Jet Lag Recovery: Shifting Circadian Rhythms For Optimal Travel

Written by Java Tunson, MD

Sleep is one of the most critical requirements for the health and peak function of the human body. Actually, forget just humans; it is so important to the survival of all animals, it has been evolutionarily preserved in every animal species and has yet to be eliminated in the 800 million years of evolution. I routinely evaluate and guide my patients in finding their optimal sleep patterns and advocate for regularity (this coming from a physician that did shift work for 12 years). On occasion though, it is helpful to understand targeted approached to reprogram your circadian rhythm so you feel your best when your sleep is challenged; like when you’re traveling to a different time zone and you can’t keep your eyes open or you’re staring at the ceiling in the dark blinking. How can you maximize your energy, alertness and sleep and get on schedule quickly so that you can enjoy the time you have so been looking forward to?

You communicate with the body that changes need to be made in the language it understands and when its ready to listen. Sleep is a complex and elegant process that involves receptors in the brain reacting to spectrums of light, activity and nutrition through hormones and biochemical pathways that inform your body when to go to sleep, when to sleep lightly or deeply, when to dream and when to wake. Hacking this system is not particularly healthy or sustainable but useful in those rare instances it’s needed. With knowledge of this biochemistry and neurology we can tell the body how we’d like it to shift to a new time zone.

Through the language of light exposure, food and exercise targeted at specific times when your brain is receptive to this communication, you can shift the time you wake and sleep quite dramatically without medications or supplements.

There are several approaches to this described and one I find quite accessible is the use of a measure called your temperature minimum. This doesn’t need to be measured and is typically the time approximately two hours before you wake up. Your brain is only receptive to cues for change in circadian rhythm at certain times of the day. That time is typically 4-6 hours before or after your temperature minimum depending on if you are trying to delay or advance your circadian rhythm. If you expose yourself to light, eat and exercise 4-6 hours before your temperature minimum, you will delay your circadian rhythm - going to sleep later and waking later the next day. If you expose yourself to light, eat and exercise 4-6 hours after your temperature minimum, you will advance your circadian rhythm - going to sleep earlier and waking earlier the next day. With a targeted approach 2-3 days before your arrival at your destination you can be right on schedule when you arrive.

With a sprinkle of additional supplements and sometimes prescription medications you can increase your volume of what you’ve already told your body through light, exercise and food. You can tell your sleep hormones that it’s time to get ready to go, your cortisol to take a break, your mind to quiet your thoughts all to induce sleep and after, increase your adrenaline and say goodbye to your sleep hormones to tell your brain it’s time to be alert and awake. It is much more nuanced then just taking a sleeping pill which doesn’t give you restorative sleep and doesn’t change your circadian rhythm. By understanding some of the complexities of the sleep cycle and the incredible call and response of the body and the brain, the transition to your destination can be made more much more comfortably. So next time you have the privilege of travel, try learning a new language before you go, the language of sleep.

If this speaks to you and you’d like to work with me on your upcoming travel plans by receiving a bespoke jet lag prevention protocol, I’d love to discuss what this can look like for you.

In the meantime, live vividly.

Java Tunson, MD