Although jet lag afflicts all travelers who are traversing different time zones, it was not considered a medical condition until recently. Now, it is recognized as one of the 84 known sleep disorders.
A person suffering from jet lag has a biological clock which is out of sync with local time. When traveling to a new time zone, our bodies are slow to adjust and remain on their original biological schedule for several days. The result is that we feel excessively sleepy during the day or wide awake at night.
The severity of the jet lag symptoms is usually directly related to the number of time zones crossed by a flight. Jet lag symptoms typically last longer following eastward flights. Flying east usually results in difficulty initiating sleep, where as flying west results in early morning awakenings. All age groups are susceptible, but individuals over the age of 50 are more likely to develop jet lag.
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