DRUG TRIALS:WHEN WE TRAVEL across time zones, our bodies, unlike a watch, can take a long time to reset. That inevitable 3am wake-up, a loss of appetite or just feeling exhausted: very few people can escape the complex machinations of the circadian rhythms that dictate when we should be awake, asleep or eating lunch. But the findings of a study published this week in the Lancet suggest that help might soon be on hand for sufferers.
Trials by researchers at Harvard Medical School, in the US, and Monash University, in Australia, assessed the efficacy of tasimelteon, a synthetic drug based on melatonin, the natural hormone that helps set our body clocks. Tests were carried out in 21 centres across North America on volunteers whose sleep patterns were upset to mimic shift work and travelling across time zones.
The findings suggest that patients given tasimelteon found it easier to fall asleep and were able to sleep for longer, indicating that the drug, from a group known as melatonin agonists, might help jet-lag sufferers.
Each of our bodies reacts differently to being catapulted into another time zone. The received wisdom is that it takes a day to recover per hour travelled, so you could still be feeling out of kilter after a long-haul flight to Singapore a week after touchdown.
Everyone has their own solutions, but some simple steps can limit jet lag's effects. If you can sleep well on aircraft, choose a night flight and make sure to limit your intake of alcohol on board or not drink at all.
Some travellers advocate daytime flights and force themselves to adhere to their new time zone on arrival. For others, constant catnapping seems to do the trick. Fresh air and some gentle exercise on arrival can also have benefits. So until the miracle jet-lag cure arrives, common sense prevails.