Why is Jet-Lag Worse Flying East?

Anyone who travels long distances frequently is painfully familiar with this problem, but you may be wondering why I am mentioning it in this forum. The American Institute of Physics has a Chaos journal which looks at interdisciplinary problems in non-linear dynamics and recently published an article on just this topic.

There are cells in brain’s Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) which regulate the body’s circadian rhythms and therefore are a candidate for the source of the problem. This rhythm is governed by oscillator cells which individually might oscillate at different frequencies, but which collectively tend to sync up to a period around 24.5 hours in the absence of external influences.

University of Maryland researchers developed a non-linear mathematical system for a group of oscillators, which they were able to reduce to a single equation to determine how the grouped oscillation would respond to sudden changes through multiple time-zones (which affects daylight hours, a principal component in governing synchronization of oscillations).

They discovered that the fact that the natural period is slightly longer than a day is significant. Remember this is a non-linear model so small deviations can quickly amplify. In particular, they found that this 30-minute difference when added to a west to east (but not east to west) change of multiple time-zones can cause significant delay in oscillations re-synchronizing with the diurnal cycle at the destination.

So now you know. The reason you have terrible jetlag is that your brain is chaotic. You can read more HERE.

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