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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffJet lag usually doesn't require treatment. However, if you're a frequent traveler continually bothered by jet lag, your doctor may prescribe medications or light therapy.
Medications
- Nonbenzodiazepines, such as zolpidem (Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta) and zaleplon (Sonata)
- Benzodiazepines, such as triazolam (Halcion)
These medications may help you sleep during your flight and for several nights afterward. Side effects are uncommon, but may include nausea, vomiting, amnesia, sleepwalking, confusion and morning sleepiness. Although these medications appear to help sleep duration and quality, they may not diminish daytime symptoms of jet lag.
Light therapy
Your body's internal clock or circadian rhythms are influenced by exposure to sunlight, among other factors. When you travel across time zones, your body must adjust to a new daylight schedule and reset, allowing you to fall asleep and be awake at the appropriate times.
Light therapy can help ease that transition. It involves exposing your eyes to an artificial bright light or lamp that simulates sunlight for a specific and regular amount of time during the time when you are meant to be awake. This may be useful, for example, if you are a business traveler and are frequently indoors — away from natural sunlight — during the day in a new time zone. Light therapy comes in a variety of forms including a light box that sits on a table, a desk lamp that may blend in better in an office setting, a light visor that you wear on your head, and a dawn simulator that gradually makes a room brighter — simulating sunrise — which may help you awaken in the morning.
- Jet lag. SleepEducation.com. http://www.sleepeducation.com/Disorder.aspx?id=9. Accessed May 2, 2010.
- Sack RL. Jet lag. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2010;262:440.
- Czeisler CA, et al. Sleep disorders. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Online. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw Hill; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2897526&searchStr=sleep+disorders%2c+circadian+rhythm. Accessed May 4, 2010.
- Morgenthaler TI, et al. Practice parameters for the clinical evaluation and treatment of circadian rhythm sleep disorders. Sleep. 2007;20:1445.
- Barion A, et al. A clinical approach to circadian rhythm sleep disorders. Sleep Med. 2007;8:566. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2679862/pdf/nihms29226.pdf. Accessed May 4, 2010.
- Muhm MJ, et al. Effect of aircraft-cabin altitude on passenger discomfort. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2007;257:19.
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