traveldefense

The following article includes pertinent information that may cause you to reconsider what you thought you understood. The most important thing is to study with an open mind and be willing to revise your understanding if necessary.

See how much you can learn about jet lag when you take a little time to read a well-researched article?  Don't miss out on the rest of this great information.

With so many people traveling everyday the term Jet Lag gets thrown around very loosely in modern travel. The majority of the time people can't tell you what it actually is, only what the effects could be. Part of preventing something involves actually knowing what it is. According to Wikipedia, Jet Lag is defined is a physiological condition which is a consequence of alterations to circadian rhythms; it is classified as one of the circadian rhythm sleep disorders. This results from rapid long-distance trans-meridian (east-west or west-east) travel. In the medical community Jet Lag is known as medically referred to as "desynchronosis."

If we take an in-depth look at how our body operates on a daily basis we can get a better understanding of why Jet Lag actually affects us. The human body operates on what is called a "circadian rhythm," that are developed overtime as your body becomes accustomed to a regular pattern of wake and sleep cycles. If we take it a step further and look at what air travel can do to these rhythms it becomes clear as to why Jet Lag affects our body when we fly.

The world is divided into 24 time zones that each represent 1 hour of the day. These time zones are broken up by 15 degree intervals of latitude that correlate to 1 hour. So, the more you travel in either direction from your local time zone, the more your rhythms will be out sync. The body's circadian rhythm actually operates on a 25-hour cycle, which is why it is easy to stay up an hour late, but harder to go to bed an hour earlier. This results in a more severe effect when traveling west to east. Therefore your body's timekeeping center, the hypothalamus, will trigger activities that the rest of your body is not ready for in your current time zone.

Hopefully the next time you hear the word Jet Lag you will know what it is and how it affects your body. Remember, part of preventing is knowing first.

As your knowledge about jet lag continues to grow, you will begin to see how jet lag fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.