During a plague, most people did not leave their communities, leaving no time for themselves. But vaccines are available, cabin temperatures are everywhere, and the holiday season is here. And so, inevitably, is a jet lag.
The human timepiece, scientifically known as a circadian clock, is a powerful magnetic field. It coordinates the function of organs and tissues, and affects the function of consciousness, digestion, sleep, and even asthma. Changing a circadian clock to a new era or schedule is not as easy as resetting a wristwatch, but recent research on how to use it can help anyone, whether going to their mother-in-law’s house or to Mars. .
“There are a lot of promises coming, now that we have understood the power of the clock, that we can use the power of the clock to its advantage,” said Carrie Partch, a professor of biological sciences at UC Santa Cruz who studies the circadian system. He says the more we understand the clock, the more free we will be, because we can be a partner and not an enemy.
Throughout the body, cells have their own clocks that regulate metabolism and other cell functions. Those clocks are interconnected between other cells and even between organs — even though they do so with something that scientists are still trying to figure out. Both clocks are driven and connected to the suprachiasmatic brain, the “pacemaker” part of the hypothalamus that is most sensitive to external stimuli, especially light and darkness. Light indicates that it is time to wake up and stay awake, while darkness signifies a time to slow down and sleep.
Although these symptoms are strongly associated with sleep, they have a lower effect on many biological functions. Erin Flynn-Evans, director of the NASA Ames Research Center Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory, states: “I consider the circadian pacemaker to be the conductor of the choir. “It controls the entire live performance concert. There are clocks around the liver, intestines, and reproductive hormones. A pacemaker master at the suprachiasmatic nucleus is like a masterpiece of the whole process of living organisms. ”
But the internal timekeeper cannot keep up with human activity. When travelers are speeding through time, the circadian clock is distinguished from the outside world, which many people know as jet lag. Such inconsistencies can lead to a various symptoms including fatigue and insomnia, insomnia, and even digestion.
For many people, it is a strange and confusing experience. But for crews such as pilots and pilots, who are able to cope with these daily changes, jet delays can affect their long-term health. Even the smallest dots affect the functioning of the brain. One 2017 courses published by researchers at Northwestern University found that baseball players who passed two or three times a game were playing at worst. The same problems exist for shift workers such as nurses, and people who have unstable hours as long-distance drivers, who work according to policies that keep them awake at night.