Latest news with #Timeshifter
Mint
7 days ago
- Health
- Mint
Can apps and hacks really prevent jet lag?
The body's internal clock gets out of sync with the local time when we cross time zones, leading to jet lag. This wasn't the birthday greeting I had in mind: a 6 a.m. alarm blaring in my ear. I had taken the day off for a milestone birthday (let's not put a number on it) but here I was, bleary-eyed and grumpy, thanks to a jet-lag app I was testing for a family trip to Greece the following day. Sleeping in is one of my favorite pastimes. But when a friend traveled to India on a business trip with no jet lag after using an app, I figured it was worth a try. Jet lag is temporary but real. When we cross time zones, our circadian rhythm—the body's internal clock, which regulates just about every function in our bodies—gets out of sync with the local time. That can lead to fatigue, insomnia, headaches and brain fog. Though it poses no serious health risks, jet lag can hamper, or ruin, a vacation or business trip. So hacks from glasses to light boxes to supplements abound. Jet lag is worse heading east than west. Our internal clocks adjust about an hour a day, so transitioning to Greek time, a seven-hour difference, can take a week. Not ideal when your trip is only eight days. But I wasn't the only body clock under consideration. I was traveling with a teenager who regularly stays up past 1 a.m. and a tween who can't sleep past 8 a.m. My husband, who wakes up an hour earlier than me, tried the app, too. Age differences and jet lag aren't well studied, but Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, says young kids often adjust faster. Teens may, too, for a different reason. 'They're just so tired they can sleep whenever," he says. There are a number of apps that try to tackle jet lag. For example, StopJetLag gives light, sleep, meal and activity advice starting three days before travel. It costs $78 a trip. Flykitt, which is $99 for the first trip, includes five supplements, blue-light blocking glasses and sleep and eating advice. It revolves around the principle that pressure changes during flights can trigger inflammation for several days. I settled on an app called Timeshifter because the first trip was free and it focused on light exposure, with optional melatonin and caffeine—two tools I already use. Mickey Beyer-Clausen, the CEO of Timeshifter, and chief scientist Steven Lockley say the app shifts your circadian clock three to four hours a day. So on a trip from New York to Athens with a seven-hour difference, I should be able to shift in 1.5 to two days. Preparations for the trip started a few days in advance. I logged my sleep habits (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.) and enthusiastically signed on to using caffeine and melatonin. Day one was easy. It was pretty much my normal schedule but then came an alert: Avoid light from 9 to 10 p.m. And ruminate over midlife in the dark? Instead, I chose to read on my Kindle. Bad call. According to Timeshifter it would have been better to watch TV or read a book in a dimly lighted room wearing sunglasses. The next day, my birthday, started with a 6 a.m. wake-up and an unusually early bed time: 9 p.m. When a friend showed up with a surprise cake just before then we were thrown off. The next day was worse: a 5 a.m. wake-up for me, 4 a.m. for my husband. We persevered. I only had two hours for caffeine and guzzled it. By the time my 17-year-old son woke hours later, I snapped at him to finish packing. He barked back, 'What's the point of this app if you're just jet lagged before the trip? Just be tired and you'll sleep on the plane." Did he have a point? Once on the plane, I was exhausted but the app didn't have me sleeping for another two hours. I dozed for maybe an hour. The rest was restless half-sleep with constant peeks at the flight map and time. That's fine, says Lockley, who formerly worked as a sleep researcher at Harvard Medical School. More important than sleeping, is avoiding light. 'It's not about sleep, it's about the circadian clock," he says. 'It's the dark that matters," he adds. Health columnist Sumathi Reddy with her family on a trip to Greece. We landed in Athens at 6 a.m., caught a connecting flight, and by 2 p.m. were on Milos. The Timeshifter alerts popping up were still on New York Time so we ignored them (a temporary kink Beyer-Clausen says was fixed). As tempted as we were to nap, the Aegean Sea lured us in for a swim. Greeks eat late, so dinner was at 8 p.m. Timeshifter said bedtime was 11 p.m. By the time we got back at 10 p.m. I could barely keep my eyes open. The app called for a 7 a.m. wake-up but I was on vacation! We set the alarm for 9. (TimeShifter says it's adding a feature for a vacation sleeping pattern.) We all slept through the night. From there, the plan was simple: sunshine and caffeine in the morning; limited light before bed; and bed time pushing 11 p.m. When the shift to New York began a few days later, calling for limited light over breakfast, I decided to mostly ignore the recommendations. A four-hour delay on the flight home threw everything off anyway. I paid a price for the neglect: The workweek was a blur of nodding off at my desk, falling asleep by 9 p.m., and waking up before dawn. So was the pre-trip prep—early morning birthday wake-up and all—worth it? I think so. I may have transformed into a grumpy, morning person but the payoff was a postcard-perfect Greek island vacation. I'm ready to do it again in September for a girl's trip to Spain. Write to Sumathi Reddy at
Business Insider
18-07-2025
- Health
- Business Insider
How to beat jet lag: Tips from 4 high-flying elites who travel the world for work
"Jet lag is no big deal," I thought to myself, booking a flight to Austria for my first-ever trip to Europe earlier this summer. I'll just chug some coffee and power through. Nearly a week after I've returned, my internal clock is still in shambles. My body's alarm rings at 5 a.m. and by 8:30 p.m. an irresistible urge to sleep kicks in. My usual "afternoon slump" at work now kicks in before lunch, and midday meetings feel like a fight for my life to stay awake. Don't make my mistake — jet lag can cause brain fog, excessive fatigue, moodiness, and digestive issues, which can prevent you from staying focused and making quick, clear decisions. But there's a better way to travel, according to people who do it constantly for work and still arrive ready to perform their best. To prepare for next time, I asked for advice from frequent fliers — from a pro athlete who competes across timezones to a CEO who takes meetings across the world. Here's what really works, according to science, and how you can get back to peak performance faster after a long flight. The entrepreneur behind a popular jet lag app says light is the best defense Mickey Beyer-Clausen, a 50-year-old Danish entrepreneur, is the co-founder and CEO of the Timeshifter app for reducing jet lag. Now based in New York, he all but grew up on a plane as his mom worked for Scandinavian Airlines. His subsequent career has forced him to grappled with the strain of crossing time zones. "I started traveling more and more and for business, and I'm not 20 anymore. I really struggle with jet lag," he told Business Insider. Jet lag happens when there's a disparity between your surrounding time zone and your internal clocks (yes, plural — research has found different systems and tissues keep time separately, with the brain as a sort of overseer). Working with the top researchers on circadian rhythms (the natural 24-hour cycles of the body), Beyer-Clausen found reducing jet lag is all about realigning the brain's master clock so it can "act as the conductor of the orchestra of all the clocks you have in the body." One of the biggest timing cues for your brain is light, which signals it's time to be alert, while seeing darkness tells the brain to wind down and get ready for rest. If Beyer-Clausen is traveling from New York to Copenhagen, six hours ahead, he'll prepare by seeing morning light earlier and earlier in the days before his flight. He also adjusts his nighttime routine to be earlier by avoiding light sooner — that includes no phone screens. He creates a dark room for sleep at 10 p.m. and then 9 p.m. compared to his usual bedtime of 11 p.m. An executive coach plans ahead to switch time zones before traveling Julian Hayes II, a 39-year-old executive coach based in Tennessee, who regularly travels internationally, and constantly works with frequent fliers. He has an involved routine of fasting on the plane and exercising on arrival to fend off jeg lag symptoms. But his biggest recommendation is to prevent jet lag in the first place by getting acclimated to a new time zone early. A few days before a flight, he shifts his sleeping schedule about 30 minutes at a time to more closely align to where he's traveling. A good rule is that it takes about one day per time zone you're crossing to get acclimated. A trip from New York to Europe, for instance, might take you about six days to recover from completely. A pro athlete swears by the 'NBA nap' and basic supplements For NBA star Kevin Love of the Miami Heat, travel is a constant part of his schedule, and his job depends on showing up physically and mentally dialed in. For instance, he might play a game in sunny, southern, East Coast Miami then fly two times zones over to Minnesota for a game a day later. A key part of his health routine is the "NBA nap," a quick snooze before a game to boost alertness. Love supercharges his nap by drinking an espresso just before dozing which, according to him, ensures that he wakes up fully energized after about 20 to 30 minutes. For peak performance, he follows up with a freezing shower, based on research that cold showers can boost alertness and mood. "I don't do it every day but I do ice-cold showers when I need to really wake up and get that, boom, dopamine hit," Love said. "My mind is working at a very high level as well as my body being just refreshed." While Love's coffee-sleep-icy shower strategy can help you feel better in the moment, they don't address the root cause of jet lag. The true star of Love's regimen is how he unwinds. He has magnesium and tart cherry juice, two natural ingredients that can improve sleep quality and recovery after exercise. Love also takes supplements with melatonin, a hormone that your body naturally produces to make you sleepy. Melatonin is the only supplement that helps the underlying problem of jet lag, Beyer-Clausen, the jet lag app founder, told me. That's because the body isn't sure when to produce the melatonin you need to fall asleep. If you're struggling to adapt to your new schedule and short on natural melatonin to get you to sleep, store bought is fine. Just be mindful the product you choose actually contains melatonin and in the right dose (experts typically recommend 1-3 mg). A private jet nutritionist eats low-carb breakfasts and low-fat dinners to curb fatigue Jenna Daou's job is all about helping elite jet setters minimize any disruption to their routines by providing custom-designed, nutritionally-balanced meals for travel. As a nutritionist for private jet company VistaJet, she's picked up a few pointers for healthy eating in the air. "Your digestive system and metabolism are linked to your internal clock, and when and what you eat can either help realign your circadian rhythm or throw it further off," Daou told BI. Eating for the local time zone can help mitigate symptoms of fatigue, she said. For instance, she aims for high-protein, low-carb breakfasts to promote stable blood sugar, and high-carb, low fat meals in the evening for good digestion, relaxation, and natural melatonin production. Daou said she keeps her meals light when she's flying, and sticks to her usual habits of getting plenty of protein and fresh fruit during the day, and winding down at night with a cup of herbal tea and a book. "Consistency is something I really value in my routine, it keeps me grounded, especially when I'm traveling," she said. "I do my best to recreate that same sense of calm and familiarity, even when I'm flying overnight."
