0:01

Hey everybody, Good

0:03

morning to you. If it's Saturday morning, good

0:05

afternoon, if it's Saturday afternoon, good

0:08

evening, or good night. If it's Saturday evening

0:10

or night. And if it's not Saturday, then what are

0:12

you even doing here? This is

0:14

our Selects episode selection for the week. I

0:17

am your co host Charles W Chuck Bryant,

0:19

and I went with How jet Lag

0:21

Works is from February twelfth, twenty

0:23

thirteen. And jet lag

0:26

is just a bit of a drag

0:29

for anyone that travels over long distances.

0:32

We've all probably felt it at one point or another,

0:35

and this is a great explainer

0:37

on exactly how it works and how you can

0:39

best combat it. So enjoy, happy

0:43

flying. Welcome

0:47

to Stuff you Should Know, a production of

0:49

iHeartRadio. Hey,

0:56

and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark

0:58

with me as always as Charles. To you, Chuck

1:00

Bryant, who just flew in to be here. Yeah,

1:04

I was, I was on the concord. I was just in Paris.

1:07

Dude, dude, I've seen a concord. Oh

1:10

yeah yeah. The Air and Space Museum

1:12

m not the one in

1:14

downtown DC, yeah, but

1:17

the one out by Dullest Airport. At the new

1:19

museum. Oh my god,

1:21

it's awesome. I wanted on

1:23

board so bad. But it's like you're standing

1:26

right next to and underneath a concord.

1:28

It's cool. They also have like Discovery Space

1:30

Shuttle Discovery, You're standing right next to that. It's

1:33

a really neat museum. Why did they end up

1:35

grounding the concord? Was it not cost efficient?

1:37

It was? It wasn't and like any time

1:39

there was any kind of problem, like everyone

1:42

died really oh my god.

1:44

Yeah. But also

1:47

the US outlaw and supersonic

1:49

air travel, so like you couldn't

1:51

fly across the interior

1:54

of the continent, okay, um,

1:56

which cut out like a lot of revenue

1:59

source. Yeah. So basically it was just um

2:01

and I don't think Air France or British

2:03

Airways ever even

2:06

broke even in all those years on

2:08

Concord flights. Yeah. But and then in two

2:10

thousand and three there was that most recent crash,

2:12

that last crash, and after that that was it for the Concord.

2:15

Yeah. I think, Um, if I'm

2:17

not mistaken, my friend Justin who you know, his mom

2:20

when they had like some final flights

2:23

of the Concord, flight of

2:25

the Concord Yeah, she went on one of those.

2:27

Yeah, as like just

2:29

to do it. I think I'd be wrong with that, but I seem

2:31

to remember that from my past. You could go from

2:33

London to New York in five hours?

2:36

What is usually like eight? Yeah, eight or nine

2:38

or something. Yeah. And do you remember

2:41

when Phil Collins played Band Aid,

2:43

he played a show in London, they got on the

2:45

concord flute to New York and then played a show

2:47

there. Yeah, like in the same night. Yeah,

2:49

that was pretty cool. That was it live

2:52

a Yeah, but you know what's

2:54

the difference. The one thing I knew was that it wasn't

2:56

far made Phil

2:59

Collins. Oh did he play Farmade? I

3:02

don't think so. That was more Willie Willie

3:04

and Mellencamp and Neil Young and all those cats.

3:06

Yeah. So, um, Phil Collins

3:09

flying back and forth between London and New York to

3:11

deliver his concert. So thank

3:13

god that happened. I love

3:16

Phil Collins, I think though, really, Oh yeah,

3:18

dude, that

3:22

wouldn't have been possible had it not been

3:24

for something that we'd like to call the jet age. Yes.

3:27

Starting around the late fifties, the jet

3:29

became the preferred motive travel, which,

3:32

interestingly a ticket on a

3:34

jet was actually less than

3:36

a ticket on like a propeller piston

3:39

engine plane. Oh, relate first, Yeah,

3:41

interesting, isn't that interesting? Yeah, But

3:44

in the late fifties you had McDonnell,

3:47

Douglas and Boeing really kind of duking

3:49

it out to create the jet to get

3:51

people very quickly from one part of the country

3:53

to another. Yeah, and it opened

3:55

up commercial air travel and

3:58

all of a sudden, you didn't

4:00

have to be the richest person in the world to

4:02

get from you know, New York to la

4:05

you know, without having to drive or

4:07

taking forever to get there

4:10

a train, prop plane, whatever.

4:12

Yeah, and admit a jet lag essentially.

4:15

Well, there you go, Thanks for finishing my intro

4:17

for me. Well, we've only been around,

4:20

we've been leaping time zones for less

4:22

than a hundred years, so there are some

4:25

beliefs that eventually

4:27

we may evolve out of jet lag.

4:30

Yeah, but for now, we haven't

4:32

been doing it long enough. Now, it's been like fifty sixty

4:34

years. Yeah, our bodies to even know what the heck is going

4:36

on, right, And that's pretty much what jet lag

4:39

is. Our body does not know what's

4:41

going on. Yeah, there's another term for jet

4:43

lag. It's called desynchronosis. That's

4:46

a great word for it. Yeah, your body has

4:48

a biological clock, and when

4:51

you travel from one

4:54

time zone to another in fairly short

4:56

order, your body gets out of sync with its

4:58

environment, and all of a sudden, all cues that uses

5:01

to regulate itself and

5:03

all sorts of things that

5:05

your body does it gets out

5:08

of sink. And what happens when

5:10

you get out of sink, Well, there's a lot of

5:12

stuff that happens, Chuck, I'm glad you asked

5:14

that. You

5:16

can have cognitive problems, problems

5:18

thinking and problem solving and just

5:21

general mental problems short

5:23

term of course and temporary, but still you're not

5:26

thinking quite right. Health problems.

5:29

There is a study in two thousand and six

5:31

from the University of Virginia that

5:34

found out that lab

5:36

rats who were given jet

5:39

lag, who were exposed to simulated jet

5:41

lag, yeah, which is basically I think a

5:44

DC to Paris flight once

5:46

a week for I

5:48

guess most of their lives. Probably older

5:51

ones died much more quickly than younger

5:53

ones. Yes, so if you're old, which I've noticed

5:55

that my jet lag has gotten worse as i've aged.

5:58

Yeah, for sure, I didn't used to get

6:00

jetlagged at all. Yeah, I didn't know

6:02

what the big problem was, and now it's

6:04

like one of the worst things that can ever happen

6:06

to you. Yeah. Well yeah,

6:10

fatigue, alertness, irritability, disorientation,

6:13

depression, gas rontestinal

6:15

illnesses. Yeah, it can really mess

6:17

you up. That comes from flying too. Get

6:20

air gas. It just

6:22

the change in pressure like creates really

6:24

gas. It's not like methane or anything. It's just like

6:27

gas bubble in your guts.

6:29

So you've like fart a lot on planes or after you got

6:33

you can as a result. Sure,

6:35

and you know what you should do. People. By the way,

6:37

I'm gonna insert some flying etiquette

6:40

here in there. Are you gonna get up

6:42

and go to the bathroom and fart? Don't

6:45

fart in your seat? Why are you looking at me?

6:47

Well, because you're a cross room me. Okay, now,

6:50

I just you know me and flying Now it's

6:52

just so annoying to me because it's like a eighteenth

6:55

century, you know, bus station these

6:57

days when you were flying he

7:00

laughing. Everybody's wearing like pajamas

7:02

and like teenage girls

7:04

with their boots. Oh my gosh,

7:07

it's stressed appropriately. You

7:09

don't even have to dress up. But it's like,

7:11

like, I don't want to see what you look like in

7:14

your living room, you know. I know,

7:17

Well, you take your shoes off, which is something I'm

7:19

There's nothing wrong with that because my

7:21

feet do not smell. If my feet smelled

7:23

in my shoes smelled, I wouldn't take them off. I'm

7:26

very, very aware of that kind of thing. But it's funny

7:28

that you bring that up because the other night

7:30

I watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,

7:33

which is that movie really

7:35

holds up, and John

7:37

Candy takes his shoes off and

7:40

it takes the socks off, and I thought,

7:42

well, I don't take my socks off, right,

7:45

But I thought of you because I know that you think

7:47

that's a terrible thing to do. Yeah, I just think he should remain

7:49

fully clothed when you're out in public like that. I'm cool

7:52

with taking the shoes off, as long as the socks stay on and

7:54

your feet don't stay But okay,

7:56

so you're on a plane, You're

7:59

you've got all these symptoms awaiting

8:01

you, and if you are part

8:03

of the ninety four percent of Americans, you

8:05

are going to get jet lag. Yeah, I wonder

8:08

what's going on with a six percent. They're

8:10

probably like younger people who don't know what they're

8:12

talking about. You think, yes,

8:17

interesting because it's biological.

8:19

I just I bet you there's something to that six

8:21

percent. Besides, you're five years old,

8:24

you think. I doubt if they interviewed a

8:26

lot of five year olds about jet lack for the study, well

8:28

not five, but I mean, like, I think I was American

8:31

ager. I was like, what's everyone's

8:33

problem with jet Like I don't understand what they're talking about.

8:35

Yeah. So, And

8:37

I specifically remember being interviewed in nineteen

8:40

ninety eight to ask if I got jetlag,

8:42

and I remember going like, no, no, but

8:46

it is a problem. It's unpleasant for some people.

8:48

But if you're in the military, or if you're

8:50

some huge, big shot CEO, they

8:53

worry that, you know, could impair you as a pilot

8:55

or as a soldier, or as a

8:58

big thinker and the head of a company

9:01

or deal closer. Yeah,

9:03

you don't want some some jet lags

9:05

ceo lady going in there and not making good

9:07

decisions and making a bad deal. Yeah,

9:09

how can you be a game changer if you don't

9:11

have your a game on. That's

9:15

got to be the motto of some company. It probably

9:17

is. I thought I just made it

9:19

up knowing the plug somebody like

9:23

Price Fister or something. And

9:27

then what was the other study? In two thousand and ten the Universe

9:29

at cal they did a study of hamsters.

9:32

Yeah, and it said that um on

9:34

the health tip that the the

9:36

lab rats created new neurons

9:39

at about half the rate of rats

9:41

who did not fly. So yeah, that's not good.

9:44

Now your brain is literally not functioning as well

9:46

as it should. It's not growing. Nope.

9:48

Um, And I said about the dying

9:51

from that study about rats

9:54

dying from being exposed to jet

9:56

lag, Yeah, the older ones and

9:58

um, they've also found that in humans

10:01

you can have a harder menstruation

10:05

if you're a lady, and

10:08

you can develop heart disease and diabetes

10:11

more readily. Basically, your entire

10:13

body is just totally thrown

10:15

out of whack. You're hungrier at

10:18

weird times. Sure, you're just

10:21

out of it. You're you just

10:23

don't feel good, stressed out, you have

10:25

a lot of stress hormones going. So

10:28

what's going on, Chuck? What is

10:30

jet lag? Jet lag? Well,

10:32

we need to talk about the biological

10:34

clock that we all have. It's basically

10:37

the article here describes it of groupings of interacting

10:39

molecules and cells throughout the body.

10:42

That's a good way to say it. Everything's working together. They

10:45

tell our glands, Hey, release these hormones at

10:47

this time of day to make you sleepy, melatonin,

10:50

which we'll get to in more detail. Maybe

10:52

adjust your body temperature. It's a couple hours

10:54

where you're gonna wake up, so let's make you really hot

10:57

for some reason. And the

10:59

body is all in tuned with

11:02

each other, all these things firing like a

11:06

master timepiece. Who wrote this anyway? This

11:09

was that was a pretty good Patrick Tiger. He's

11:11

done some good stuff. Yeah, it is a master timepiece.

11:14

And there are twenty thousand

11:16

nerve cells called the super a chiasmatic

11:18

nucleus we'll called the SCN. It's

11:21

at the front of the brain, right near the optic nerve,

11:24

and that is what keeps your circadian

11:26

rhythm in your sleep and waking cycles

11:29

going. Yeah, like clockwork. That's

11:30

it. That's the biological clock the sea.

11:33

Yep, it's pretty neat um And

11:35

the fact that it's located by the optic nerve is

11:37

kind of telling. Yeah, because one of the ways

11:40

that it sets itself it actually has a

11:43

it's on a set cycle twenty

11:45

four point six five hour cycle. Yeah,

11:47

and it's since it's off a little bit, um,

11:50

it uses cues to reset itself.

11:52

And one of the big cues it uses is natural

11:54

light. Yeah. Some people think that it's

11:56

the light, that the brain is super photosensitive,

12:00

that light really is the key to everything there.

12:02

Well, yeah, like the pineal gland apparently,

12:04

even though it's buried inside the brain, is very

12:06

light responsive. And the pineal

12:09

gland is one of the things that makes

12:11

or it makes melatonin, which

12:14

has to do with sleep cycles. Melatonin

12:16

is the good sleepy time stuff. So,

12:18

um, this whole, this whole

12:21

rhythm, that twenty four points sixty five hour

12:23

cycle is called your circadian rhythm, circadian

12:26

rhythm, right, And when

12:29

it's time to sleep, when it's about

12:31

the time that you went to sleep the night before

12:34

and it's dark out, your brain's

12:36

melatonin production increases. And

12:39

also you've been building up in

12:41

your head all day this stuff called a DNA sign

12:44

right, and that they recently

12:46

found has been linked to being

12:49

sleepy. What's called sleep pressure. You

12:51

know, when you try to stay up and you're just getting sleepier

12:54

and sleeper it's harder and harder to resist. That

12:56

experience is called sleep pressure, and they think that it's

12:58

a DNA sign a response for

13:00

that, and it accumulates in the brain until

13:02

finally about the time that you should be falling

13:04

asleep, the sleep pressure is just too much

13:07

to overcome and you fall asleep. Yeah.

13:09

My, uh, Emily's family,

13:11

my Ohio family has a lot of

13:13

sleep pressure. We call

13:15

it the yearly gas leak over

13:17

the holidays. That's funny, Emily. I'll look

13:19

up at like seven forty five, We'll be watching

13:22

TV and like everybody's asleep after

13:25

like a big turkey dinner or something like that. Well,

13:27

after drinking all day and eating, oh

13:29

yeah, stuff like that. Yeah, and it's all warm

13:32

and toasty, and so I get it, but it's

13:34

still kind of funny. Well, it's called the gas leak, and you

13:36

just made me feel so cozy in that description.

13:38

It is in a very cozy household. Um, so

13:41

you get the melatonin production increased,

13:43

you got a DNA sign built up, and you reach

13:45

that sleep pressure threshold and all this stuff is

13:47

kind of going on this

13:50

general pattern that's a tune

13:52

to you in your rhythms. Yeah,

13:54

you know, Are you a night owl? Do you like to get

13:56

up early? Do you like to sleep in late? Like

13:58

this is your own circadian

14:01

rhythm. Yeah, and if you mess any

14:03

of that up without flying, you're

14:05

going to be thrown out of sorts. If you're a night owl and

14:07

all of a sudden you get a job or you gotta get up super

14:09

early, it's gonna suck for a little while until

14:11

your body adjusts. It is gonna suck for a little while.

14:13

Um, And it

14:15

takes a while for the body to adjust.

14:18

But it also we've

14:21

never really, except for the last sixty years,

14:23

we've never really had the capability

14:25

of exposing the body to a sudden shock

14:28

of just falling out of rhythm like

14:30

that, Like I'm flying to Australia

14:33

right exactly. Yeah, where there's like

14:35

a twelve or thirteen hour difference.

14:37

Man, I've never I've done the europe thing, but I've

14:40

never experienced yet like to that degree. I imagine

14:42

that it would take me quite a while to adjust.

14:44

It does, and it sucks because it takes away

14:47

a percentage of your vacation almost.

14:50

It definitely does. When you know, when you me and I went

14:52

to Japan, Yeah, got there out of bed. We

14:54

flew there, we flew

14:59

west to east, No, east

15:01

to west, because we flew up and over

15:03

Canada and down Russia, which is easier can it

15:06

was supposedly, but even still, like when

15:08

we got there, it was like three in the morning and we're just

15:10

like wide away. Yeah, and that

15:12

took a very little while to adjust. But when we

15:14

flew west to east on the way back get

15:16

killed. It took two solid

15:19

weeks of being almost like

15:22

clinically out of our minds. Wow, before

15:25

we got back on our sleep. For that, actually, you were

15:27

pretty whacky, do you remember. Oh, yeah, there

15:29

was a period where like the first four days

15:31

when we got up, we would we would both wake

15:33

up in the middle of the night, wouldn't

15:35

even talk. We'd just get up and go out to the car

15:37

and drive to crystals and like eat

15:39

some crystals and go back home and go to bed.

15:42

Yeah, and like we'd never done that before and haven't

15:44

done it since. But like we just did it for like four

15:46

nights in a row because of jet like, so we were doing

15:48

stuff like that all the time. That's weird. But

15:50

yeah, going from west to east

15:52

is the worst, and especially if it's like that

15:55

was a thirteen hour time difference. Yeah,

15:57

what do they call that? It's a phase delay going

15:59

east to west in a phase advance going west

16:01

to east right. And it's kind of like you can

16:03

look at it like if you're if your

16:05

clock, if you're looking at a clock and bedtime

16:08

is a set time. In phase delay,

16:10

you're just taking that hour hand and moving it

16:12

back, so you're just putting off your bedtime a little

16:15

longer. Yeah. With phase advance, you're

16:17

moving that hour hand closer suddenly

16:19

to your bedtime, even though your body is not

16:21

ready to sleep. It's bedtime now. Wow.

16:25

Wow. Well, it's just interesting that the body

16:28

under it, you know, I mean, it makes sense. I guess what

16:30

I find interesting is that we've figured out a way to

16:32

technologically and artificially subject

16:35

the body to like this kind of shock,

16:38

and that it responds the way that it does.

16:40

Yeah, you know that. It's it starts like

16:42

overproducing this hormone or under producing that

16:44

hormone and you go crazy. Well yeah,

16:46

and since you mentioned it, that's one of the things that happened.

16:49

It really it literally disrupts biological

16:51

functions, releases stress hormones,

16:54

drives up your blood pressure, sends

16:56

inflammation stimulating chemical markers

16:58

through your arteries. It's

17:01

gonna mess up your appetite, like you said, because

17:04

you're used to eating at regular

17:06

times, and that's why you were eating crystal because

17:08

it was that was probably a dinner time in Japan, I

17:10

guess. Yeah. But haven't you ever noticed, like when you get

17:12

up early, like say you have an early flight or

17:14

something like, you can get up at a normal time,

17:16

say you normally get up at eight, Yeah,

17:18

you're maybe you're a little hungry or whatever,

17:21

but you could skip breakfast. It's not a big deal. But if

17:23

you're up and like moving around and at six

17:25

or something like that, Yeah, for some reason,

17:28

you're just starving. Like hasn't that ever

17:30

happened to you? Yeah, I'm usually not super

17:32

hungry in the morning, regardless of

17:34

what time I wake up. If I'm up really early,

17:36

I am ravenous for some reason. And

17:38

I'll also find and I've always wonder what this

17:41

was, that I'm not as hungry if I don't

17:43

eat anything, but if I have like the banana,

17:45

then it just makes me super hungry, right, Yeah,

17:48

yeah, Or have you noticed if you have like

17:50

red meat the night before whenever

17:52

you get up the next day. You're just ravenous

17:54

too. Really, yeah, that happens to me. Interesting.

17:57

I don't need a lot of red meat anymore, but I'll oh you don't,

18:00

no, I mean just because Emily doesn't. So, but

18:02

yeah, I'll still have my steak every now and then. What are you

18:04

eating these days? I mean, same

18:07

thing I've always been eaten since I've been with Emily, which is

18:09

a lot of chicken and turkey and fish. What

18:11

kind of fish? Uh? It

18:13

depends. I'll make like tilapia tacos or

18:15

grilled salmon or nice like uh,

18:19

what's the more flaky? Like not my heat,

18:21

but I'll eat my he to the

18:24

flounder. Yeah. Yeah, I'll just go to the the farmer's

18:26

market and what looks what looks good and fresh? You

18:29

know they just took mackerel off the Safe

18:31

to Eat or or Fine to Eat

18:33

environmentally list? Oh really, yeah, I didn't

18:35

know it was on that. Yeah. Tuna, of course,

18:38

love tuna, oh man, But you shouldn't eat a ton of

18:40

tuna either. I think the mercury.

18:42

Oh is that right? Yeah, I eat a lot of raw tuna.

18:45

Yeah that they say that, you know. Jeremy

18:47

Piven supposedly had some

18:49

sort of mercury poisoning for eating too much

18:51

sushi, which is why he knew. Yeah,

18:53

he had to bag out of some movie or show because

18:55

of it. But then I think later on they said,

18:58

no, I think he was using as an excuse

19:00

and it wasn't verified that he had mercury poisoning.

19:02

That's a lot like the twinkie defense. It

19:04

meant yet Jeremy Piven had the tuna

19:06

defense. But that's why they did say,

19:09

if you're pregnant, you shouldn't need a lot of things. Oh yeah, sushi,

19:11

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Man,

19:35

that was a sidetrack. Yeah, I think I'm hungry,

19:37

is what the deal? All

19:40

right? So why is it so difficult to

19:42

overcome Josh? Well, like we said, um,

19:44

your body's your buddy's

19:47

circadian rhythm is not exactly twenty

19:49

four hours, twenty four point six five hours,

19:52

and so every day you're

19:55

ready for sleep a little later and a little

19:57

later and a little later. And that's why Ellie

20:00

Patrick Kiger thinks you

20:02

are. It's easier to adjust

20:04

going from east to west

20:07

because that means you're gonna have to stay up later

20:09

to hit your normal bedtime. Anyway, and since we're already

20:12

kind of doing that. It's not that big of a deal. And

20:14

it's not just him. I think that's proven. Like

20:16

NASA says the same thing, well,

20:19

NASA and Patrick Kiger. Another

20:22

reason is is not just light body

20:24

temperature we said fluctuates. It's

20:27

minimum temperature. Oh

20:29

I'm sorry, I thought it was maximum three hours before

20:32

you get up. It's minimum

20:34

temperature. Yeah, all right. I thought you

20:36

like got really hot, like right before

20:38

you woke up. You might,

20:40

but Team in is typically

20:43

three hours before you normally awake,

20:46

okay. And they found that if you're if

20:48

you have to wake up like during

20:50

Team in, what your body is normally used

20:52

to being at Team in, right, that's

20:55

when your jet legs the absolute worst. And

20:58

I think it's because that's a key that your

21:00

body, your whole body has, is like Okay,

21:03

we're still in deep sleep and we're going to be

21:05

in a while, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh I have to wake up

21:07

and go to this meeting. The body's not

21:09

it's it's whacked out of its normal process

21:11

of waking. I wonder if that sometimes if I get

21:13

up super early, I have a harder time warming up through the

21:15

day. I wonder if that has it makes a difference. I

21:18

would bet it does. Like if you're used to waking

21:20

up at a certain body temperature, Yeah, you

21:23

know it takes care that no matter what, every single

21:25

time, no matter why you're cold or

21:28

how cold you are, go spend

21:30

fifteen minutes in a sauna, yeah, and

21:32

you will be right as rain. Yeah,

21:34

it's just a miracle wood box. Yeah.

21:36

I do that with the hot shower with the steam.

21:38

Sometimes it doesn't take with me really Yeah.

21:41

Sometimes like I'll still get out of

21:43

the shower and like I'm chilled to

21:45

the core still. How you sit in there, Like

21:47

I will stay in there for a while and like really

21:49

try to heat up, and like most of the time, like it will

21:52

get my temperature like up. Yeah.

21:54

Some with a sauna, it's like resetting

21:56

it back to your normal setting

21:58

every time you're kind of cold. Though for a man, like

22:03

you're often chili when

22:05

I'm not. And I know I'm super hot. You

22:08

are very hot, but I think you're also a little

22:10

cold. Put it's put us together and we make

22:12

a very well adjusted exactly human

22:14

body temperature wise, very middle. Um.

22:17

So ask

22:19

anyone what their remedy is for jet lag

22:21

and you'll get ten different answers. Ask

22:24

tender for people, you get ten different answers. That's

22:26

what you say. Um, ask

22:28

Bruce Willis what is he going to say? Make

22:30

fist fits toes? Make fist with your toes.

22:33

It's always been one of my favorite things, and I've tried

22:35

it and it's silly. Of course it doesn't work, but

22:38

I just do it now because it wasn't die Hard. Yeah,

22:40

Argyle told him to do that. No, no

22:42

no, no, it was a guy on the plane.

22:45

I thought it was Argyle the driver. It was.

22:47

It was on the plane as ever flying in and

22:49

of course in die Hard, it was just to set up to get him

22:52

without shoes and socks on. Yeah, because I

22:54

played a part in the movie. That's a good movie.

22:55

She's Day Finster. Yeah.

22:58

Um. But like

23:00

I said, some people use herbal remedies.

23:02

Some people take melatonin,

23:04

which is not FDA proof. But you can take melatonin

23:07

and uthotic melotonin. We should say it saysn't this

23:09

article it tells you how much it taken win

23:11

and we'll tell you too, but we should also add a

23:14

disclaimer. Melatonin has interactions

23:16

with drugs like diabetes drugs, blood thinners,

23:20

birth control pills. You may want

23:22

to check out what melatonin might

23:24

do with your medication before you take it. You

23:26

definitely should. Yeah, some

23:30

people just say, you know what, I'm gonna take a red eye

23:32

and I'm gonna take some valume and

23:34

drink some Scotch and just knock myself

23:36

out for the whole flight and that'll do the trick. Yeah, that

23:39

works if you want to die, Yeah, explain

23:43

well, there was a thirty six year old woman who

23:45

recently died of a stroke because

23:48

and she was otherwise healthy apparently, Yeah,

23:50

but she passed out on a seven hour

23:52

flight or went to sleep or whatever. But she

23:54

slept for seven hours on a flight and

23:57

developed thrombosis, which is a blood clot

24:00

and apparently it went from probably her

24:02

leg to her brain. Yeah. And again

24:05

when we went to Japan, I think it was Japan

24:07

Airlines, they make you get up. Yeah,

24:10

they're like, okay, it's like it's big,

24:13

it's play stretching time. Yeah,

24:15

and they show you how to do it, like sitting down at

24:17

your seat, but they're also like, why don't you get up

24:19

to walk around? So wow, Yeah, you kind

24:21

of have to because you can develop a fatal blood

24:23

clot just from sitting on a plane because of the

24:26

change in pressure and just sitting for that long. Yeah,

24:28

you're not supposed to sleep in a sitting position, right.

24:30

The body is meant to be horizontal and

24:33

prone, right, But that's just for rich people

24:35

on flack. Oh

24:37

up in first class now where they have the sleepers, Yeah, that's

24:40

they're so obnoxious. They

24:42

should put first class in the back so you don't have to

24:44

walk through that scene. I

24:46

know. The funniest is when they have like the gauzy

24:49

curtains separating first class coach

24:52

and you can it's like, I see

24:54

that you're having a salad. I can see your

24:56

salad. That hotel looks nice. Give

24:59

me some of that salad. So there

25:02

are all kinds of home remedies in Little Wives

25:04

tales of what you can do, right, But if

25:06

you're an expert, like if you're a NASA

25:09

or if you are Chicago's

25:12

Rush University Medical Center, you

25:14

have some real advice like gradually

25:17

adjusting your circadian

25:19

rhythm actually using a lightbox, which

25:23

is a lot of effort, but I bet it works. It

25:26

does. It also works for seasonal effective

25:28

disorder. Sure, So

25:31

there's actually I came across

25:33

the paper and all tweeted out and posted on Facebook

25:36

or something, blog about it. We'll do something

25:38

with it. But because I couldn't get

25:40

I couldn't get it enough in time to

25:42

really speak about it. But there's there's

25:45

this guy who came up with a paper that's basically

25:47

like a computational method

25:51

for offsetting jet leg and

25:54

figuring out how to adjust your schedule accordingly.

25:56

Is it like this in the article? Yeah, that's

25:58

the impression that I have, but it's like really detailed,

26:01

but basically Chicago's Russia

26:03

University Medical Center researchers say,

26:06

what you want to do is, if you're going from west

26:08

to east, which is the devil one right

26:10

phase advance, you want to

26:12

start going to bed an hour

26:15

earlier every day.

26:17

Yeah, and like

26:20

several days, maybe like five days before your

26:22

trip, you want to start going to bed an hour earlier, and

26:24

not just an hour earlier across the board, but earlier

26:26

and earlier and earlier. To wear right before your trip,

26:28

you're going to bed about five hours earlier.

26:31

And if you're going to take melatonin

26:33

and you've done all your research, you

26:36

want to take half a half

26:38

a milligram of melatonin

26:40

four and a half hours before bedtime.

26:42

Yeah, and then so you want to progressively

26:44

push that time earlier and earlier in the day

26:47

as you're going to bed earlier and earlier at night.

26:49

And then when you wake up,

26:51

blast yourself with the lightbox. Yeah.

26:54

Oh well east

26:56

to west. That was west to east. Okay,

26:58

yeah, east to west. You want to not

27:01

blast yourself with light. You want to like wear

27:03

sunglasses in the morning and avoid

27:05

light in the morning. But they say, use a light

27:07

box at your normal bedtime and

27:09

stay up later, right, which

27:12

makes sense. It sounds pretty torture, it

27:15

does. There's a New York Times article too, called

27:17

a Battle Plan for jet lag, and

27:22

they've done a study with Major League Baseball

27:24

actually because they travel a lot. And they

27:26

said that over two year span, teams that

27:29

went eastward gave up an average

27:31

of one extra run per game. Huh.

27:33

That interesting. Yeah, But they

27:36

say, which is the old I guess

27:38

it's not a wives tale if NASA is confirming it. They

27:40

say it takes about one day per

27:42

light per time zone to

27:45

get back into that rhythm in general,

27:47

and they say the same thing, you got to re

27:50

to regulate your exposure to light. So

27:53

when you get in that hotel room, if you're traveling

27:55

east, you got to expose yourself to light early

27:58

an advance at clock. If

28:00

you're traveling west, expose yourself to light

28:03

at dusk and in the early part of the evening

28:05

and delay that clock. And they'd

28:08

say, like, you know, close the curtains, put

28:11

a towel over your clock radio, like get

28:13

it as dark as possible. Don't look at any

28:15

computer screens and laptops. They

28:17

say you shouldn't eat

28:19

like a big meal or a spicy food

28:22

like the first day you get there. Don't like dive

28:24

right into that vacation because that can mess

28:26

you up as well. Gastro intestinaly

28:28

speaking and what

28:31

else. Well, the CDC says

28:34

they don't have any suggestions

28:36

other than like eat a balanced diet

28:38

and make sure you get some exercise jerks.

28:41

And it's like, of course you're gonna say that, CDC.

28:44

Do you have any other suggestions, and they say,

28:46

yes, wear loose clothing on

28:49

the flight, avoid alcohol

28:52

and caffeine well. And afterward

28:54

they say that first day on vacation, you shouldn't be hit in the

28:56

alcohol right either, Yeah, because that'll just mess

28:58

up your sleep period. Yeah, and

29:00

then have you heard of this thing called the Valki

29:03

no vl k team

29:06

of scientists in Finland invented this thing, and

29:09

it because their belief is that the brain is it's

29:11

all about photosensitivity, and so

29:14

they actually it's sort of like an iPod, but

29:17

instead of the ear plugs, it emits light

29:19

through your ear canal directly to the brain, and

29:22

they said it works. They tested three hundred and fifty

29:24

subjects over four years and

29:28

found that there is definitely brain activity when

29:30

the little Valki is on, and

29:32

that nine out of ten subjects felt reduction

29:34

and stress, seasonal depression

29:37

and anxiety. And so they're using it for winter

29:40

blues and PMS

29:42

and jetlag and migraines, all

29:44

sorts of stuff. Fantastic. Yeah, I don't know how much

29:47

of it is, Zoe. I'm curious if

29:49

it is the price of an iPod or just the size of

29:51

an iPod. That's a good question.

29:54

Yeah, I'd try it though I get pretty bad jetlag.

29:56

That's like when we go to do events now, I

29:59

try to fly out a day or really just to sort of adjust.

30:01

Yeah, but um, I can do

30:03

east coast, West coast. It doesn't hit me that bad.

30:06

Um, Yeah, it's more like international

30:09

that gets me. Yeah. Yeah, I

30:11

haven't had it very bad. Like when we went to

30:13

the TCA's it didn't. I didn't seem

30:16

out of sorts there or back. I get

30:18

a little lot of sorts, do you. Yeah, but not super

30:20

bad. I'm glad, Chuck, Yeah,

30:45

you got anything else? I got nothing else? Okay,

30:47

that was jet lag everybody. Yeah,

30:50

and uh, that kind of goes in with our sleeping

30:52

sweep. We've done a bunch of those, like how much sleep

30:55

do you really need? Um? What

30:58

was the one about the sleep aid? Remember

31:00

the sleep Baby where like you could stay up

31:02

for forty eight hours without any sleep? Yeah?

31:05

I don't remember the title of that one. Who wants to do

31:07

that? I love my sleep? That was a good episode

31:10

though. Yeah. Yeah, a

31:12

lot of people wish that you didn't have to sleep.

31:14

I would imagine not me. I'm

31:16

with you. I like to sleep too. If you

31:18

want to hear any of those, you can go to our

31:20

website Stuff you Should Know dot com and click

31:23

on the podcast page and to start searching, go

31:25

to town. You're gonna find some cool stuff. And

31:27

if you want to read this article, how jetlag works.

31:29

Go to HowStuffWorks dot com and

31:31

in the searchbar type jet leg and it will bring

31:33

up the spot by an article. And

31:36

I said, searchbar, so it's time for listening to me, Josh.

31:41

I called this a very sweet email from Wendy, and

31:43

I will be reading some of it and summarizing

31:45

some of it because it's super long. She

31:48

starts out, congratulations on the launch of your TV

31:50

show. Thank you. I've been reading online

31:52

chatter and I hope it's going comfortably

31:55

for you behind the scenes, because you hear these reactions.

31:57

It's a bummer when those weird people on the block who

32:00

mow the lawn naked or pride themselves on

32:02

not being tricked into attending college. I think

32:04

that they are qualified critics. Hopefully

32:06

you're all too experienced by now to do more than

32:08

laugh at the losers and

32:11

just keep doing what you enjoy. So

32:14

I told her that was very nice, and it came in a good time because

32:17

people could be mean. Man, people have been kind

32:19

of mean, but hey, we have pretty thick skin. We've

32:21

been doing this for years. We got the armor on. So

32:24

anyway, that was very nice Wendy, and then she just wants

32:26

she's been meaning to write in for several years to

32:29

thank us. She started listening after

32:31

she moved from Seattle to Burbank in two thousand

32:33

and eight, and it

32:36

was a pretty depressing time for her. She said,

32:39

stay at home mom, and we

32:41

really got her through that time. A year later, she moved

32:43

to Utah. She kept downloading because

32:45

Chuck was on board. It's

32:48

nice, yeah, And it was like having my brothers

32:50

around for an hour or so every day. It

32:52

was really nice. She said. It was clear by that point,

32:54

even if we didn't know each other, that you guys would

32:57

probably be friends of mine if we knew each other, and

33:00

you would not only appreciate the wild cultural shift from

33:02

Hollywood in Salt Lake City, but also

33:05

be more fascinated than turned off by

33:07

my strange family connections. And

33:10

she didn't explain what that met. Very

33:13

mysterious. Then she moved from Youthaw to Massachusetts

33:15

and she was eight months pregnant and we really helped

33:18

her through that, and so she was super

33:20

appreciative of that. And then she says,

33:22

this a long time ago, you had a many side conversation

33:25

about what romance meant and seemed

33:27

to conclude that it was guys

33:29

who had a manly friend crush on another

33:31

guy that they knew and they'd really

33:33

enjoy hanging out with. I don't think we invented

33:35

that. No, No, that's commonly what the romance

33:38

is known as. I may be a woman, but I do

33:40

have a major friend crush on you. Guys. You

33:42

filled in for the awesome friends and family

33:44

that I've missed intelligently

33:47

shooting the breeze for the last while, almost five

33:49

years now. That is really nice. Yeah, so she's moving

33:51

around and we've we've helped her out as substituting

33:54

for her. Smart friends, keep podcasting,

33:57

take care of yourselves, you know that.

33:59

In the zombiepo collipse, I definitely have your backs.

34:01

By the way, my weapon of choice would be

34:03

an iron age Scandinavian

34:05

sacks in one hand, a

34:08

long handled axe in the other, and

34:11

a shotgun I could carry across my back.

34:14

So, Wendy, you are well armed

34:16

a lady, and you'll

34:18

be right by our sides. Thanks for that, Wendy.

34:21

Yeah, um, we're glad we could help you through

34:23

the last five years. Can you believe it's been like five

34:25

years? Pretty soon I

34:28

saw a tweet from a listener that said that they

34:30

were off to college and they started listening in eighth

34:32

grade. Well, and Sarah

34:34

are amazing eleven year old fan about fifteen.

34:37

Oh man, that's nuts. And she she's

34:39

gonna be driving soon. She is. I want to fix up

34:41

with my nephew. It's too bad they don't live in the same state.

34:44

Well, hey, we're living. If

34:50

you want to tell us how we helped you out,

34:53

or helped you through some rough times, or we're just

34:55

there for you, you know, like the pals

34:57

we are, we always want to hear that kind of thing,

35:00

you can tweet to us at sy SKA podcasts.

35:03

Oh how about this. You can also tell

35:05

us any of your jet leg remedies. Yeah,

35:08

I'd like to hear them. Um. You can tweet to

35:10

us at sysk podcast You can join us

35:12

on Facebook dot com. You can send us

35:15

an email to Stuff Podcast

35:17

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35:22

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