A Red Flag for Jet Lag

Research has identified links between night-shift work and chronic health problems. And doctors and aviation experts have worked hard to help pilots and flight attendants mitigate the effects of jet lag to ensure they can function properly in the air.

Jet lag is caused when people fly across time zones. Many factors, including daylight, sleep cycles, hormones and other natural rhythms, play a role in how humans' complicated internal clocks handle it.

Researchers say the only way to truly avoid jet lag is for travelers to gradually prepare before leaving on their trips.

Charmane I. Eastman, a professor and director of the Biological Rhythms Research Lab at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, believes that flyers can more easily cope with jet lag by adjusting their sleep schedules before traveling.

If headed east from the Washington area, for example, travelers should go to bed an hour earlier each night and wake up an hour earlier each morning for several days before leaving town.

When travelers wake up, they should get sunlight or use a "light box" to help trigger changes in their biological clocks. Travelers should also consider taking small amounts of melatonin, a hormone, five hours before going to sleep to help them adjust to their future time zone, Eastman said.

The only other way to avoid jet lag on overseas trips: "Take a boat," she said.

There are also ways to mitigate jet lag once you land. If heading to Europe from Washington, most people should wear dark sunglasses after landing until about 11 a.m. Exposure to too much light too early can delay adjustment to new time zones, Eastman said.

After 11 a.m., travelers should try to get as much sunlight as possible to help kick-start the body's clock, she said.

Several veteran travelers said they would have a difficult time switching schedules under Eastman's plan and said booking a cruise was an inefficient option.

They have found their own ways to cope.

Steve Solomon, 30, a consultant who lives in Gaithersburg, sets his watch to his destination's time zone before he takes off "to get your mind into the right mind-set." He also avoids alcohol and drinks a lot of water.

"I view it as more of a hassle than anything else," he said. "You have to run with the punches."

Carol Lane, a 42-year-old free-lance advertising and marketing writer, says she relies on homeopathic pills she buys at a health food store.

Even with the pills, though, she said she hadn't been able to adjust to jet lag as well as she did a few years ago.

"When you are in a particularly bad bout, you are just so walloped," she said. "I'm an old mouse, I guess."