Jet Lag Explained

Bella Breakdown

If you are an avid traveler, or if you’ve only traveled a handful of times across a time zone, than you are probably aware of the term, ‘jet lag’. You have just gotten off of a 5+ hour flight and find yourself in a time zone that is anywhere from 3 to 12 (maybe even more) hours.

You feel sluggish, maybe even a little loopy because your entire daily schedule is completely different now. You might find you’re sleeping in later, or waking up earlier because of your ‘circadian rhythm’ is completely off. Your ‘circadian rhythm’ is essentially the timing your body is used to on a daily basis.

Have you ever noticed you wake up at the same time every day, regardless of if you have your alarm set? Yup thats the rhythm.

So when you travel into different time zones, there is an adjustment period your body goes through to catch up to this time change. In the mean time you’re left feeling groggy, tired, maybe irritated, and all out of sorts.

Experts believe that the amount of days in which you are able to adjust to the difference is in direct correlation with the hours of difference the time zone is. So if you’ve traveled from California to New York, and the time zone difference is three hours, than it will take you roughly 3 days to rid of the jet lag.

That means if you’re in a 13 hour time zone, than it’ll take you 13 days to adjust. You might not even be staying that long!