Can Melatonin Help with Jet Lag?

Melatonin is a well-known dietary supplement that was said to quell jet lag and treat insomnia. It has also been known to help with other things also such as anxiety, fatigue, headaches, tinnitus, dementia, depression, bowel issues and even help keep your skin healthy from the UV rays of the sun. The wonder drug even has been said to help with cancer and heart disease, many different aging signs and symptoms of menopause. Companies have picked up on the hype and have come out with Dream Water and iChill that was developed to help with relaxation. If anything is said to help with all of these ailments is probably something that is too good to be true.

Melatonin: Hormone Released in the Dark

The Pineal gland is responsible for producing the melatonin hormone. Some plants that are edible also produce this hormone. It is discharged in the dark which is why they call it a “darkness hormone” which is contrary to vitamin D which is known as the “sunshine hormone”. Melatonin is blocked from being released during the day by light. Circadian rhythms are affected by melatonin and have always been utilized as a sleep aid. There is even a prescription drug called Rozerem that operates the same way as melatonin.
Recent studies have shown in lab animals that is hormone has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-cancer and immunological effects. Just because it works on lab animals doesn’t necessarily mean it may extend to living human beings.

Melatonin Production is Affected by Aging

As we age, melatonin production begins to decline. Some scientists have advocated that come changes in our body because of age may have some connection with a decrease in melatonin. Many money-making companies use the same pretense that melatonin is needed since it is decreasing as we age just like drug replacement estrogen therapy but this hasn’t been proven. There are many different compounds that decline as we get older but that doesn’t necessarily mean if they get replaced we will feel better.

Some of the Melatonin effects are well supported

Cochrane Collaboration, in 2009, concluded that taking melatonin as a supplement can reduce or prevent jet lag. Some of the studies performed didn’t perform the same positive results. The supplement does seem to be safe if used for a short period of time and is recommended for use by adults that are travelling through five time zones or more and preferably towards the east. Natural Standards is a company that analyses alternative treatments also found convincing evidence of using melatonin as suggested. It has also found evidence for treatment in elderly patients for insomnia as well as helping healthy people sleep. There is inconclusive evidence that melatonin helps in any other capacity suggested.

What effects does Melatonin have on sleep?

• Melatonin may produce drowsiness or a “hangover” like effect the following day which may prove dangerous if you operate heavy machinery or are driving.

• There is no definite dosage recommendation for melatonin. It is different with every person so it has to be tried on an individual basis to see what amount works best for them.

• You can get melatonin in bananas, rice, grapes and cherries but there is no evidence as to how much has to be eaten to get any kind of beneficial effect.

Prior to Taking Melatonin

• Use only occasionally when needed for insomnia or jet lag

• Consult your physician if you experience chronic insomnia

• Do not use this supplement for any reason other than matters relating to sleep

Don’t Let Jet Lag Hurt Your Productivity

Here are a few ways you can try to handle the problems that jet lag gives you and still be productive when traveling across time zones.

Drink little bits of water frequently – The body has over 60% water. It is simple to become dehydrated due to the airplane air being dry and then when you are traveling across many time zones you are in the plane longer. To stay hydrated, you need adequate amounts of water all through the day. If you get dehydrated you may end up with messed up sleep patterns and headaches. They will usually last at least one day for every time zone that is crossed.

When you do take water, try to take little amounts at a time but more frequently. Constantly drink small amounts of water throughout your flight. Don’t wait until the flight is over and then guzzle a whole bottle of water because that won’t help. Also if you drink so much water that you feel full, that isn’t good either and you may end up not eating properly which will only aggravate your jet lag.

Try to drink at least four ounces every hour that you are flying. If you are more regular, you will have an easier time flying across time zones.

You will also be more productive once you get there or you will recover quicker if you are consistent. The other thing that will happen is you will need to use the bathroom so you will get up which will make you stretch your legs a little.

Bring food of your own on the flight – Always bring your own food with you on the plane including protein bars, Vitamin C powder, a salad, a sandwich, some mixed nuts, a couple bottles of water and some granola. Make sure you take along foods that are high in protein, low in carbs, and high in fat. This is called brain food and they will also fill you up plus an added bonus is that they taste good. If you are not hungry you will be able to concentrate on the vital things like getting ready for a meeting or trying to nap for a few minutes.If you bring your own food you will also be more relaxed because you will have good things to eat and you won’t have to worry about finding good things for you. If you make it easy to travel, you will be able to focus on what’s important. Don’t drink when you fly either and it is better not to drink while you are traveling especially if it is for business. Alcohol depresses you and that combined with jet lag will cause increased problems and decrease your productivity.
Be there early – Try to arrive at your destination earlier than you need to be there. If you can get there a couple days early that would be fantastic because your jet lag will most likely be gone before you need to be focused and productive. You may think it will be worse to spend more time in a far-away location but it really is best if you can relax for a few days before your time is needed for work or business. It may also give you extra time to plan for your meeting by creating your reports or taking care of other business so your mind is clear for the important things of the day.

Traveling long distances is usually necessary for many business people. If you plan on being successful, make sure you plan ahead and do what is necessary to make sure you can overcome your jet lag before you need to be productive, both mentally and physically, for your important meeting.

Everything You Need to Know About Sleep

To maintain good health, sleep is important. Sleep fixes the body and give the mind time to refresh. It is never in a still state and is always active even during sleep. The brain moves through stages when sleeping and repeats them through the night.Fatigue, mood alterations, and lack of memory, coordination, and concentration occur when the body lacks sleep. Your body is programmed to sleep around the same times each day. The amount of light is so important to your sleep schedule. When there is less light, there are hormones released into the brain to help induce sleep. Before there was electricity, people used to sleep between sunset and sunrise. That was around ten hours, which is what the average person got each day. Nowadays many people are deprived of essential sleep and this is not good to their health.

Make sure to get enough sleep

In developed nations, sleep deprivation is prevalent with most adults only getting between six and seven hours of sleep. These adults experience fatigue several times throughout the day. One in every six auto accidents happen due to sleeplessness. There are many causes of sleeplessness which include texting, internet, being a parent, shift at work, travel into different time zones, illness, medications, and poor sleeping habits. It is estimated that new parents in the first year lose between 450 and 700 hours of sleep.

Various sleep cycles

There are two distinct stages of sleep that every individual experiences. These two stages continue in a cycle throughout the sleep cycle. The first is rapid eye movement or REM sleep.

The second is non-rapid eye movement or NREM sleep. REM sleep occurs naturally every 90 minutes to 120 minutes. One quarter of your night’s sleep is in this stage. During this stage, the brain seems to be very active and the eyes dart around in the socket, which is where this stage got its name. It is the part of the sleep cycle where dreams occur. NREM sleep makes up the other three quarters of your sleep time and comes in four stages.

Stage one starts when you are dozing off or drowsy and you go from being awake to being asleep. Stage 2 is when your body temperature drops, you lose consciousness of what is around you, and your heart rate slows down.

The third and fourth stage come when you are in a deep sleep. Your muscles relax, your heart rate and breathing slow down, the body temperature drops, and the body grows and repairs itself.

Some disorders can interrupt the main sleep patterns and if this happens the body does not get the significant amount of sleep to grow and repair itself. These diseases, like insomnia, sleep restriction, sleep walking, night terrors, narcolepsy, and jet leg, can be treated with the proper diet, medications, and your doctor can help you with them.

Facts About Common Sleep Disorders

Get the Facts About the Most Common Sleep Disorders

Some people are unable to enjoy a good sleep at night because they have a sleep disorder. Some of the sleep disorders include snoring, sleep apnea, jet lag, insomnia, narcolepsy, or restless leg syndrome. These problems should be looked into and treated.

Every 24 hour, a state of consciousness is reached called sleep. It is the time when the body rests and repairs itself. The brain has some much needed downtime during this time period as well.

The amount of sleep that is needed depends on a variety of factors, which include diet, personality, environment, lifestyle, and age. For example, a newborn baby would need around sixteen hours of sleep in every twenty four hour period and an adult would only need half of that.

The body’s internal clock

c cycles called the circadian rhythm. When it starts to get dark, the brain releases chemicals into the brain that make you sleepy. The same happens when the sun rises and the brain releases chemicals to wake up.

Sleep stages

There are different sleep stages that go over and over. The first stage is the rapid eye movement stage and the second is the non rapid eye movement stage. The brain waves for the REM cycle are faster than the ones for the NREM cycle. The REM stage is associated with the time during your sleep that you dream while the body repairs during the NREM stage.

Common sleep disorders

When sleep is disturbed, it can be for any number of reasons. Here are some of the most common sleep disorders.

Insomnia deals with when it is hard to sleep or stay asleep.
Jet lag deals with the times when the body’s internal clock is thrown off because of a different time zone.
Narcolepsy is when the body is extremely tired during the day and that leads to napping involuntarily.
Periodic limb movement disorder is when muscle spasms wake up the sleeper.
Restless leg syndrome is when lower leg pain and discomfort makes a person need to get up and move around.
Snoring is when noisy breathing or narrowed nose and throat obstruction wakes the sleeper.
Sleep apnea is when the upper airway becomes blocked which causing breathing to stop.
Sleepwalking is when the sleeper walks around in their sleep.

Treatment of sleep disorders

Some disorders like snoring or sleepwalking don’t necessarily require treatment. However, there are some sleep disorders like sleep apnea that are dangerous. To make sure that you don’t have a dangerous or even deadly sleep disorder, it is so important to contact your doctor or a sleep clinic.

Jet Lag: What is it anyway?

It is a mental and chemical change that happens to the body from time changes of travel through different zones. Traveling through these zones throws off regular functions that are set to let the body function at a normal capacity. Things we take for granted become a nuisance to our everyday life.

What brings on jet lag?

Traveling long and far enough to put certain body functions out of whack. Chemicals in your brain fool your body to act, or react to time, light, and hunger at abnormal times. When these messages are given at the wrong times complications may occur mentally and physically. When most of us land our internal clock resets that we take our messages from. Most of us are usually back on track and focused in about two days.

Direction traveled has different effects on the body.
Depending on the direction traveled can be a positive or negative on the lag. When you travel in a direction that makes the day shorter it makes lying down and sleeping at night a lot easier. This is west to east. Going the opposite direction makes for a longer day. Getting used to functioning on longer schedule can create problems.

Traveling back on the clock averages about an hour and half for body to adjust. Moving forward on the clock takes about an hour to return to normal.

Negative reactions of jet lag

Conforming to the basic routines of the day may keep you from doing everyday events for that couple of recovering days. These reactions could make you look and act out of character. Energy could be at an all-time low for you to do even the easiest of things. The mindset you could fall into can cause strife between people in your regular connections. Explain your situation to your people you may come in contact with so they will understand any negative reactions.

Problems that lag may cause are;

1) Concentration may be clouded, confusion may show itself more than usual.

2) Feeling drawn out, and sleepy at inappropriate times.

3) Judgement may be impaired. Making simple things dangerous to you and others around you.

4) Not having the ability to sleep at all. Insomnia is no good when it is for any length of time.

5) The ability to focus on anything becomes a task. Walking around in a fog can have negative feedback.

6) Tossing and turning on those sleepless nights may make you edgy.

7) The more serious medical problems that come to light must be seen by doctor.

Remember, feeling ill and having physical problems can be caused by your general health, or flying itself. That is why a checkup is a smart move before making assessments about your health on your own. Jet lag is not serious, but if you do a lot of flying you should contact your doctor. They will give you all the professional advice you will need. They can also adjust any appointments you may have, so not to conflict with your travels.

Jet Lag: What it is and How to Overcome the Effects?

There are many people in the world that have to deal with the effects of jet lag but no one really knows what causes it or if it can be conquered. Any person that has been on a long flight that covers many time zones knows exactly what we are talking about and no one really looks forward to it. It’s that feeling that you get when you are exhausted and groggy but just can’t fall asleep. You know it’s going to happen but you just accept it as part of travelling that you have to put up with to enjoy some time away from your natural surroundings.

What is it exactly?

It is something that happens to our circadian rhythm or body clock that gets out of whack when we disturb our sleep cycle. We subconsciously react poorly when our normal cycle with sleep gets messed with. Our body thinks it’s time to sleep and our brain knows it’s time to be awake.

What affects our body clock?

Believe it or not, our sleep is affected by whether it is night or day. If we have a regular work schedule, it doesn’t cause problems but if we work on opposite schedules, there can be some sleep problems that can be very inconvenient.

Jet lag has a specific set of symptoms

While your body is adjusting to the new time and place you are in, your body reacts in negative ways which is what we call jet lag. You may feel sleepy when it is light out or you may have a problem sleeping when it is dark. You may also have problems concentrating and feel less motivated. Your physical and mental performance will be decreased and you may end up with headaches and be irritable, experience a loss of appetite or have gastro-intestinal issues like constipation.

Travel fatigue is different from jet lag

When you are traveling by a bus, train, or car, it can be uncomfortable and you may become irritable and tired. These are only temporary and usually stop quickly once you get some rest.
If you are traveling from north to south or south to north you won’t experience jet lag at all. It only occurs when you are traveling across time zones which will affect your sleep patterns. The more time zones you cross, the more you may be affected by jet lag.

What affects how severe your jet lag symptoms may be?

If you travel across many time zones, you will have more symptoms than if you only cross a few. The direction that you travel also will affect how severe your symptoms are. They are usually worse if you travel east to west. It also depends on whether mornings bother you or not. Jet lag usually is not affected by gender or age.

How can jet lag be beat?

You can take some precautions if you are planning on a long trip across time zones. Try to begin your trip completely rested and maybe even change your sleep routine to accommodate the timing where you will be. Also try to drink sufficient amounts of water and understand that supplements or prescriptions won’t beat jet lag.

Once you land at your destination, make sure you get as sleep as closely to the times you should even if you just rest during those times. It will help your body adjust quicker to the new times. During the day, also try to get as much daylight exposure as possible so your body will adjust quicker.

Lessen Your Risk for Jet Lag

Traveling long distances by air that cause changing time zones several times can cause symptoms of jet lag once you get to your destination. Symptoms may be feeling hungry, alert and sleepy at inappropriate times. This can affect your job performance as well as enjoyment of your vacation. It does take time but the circadian rhythm inside our bodies does eventually adjust to the time change. It takes longer to feel normal if you travel across multiple times zones vs. if you only travel across one or two.

Divers frequently travel to distant locations for diving and can be affected with jet lag for most of their travel. It also can affect the ability to safely dive; therefore they should know how to reduce the effects of jet lag.

• While getting ready for your travel, attempt to change your bedtime slowly to where it should be at your destination. If you are going east, retire an hour before you normally would for every time zone that you anticipate changing. Don’t use tea, chocolate, coffee, or alcohol and try to exercise at least four hours prior to the new time you will be going to sleep. Also, get up before you normally would and attempt to get outside and get some sunshine so your body will adjust.

If you are going west, do just the opposite and retire later and remain in bed for a longer amount of time.

• If you don’t sleep while you are flying you will make the effects associated with traveling quickly across time zones much worse. If you can sleep while flying, it may help some. While you sleep, the temperature of your body decreases and hormones react differently. Usually this happens at the same time daily but these hormonal changes will also occur with changes in noise and light that is in your surroundings.

When it gets dark, your pineal gland located in your brain begins to secrete melatonin; also called the Dark Hormone. Melatonin aids the body in falling and staying asleep but it does not have the ability to do this by itself. If you are going to sleep well during flight you should avoid drinking caffeine and alcohol that may cause you to stay awake. Use blindfolds and earplugs to calm noise and create darkness. If this isn’t sufficient, use up to 1 mg melatonin about a half hour prior to bedtime.

Usually when you take short diving trips like this you don’t have much time planned so it is important that you don’t spend most of the time with symptoms of jet lag. If you do some of these things mentioned, you will experience symptoms for a much shorter length of time and be able to enjoy your trip more.

The more you prepare for the possibility of jet lag, the great chance you have of getting over it quickly so it won’t destroy your diving trip. Try not to dive the first day you arrive at your destination just so you are definitely over all of the symptoms before you subject your body to the rigors of diving. Following these few tips and delaying your diving expeditions by just a day will ensure you a great experience with your diving vacation.

Lose Weight Travelling by Beating that Binge Due to Jet Jag

Have you ever observed that jet lag can make you very hungry as well as exhausted? Now scientists have an answer for the reason why you overeat when you are on vacation. When you travel the bacteria that is present in your belly decreases. New studies have discovered that the microbiome in your belly which is the group of bacteria that live within your body and is supposed to aid you with all of your issues from mood to digestion, lives under a schedule.

Once you disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm you disrupt your flora of your gut. When the bacteria isn’t pleasant, nobody is pleasant. But is also causes you to gain weight.

This stands to reason why people who have their sleep cycles disrupted constantly or continually often times end up with obesity or other complications with your metabolism.

Hopefully this discovery might lead to a way to treat these problems in the future, whether they are medical or behavioral if they are trying to deal with crazy schedules. Treating these issues may help people with these problems stay healthy by trying to keep their microbiome healthy.

While you are trying, here are some things to try to diminish the symptoms caused by jet lag or other things that cause sleep cycles to be different from the norm.

1. Keep things simple. The primary thing that you might do to help yourself would be to keep things as easy as possible. Don’t do something that doesn’t need to be. Try to reschedule large meeting, don’t have any big parties, stay away from sugar and try not to eat large meals until the body can adjust to the local time zone. Your adjustment time is different for everyone for you should really know how your body reacts to the time zone changes. People react differently and can handle sleep deprivation better than others can.

2. Drink lots of water. Drink as much water as you can so you can stay well hydrated while on the airplane. Don’t eat much and try to eat frequently so your digestive tract will keep moving and not be overtaxed. Try to take small naps. Also get your flu shot if it’s the proper time of the year.

3. Exercise may be the answer. Make sure you are ready for your trip by having an exercise routine in place so you will stick with it during your travels. Try to walk soon upon your arrival and hopefully take it outside where you can be exposed to light and hopefully the sun will be out. Ordinary sunlight may be the most important tools we may have to reset our clocks.

4. Think about taking probiotic supplements. This will fortify the immune system if you take them while you are on your trip. It might be good for traveler’s tummy. More research should be done to support this connection between jet lag and weight, but you may as well take the supplement because it won’t hurt and should most likely help.

Reduce Jet Lag Naturally

Jet lag can be extremely draining even though it is something all business travelers must deal with. Jet lag occurs when a difference between your own internal clock and the time zone you are in occurs. Melanie DesChatelets says travelers usually experience this when traveling through five time zone or more.

The body’s circadian clock lets out particular hormones at certain times of during the day. Hormones like these control sleep, body temperature, and some other processes. If the hormones are misaligned with whatever time zones you travel through, you possibly could experience problems such as headaches, difficulty sleeping, trouble concentrating and fatigue. Even though DesChatelets mentions these symptoms usually subside after a day or two, that doesn’t really help while you’re trying to stay awake during an important meeting with a client.

Actually, there are a few things that can be done to help conquer jet lag. Six tips are here that you can try for controlling jet lag naturally.

1. Before you take off, try to reset your own body clock- Try to delay or advance your sleep for a couple days prior to going away in or to allow your internal clock to begin adjusting to whatever the new time change will be. Try going to bed an hour or so earlier if you are going east and waiting an hour or so if you are going west.

This may be able to help your internal clock to coordinate with your new time easier and hopefully you will fall asleep quicker.

2. Adjust your watch as you depart. – If you change your watch before you board the plane, you may suffer less with the time changes.

3. Keep Melatonin with you if you’re travelling eastward. – Even though sleeping pills will have you falling asleep quickly, they may cause dehydration which may make you feel worse than symptoms of jet lag. Melatonin is naturally released from pineal glands prior to sleeping. It is among the sleep cycle hormones which make you tired at night. If you are traveling, think about ingesting three milligrams melatonin a couple of hours prior to bedtime to aid in resetting your sleep cycle rhythm that may have gotten disrupted with the time zone change. Unlike sleep medicines, if taken in quantities that are small, melatonin is non-addictive, safe and nontoxic.

4. Go outdoors- In order for your body to adjust with a new time period, you should get out first thing for some sun. Sunlight has an effect on your internal sleep cycle so if you should get as much sunlight as you can.

5. If you are flying west, you should utilize light therapy. – Even though you may be tired in the early evening if you are flying west, you should try to stay up without letting yourself fall asleep until a normal evening hour. Excessive caffeine will interrupt your circadian rhythm so try to use bright light to keep yourself awake. Keep curtains open and bright lights working in your hotel room so you can have a bright light as long as possible.

6. Keep distractions to a minimum. – Jet lag plus disrupted sleep equals disaster. Make sure you can get some uninterrupted sleep once you lay down for the night. Use earplugs and eye mask to make it easier to stay asleep but be sure you will be able to wake to your alarm.

Tips for Kicking Jet Lag’s Butt

Our body has different rhythms for different things during one day such as sleeping and eating. If you are experiencing symptoms of jet lag, these rhythms can get seriously out of sync. Jet lag occurs when you travel across many time zones rapidly which will cause major changes in our body. You may experience symptoms of indigestion, extreme fatigue, along with appetite changes, bowel problems, concentration and memory issues and a general feeling of malaise.

Traveling to the west makes jet lag easier than traveling to the east. Going east makes your body think it should be sleeping when it is awake. Studies have shown that is usually takes a whole day for each time zone we cross for our body to adjust to these changes.

Here are 14 tips you should consider if you are going to travel over multiple time zones.

1. If you are a person with a rigid schedule you need to change your eating and sleeping habits prior to traveling. Try to be more flexible a few weeks before your expected date of departure.

2. Do not attempt to stay awake all night so you will sleep on the plane. This will actually make the symptoms much worse so make sure you are well rested before you fly.

3. Slowly begin to adjust your habits to be closer to the times at your destination.

4. Try to schedule your plane times so you arrive at your destination during the day so you will feel like staying awake.

5. Use layovers to further adjust your body to the new time changes.

6. Do not drink alcohol while flying. It will cause your body to dehydrate and will make you more tired. You also may end up with a hangover on top of jet lag symptoms once you arrive.

7. If you must schedule your flight for a night time arrival, don’t drink beverages with caffeine during flight so you will be ready to sleep once you get to your destination. This way you can adjust to your new time zone quicker.

8. Don’t take medication for sleep if you can help it. They won’t reduce the symptoms of jet lag and they will make you feel depressed and logy once you arrive.

9. Set your clocks and watches to your new destination time once you arrive at the airport. This will begin to mentally prepare you for your new time zone.

10. Try to exercise as quickly upon arrival as you can. The more you move, the quicker you will reduce symptoms of jet lag. It is better to do this outside in the sunshine as well.

11. Try to eat your normal meals at the times of your new destination a few days before you leave for your trip. This may mean eating breakfast in the middle of the night. Anything you can do to make your body adjust to your new time zone will ease your symptoms of jet lag.

12. Get as much sunshine or daylight as possible. It will release hormones to allow you to adjust quicker to your new time zone changes.

13. During flight, make sure you get up and move around. Get your blood flowing so you can increase your endorphins. You may have to some jumping in the bathroom if you don’t want to be seen but do whatever you have to do to move your body during flight.

14. Try to sleep as much as you normally do once you get to your destination. That may mean taking a short nap the first few days until you adjust to your new time zone.

15. Don’t drink alcohol during your flight or before you plan on flying.