Bright Light Therapy As A Cure For Jet Lag

If you travel any great distance, and certainly if you travel across more than four or five time zones, you will inevitably encounter jet lag.

I regularly travel between the United Kingdom and the Far East with a time difference of some six hours. This means that when I first arrive in the Far East and everybody else heads for bed, my body clock is reading about five o'clock in the afternoon, local time.

Inevitably of course I stay up until my watch tells me its time for bed, or at least until I have some chance of actually falling asleep once I climb into bed.

The following morning however, the alarm clock wakes me from a short and not very restful sleep to join the rest of the population as they start their day. My body clock of course would prefer me to remain in bed and to get up just about in time for lunch.

Of course your body clock gradually adjusts and you fall into line with the normal day/night pattern of your destination, but this can take several days or even a week or ten days. By then, your holiday or business trip is often over and you head back home to start retraining your body clock all over again.

One increasingly popular method for countering jet lag is to use a combination of two different forms of light therapy.

The first involves using a 'dawn-simulating' alarm clock. This computerized electric clock switches on a light about thirty minutes before your wakeup time and then gradually increases the intensity of the light, simulating the natural sunrise.

Once awake, conventional bright light therapy is then used to 'kick-start' your system into action.

Although a relatively new form of treatment, the acceptance of bright light therapy to counter jet lag grows daily. Indeed, a number of hotels now provide rooms specifically for long-distance travelers, equipped with "dawn-simulating"� alarm clocks and standard therapeutic light boxes.

Another up-and-coming area of study is the use of portable battery powered light devices that can be carried in your hand luggage and used both while traveling and after arrival at your destination.