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How Jet Lag Works · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to
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Speaker 1: stuff you should know from dot com. Hey, and welcome
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Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is always
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Speaker 1: this Charles W. Chuck Bryant, who just flew in to
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Speaker 1: be here. Yeah, I was. I was on the concorde.
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Speaker 1: I was just in Paris. Dude, dude, I've seen a concorde.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah the Air and Space Museum, UM, not
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Speaker 1: the one in downtown d C. But the one out
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Speaker 1: by Dullest Airport at the new museum. Oh my god,
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Speaker 1: it's awesome. I wanted on board so bad. But it's
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Speaker 1: like you're standing right next to and underneath a concorde.
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Speaker 1: It's cool. They also have like Discovery Space Shuttle Discovery,
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Speaker 1: You're standing right next to that. It's a really neat museum.
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Speaker 1: Why did the end up grounding the concorde? Was it
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Speaker 1: not cost deficient? It was it wasn't and like any
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Speaker 1: time there was any kind of problem, like every and
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Speaker 1: died really oh my god. Yeah. But also the US
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Speaker 1: UM outlawed supersonic air travel, so like you couldn't fly
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Speaker 1: across the interior of the continent UM, which cut out
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Speaker 1: like a lot of revenue source. Yeah, so basically it's
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Speaker 1: just um and I don't think Air France or British
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Speaker 1: Airways ever even broke even in all those years. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: But and then in two thousand and three there was
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Speaker 1: that most recent crash, that last crash, and after that
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Speaker 1: that was it for the Concord. Yeah, I think, um,
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Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, my friend Justin who you know,
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Speaker 1: his mom, when they had like some final flights of
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Speaker 1: the Concorde flight of the Concorde, she went on one
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Speaker 1: of those as uh like just to do it. I
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Speaker 1: think I'm gonna be wrong with that, but I seem
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Speaker 1: to remember that from my past. You could go from
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Speaker 1: London to New York in five hours what is usually
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Speaker 1: like eight? Yeah, eight or nine or something. And do
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Speaker 1: you remember when Phil Collins played band Aid. He played
2:01
Speaker 1: a show in London and got on the Concord, flew
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Speaker 1: to New York and then played a show there like
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Speaker 1: in the same night. That was pretty cool. Was it
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Speaker 1: live age? But you know what's the difference. The one
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Speaker 1: thing I knew was that it wasn't far made Phil Collins.
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Speaker 1: Did he play Farmade? I don't think so. That was
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Speaker 1: more Willie Willie and Mellencamp and Neil Young and all
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Speaker 1: those cats. Yeah so, um, Phil Collins flying back and
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Speaker 1: forth between London and New York to deliver his concert.
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Speaker 1: Thank god that happened. I love Phil Collins. I think that.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, dude, Um, that wouldn't have been possible had
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Speaker 1: it not been for something that we like to call
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Speaker 1: the jet age. Starting around the late fifties, the jet
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Speaker 1: became the preferred motive travel, which, interestingly, a ticket on
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Speaker 1: a jet was actually less than a ticket on like
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Speaker 1: a propeller piston engine planet. Yeah, interest isn't that interesting? Um,
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Speaker 1: But in the late fifties you had mcdonnald, Douglas and
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Speaker 1: Boeing really kind of duking it out to create the
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Speaker 1: jet to get people very quickly from one part of
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Speaker 1: the country to another. And it opened up commercial air
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Speaker 1: travel and all of a sudden, you didn't have to
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Speaker 1: be the richest person in the world to get from
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Speaker 1: you know, New York to l A, you know, without
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Speaker 1: having to drive. We're taking forever to get there a train,
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Speaker 1: prop plane, whatever, and admitted jet lag essentially, Well, there
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Speaker 1: you go, thanks for finishing my intro for me. Well,
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Speaker 1: we've only been around Well, we've been leaping time zones
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Speaker 1: for less than a hundred years, so there are some
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Speaker 1: beliefs that eventually we may evolve out of jet lag,
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Speaker 1: but for now, we haven't been doing it long enough.
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Speaker 1: It's our bodies to even know what the heck is
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Speaker 1: going on, right, And that's pretty much what jet lag is.
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Speaker 1: Our body does not know what's going on. There's another
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Speaker 1: term for jet leg It's called desynchronosis. It's a great
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Speaker 1: word for it. Yeah, your body has a biological clock,
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Speaker 1: and it when you travel from one times onto another
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Speaker 1: in fairly short order, your body gets out of sync
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Speaker 1: with its environment and all of a sudden, all the
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Speaker 1: cues that uses to regulate itself and all sorts of
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Speaker 1: things that your body does, it gets out of sync.
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Speaker 1: And what happens when you get out of sync, Well,
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Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff that happens, Chuck, I'm glad
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Speaker 1: you asked that. Um. You can have cognitive problems, problems
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Speaker 1: thinking and problem solving and just general mental problems short
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Speaker 1: term of course and temporary, but you're not thinking quite right.
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Speaker 1: Health problems. Um. There is a study in two thousand
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Speaker 1: six UM from the University of Virginia that found out
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Speaker 1: that um lab rats who were given jet lag, who
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Speaker 1: were exposed to simulate a jet lag, which is basically
5:00
Speaker 1: I think a DC to Paris flight once a week
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Speaker 1: for I guess most of their lives. Probably older ones
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Speaker 1: died much more quickly than younger ones. So if you're old,
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Speaker 1: which I've noticed that my jet LaGG has gotten worse
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Speaker 1: as I've aged. For sure. I didn't used to get
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Speaker 1: jet lagged at all. Yeah, I didn't know what the
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Speaker 1: big problem was, and now it's like one of the
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Speaker 1: worst things that can never happen to you. Well yeah, uh, fatigue, alertness, irritability, disorientation, depression,
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Speaker 1: gas intestinal illnesses. Yeah, that really mess you up. That
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Speaker 1: comes from flying to get air gas. It was just
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Speaker 1: the change in pressure like creates real gas. It's not
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Speaker 1: like methane or anything. It's just like gas bubble in
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Speaker 1: your guts. So she's like fart a lot on planes
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Speaker 1: or after you you can as a result. Sure, and
5:53
Speaker 1: you know what you should do. People. By the way,
5:55
Speaker 1: I'm gonna insert some flying etiquette here in there. Are
5:59
Speaker 1: you gonna get up, go the bathroom and fart? Don't
6:02
Speaker 1: fart in your seat? Why are you looking at me? Well,
6:05
Speaker 1: because you're a cross room me now, I just you
6:09
Speaker 1: know me and flying now it's just so annoying to
6:11
Speaker 1: me because it's like a eighteenth century, you know, bus station.
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Speaker 1: These days when you were flying to your laughing, everybody's
6:19
Speaker 1: wearing like pajamas and like teenage girls with their boots.
6:23
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's stressed appropriately. You don't even have
6:27
Speaker 1: to dress up. But it's like, like, I don't want
6:30
Speaker 1: to see what you look like in your living room,
6:34
Speaker 1: you know. I know, Well, you take your shoes off,
6:36
Speaker 1: which is something I'm There's nothing wrong with that because
6:39
Speaker 1: my feet do not smell. If my feet smelled in
6:41
Speaker 1: my shoes smell, I wouldn't take them off. I'm very,
6:44
Speaker 1: very aware of that kind of thing. But it's funny
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Speaker 1: that you bring that up because the other night I
6:48
Speaker 1: watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, which is that movie really
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Speaker 1: holds up um and John Candy takes his shoes off
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Speaker 1: and then it takes the socks off, and I, well,
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Speaker 1: I don't take my socks off, right, But I thought
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Speaker 1: of you, because I know that you think that's a
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Speaker 1: terrible thing to do. Yeah, I just think you should
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Speaker 1: remain fully clothed when you're out in public like that.
7:09
Speaker 1: I'm cool with taking the shoes off as long as
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Speaker 1: the socks stay on and your feet. Don'est thing. But okay,
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Speaker 1: So so you're on a plane, you're You've got all
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Speaker 1: these symptoms awaiting you, and if you are um part
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Speaker 1: of the percent of Americans, you are going to get
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Speaker 1: jet lag. Yeah, I wonder what's going on with a
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Speaker 1: six percent. They're probably like younger people who don't know
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Speaker 1: what they're talking about. Do you think, yes? Interesting? Because
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Speaker 1: this biological I just I bet you there's something to
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Speaker 1: that six percent. Besides, you're five years old, you think
7:42
Speaker 1: I doubt if they interviewed a lot of five year
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Speaker 1: old about jet lag for the study, well not five,
7:46
Speaker 1: but I mean like when I was I was like,
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Speaker 1: what's everyone's problem with jet Like I don't understand what
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Speaker 1: they're talking about. So and I specifically remember being interviewed
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Speaker 1: to ask if I got it, like, and I remember going,
8:03
Speaker 1: but it is a problem. It's unpleasant for some people.
8:06
Speaker 1: But if you're in the military or if you're some huge,
8:08
Speaker 1: big shot CEO, they worry that, you know, it could
8:12
Speaker 1: impair you as a pilot or as a soldier or
8:15
Speaker 1: as a big thinker and the head of a company
8:19
Speaker 1: or deal closer. Yeah, you don't want some some jet
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Speaker 1: lags CEO lady going in there and not making good
8:25
Speaker 1: decisions and making a bad deal. How can you be
8:28
Speaker 1: a game changer if you don't have your a game on.
8:33
Speaker 1: That's got to be the motto of some company. It
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Speaker 1: probably I thought, I just made it up. I know
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Speaker 1: they plugged somebody like price Pister or something. Uh. And
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Speaker 1: then what was the other study in two thousand ten
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Speaker 1: the Universe at cal it'd a study of hamsters and
8:50
Speaker 1: it said that um on the health tip that the
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Speaker 1: the lab rats created new neurons at about half the
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Speaker 1: rate of of rats who didn't fly. So yeah, that's
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Speaker 1: not good. No, your brain is literally not functioning as
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Speaker 1: well as it should. It's not growing. Nope. Um And
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Speaker 1: I said about the dying from that study about rats
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Speaker 1: dying from being exposed to jet lag, you know the
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Speaker 1: older ones. And um, they've also found that in humans
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Speaker 1: you can have a harder menstruation if you're a lady,
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Speaker 1: um and uh, you can develop heart disease and diabetes
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Speaker 1: more readily. Basically, your entire body is just totally thrown
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Speaker 1: out of whack. You're hungrier at weird times. You're just
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Speaker 1: out of it. You're you just don't feel good, stressed out.
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Speaker 1: You have a lot of stress hormones going. So what's
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Speaker 1: going on, Chuck? What is jet lag? Jet lag? Well,
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Speaker 1: we need to talk about the biological clock that we
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Speaker 1: all have. It's basically, uh, the article here describes it
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Speaker 1: of groupings of interacting molecules and cells throughout the body.
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Speaker 1: That's a good way to say it. Everything's working together. Uh,
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Speaker 1: they tell our glands, Hey, release these hormones at this
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Speaker 1: time of day to make you sleepy, melatonin, which we'll
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Speaker 1: get to a more detail. Maybe adjust your body temperature.
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Speaker 1: It's a couple of hours where you're gonna wake up,
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Speaker 1: so let's make you really hot for some reason. And
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Speaker 1: the body is all in tuned with each other, all
10:20
Speaker 1: these things firing like uh, the master time piece. Who
10:25
Speaker 1: wrote this anyway, this was a pretty good petric. He's
10:29
Speaker 1: done some good stuff. Yeah, it is a master time piece.
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Speaker 1: And uh, there are twenty thousand nerve cells called the
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Speaker 1: super chismatic nucleus we'll called the sc N. It's at
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Speaker 1: the front of the brain, right near the optic nerve,
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Speaker 1: and that is what keeps your circadian rhythm and your
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Speaker 1: sleep and waking cycles going like clockwork. That's it. That's
10:49
Speaker 1: the biological clock. The sec it's pretty neat. Um and
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Speaker 1: the fact that it's located by the optic nerve is
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Speaker 1: kind of telling. Yeah, because one of the ways that
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Speaker 1: it sets itself, it actually has as it's on a
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Speaker 1: set cycle twenty four point six five hour cycle, and
11:05
Speaker 1: it's since it's off a little bit um, it uses
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Speaker 1: cues to reset itself. And one of the big cues
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Speaker 1: it uses is natural light. Yeah. Some people think that
11:13
Speaker 1: it's the light that the brain is super photosensitive and
11:17
Speaker 1: that light really is the key to everything there. Well, yeah,
11:20
Speaker 1: like the pineal gland apparently, even though it's buried inside
11:23
Speaker 1: the brain is very light responsive, and the pineal gland
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Speaker 1: is one of the things that makes or it makes melatonin,
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Speaker 1: which has to do with sleep cycles. Melatonin is the
11:34
Speaker 1: good sleepy time stuff. So, um, you this whole, this
11:38
Speaker 1: whole rhythm, that twenty four point six five hour cycle
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Speaker 1: is called your circadian rhythm, circadian rhythm, and um, when
11:46
Speaker 1: it's time to sleep, when it's about the time that
11:50
Speaker 1: you went to sleep the night before, and it's dark out,
11:53
Speaker 1: your brain's melatonin production increases, and also you've been building
11:58
Speaker 1: up in your head all day. This stuff called a
12:00
Speaker 1: Dina sign, right, and that they recently found has been
12:05
Speaker 1: linked to um being sleepy. What's called sleep pressure. You know,
12:09
Speaker 1: when you try to stay up and you're just getting
12:11
Speaker 1: sleepier and sleeper, it's harder and harder to resist. That
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Speaker 1: experience is called sleep pressure. And they think that it's
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Speaker 1: a Dina sign responsible for that, and it accumulates in
12:19
Speaker 1: the brain until finally about the time that you should
12:22
Speaker 1: be falling asleep, the sleep pressure is just too much
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Speaker 1: to overcome and you fall asleep. Yeah, my Uhi Emily's family,
12:29
Speaker 1: my Ohio family has a lot of sleep pressure. We
12:33
Speaker 1: call it the yearly gas leak over the holidays. It's
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Speaker 1: funny and I'll look up at like seven forty five,
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Speaker 1: will be watching TV and like everybody's asleep after like
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Speaker 1: a big turkey dinner or something like that, Well, after
12:46
Speaker 1: drinking all day and eating stuff like that, and it's
12:49
Speaker 1: all warm and toasty, so I get it, but it's
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Speaker 1: still kind of funny. Well, it's called the gas and
12:54
Speaker 1: you just made me feel so cozy. In that description,
12:56
Speaker 1: it is in a very cozy household. Um, so you
12:59
Speaker 1: get the mellet tone and production increased, you got a
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Speaker 1: DNA sign built up, and you reach that sleep pressure
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Speaker 1: threshold and all this stuff is kind of going on
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Speaker 1: this general pattern that's a tune to you and your rhythms.
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Speaker 1: You know, are you a night owl? Do you like
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Speaker 1: to get up early? Do you like to sleep in late?
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Speaker 1: Like this is your own circadian rhythm. Yeah, And if
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Speaker 1: you mess any of that up without flying, you're gonna
13:23
Speaker 1: be thrown out of sorts. If you're a night owl
13:25
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you get a job or
13:26
Speaker 1: you gotta get up super early, it's gonna suck for
13:28
Speaker 1: a little while until your body adjusts. It is gonna
13:30
Speaker 1: suck for a little while. Um. And it takes a
13:34
Speaker 1: while for the body to adjust. But it also we
13:38
Speaker 1: we've never really, except for the last sixty years, we've
13:41
Speaker 1: never really had the capability of exposing the body to
13:44
Speaker 1: a sudden shock of just falling out of rhythm like that.
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Speaker 1: Like I'm flying to Australia right exactly where there's like
13:53
Speaker 1: a twelve or thirteen hour difference. Man, I've never I've
13:56
Speaker 1: done the europe thing, but I've never experienced yet like
13:59
Speaker 1: to that degree, I'm imagine that it would take me
14:01
Speaker 1: quite a while to adjust. It does, and it sucks
14:03
Speaker 1: because it takes away a percentage of your vacation almost.
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Speaker 1: It definitely does. When when you and I went to
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Speaker 1: Japan got there, we flew there, we flew um west
14:17
Speaker 1: to east, no east to west, because we flew up
14:21
Speaker 1: in over Canada and down Russia. It was but even still,
14:25
Speaker 1: like when we got there, it was like three in
14:27
Speaker 1: the morning and we're just like wide away and that
14:30
Speaker 1: took a very little while to adjust. But when we
14:32
Speaker 1: flew west to east on the way back get killed.
14:35
Speaker 1: It took two solid weeks being almost like clinically out
14:40
Speaker 1: of our minds before we got back on our seap.
14:44
Speaker 1: That actually, you were pretty wacky. Do you remember There
14:47
Speaker 1: was a period where like the first four days when
14:49
Speaker 1: we got up, we would we both wake up in
14:51
Speaker 1: the middle of the night. I wouldn't even talk. We
14:54
Speaker 1: just get up and go out to the car and
14:55
Speaker 1: drive to crystals and like eat some crystals and go
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Speaker 1: back home and go to bed, and like we've never
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Speaker 1: done that before and haven't done it since, but like
15:03
Speaker 1: we just did it for like four nights in a
15:04
Speaker 1: row because of jet like, so we're doing stuff like
15:06
Speaker 1: that all the time. But yeah, going from west to
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Speaker 1: east is the worst, and especially if it's like that
15:13
Speaker 1: was the thirteen hour time difference. Yeah, what do they
15:15
Speaker 1: call that? It's a phase delay going east to west,
15:18
Speaker 1: in a phase advance going west to east. And it's
15:20
Speaker 1: kind of like you can look at it like if
15:22
Speaker 1: your if your clock, if you're looking at a clock
15:25
Speaker 1: in your bedtime is a set time. In phase delay,
15:28
Speaker 1: you're just taking that hour hand and moving it back,
15:30
Speaker 1: So you're just putting off your bedtime a little longer.
15:33
Speaker 1: With phase advance, you're moving that our hand closer suddenly
15:37
Speaker 1: to your bedtime, even though your body is not ready
15:39
Speaker 1: to sleep. It's bedtime now. Well, it's just interesting that
15:45
Speaker 1: the body under you know, I mean, it makes sense.
15:47
Speaker 1: I guess what I find interesting is that we've figured
15:50
Speaker 1: out a way to technologically and artificially subject the body
15:53
Speaker 1: to like this kind of shock, and that it responds
15:57
Speaker 1: the way that it does. You know that it's it
15:59
Speaker 1: starts like overproducing this horm when you're under producing that
16:02
Speaker 1: horn vine and you go crazy. Well, yeah, and since
16:05
Speaker 1: you mentioned it, that's one of the things that happened.
16:06
Speaker 1: It really, It literally disrupts biological functions, releases stress hormones,
16:11
Speaker 1: drives up your blood pressure since inflammation, stimulating chemical markers
16:16
Speaker 1: through your arteries. Um, it's gonna mess up your appetite,
16:20
Speaker 1: like you said, because you're used to eating it regular times,
16:24
Speaker 1: and that's why you're eating crystal because it was that
16:26
Speaker 1: was probably a dinner time in Japan, I guess. Yeah,
16:28
Speaker 1: But haven't you ever noticed, like when you get up early,
16:31
Speaker 1: like say you have an early flight or something like,
16:33
Speaker 1: you can get up at a normal time, say you
16:35
Speaker 1: normally get up at eight, Yeah, you're you're maybe you're
16:37
Speaker 1: a little hungry or whatever, but you could skip breakfast.
16:40
Speaker 1: It's not a big deal. But if you're up and
16:41
Speaker 1: like moving around and at six or something like that,
16:45
Speaker 1: for some reason, you're just starving. Like, hasn't that ever
16:48
Speaker 1: happened to you? Yeah, I'm usually not super hungry in
16:50
Speaker 1: the morning, regardless of what time I wake up. If
16:53
Speaker 1: I'm up really early, I am ravenous for some reason.
16:56
Speaker 1: And I'll also find and I've always wonder what this was,
16:59
Speaker 1: that I I'm not as hungry if I don't eat anything,
17:01
Speaker 1: but if I have like the banana. Then it just
17:04
Speaker 1: makes me super hungry, yea. Or have you noticed if
17:07
Speaker 1: you have like red meat the night before, whenever you
17:10
Speaker 1: get up the next day, you're just ravenous, too real? Yeah,
17:14
Speaker 1: that happens to me. Interesting. I don't need a lot
17:16
Speaker 1: of red meat anymore, but I'll you don't, no, I
17:18
Speaker 1: mean just because Emily doesn't so, but you know, I'll
17:21
Speaker 1: still have my steak every now and then. What are
17:22
Speaker 1: you eating these days? I mean, same thing I've always
17:25
Speaker 1: been eaten since I've been with Emily, which is a
17:27
Speaker 1: lot of chicken and turkey and fish. What kind of fish? Uh?
17:31
Speaker 1: It depends. I'll make like talapia tacos or grilled salmon
17:34
Speaker 1: or like, uh, what's the more flaky? Like not ma
17:39
Speaker 1: he but I'll eat my he to the flounder. Yeah, yeah,
17:43
Speaker 1: I'll just go to the farmer's market. What looks what
17:45
Speaker 1: looks good and fresh? You know they just took mackerel
17:48
Speaker 1: off the Safe to eat or or Fine to Eat
17:51
Speaker 1: Environmentally list. I didn't know it was on that. Yeah. Tuna,
17:55
Speaker 1: of course, love tuna, oh man. But you shouldn't need
17:57
Speaker 1: a ton of tuna either, I think the market. Oh
18:00
Speaker 1: is that right? Yeah? I eat a lot of raw tuna.
18:02
Speaker 1: Yeah that they say that. You know, Jeremy Piven supposedly
18:05
Speaker 1: had some sort of mercury poisoning for meeting too much sushi,
18:09
Speaker 1: which is why, Yeah, he had to bag out of
18:12
Speaker 1: some movie or show because of it. But then I
18:14
Speaker 1: think later on they said no, I think he was
18:16
Speaker 1: using as an excuse and it wasn't verified that he
18:19
Speaker 1: had mercury poisoning. That's a lot like the twinkie defense.
18:22
Speaker 1: It meant, yeah, Jeremy Piven had the tuna defense. But
18:26
Speaker 1: that's why they'd say, if you're pregnant, you shouldn't need
18:28
Speaker 1: a lot of Yeah, yeah, for sure. Man, that was
18:31
Speaker 1: a sidetrack. I think I'm hungry, is what. Alright? So
18:37
Speaker 1: why is it so difficult to overcome Josh? Well, like
18:40
Speaker 1: we said, um, your bodies, your buddy's circadian rhythm is
18:44
Speaker 1: not exactly twenty four hours, twenty four point six five hours,
18:49
Speaker 1: and so every day you're ready for sleep a little
18:52
Speaker 1: later and a little later and a little later. And
18:54
Speaker 1: that's why, at least Patrick Tiger thinks you are. It's
19:00
Speaker 1: easier to adjust going from east to west, because that
19:05
Speaker 1: means you're gonna have to stay up later to hit
19:06
Speaker 1: your normal bedtime. Anyway, since we're already kind of doing that,
19:09
Speaker 1: it's not that big of a deal. And it's not
19:11
Speaker 1: just him. I think that's proven. Like NASA says the
19:14
Speaker 1: same thing. Well, NASA and Patrick. Another reason is is
19:19
Speaker 1: not just light body temperature we said fluctuates. Um, it's
19:24
Speaker 1: minimum temperature. Oh I'm sorry, I thought it was maximum
19:27
Speaker 1: three hours before you get up. It's minimum temperature. Yeah, alright.
19:32
Speaker 1: I thought you like got really hot, like right before
19:34
Speaker 1: you woke up. You might, but Team in is typically
19:40
Speaker 1: three hours before you normally awake. And they found that
19:43
Speaker 1: if you're if you have to wake up like during
19:47
Speaker 1: Team in what your body is normally used to being
19:50
Speaker 1: at Team in, that's when your jet legs the absolute worst. Um.
19:54
Speaker 1: And I think it's because that's a cue that your body,
19:57
Speaker 1: your whole body has. It's like, Okay, we're will in
20:00
Speaker 1: deep sleep and we're going to be in a while,
20:01
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, it's like I have
20:03
Speaker 1: to wake up and go to this meeting. The body's
20:05
Speaker 1: not it's it's whacked out of its normal process of waking.
20:08
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's sometimes if I get up super early.
20:10
Speaker 1: I have a harder time warming up through the day.
20:12
Speaker 1: I wonder if that has it makes a difference. I
20:15
Speaker 1: would bet it does. Like if you're used to waking
20:17
Speaker 1: up at a certain body temperature, you know it takes
20:20
Speaker 1: care of that no matter what, every single time, no
20:22
Speaker 1: matter why you're cold or how cold you are, go
20:26
Speaker 1: spend fifteen minutes in a sauna and you will be
20:29
Speaker 1: right as rain. It's just a miracle, would box. Yeah,
20:33
Speaker 1: I do that with the hot shower, with the steam.
20:35
Speaker 1: Sometimes it doesn't take with me really. Yeah. Sometimes like
20:38
Speaker 1: I'll still get out of the shower and like I'm
20:41
Speaker 1: chilled to the core. Still he's in there. Like I
20:44
Speaker 1: will stay in there for a while and like really
20:46
Speaker 1: try to heat up, and like most of the time,
20:47
Speaker 1: like it will get my temperature like up some with
20:51
Speaker 1: a saun it's like resetting it back to your normal
20:54
Speaker 1: setting every time you're kind of cold. Though for a man,
20:59
Speaker 1: like you're all chili, uh, when I'm not, And I
21:03
Speaker 1: know I'm super hot. You are very hot, but I
21:05
Speaker 1: think you're also a little cold. But it's pushed together
21:08
Speaker 1: and we make a very well adjusted human body temperature wise. Um,
21:14
Speaker 1: So ask anyone what their remedy is for jet lag,
21:18
Speaker 1: and you'll get a ten different answers. As tender for people,
21:21
Speaker 1: you get ten different answers. That's what you say. Um,
21:24
Speaker 1: ask Bruce Willis what is he gonna say? Make fist
21:27
Speaker 1: fits toes? Make fist with your toes. It's always been
21:30
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things, and I've tried it and
21:32
Speaker 1: it's silly. Of course it doesn't work, but I just
21:34
Speaker 1: do it now because it wasn't die Hard Argyle told
21:38
Speaker 1: him to do that. No, no no, no, that was on
21:40
Speaker 1: the plane. I thought it was Argyle the driver. It was.
21:44
Speaker 1: It was on the plane as they were flying in
21:46
Speaker 1: and of course and die Hard. It was just to
21:47
Speaker 1: set up to get him without choosing socks on because
21:50
Speaker 1: I played a part in the movie. That's a good movie.
21:52
Speaker 1: First one. She's name Fencer. Yeah. Um, But like I said,
21:57
Speaker 1: some people use herbal remedies. Some people take melatonin, which
22:01
Speaker 1: is not f the approved, but you can take melotonin
22:03
Speaker 1: athetic melotonin. We should say this isn't this article It
22:06
Speaker 1: tells you how much have taken win and we'll tell
22:08
Speaker 1: you too, but we should also had a disclaimer. Melotonin
22:11
Speaker 1: has interactions with drugs like diabetes drugs dinners um birth
22:17
Speaker 1: control pills. You may want to check out what melatonin
22:21
Speaker 1: might do with your medication before you take it. You
22:23
Speaker 1: definitely should um. Some people just say, you know what,
22:27
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a red eye and I'm gonna take
22:30
Speaker 1: some valume and drink some Scotch and just knock myself
22:33
Speaker 1: out for the whole flight, and that'll do the trick
22:35
Speaker 1: that works. If you want to die, explain well, there's
22:40
Speaker 1: a thirty six year old woman who recently died of
22:42
Speaker 1: a stroke because and she was otherwise healthy apparently, but
22:47
Speaker 1: she passed out on a seven hour flight or went
22:50
Speaker 1: to sleep or whatever. But she slept for seven hours
22:52
Speaker 1: on a flight and developed thrombosis, which is a blood
22:55
Speaker 1: clot and apparently it went from probably her leg to
22:59
Speaker 1: her brain. And again when we went to Japan on
23:03
Speaker 1: I think it was Japan Airlines, they make you get up. Yeah,
23:07
Speaker 1: They're like, okay, it's like it's it's stretching time. Yeah,
23:11
Speaker 1: and they show you how to do it, like sitting
23:13
Speaker 1: down at your seat, but they're also like, why don't
23:15
Speaker 1: you get up to walk around? So yeah, you kind
23:18
Speaker 1: of have to because you can develop a fatal blood
23:20
Speaker 1: clot just from sitting on a plane because of the
23:22
Speaker 1: change in pressure and just sitting for that long. Yeah,
23:24
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to sleep in a sitting position. The
23:27
Speaker 1: body is meant to be horizontal and prone. But that's
23:30
Speaker 1: just for rich people on fluck. Oh, like up in
23:34
Speaker 1: first class now where they have the sleepers, that's they're
23:36
Speaker 1: they're so obnoxious. They should put first class in the
23:40
Speaker 1: back so you don't have to walk through that scene.
23:43
Speaker 1: I know. The funniest is when they have like the
23:45
Speaker 1: gauzy curtains separating first class coach and you can it's like,
23:50
Speaker 1: I see that you're having a salad. I can see
23:53
Speaker 1: your salad. That hotel looks nice. Give me some of
23:55
Speaker 1: that salad. So there are all kinds of home remedy
24:00
Speaker 1: in little lives, tales of what you can do. But
24:03
Speaker 1: if you're an expert, like if you're NASA or if
24:06
Speaker 1: you are Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, you have some
24:11
Speaker 1: real advice, like gradually adjusting your circadian rhythm actually using
24:17
Speaker 1: a lightbox, which is a lot of effort, but I
24:20
Speaker 1: bet it works. It does. It also works for seasonal
24:24
Speaker 1: effective disorder. Sure. Um, so there's actually I came across
24:30
Speaker 1: the paper and all tweeted out and posted on Facebook
24:32
Speaker 1: or something blog about it. We'll do something with it.
24:35
Speaker 1: But um, because I couldn't get I couldn't get it
24:38
Speaker 1: enough in time to really speak about it. But there's
24:41
Speaker 1: there's this guy who came up with a paper that's
24:43
Speaker 1: basically like a computational method for offsetting jet leg and
24:50
Speaker 1: figuring out how to adjust your schedule accordingly. Is it
24:53
Speaker 1: like this in the article someone? That's the impression that
24:56
Speaker 1: I have, But it's like really detailed, but basically, um,
24:59
Speaker 1: Chicago's Rush University Medical Center researchers say, what you want
25:03
Speaker 1: to do is if you're going from west to east,
25:05
Speaker 1: which is the devil one, Um, you want to start
25:09
Speaker 1: going to bed an hour earlier every day. Yeah, and um,
25:16
Speaker 1: like several days, maybe like five days before your trip,
25:18
Speaker 1: you want to start going to bed an hour earlier.
25:20
Speaker 1: And not just an hour earlier across the board, but
25:22
Speaker 1: earlier and earlier and earlier. To wear right before your trip,
25:25
Speaker 1: you're going to bed about five hours earlier. And if
25:29
Speaker 1: you're gonna take melatonin and you've done all your research,
25:32
Speaker 1: you want to take a half a half a milligram
25:35
Speaker 1: of melatonin four and a half hours before bedtime and
25:39
Speaker 1: then so you want to progressively push that time earlier
25:42
Speaker 1: and earlier in the day as you're going to bed
25:44
Speaker 1: earlier and earlier at night, and then when you wake up,
25:48
Speaker 1: blast yourself with the light box. Yeah, well east to west.
25:53
Speaker 1: That was west to east, east to west. You want
25:56
Speaker 1: to not blast yourself with light. You want to like
25:59
Speaker 1: work on glasses in the morning and avoid light in
26:02
Speaker 1: the morning. But they say, use a light box at
26:05
Speaker 1: your normal bedtime and stay up later, right, which makes sense.
26:09
Speaker 1: It sounds pretty torture, it does. There's a New York
26:12
Speaker 1: Times article too, called a Battle Plan for jet lag,
26:15
Speaker 1: and um, they've they've done a study with Major League
26:20
Speaker 1: Baseball actually because they travel a lot, and they said
26:23
Speaker 1: that over two year span, teams that went eastward gave
26:27
Speaker 1: up an average of one extra run per game. That interesting,
26:31
Speaker 1: but um, they say, which is the old I guess
26:34
Speaker 1: it's not a wives tale of NASA's confirming it. They
26:36
Speaker 1: say it takes about one day per light per time
26:40
Speaker 1: zone to to get back into that rhythm in general,
26:44
Speaker 1: And they say the same thing, you gotta read to
26:47
Speaker 1: regulate your exposure to light. Um, so when you get
26:50
Speaker 1: in that hotel room. If you're traveling east, you gotta
26:53
Speaker 1: expose yourself to light early in advanced a clock. Uh,
26:56
Speaker 1: if you're traveling west, expose yourself to light at dust
27:00
Speaker 1: and in the early part of the evening and delay
27:02
Speaker 1: that clock. And they'd say, like, you know, close the curtains,
27:06
Speaker 1: put a towel over your clock radio, like get it
27:10
Speaker 1: as dark as possible. Don't look at any computer screens
27:13
Speaker 1: and laptops. They say you shouldn't eat like a big
27:17
Speaker 1: meal or a spicy food like the first day you
27:19
Speaker 1: get there. Don't like dive right into that vacation because
27:22
Speaker 1: that can mess you up as well. Gastro intestinely speaking,
27:27
Speaker 1: and uh what else. Well, the CDC says they don't
27:31
Speaker 1: have any suggestions other than like eat a balanced diet
27:35
Speaker 1: and make sure you get some exercise. It's like, of
27:38
Speaker 1: course you're gonna say that, c d C. Do you
27:40
Speaker 1: have any other suggestions? And they say yes, wear the
27:43
Speaker 1: loose clothing on the flight, avoid alcohol and well and
27:50
Speaker 1: afterward they say that first day on vacation you should
27:52
Speaker 1: be hit in the alcohol right either because I will
27:54
Speaker 1: just mess up your sleep period. And then have you
27:57
Speaker 1: heard of this thing called the val ki no v
28:01
Speaker 1: a l k E team of scientists in Finland invented
28:04
Speaker 1: this thing, and it because their belief is that the
28:07
Speaker 1: brain is it's all about photosensitivity, and so they actually
28:11
Speaker 1: it's sort of like an iPod, but instead of the
28:14
Speaker 1: ear plugs, it emits light through your ear canal directly
28:17
Speaker 1: to the brain, and they said it works. They tested
28:20
Speaker 1: three fifty subjects over four years, and uh, I found
28:24
Speaker 1: that there is definitely brain activity when the little Valki
28:27
Speaker 1: is on, and that nine out of ten subjects felt
28:31
Speaker 1: reduction and stress, uh seasonal depression and anxiety. And so
28:35
Speaker 1: they're using it for winter blues and PMS and jet
28:39
Speaker 1: lag and migraines, all sorts of stuff. Fantastic. I don't
28:43
Speaker 1: know how much of this so I'm curious if it
28:46
Speaker 1: is the price of an iPod or just the size
28:48
Speaker 1: of an iPod. It's a good question. Yeah. I try it,
28:51
Speaker 1: though I get pretty bad jet lag. That's like when
28:53
Speaker 1: we go to do events. Now, I try to fly
28:56
Speaker 1: out a day early just to sort of adjust. But
28:59
Speaker 1: I can do east coast, west coast. It doesn't hit
29:02
Speaker 1: me that bad. Um. Yeah, it's more like international that
29:06
Speaker 1: gets me. Yeah, I haven't had it very bad, Like
29:09
Speaker 1: when we went to the tc AS. It didn't. I
29:12
Speaker 1: didn't seem out of sorts there or back. I get
29:14
Speaker 1: a little lot of sorts do Yeah, but not super bad.
29:17
Speaker 1: I'm glad, Chuck, Yeah, you got anything else? I got
29:21
Speaker 1: nothing else? Okay? That was jet Leg everybody. Yeah, and uh,
29:25
Speaker 1: that kind of goes in with our sleeping sweep. We've
29:27
Speaker 1: done a bunch of those, like how much sleep do
29:29
Speaker 1: you really need? Um? What was the one about the
29:33
Speaker 1: sleep aid? Remember the sleep aide where like you could
29:36
Speaker 1: stay up for forty eight hours without any sleep. I
29:40
Speaker 1: don't remember the title of that one. Wants to do that?
29:42
Speaker 1: I love my sleep. That was a good episode though.
29:45
Speaker 1: Um yeah, a lot of people wish that you didn't
29:47
Speaker 1: have to sleep. I would imagine, not me. Um, I'm
29:51
Speaker 1: with you. I like sleep. If you want to hear
29:54
Speaker 1: any of those, you can go to our website Stuff
29:55
Speaker 1: you Should Know dot com and click on the podcast
29:58
Speaker 1: page and to start searching, go to town. You're gonna
30:00
Speaker 1: find some cool stuff. And if you want to read
30:02
Speaker 1: this article how jet leg works, go to how stuff
30:04
Speaker 1: works dot com and then the search bar type jet
30:07
Speaker 1: Leg and it will bring up the spotty by an article. Uh,
30:10
Speaker 1: and I said search bar. So it's time for listening
30:11
Speaker 1: to me. Josh I called this a very sweet email
30:16
Speaker 1: from Wendy, and I will be reading some of it
30:19
Speaker 1: and summarizing some of it because it's super long. She
30:22
Speaker 1: starts out, congratulations on the launch of your TV show.
30:25
Speaker 1: Thank you. I've been reading online chatter and I hope
30:28
Speaker 1: it's going comfortably for you behind the scenes, because you
30:30
Speaker 1: hear these reactions. It's a bummer when those weird people
30:33
Speaker 1: on the block who mow the lawn naked our pride
30:36
Speaker 1: themselves on not being tricked into attending college. I think
30:39
Speaker 1: that they are qualified critics. Hopefully you're all too experienced
30:42
Speaker 1: by now to do more than laugh at the losers
30:45
Speaker 1: and just keep doing what you enjoyed. So that's all.
30:48
Speaker 1: That was very nice, and it came in a good
30:50
Speaker 1: time because people could be mean. Man, people have a
30:53
Speaker 1: kind of mean. But hey, we have a pretty picks again,
30:55
Speaker 1: We've been doing this for years. We got the armor
30:57
Speaker 1: on um. So anyway, that was very nice Wendy, and
31:00
Speaker 1: then she just wants she's been meaning to write in
31:02
Speaker 1: for several years. Thank us. She started listening after she
31:06
Speaker 1: moved from Seattle to Burbank in two thousand eight, and
31:10
Speaker 1: it was a pretty depressing time for her. She said,
31:13
Speaker 1: to stay at home, mom, and we really got her
31:16
Speaker 1: through that time. A year later she moved to Utah.
31:18
Speaker 1: She kept downloading because Chuck was on board. It's nice
31:23
Speaker 1: and it was like having my brothers around for an
31:25
Speaker 1: hour or so every day. It was really nice. She said.
31:27
Speaker 1: It was clear by that point, even if we didn't
31:29
Speaker 1: know each other, that you guys will probably be friends
31:32
Speaker 1: of mine if we knew each other, um, and you
31:35
Speaker 1: would not only appreciate the wild cultural shift from Hollywood
31:37
Speaker 1: in Salt Lake City, but also be more fascinated than
31:40
Speaker 1: turned off by my strange family connections. And she didn't
31:45
Speaker 1: explain with them. Man. Then she moved from Youthawt to
31:49
Speaker 1: Massachusetts and she was eight months pregnant, and we really
31:52
Speaker 1: helped her through that, and so she was super appreciative
31:55
Speaker 1: of that. And then she says, this a long time ago.
31:57
Speaker 1: You had a many side conversation about what romancement and
32:01
Speaker 1: seemed to conclude that it was guys who had a
32:04
Speaker 1: manly friend crush on another guy that they knew, and
32:07
Speaker 1: they'd really enjoy hanging out with I don't think we
32:09
Speaker 1: haven't been at that. No, that's commonly what the romance
32:12
Speaker 1: is known as. I may be a woman, but I
32:14
Speaker 1: do have a major friend crush on the guys you
32:16
Speaker 1: filled in for the awesome friends and family that I've missed,
32:20
Speaker 1: um intelligently shooting the breeze for the last while, almost
32:23
Speaker 1: five years now. Yeah, so she's moving around and we've
32:26
Speaker 1: we've helped her out. Its substituting for her. Smart friends,
32:30
Speaker 1: keep podcasting, take care of yourselves. You know that in
32:33
Speaker 1: the zombie apocalypse, I definitely have your backs. By the
32:35
Speaker 1: way of my weapon of choice would be an iron
32:38
Speaker 1: age Scandinavian sacks in one hand, a long handled axe
32:44
Speaker 1: in the other, and a shotgun I could carry across
32:47
Speaker 1: my back. So, Wendy, you are well armed from my lady,
32:51
Speaker 1: and uh we'll be right by her sides. Thanks for that, Wendy. Yeah, um,
32:56
Speaker 1: we're glad we could help you through the last five years.
32:58
Speaker 1: Can you believe it's been like years? Pretty soon I
33:02
Speaker 1: saw a tweet from a listener that said that they
33:04
Speaker 1: were off to college and they started listening in eighth grade.
33:07
Speaker 1: Well and Sarah are amazing eleven year old fan and
33:10
Speaker 1: not fifteen. Oh man, that's nuts, and she's she's gonna
33:13
Speaker 1: be driving soon. She is. I want to fix up
33:15
Speaker 1: with my nephew. It's too bad they don't live in
33:17
Speaker 1: the same state. Well, hey, we're living at uh. If
33:24
Speaker 1: you want to tell us how we helped you out
33:26
Speaker 1: um or helped you through some rough times and we're
33:29
Speaker 1: just there for you, you know, like the pals we are.
33:32
Speaker 1: We always want to hear that kind of thing. Indeed,
33:34
Speaker 1: you can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
33:37
Speaker 1: Oh how about this? You can also tell us any
33:40
Speaker 1: of your jet leg remedies. Yeah, I'd like to hear him. Um.
33:44
Speaker 1: You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
33:46
Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook dot com. You can
33:48
Speaker 1: send us a an email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery
33:52
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33:55
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33:57
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34:02
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