The long Christmas and New years are ending, and people go back to their country from traveling or holiday. If you are among those people that went to a different side of the earth, be prepared for jet lag. The different time zones can mess up your body’s internal clock to catch up with time. But are you sure you have one? What are the jet lag symptoms? Here are things to know.
What Is It?
Jet lag is a health condition that appears when a person flies across different time zones. Most of the time it happens for more than two or more time zones, which later makes the body’s internal clocks take time to catch up. An example is from New York to London. The time jumps five hours, which might your body think is still 6 p.m. while the real London time is 11 p.m.
What Are The Symptoms?
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Sleep Problems
The common symptom is sleep problems, which can appear as you stay awake at night or sleepy during the day. It is because your body still follows the previous time. Take the example of 8 hours difference, from day to night. The jet lag symptoms appear as your body and brain think about 1 a.m., but in fact, the current time is around 8 am.
It later leads to feeling sleepy during the day, or you will stay awake at night. Whether the time zones are jumping forward or back, your body will try to make work based on its acceptable bedtime. This disrupted cycle of sleeping schedule can also affect your urinary frequency, which appears as you keep going to the bathroom during the night.
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Mental Performance
Memory, attention, or ability to calculate might also be affected when you are jet lagged. It is not a big problem but it sure can hinder your activities. The idea of this condition is pretty much the same as the sleeping schedule. Your mental ability may increase or decrease over a 24-hour cycle. That is why mental performance situations are the common jet lag symptoms.
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Digestive Issues Or Loss of Appetite
Similar to mental ability and sleep cycle, you will find yourself having a problem with a digestive issue or loss of appetite. Your appetite gets out of whack to appear as you may feel hungry or full not at the right time. The key is pretty much the same with another system, where the circadian rhythm is messing up your hunger hormones and gastrointestinal system.
How Long Will It Last?
Despite being mostly a serious case, jet lag is likely related to changes in sleeping, eating, or performance time. But the condition will improve slowly. The point is the more time zone you have crossed, the longer your body will adjust. Your age, direction, chronotype, and season might also affect the time to recover. The key is to give your body rest and time to set or recover from the jet lag symptoms.
If you take the information above, you can see that Jet Lag is a pretty common condition that happens when a person or people travel across time zones. The condition might come with different symptoms or some people might not have the condition at all. It is not a chronic health condition. But if you found the symptom prolonged, contact your doctor immediately.
