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to life kit from

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NPR I'm

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Regina Barber filling in from Mary Elsig era

0:22

if you're lucky enough to have traveled several time zones in

0:24

a matter of hours Then you've most

0:27

likely experienced jet lag feeling

0:29

groggy out of sync with your surroundings

0:31

and overall crappy This

0:33

year Taylor Swift caused a stir for answering a

0:36

question after the Super Bowl about her flight on

0:38

a private jet No less from Tokyo to

0:40

Las Vegas after she performed when

0:43

asked how do you not have

0:45

jet lag right now? She said

0:47

maybe jokingly jet lag is

0:49

a choice Ah

0:54

She is very wrong in this instance

0:56

because jet lag is very

0:58

real. It's not a choice It's

1:00

very biologically ingrained. That's jade Woo

1:02

a behavioral sleep medicine psychologist and

1:04

researcher at Duke University School of

1:06

Medicine I asked her to tell

1:08

me what jet lag actually is

1:11

circadian misalignment is a Umbrella

1:13

term for any time your body clock

1:15

is out of sync with the clock

1:17

on the wall or solar clock Which

1:20

is like where the Sun is basically in

1:23

the sky. So jet lag is one form

1:25

of it shift work is another form You

1:29

know being an extreme night owl Some

1:31

days of the week is

1:33

another form. So jet lag is just the

1:35

easiest to understand form of circadian misalignment Even

1:38

though world travel is nothing new the speed

1:41

in which humans travel across the world has

1:43

drastically changed in the last hundred years We

1:46

haven't evolved fast enough to keep

1:48

up our bodies are constantly trying

1:50

to adapt to our outside environment

1:52

So, you know, our bodies are

1:55

designed to be adaptable like that. We can

1:57

adjust if we go gradually So

1:59

if you're taking two months across the ocean,

2:01

then you'll have adjusted already by the

2:03

time you arrive here. But

2:06

if you're flying in a few

2:08

hours, your body wakes up in

2:10

United States Eastern time and then

2:12

goes to bed London time, it's

2:14

going to be very, very confused. The

2:17

speed at which we cross time zones is not meant to

2:20

be this fast. In

2:23

this episode of Life Kit, Jetlag, we

2:25

talk with Jade about the science of sleep,

2:28

prepping your shut-eye for traveling both East and

2:30

West and what to do on that first

2:32

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happy hour podcast from NPR. Okay.

4:45

So can you tell me exactly

4:47

like what's happening in our brains

4:49

and our bodies when we're experiencing

4:51

that jet lag? Right.

4:53

So in a nutshell, our

4:56

bodies during jet lag, we

4:59

are basically misaligned with our

5:01

outside environment, which means the

5:04

internal body clocks, which

5:06

we have billions of them. All of our

5:08

cells have their own clocks, our organ

5:10

systems, our hormone systems, our brain,

5:12

you know, cognitive function, blood pressure,

5:15

everything that runs in our body runs on

5:17

a clock. And ideally what's happening

5:19

is all of these clocks are synced up

5:21

to each other and running on

5:24

a predictable, consistent schedule. And

5:27

what happens during jet lag is suddenly

5:29

all of these clocks are confused. Like,

5:31

wait a second. I thought it was daytime. Why

5:33

is it night? Or I thought it

5:35

was supposed to be dark. You know, why is it so

5:37

bright in the environment? So then our

5:40

brain gets confused. The master clock in our

5:42

brain called a suprachiasmatic nucleus, the

5:45

SCN. Is

5:47

that suprachiasmatic nucleus gets confused? Then

5:49

all of the clocks get confused.

5:52

So think of all the clocks in your body as

5:54

like, it's like the billion person

5:56

orchestra and the master

5:58

clock, the SCN. is the

6:01

maestro. And if the maestro can't

6:03

keep time, then the entire orchestra falls

6:05

apart, right? Wow. So

6:11

take away one. Jet lag is

6:13

a result of our circadian rhythm being off. Flying

6:16

to a new time zone is giving that

6:18

master clock in your brain confusing signals which

6:20

can throw you off. So that's why

6:22

we feel sluggish, we can't

6:24

sleep when we want to sleep, but we can't

6:26

feel awake when we want to be awake. Our

6:29

thinking is slower, our mood is worse,

6:32

our metabolism is not as good, you

6:34

know, so everything

6:36

basically functions a little bit worse. So

6:39

how does one then prepare or like

6:41

mitigate these effects? Yeah,

6:43

so there are a few things you can do. Before

6:47

travel, during travel, and

6:49

after travel. So first of

6:51

all, I would say it depends on how far

6:53

you're going and how long your trip is. So

6:55

if it's like a one

6:57

to two hour time difference and you're only

7:00

going for a few days, you might as

7:02

well just stay on your regular schedule. Like

7:04

recently I went to see my best friend in Colorado.

7:06

I usually live in North Carolina. I

7:09

just stayed on my regular Eastern time

7:11

schedule. So from her perspective, I was

7:14

like a super early morning riser and

7:16

I went to bed really early. But

7:19

I didn't have to do any adjusting

7:22

back and forth. It was easy peasy. But

7:25

if you're going like at least three

7:27

time zones over then that requires

7:29

I think a little bit of preparation. Part

7:32

of that preparation can be booking a flight that

7:34

isn't going to disrupt your sleep too much if

7:37

you can swing it. Once your flight is

7:39

set, it's time for takeaway number two. Prepare

7:41

for jet lag by resting up beforehand.

7:44

That means time shifting your sleep little

7:46

by little but also getting more sleep

7:49

before your trip. So this is called

7:51

banking sleep. I wouldn't push it

7:53

too hard. Like don't force yourself to sleep

7:55

when you're not sleepy, but make sure you

7:57

do get lots of opportunity. If

8:00

your body really even has a little bit of

8:02

desire to sleep, let it do so. You can

8:04

even take some supplemental naps. So

8:06

bank sleep, first of all, and then

8:08

you can also start gradually shifting your

8:11

timing towards the target time

8:14

zone. So if you're traveling six hours

8:16

East to Europe from the East coast here, um, you

8:20

can start getting up, you know,

8:22

15 or 30 minutes, uh,

8:24

earlier every day, uh, going

8:26

to bed 15 to 30 minutes earlier every

8:28

day and do that for a few days,

8:30

maybe a week or so, you won't be

8:32

all the way adjusted over maybe, but you'll

8:34

be closer and you'll be more ready to

8:37

adjust to your new local time by the time you

8:39

get there. Takeaway number three, remember

8:42

good sleep hygiene. Avoid

8:45

alcohol if you can, because it can disrupt

8:48

your sleep. Maybe don't have that

8:50

cup of coffee at 6pm before your flight.

8:52

Jade generally discourages using caffeine to

8:54

fight jet lag because it can

8:56

lead to unpredictable outcomes. So

8:59

sometimes making you exhausted or wired

9:01

or both, but if you must,

9:03

you could aim to have some caffeine. If you're

9:05

heading East bound to stay up, avoid it. If

9:07

you're going West speaking of

9:09

direction, it's helpful to keep in mind, which

9:11

way you're headed. Yeah. Oh,

9:14

first of all, because if you're

9:17

going West, then you're delaying your sleep

9:19

phase, right? You're making your

9:21

body stay up later and

9:23

wake up later if you want to

9:25

be attuned to the local

9:27

sun. And if you're

9:30

going East, you're having to become more of

9:32

a morning person. You have to get yourself

9:34

sleeping and waking earlier. So

9:36

Westward travel tends to be easier.

9:38

In fact, there's research showing that

9:41

during March Madness, teams

9:44

that are traveling West to play games

9:47

perform better than if they're

9:49

traveling East. Because there's less

9:51

jet lag, less circadian misalignment.

9:55

And that's because our body clocks actually

9:57

run a little bit longer than

9:59

24. hours. It's

10:01

more like 24.1 to 24.3 hours. So that means we're always trying to

10:07

delay a little bit.

10:09

If we all lived in a dark cave with

10:11

no clocks and no regular routines, we would just

10:13

go to bed and get up 20 minutes later

10:15

every day. And so that's why going west is

10:17

easier because your body already kind of wants to

10:20

go to bed later, so going

10:22

west is, you know, but going east is hard because then

10:24

you have to fight, you know,

10:26

the fight upstream kind of doubly

10:28

hard. So if you're traveling west, if

10:30

it's a long flight, I would

10:33

try to take a short nap on the flight

10:35

if you can because then you can go to

10:37

bed at the desired local time. You can stay

10:39

up long enough once you get to your destination

10:41

to go to bed at whatever is conventional and

10:44

hopefully you're sleepy enough that you can sleep a

10:46

nice solid night and wake up the morning local

10:48

time and then you're on your way. If

10:51

you're traveling east, try to stay up during your

10:53

flight and that might be hard because you might

10:56

have gotten up really early to go to the

10:58

airport and you know whatnot, but try your best,

11:00

you know, watch movies and

11:03

then when you land, you're going to

11:05

not be sleepy yet by the local

11:07

bedtime. So you might

11:10

need to take a sleep aid to help yourself

11:12

fall asleep that night or you

11:15

could just rough it

11:17

and just go to bed really really late

11:19

and sleep a short night and then just

11:21

get up early and hit the ground running.

11:23

That brings us to takeaway number four.

11:26

Do your best to match your sleep schedule to local

11:29

time even if that means staying up

11:31

late or going to bed super early. So

11:33

what do you do that day after? So

11:36

the best thing to do is get lots of

11:38

light first thing in the morning local time. So

11:42

ideally you go outside, you exercise,

11:44

you walk, you hike, you go around town.

11:48

The quicker you sort of get actively

11:50

engaged in the rhythm of the local

11:53

schedule, the more quickly you'll adjust especially

11:55

when it comes to getting light in

11:57

your eyes. So not just inside a

11:59

bedtime. bright building with big windows,

12:01

but actually outside. Air on

12:03

the side of staying up too

12:05

long so that you save up lots

12:07

and lots of sleepiness in

12:10

order to adjust to the local time rather than

12:12

going to bed too early before you're sleepy enough.

12:15

So if you want to stay

12:17

up that whole first day, even

12:19

if you feel sleepy, just stay up during the

12:21

local day and so you make sure you have

12:23

lots of sleep drive saved up for that night.

12:27

My daughter and I went to Scotland and we

12:29

stayed up the entire day and by the time

12:31

it hit like nine o'clock

12:33

Scotland Glasgow time, we started

12:36

feeling like we started hallucinating almost

12:38

because we'd been up for like 30 hours. Oh

12:41

wow. We were like 25 hours

12:43

or something like we yeah we'd been up

12:45

for like 25 hours and we were like

12:47

the walls feel like they're moving maybe we

12:49

should go to bed now. Yes,

12:52

that is one good way to do it

12:54

although I would say 25 hours is definitely

12:57

on the long side. Maybe there

12:59

was a nap opportunity somewhere before then.

13:01

I think we did nap. We did

13:03

good. But it wasn't like straight 25

13:05

hours but it was moving and traveling

13:08

for 25 hours. Yeah that's tough.

13:11

But we did it. We did what you said and it was good. We

13:13

were fine the next day and

13:15

for the rest of the trip. Beautiful. So

13:19

I have family in Taiwan. Oh

13:22

yeah. Going even more and

13:24

more west that it becomes the east. That's right.

13:26

And the time zones aren't you know just a

13:28

few time zones. There are many many many time

13:31

zones. Like 12 or 13. Yeah 12 or 13

13:33

hour difference. Like I what do you do? Because

13:40

there's that there's that saying that like

13:42

for every one hour that's different it'll

13:44

take one day to adjust. So it

13:46

would take you two weeks but it

13:48

took me shorter than that. So what

13:51

are some misconceptions about jet lag? Well

13:55

one misconception is that well as

13:57

long as you use these techniques

13:59

then it's fine. No harm,

14:01

no foul. But

14:03

I think it is worth remembering that

14:05

every time we experience jet lag,

14:07

it is putting burden and stress on

14:09

our bodies. So yes, we can

14:12

use these kind of tips and tricks

14:14

to try to mitigate how bad it feels

14:16

in the moment. But jet

14:19

lag is never a good thing. And

14:22

circadian misalignment is never a good

14:24

thing. You're always taking a hit. So

14:26

you kind of have to think, you know, is it worth it?

14:29

And often the answer is yes, you want to visit

14:31

your family in Taiwan, or you want to go on

14:33

a big hiking vacation in Europe, like I

14:35

wouldn't pass that up, you know. But

14:38

I think we do, we

14:40

don't want to be cavalier about like, oh,

14:42

so and so is a jet

14:45

setter for their career. And they they travel

14:47

multiple time zones all the time. It's fine.

14:50

It's really not fine. I

14:52

wouldn't advise someone do a career like

14:54

that for multiple, you know, years and

14:56

decades, because that's, you're basically then a shift

14:59

worker and shift workers have

15:01

a higher chance of having cancer, for

15:03

example, then Wow, then day workers. Yes.

15:06

In fact, shift work is one

15:09

of the only if not the only non

15:12

biological non environmental carcinogens.

15:18

So it's, it's literally recognized

15:21

as a carcinogen when we

15:23

have circadian misalignment. So

15:25

jet lag, not great. If

15:27

it's occasional, not a big deal. But

15:30

hopefully someone is not doing this, you

15:32

know, all the time. So that's one

15:34

misconception is that it really is a

15:36

problem for your body. And

15:38

then in terms of how long it takes

15:40

to adjust, I think it's

15:42

different for different people, some people are more

15:45

able to adjust quickly. Right, right. I've seen

15:47

that right. Because I'm okay

15:49

with jet lag. But my mom, she's

15:52

over 70. And she doesn't really even get

15:54

jet lag. She's always in that way. But you know,

15:56

she does travel a lot. Oh, good for her. But

15:59

like you said, some people are just more susceptible

16:01

than others. Why do you think that is? Well

16:04

for, I think there is an

16:06

age effect. So your mom must be a

16:09

magical creature. She really is sort

16:11

of outside the rules. She

16:13

is. She's always outside the rules, believe me.

16:17

Generally as we get older we tend

16:20

to be, you know,

16:22

we tend to shift our circadian

16:24

rhythms less readily, in part

16:27

because the light that

16:29

comes into our eyes, that's really the

16:31

main signal that tells our brain what

16:33

time it is outside. So,

16:36

you know, someone who adjusts quickly

16:38

is able to respond to that light

16:40

signal very very quickly. Wow,

16:43

okay. You actually addressed this but

16:45

I'm going to ask the question anyway. So

16:48

in the end experiencing jetlog for like many

16:50

people is actually like a

16:52

symptom of luxury. Like it's traveling vast distances

16:54

in a short amount of time. But like

16:56

you said there's some serious consequences to not

16:59

paying attention to your body if you need

17:01

sleep. So what other

17:03

serious consequences are there if you're

17:05

depriving your body of sleep? So

17:09

if we're looking at sleep overall

17:11

then not getting enough sleep is

17:13

depriving our bodies of very

17:16

vital functions that keep us

17:19

healthy and happy. So during

17:21

sleep our brains are doing things like

17:23

clearing toxins from the brain, consolidating

17:26

our memories, you know, releasing

17:29

growth hormones and sex hormones

17:31

that regulate our reproductive

17:33

systems and immune systems.

17:36

Where our metabolism is regulated we

17:39

need sleep time even

17:41

just for our cortisol levels to come down,

17:43

for our body temperature to come down, blood

17:45

pressure to come down. All of

17:47

these things are necessary for our very

17:49

life. So cutting that

17:51

short or having

17:54

it at irregular times really

17:57

curtails our ability to function. Actually,

18:00

I'm so glad you're doing an episode

18:02

on jet lag because we focus so

18:04

much on how much sleep people need.

18:07

We don't focus on the timing of sleep. The

18:09

timing is just as important, if not

18:11

more important. A

18:14

recent really big study came out following

18:17

a few thousand people to see basically their behaviors

18:21

at time point one and then looking at

18:23

how well they're doing years later. It

18:26

turns out the regularity of

18:28

their sleep at time point one is

18:30

even more predictive of whether they have

18:33

cancer, whether they have died, whether they

18:35

have heart disease years later than

18:37

how much they slept at time point one.

18:40

Wow, this is like terrifying me, but

18:42

it's also intriguing me. So Taylor Swift

18:44

really wasn't right that jet lag is a choice.

18:47

It kind of sounds like she needs to brush

18:49

up on her science. Swifties, don't come up. Well

18:52

I think probably for her she can deal with

18:55

jet lag more easily because she has the comforts

18:58

and the resources. Exactly. And

19:01

I'm sure she has a whole team

19:03

managing her nutrition and her exercise and

19:06

everything, right? So

19:09

someone with resources like that. And her bed on the

19:11

plane. Oh, I'm sure it's very comfortable and nice. So

19:14

for her, maybe jet lag is a

19:16

little bit more of a choice and

19:18

a little bit more manageable, but

19:21

it is still a biological reality. Excellent.

19:35

Okay, jet setters, it's time for a recap.

19:37

Takeaway one. Remember, jet

19:39

lag is a result of our circadian rhythm

19:41

being off. Flying to a new

19:44

time zone is giving the master clock in your

19:46

brain confusing signals which can throw you off. Takeaway

19:49

number two. Get lots of rest

19:51

before your trip. Bank some sleep. Try

19:54

to shift your bedtime little by little to adjust

19:56

to your new time zone. Takeaway

19:58

number three. Are you flying? west or

20:00

east. If you're traveling west, a

20:02

short nap on the flight might not hurt since

20:05

you're going to bed later. Going

20:07

east, try to stay up on the flight

20:09

so you can go to bed earlier. Takeaway

20:12

four, do your best to match your

20:14

sleep schedule to local time. It

20:16

might mean an early bedtime, but then you'll be

20:18

rested the next day to enjoy the rest of

20:20

your trip. For

20:27

more on Life Kit, check out our other

20:29

episodes on insomnia and another one about

20:31

caffeine. You can find

20:33

that at npr.org slash lifekit. And

20:36

if you want more, subscribe to

20:38

our newsletter at npr.org/lifekit

20:40

newsletter. Also, we'd love

20:42

to hear from you. So if you

20:44

have episode ideas or feedback you want

20:46

to share, email us at lifekit at

20:48

npr.org. This

20:50

episode of Life Kit was produced by Andy Tagel.

20:53

Our visuals editor is Bec Harland and our

20:55

digital editor is Malika Gareeb. Megan

20:58

Cain is our supervising editor and Beth

21:00

Donovan is our executive producer. Our

21:03

production team also includes Audrey Nguyen, Claire

21:06

Marie Schneider, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering

21:09

support comes from Robert Rodriguez. I'm

21:12

Regina Barber. Thank you for listening. This

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your vision. With nearly 200 years

21:55

of banking experience, they know a lot about

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being a trusted advisor. And

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whether you're managing growth, seeking solutions,

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or improving your bottom line, KeyBank

22:03

is ready to be yours. KeyBank

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opens doors. Learn more

22:07

at key.com/ advisor. In

22:10

any great story, there's a moment that

22:13

sparks your curiosity, tells

22:15

you there is more to uncover. How, how did

22:17

this happen? How did we get here? That's

22:20

where Embedded comes in. We are

22:22

NPR's home for documentary journalism, immersive

22:24

and intimate stories. I was stone

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cold speechless. Nothing will ever, ever,

22:29

ever, ever be the same here.

22:32

Find Embedded wherever you get your podcasts.