Dealing with jet lag is fairly easy for people who jet off around the world infrequently, perhaps once or twice a year on vacation or for the odd business trip, but for aircrews and regular long-haul fliers, jet lag often brings several health problems that can become virtually permanent.
Long-haul fliers will be more than familiar with the disturbance to their sleep pattern and the insomnia which can be produced by a long trip, in addition to such things as changes in mood, irritability, gastro-intestinal problems and difficulty in dealing with information. But, for very frequent fliers these usually transient symptoms are a part of everyday life and are frequently joined by menstrual cycle problems for women and also by short-term psychiatric problems for a number of people. So how do you go about managing jet lag?
The key factors that influence the degree of jet lag that you experience, apart from how frequently you travel, are the distances involved, the direction in which you travel and your age.
If you frequently travel across only two or three world time zones then any affects are likely to be extremely mild. But, as soon as you begin crossing more than three world time zones, and especially once you start frequently traveling across six or more time zones, jet lag symptoms begin to markedly increase.
Jet lag symptoms are also much more apparent if you travel east and affect you less when flying west. For example, if you travel from London to Singapore on vacation you will experience greater jet lag on arrival in Singapore at the beginning of your holiday than you will in London when you get home.
Generally when you fly east you can expect that jet lag will last for several days and a good guide here is roughly two thirds of the number of time zones traveled across. For instance, if you fly across six time zones you may expect jet lag to affect you for approximately four days. When traveling west jet lag may be expected to last for about half this time.
Age is also a major factor when it comes to jet lag and, as you get older, you will discover that you are increasingly affected by jet lag.
A true jet lag cure does not exist although there is a great deal that you can do to assist in reducing the symptoms of jet lag.