Hacking Your Body Using Light
Frequent travelers have their favorite trick to combat jet lag, there in now a computer program that allows you to fight back with knowledge instead of the formula of one cup of coffee and two naps to reset your circadian clock.
The circadian clock, or internal clock, acts like a pendulum in your body. Over the span of 24 hours the pendulum swings back and forth to complete the cycle. The circadian clock relies on light to reset itself each day, by adding a poorly timed cup of coffee or nap, you can push the pendulum farther off track and make jet lag set in further.
To find out when and how to get your internal clock back into the new time zone, two researchers from Boston have developed a series of mathematical equations connecting the circadian clock with sleep schedules, mental performance and light exposure. By doing this they have found means to “hack” the clock with light therapy. The key to light therapy is tricking the body into believing it is a different time making it believe that it is dusk and dawn, two times which are essential to reseting the clock. To demonstrate their theory they simulated the effects on an imaginary trip with a 12-hour time difference. Without any interference, the travelers slowly synched up with the new time zone, but still off schedule after 12 days, finding that they were only in top mental form for a few hours a day. However, travelers who received light therapy were back on schedule after just 8 days.
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