How To Treat Your Jet Lag Symptoms With OTC Medication

Jet lag is a circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorder, and this disorder occurs when your body’s internal 24 hour clock does not match the day-night cycle of your surrounding area. Your internal clock is known as your circadian rhythm, and under normal circumstances, your circadian rhythm works to align with the sunlight in your hometown, thus working to promote alertness during the daytime and sleep when it is night.

Your circadian rhythm synchronizes with the local day-night cycle in order to promote quality sleep, which contributes to both your physical and mental health. Thus, when you travel through several different time zones, your circadian rhythm remains aligned with the day-night cycle of your home location, and this mismatch with the 24 hour day of your destination spot leads to jet lag.

The symptoms associated with jet lag can be very unpleasant, but there are a few different ways that you can manage jet lag symptoms, and there are also several approaches to treatment through clean jet lag remedies. Clean remedies made with the same active ingredients you need, but without any artificial fillers.

Learning more about what the treatment options are may help you identify which approach might be most beneficial for your needs.

What Are the Symptoms of Jet Lag and Why Does Jet Lag Happen?

Your geographic location impacts your circadian rhythm because of the fact that sunrise and sunset take place at different times in different places, and when you travel through different time zones, your body’s internal clock takes time to synchronize. Most often, jet lag happens when a person travels from east to west, or when a person travels through three or more different time zones.

Jet lag can cause a variety of uncomfortable and unpleasant symptoms, and the severity of symptoms can vary from person to person and trip to trip.

There are several factors that influence a person’s likelihood of developing jet lag, and a person’s likelihood of experiencing more severe jet lag symptoms:

• The details of your trip, such as the total distance traveled, number of layovers, number of time zones crossed, direction of travel, local hours of daylight, the length of time you spend at your destination, and other specifics of your trip.
• Your arrival time at your destination. Some evidence suggests that the time of day at which you reach your destination may impact jet lag symptoms. Arriving in the afternoon if you are travelling eastward may help reduce the severity of your symptoms as compared to early morning arrivals.
• Age also factors in because people who are over the age of 60 may experience circadian rhythm changes that can make it more difficult to recover from jet lag.
• The days leading up to your travel are also critical components of the severity of your jet lag symptoms. Making sure to get plenty of sleep in the days before your trip, as well as focusing on eating well-balanced, healthful meals may help ward off severe symptoms. You may also want to avoid drinking alcohol or consuming caffeine in the days leading up to your trip, because these substances can also interfere with your sleep.
• Your stress levels can also take a toll on your body and mind, and the more stress you are experiencing, the harder it may be for you to overcome your jet lag. Stress can also interfere with your sleep, which can make it harder for you to combat sleep-related jet lag symptoms.
  

The most common symptoms of jet lag include the following:

• Sleeping problems such as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up when you want to
• Excessive daytime sleepiness
• Impaired thinking, attention, and memory
• Impaired physical function
• Emotional difficulties such as irritability and exacerbated mental health problems such as mood disorders
• General feelings of malaise
• Stomach problems such as a loss of appetite, nausea, constipation, or irritable bowel syndrome
• Sleep paralysis and seizures

The symptoms of jet lag can be very uncomfortable and can interfere with your daily life while you are experiencing them, but there are some treatment options.

Treating Jet Lag: Medication Options

Although jet lag cannot exactly be cured, there are ways that you can treat and manage your symptoms. Melatonin supplements and other forms of sleeping pills are commonly used for the treatment of jet lag, and medicine is the main approach to managing symptoms of jet lag.

Melatonin is a hormone that your body naturally produces, and this hormone works to help regulate your sleeping and waking times. Your melatonin levels naturally begin to rise in the mid to late evening, and they remain high for most of the night before starting to go down early in the morning.

Melatonin supplements are generally safe for short-term use, and melatonin is not likely to cause you to become dependent or to develop a tolerance. However, melatonin supplements can cause some side effects, including headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, and nausea, and in some cases melatonin can cause daytime drowsiness the following day.

Additionally, melatonin can interact with a host of medications including anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, contraceptive drugs, diabetes medications, and immunosuppressant medications, so it is important to consult your doctor before starting to take melatonin supplements if you are using any of these medications.

Alternatively, prescription sleeping pills are another option, although this option can pose more risks to your health. Drugs like eszopiclone and zolpidem have also been used for the treatment of jet lag symptoms, and they may help you sleep in spite of your jet lag if you take them once you arrive at your destination.

However, sleeping pills can cause a host of side effects, including the following symptoms:

• Dizziness or lightheadedness that can cause you to lose your balance and fall
• Headaches
• Gastrointestinal issues such as nausea and diarrhea
• Prolonged drowsiness, especially if you are taking drugs that work to help you stay asleep
• Severe allergic reactions
• Abnormal sleep-related behaviors such as driving or eating while you are still sleeping
• Issues with your daytime memory and day-to-day performance

Because of this variety of side effects, you may want to avoid prescription sleeping pills as much as you can. This form of medication is also known to pose the risk of drug dependency and drug tolerance, and it is critical for you to use your medication only as directed, which means only taking the exact dose you are meant to be taking, and do not take this medication for longer than your doctor instructs you to.

With traditional forms of sleeping pills all posing some kind of risk to your health and safety, it can be helpful to turn towards clean, natural alternatives for help.

Certain homeopathic remedies may be able to help bring you relief from your jet lag symptoms without posing other severe risks to your health, and they may not cause the same side effects and daytime drowsiness that often result from conventional methods.

Homeopathic remedies and clean medicine contain the active ingredients you need without the inactive, artificial ingredients you do not need, but that are commonly found in a wide variety of commercial products.

The Bottom Line

When symptoms of jet lag strike after you travel, it can leave you feeling very under the weather for the first few days of your trip, or the first few days after you return home.

Jet lag can cause a variety of symptoms, including sleeping disturbances such as difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep, gastrointestinal problems, and even exacerbated mental health symptoms.

Jet lag happens because when you travel through several different time zones, your body’s internal clock, known as your circadian rhythm, remains synchronized with the day-night cycle of your home location.

Your circadian rhythm synchronizes with the daylight in your area in order to help regulate your sleeping and waking cycle, and when you travel to another time zone, it takes some time for your internal clock to get accustomed to your new location.

There are a few different approaches to treating your jet lag symptoms, and one common method is to use melatonin supplements, which can help regulate your sleep and promote better sleep quality. Alternatively, there are also some prescription sleeping pills that have been studied in regards to their effect on jet lag, but prescription sleeping pills do come with a potential host of side effects as well as the risk of drug dependency or drug tolerance.

Clean medicine may be the best option, and there are clean products available that can help soothe your symptoms.