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Jet Lag
Jet lag can ruin the first few days of a holiday or act as a serious obstacle to the frequent business flyer..
What is jet lag?
Jet lag or desynchronosis is the temporary disruption of your 'body clock' when you fly across several time zones. This causes the traveller's internal clock to be out of sync with the external environment.
This internal body clock is actually a portion of the brain which controls the timing of you biological functions, which includes when you sleep and eat. These are known as the circadian rhythms, and are responsible for helping you wake up in the morning and sleep at night.
Causes of Jet Lag
When you travel across a number of time zones, the body clock goes out of sync with the destination time, and so it experiences daylight and darkness contrary to the rhythms it has grown accustomed to.
The body's natural pattern therefore becomes upset as the rhythms which dictate when you should eat and sleep no longer correspond to the environment of your destination.
Jet lag occurs, because the body cannot automatically realign these rhythms. The speed at which you body readjusts itself to new daylight and darkness hours and eating and sleeping patterns is entirely dependent upon the individual. So while it may take a few days for certain people to readjust to a new time zone, others seem to experience little disruption to their body's natural sleeping pattern.
The symptoms of jet lag can be quite varied, though on the whole, an individual may experience fatigue, exhaustion, inability to sleep, disorientation, lost desire to eat, head aches, stomach aches and a general feeling of fuzziness.
Many cases of air rage often result from jet lag, as an overall feeling of disorientation can result in frustration and anger.