Why Worse Timezones When Traveling East
We’ve already told you that when you travel east, you find it harder to adjust to time zones . The new study explains why this is so and also sheds light on how long it takes to recover from jet lag.
A study published in Chaos examined the relationship between circadian rhythm and direction of movement. Basically, it boils down to our internal clock running a little over 24 hours, and when we travel east the days get shorter, which means our circadian rhythms need to do more to catch up. One of the study authors told Travel + Leisure:
“You expect your internal clock to move forward if you travel east and backward if you travel west,” Girvan added. “However, if you travel a lot of time zones eastward, your internal clock is not advancing in phase as you expected. Instead, it is delayed in phase. “
For non-scientists, “ phase shift ” is the time to go to sleep and wake up earlier, and “ phase lag ” is the later time to go to sleep and later to wake up.
Typically, they found that traveling east across three time zones took nearly four days to fully recover, compared to three days if traveling west. And if you’re traveling east across nine time zones, it takes almost two weeks to recover, compared to less than eight days if you’re traveling west.
We’ve told you how to deal with biorhythm disorders in general , and for more information, follow the links below.
Resynchronization of circadian oscillators and asymmetry of changing time zones from east to west | Chaos through travel and recreation