising editor and

21:05

Beth Donovan is our executive producer.

21:07

Our production team also includes Audrey Wynn,

21:10

Claire Marie Schneider and Sylvie Douglas.

21:13

Engineering support comes from Robert

21:15

Rodriguez. I'm Regina Barber. Thank

21:18

you for listening. Support

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for NPR and the following message

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come from the American Cancer Society.

21:28

Dr. Alpa Patel leads a team

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that researches cancer risk factors and

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she shares how a new study

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aims to impact an underrepresented community.

21:37

My greatest hope for the

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is that it will help

21:43

us understand and identify culturally

21:45

tailored ways to change and

21:47

really eliminate the unacceptable disparities

21:49

for future generations of black

21:51

women as it relates to

21:53

cancer. To learn more,

21:56

go to voices.cancer.org. All

22:27

that sitting and swiping, your

22:29

body is adapting to your

22:32

technology. Learn how and what

22:34

you can do about it. I really

22:36

felt like the cloud in my brain

22:38

kind of dissipated. Once I started

22:40

realizing what a difference these little

22:43

bricks were making, there's no turning back

22:45

from me. Take NPR's

22:47

Body Electric Challenge. Listen to the

22:49

series wherever you get your podcasts.