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Fasting May Fix Jet Lag
stoolpigeon writes "Reuters reports on a Harvard Medical School study on sleep patterns and how they relate to food. Researchers already knew that the sleep patterns of mice would change to match the opportunity to feed, but they did not know the mechanism that enabled the change. To find out, they looked for the part of the brain that was involved. They bred mice without a certain master gene that regulates the body's clock, and then targeted various parts of the brain with the gene, delivered in the shell of a virus. The results may, among other things, provide a new method for preparing to deal with jet lag: 'A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this [alternate body] clock,' the lead researcher said. The study appears in the journal Science."
Don't let the airlines know about this, or they are going to 'improve the jetlag adaptation' by not feeding you anymore ! And for an additional price.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Highly paid researchers torture mice for a living. It's kind of sad.
Ya know I kinda figured this was common knowledge by now. Or at least common sense to anyone who went through college.
To make it through the required all-nighters or any other binge of staying awake, you eat more food to provide more energy to your body.
Conversely, when you mess up your sleep schedule because of it, it's easy to just skip the meals that day so you goto sleep earlier because you have no energy.
So is the big discovery here that it works this way, or that it's precisely 16 hours and it affects part x of the brain?
You never realize how much manually made unmanaged "linked" lists suck, till you have src.link.link.link.link...
How about making the airplane seats big enough and comfortable enough to actually sleep in?
Jet lag would be much less of a problem if the airlines didn't squash us all in like sardines for 13 hours at a time.
I piss off bigots.
Jetlag has not proven to be a significant issue with me or any of the people I have travelled internationally (as in, more than 5 time zones in one go) with. Is it only a significant issue to those who are changing timezone on an almost daily basis?
Typically if you're travelling west, you just get an hour's nap (or not) on the plane, but stay up an extra 5 - 8 hours or so (or less and go to bed a bit earlier). That's pretty easy to do. You will tend to wake up a little earlier than normal, but that's not a massive deal.
Travelling east is more difficult, as going to sleep 5 - 8 hours earlier is usually impossible (or impractical if still travelling) so you need to stay up an extra 8 - 12 or so hours, go to bed early, and get extra sleep that night. In both cases, you wind up waking up at roughly a sensible time.
Perhaps there is a significant group (who I do not travel with) who are unable to stay up for 28 hours on the odd occasion when it's necessary to resync with the local time zone? Or is it that if you do it, say, every week, this technique becomes totally impractical?
What a coincidence, I'm "suffering" from jet lag right now. I just got back (to the US) from Europe 2 days ago and am having the worst jet lag ever. This is weird because it's usually when I'm going in the other direction I suffer the worst. Anyway, if I eat I tend to want to "nap" right afterwards and then I end up sleeping in the middle of the day for 8 hours. Not eating seems to keep me awake, with my stomach threatening to eat itself.
Surely that's a "treatment protocol" that airline food could handle...
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
I went to this 'Vipassana' meditation camp a couple years ago. It's a program where you go to this silent retreat for 10 days and just sit all day and meditate. One of the things that freaks first-timers out is that they feed you breakfast and lunch, but no dinner. You don't eat at all after 12 noon.
Sure, you're sitting all day and not expending much energy. But one thing you discover is how much better you sleep on an empty stomach.
Travel in Ryanair and we take care of your jetlag (by not feeding you)
They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. -Nathaniel Lee
It isn't just a college thing - think about all the people (and the current poll) who are 'late' risers... I wonder what the correlation is between late risers and eating shortly after rising...
I mean, if you dont eat breakfast, then you start at lunch, then dinner then snacks... eventually you'll stop waking up around breakfast time (according to this article).
Irregular eating patterns also make you fat, I've heard - I wonder what the correlation between late risers and obesity is?
Only if the food you're not eating is fast food!
The best way I've found to avoid jet lag is to force myself to sleep at what would be the appropriate time for the time zone I'm going to - usually Asia or back home to Toronto.
6mg of Melatonin and a couple of beers in the airport bar are usually enough, but it doesn't hurt to have some soft music (I use "Music for the Mozart effect") and dark glasses (which don't look anywhere near as looserish as a sleep mask) to help with the process. If I do it right, I end up waking up at 7:00-8:00AM Hong Kong time at which point most people are finally falling asleep.
It's not perfect, but it gives me at least a good start,
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Flying from London to Tokyo takes 12 hours. Set off 1pm, arrive 9am the next day (local times).
By far the best thing is if you can sleep on the plane. Even if you can't sleep but only manage to keep your eyes shut and rest, it really helps. If possible, try to stay up all night a couple of days before and then sleep all day. If you can't do that, staying up all night the day before often isn't such a good idea, because sleeping on the plane is hard (uncomfortable, noisy) so you can end up being awake for 48 hours by the time you arrive.
In relation to the article, obviously if you are asleep on the plane you can't eat, so maybe that helps too.
Bottom line is there simply isn't any good way of doing it, unless you are lucky enough to fly first class...
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You are talking about a typical transatlantic or transcontinental 5-8 hours jetlag. they are indeed easy to overcome. As far as I understand, an 8-12 hour trip (London-Sydney/Tokyo) is a whole different story.
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
I did a 2 week trip to China last year, the return flight's around 12 hours. I essentially ate when they came around with food, slept a whole lot, and found on my return that I was pretty much back to EDT. I went out for beer & pizza, went to bed at my usual time, and woke up the next day at a normal hour, and just got back into my normal routine right away. Same thing heading over, except the flight was split into 2 legs so took longer.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
you're just mad you work at mcdonalds... serving mice.
It's tougher for the old (60+) and the sick.
The people that SARS would have killed are the people that have major issues with jet lag.
...this was the recommended method back in 1980 when I traveled the Atlantic on a monthly basis.
1. Eat a regular meal (usually lunch or supper)
2. Fly and fast
3. Eat a meal at the next regular meal time. (Usually 10 to 12 hours later).
4. One day later in the new time zone (GMT+1), all is reset.
Worked like a charm and was based on research available at the time so I don't see what is so new about the advice.
Well, at the moment I'm on a completely nocturnal sleep schedule, however in the near future this needs to change. So I shall plan to test this within a few days! However, the wording of the article is not entirely clear. If I understand it correctly, I should not eat during my normal functional hours while staying awake until the appropriate time, and my body should adjust to a more normal schedule, correct? Ah, well, guess I'll find out. Sounds a bit unlikely though.
Of course, jet lag is much less of an issue WHEN YOU'RE STARVING!
Oh well, so long as I can drink all I want....Invenio via vel creo
I mean, we put up with a lot but that is just an outrageous suggestion! This is obviously research sponsored by the petroleum jelly corporation and I for one have had neough of bending over so that some fat cat industry exec can shove...
[whisper.whisper]
oh, really... hang on...
[takes off glasses and cleans them]
If anyone wants to investigate whether there is a similar link between sex starvation and jet lag, I could suggest a couple of married friends who'd be ideal candidates for the study.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
It varies form person to person. I get bad jet lag for about a week whereas my wife hardly gets affected at all. Taking Melatonin helps; that's what airline pilots use.
I fly from the States to Korea fairly often and this works each time i do it. There are 14 hours differences from States to Korea. It seems to work on both ways i fly.
1. Before you fly: get less than usual amount of sleep. Eat normally, go to gym live normal.
2. During the flight: Take a short nap as if you would do on the day you had little sleep. and get busy doing what you do: work, read, eat whatever.
3. After the flight: Don't get to bed until it is your usual bed time no matter how tired you are. Eat, meet people, exercise as if you have been at the destination for awhile. Get up on time next day.
I am willing to be a volunteer. I have jet lag every Monday morning.
During the week I go to sleep at around 01:00 and wake up at around 07:30. During the weekend this is around 04:00 and 11:30. I am sure many people have such a "jet lag".
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
This isn't anything new. Argonne National Laboratories did research much like this, to engage the "alternate body" clock. It involves feasting and fasting, with special attention to the day prior to travel crucial to it working:
Anti-Jet-Lag Diet
It's easy, always travel west. The earth is round.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
Judging from the replies, I think a lot of people are missing what they're saying in the referenced study: You start fast way *before* you get on the plane. Anyway, the reasoning behind why this works, is that your body thinks: "Hey, there's no food around. I better wake up Mr. Brain there to go find something to eat. And while you're at it, if you have to start hunting saber tooth tigers at night rather than day, then I'll reset your body clock so you sleep and wake at a different time."
Thank goodness we don't need to forgo the DRINKS (they help get over time zones too, you know).
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
It's a significant issue that can require up to a week of recovery if the haul is long enough...
Apparently in haste to make jokes about bad airplane food, most have missed the point that the article refers to fasting BEFORE the flight. The Reuters headline writer also missed that fact.
The idea is to start pushing your food cycle toward the target before you fly so your body is more receptive to the time change.
In fact, if you're taking the typical ATL-ICN-HKG route some airplane dining is going to be pretty important. You'll arrive in Hong Kong around 10 p.m. Your elapsed clock time including layover will be nearly 24 hours, and if you manage your eating and sleeping during that time you'll actually be in pretty good shape the morning after your arrival. (Hint: Sleep as much as possible between ATL and mid-Pacific, and only after that should you turn on the entertainment system.)
Another study suggests that Viagra might help with jet lag, but it might create unrelated issues that you might have trouble explaining.
Flying from Tokyo to Germany, which I do on a regular basis, is a far worse situation. But even flying from the U.S. to Tokyo causes enough problems for me. I do it for business, and am on tight schedules, meaning that getting really, really sleepy in the middle of a meeting at 16:00 is a big problem. Not to mention waking up at 3:00AM and not being able to get back to sleep. It causes a lot of productivity problems.
I've tried a lot of things to see how they work. Such as drinking a lot as soon as in flight service starts, and try to sleep 1 hour later. I also tried staying up the whole time, hoping that I could sleep well once I get to my destination. I also tried adjusting my watch to the destination time and sleep accordingly during the flight, I tried melatonin, I tried.. a hell of a lot of things, but none worked that well. (Actually, drinking a lot and then sleeping did the best, but still was far from perfect.) Fasting is a new one, I'll need to try it next. I always fly business class or first class, so I really can't blame the seats....
... that switching the "a" for an "i" in the treatment might help *some* Jet-Lag Syndroms, too.
I experienced a fair amount of jet lag when I went to Tokyo from Colorado last year. IIRC, it was about an 11-hour flight.
Maybe it was just the difficulty of sleeping in economy seating, or the stress of getting through international flights and other public transportation, but I was quite tired by the time I secured my hostel stay. The next day was a bit rough too, but it was certainly feasible. I wouldn't want to do the whole thing on a biweekly basis, though.
The difficulties of jet lag grow exponentially, in my experience.
before the flight have always worked for me.
16 hours before the flight? 16 hours before you land? When do you start eating again?
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
Drinking a lot to sleep screws up how you sleep. Your body is still active to process the alcohol. Maybe set your watch to destination time before the trip to start getting used to it would help. And force yourself to stay up to 2300 destination time.
When I flew from San Francisco to Australia, my sleep pattern was screwy so there was no jet lag at all. I go from SF to India in July and am going to try melatonin, the fasting and staying up to 2300 when I show.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
What are these magic amenities that will make a 4 hours flight with no leg room more bearable for an extra $5?
People will save $5 on a flight choosing a cheaper one because in economy there's basically no difference. What are the amenities? Coke v Pepsi products? Seats without tears in them? New sickbag in every seat pocket?
I'd *gladly* pay a smaller amount more for a bit more leg room. I'm not a big person (5'9") but am cramped in economy seats. But the only choice is biz and/or first class, often at 5-10x the price of the economy price. There's no middle ground, so people choose the cheapest economy they can.
I went from RDU to SJC for about $230 last month. I could have paid up to $500 for the same trip on a different carrier, but still 'economy'. I've flown economy on all the major carriers at one point or another, and they all have the same size seats and basic service, so why pay double for the same thing?
I almost tried JetBlue, but the scheduling wasn't even close to what I needed, so I'd have had to go the day before and get a hotel for another $200. Plus the JB ticket was $650 or so - close to 3x the price I paid. I've heard good things about JB, but not good enough to pay an extra $620 for my trip.
If an airline would promote their 'amenities' for the extra few dollars, maybe I'd give it a try, but there's few amenities save legroom that can make a 5 hour trip worth any extra amount of money.
creation science book
What amenities are you talking about? I'd gladly pay an extra $20-$40 per flight for a bit of extra leg room, but paying 5-10X the amount of an economy ticket for biz class is something which most people (including me) can't justify for every trip. And if we *all* would be willing to pay that new price, then biz would go up accordingly and that new higher price would be the low bar for pricing, based on peoples' willingness to pay it.
Are we talking Coke v Pepsi? No amount of extra $$ for 'amenities' makes that much of a difference on a 3-5 ride in US domestic economy today. So why pay extra? Of course it's a race to the bottom because 'the bottom' is all that's on offer.
I flew RDU to SJC last month. I paid $230 (maybe a bit less) I had my choice of 'economy' tickets up to $600 or so (actually, I think a couple were close to $1000). Most were aounrd $200-$450. The only things that made much of a diff to me were schedules and price. On domestic routes, what other 'amenities' are there I should consider that would make me choose one carrier over another?
creation science book
...fasting cures fattiness.
Try LA to Sydney or Bangkok then let us know how you feel. Like everything else, it gets worse the older you get, too.
I'd rather be jet lagged, than feeling starved.
I just got back from a 4 1/2 day trip from the east cost of the US to Beijing, which is exactly the opposite time zone. (i.e. 1pm EST is 1am in Beijing)
I got about 15 hours of sleep the entire trip, most of which was on the plane on the way back (planes almost always put me to sleep) and one or two 2 hour naps each night when the physical exhaustion temporarily overcame the fact that my brain thought it was the middle of the day.
I did not sleep at all on the plane ride there, and only first slept (a little) the night I got to Beijing.
There is no way I could both stay up that long AND not eat anything, unless I was a little mouse stuck in a cage with no food.
Heading east from Hawaii to go back home to Toronto (+6), I just took 6 mg of melatonin at 6 PM HT / 12 AM EDT when I got on the the flight. By 7 PM HT / 1 AM EDT, I was sound asleep, and I woke up around 2 AM HT / 8 AM EDT, fully back on my regular Toronto routine with no detriments.
I don't know if this would work well with more dramatic time shifts, like Asia - North America, but melatonin in general has been a sanity saver for me. There are days where I take a four hour nap and fear that I'll never sleep at night. Pop a melatonin an hour before I want to go to bed, and I sleep a completely normal night's sleep.
No uncomfortable fasting required.
Many factors go into jet lag, including age, health, and sleep deficit. If you're unhealthy, or are already running up a sleep deficit, you're going to find it harder to adjust.
The purpose of the trip also comes into play. If you're traveling for business, jet lag is like working on 2 hours sleep. If you're traveling for fun, jet lag isn't nearly as bad.
This is for the relatively short time-differences between the two American coasts. Take a trip to Asia or Europe, with a sleep deficit, for business, with poor (but not horrible) health, and see if you still think jet lag is "just annoying".
I doubt it is just me, but after a long plane journey, the last thing I would want to do is to ignore my bodily functions and starve myself! Being cramped in a plane for 7+ hours, I would want to relax and do what I want, i'm on holiday. Or vice versa, I am now home after my holiday, and I am not going to greet myself back with a starving stomach. I mean, yes, it may be a discovery. Now we know, but is it really useful? In my opinion: No
Fortran is for pimps.
The one time I traveled 8 timezones east, I spent most of a week feeling like a zombie (completely non-functional). It took about 3 weeks before it felt like I had fully adjusted. Traveling back west was, like you say, immensely easier. I was just an early riser for a few weeks. I should mention, however, that I initially only came back 5 of the 8 timezones, adjusted, and then went the other 3, so that's another reason it was easier.
Even without the sleep benefits, I would almost be willing to pay the airlines to feed me nothing instead of that garbate.
I've been (indirectly) involved with transporting super yachts. Generally there's not much sleep to be had while shortstaffing a 50 metre yacht across an ocean. The crew eat to stay awake. I'm not sure the theory behind it, but apparently it works.
Insanity: voting in the same two parties over and over again and expecting different results
Another way of fighting jetlag is to fly a lot. It's been years since I suffered jetlag, I just got back from Japan, didn't feel it either way, I go to Europe a lot and I went to college in Hawaii and would fly to Italy for holidays. Oh yeah, I eat a lot so maybe that's it! Airlines need to start feeding people more and more often on their flights.
16:00? 3:00AM? You trying to sound cool to someone by using the 24-hour clock and then messed up?
Many people may not realize that Fasting actually mean limiting diet to 1 or 2 things.... ie water and cooked brown rice. Somewhere along the line somebelly did not know this and impoverished the language (thank you Terrance;!) to infer eating NOTHING aka "starvation." This is NOT the same thing - and can be dangerous!
Even first class does not provide seats as wide as an ordinary armchair in my living room, which considering that first class costs several times what my armchair cost (and I don't get to keep the seat) they damn well should. The kind of cheap flights available in the UK (£1 to Malta, etc.) are an abomination and should be banned.
I piss off bigots.
"8-12 hour trip" "London-Sydney"
Errm... try 20 hours minimum. The cheaper flights will be a bit longer due to out of the way stops or connecting flghts.
My first flight (when I was 6 in 1980) was London to Port Moresby (slightly closer than Sydney) via Bahrain and Hong Kong avoiding USSR airspace - 36 hours.
Done Australia/PNG to UK loads. The worst was having a holiday in South Africa and arriving back in Sydney to find I had to be in Sarasota, Florida in 4 days time (including the day and a half to get there)... ah the good old days...
Jetlag is not that bad. How many times have you had a good night out followed by 1-3 hours sleep before being in work? It is not *that* much different. Just make sure you don't go to bed until at least ~21:30. Going to work the day or day after you arrive, IOW do not take a day off to recuperate, helps achieve this.
This looks like it might be related to research (PDF) done a few years back by the Argonne National Laboratory on diet and jet lag. There's a summary of their diet here. It's more complex than just fasting. I've used it travelling to Israel, Russia and Burma, and it's worked well for me.
The rule of sleeping when traveling east and staying awake traveling west, as well as no alcohol or coffee (and I love my coffee) on the flight works for me. The only other major problems with such long flights is proximity to so many other humans in tight quarters.. jet lag no problem, but occasional bug (cold or flu) really sucks.
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Having flown LHR - SYD a few times, I find it quite easy.
The first time, I was all giddy and what not. Flew (economy) from ARN around 7am, from LHR around 11am and landed in SYD some time around 7pm.
Shower, change, pub, sleep.
Woke up at 7am and felt great.
Second time I flew down in BA's new business seats (which was a lot more comfortable).
Left ARN around 3pm, left LHR around 10pm, landed in SYD 6am.
Shower, change, beach, food, sleep @ 10pm.
Got up at 9am and felt great.
Flying west has never been a problem either (other than arriving in miserable cold weather getting back from SYD, that is).
A trip to NYC is short enough, so just keep consuming alcoholic beverages (to the point where the FA asks "Ah, I see you guys are having a party") and you'll be fine.
Same with SFO.
Basically, jetlag seems to be a myth.
Do you find the direction makes a difference? I flew from Melbourne to London last year, then back again. Melbourne to London was fine --- I went to bed a few hours early the first night (9.30 pm) and then then the second night on I was on my normal schedule i.e. bed at midnight, awake at eight. When I came home again, after about three days when I appeared fine I suddenly couldn't get to sleep until three or four in the morning and struggled to wake up on time. Lots of people reckon it's the same --- going to Europe's fine, it's coming to Australia kills them.
Look out!
A similar principal applies to hangovers, BTW. Up until some time in my thirties, I didn't even know what a hangover was other than in theory.
Aging's a bitch except when you consider the alternative.