Jet Lag Is Part Of Life For Frequent Fliers
Overcoming jet lag is fairly easy for people who fly only occasionally, perhaps just a couple of times a year on vacation or for the occasional business trip, but for regular long-haul fliers and aircrews, jet lag frequently brings a number of health problems that can become virtually permanent.
Long-haul travelers will be more than familiar with the disturbance to their sleep pattern and the insomnia which can result from a long trip, in addition to such things as changes in mood, irritability, gastro-intestinal problems and difficulty in processing information. However, for very frequent fliers these generally transient symptoms become a part of daily life and are habitually joined by menstrual cycle problems for women and even by short-term psychiatric problems for some people.
The main factors that influence the degree of jet lag that you experience, aside from the frequency of travel, are the distances involved, the direction of travel and your age.
If you are regularly traveling across just one or two world time zones then any affects are likely to be extremely mild. However, as soon as you begin crossing more than three world time zones, and especially once you start frequently traveling over six or more time zones, symptoms will start to increase significantly.
The symptoms of jet lag are also far more marked if you travel east and tend to 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 start of your holiday than you will in London when you return home.
As a general rule when you are flying east you can expect that jet lag will last for several days and a good guide is approximately two thirds of the number of time zones traveled across. For example, if you fly across six time zones you could expect jet lag to affect you for up to four days. Traveling west jet lag should be expected to last about half of this time.
Another important factor when it comes to jet lag is age and, as you age, you will find that you are affected more and more by jet lag.
A true jet lag cure does not exist but there is a lot that can be done to assist in reducing the symptoms of jet lag.
Tags: frequent flyers, jet lag, travel-tips
August 26 2008 08:54 am | travel-tips