Those who have experienced the true pain of jetlag after a long flight can speak to how hard it is to fall back into regular sleeping schedules. It makes you stay up pacing all night out of boredom and crashes you right as daytime comes around. Regular passengers who don’t fly very frequently tend to recover from their lag within a couple days. What about frequent flyers like pilots and cabin crew though? This brings into question the jet lag cabin crew must face with how much they travel, and how this circadian disruption affects their health.
The review article, “Circadian Disruption and Human Health”, by Dr. Phyllis C. Zee, studies how circadian disruptions affect our minds and bodies. Circadian rhythms are internally driven cycles that function over a 24-hour day. They are organized by a central “master” clock, which coordinates alignment between external synchronizing agents with circadian clocks in other brain regions and peripheral tissues. This clock resets every day by the sun’s light and dark cycle. Our circadian system is what helps us fall asleep and wake up. It also regulates hormone activity, body temperature fluctuation, and eating/digesting. These rhythms are modulated by endogenous, environmental, and behavioral factors. Disruption in this system increases disease severity and risk for expression of neurological, psychiatric, cardiometabolic, and immune disorders. Common measures of circadian disruption are: phase (timing), relationship between internal-internal or internal-external rhythms, period, and amplitude of circadian rhythms.
Sleep is so important to human health. According to a study done at the University of Michigan by Erica Jansen in 2020, sleep affects our ability to fight disease, metabolism and chronic disease risk, and our physical and mental processing. Adolescents need about 8-10 hours of sleep per night. Ideally, one should be going to bed and waking up at around the same time every day in a healthy circadian system. This is the challenge airplane crews struggle with. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reviewed its article “Aircrew Safety & Health—Circadian Rhythm Disruption” recently in 2017. NIOSH warns aircrew to be wary of circadian disruption since they travel across many time zones and are awake during hours most people are sleeping. They found that aircrew members are more likely to develop chronic circadian disruption which can lead to mood changes, injuries, stomach and intestinal symptoms, insomnia, fatigue, and more. Studies also show that cabin crews have much higher cortisol (stress hormone) levels than ground workers. Some things cabin crews are advised to do to reduce/avoid jet lag are drink lots of water, keep active, sleep only at night (based on what time it is at the destination), block out all light, minimize caffeine and alcohol intake, etc.
In summary, good circadian rhythms are extremely necessary to human health. Having a steady sleep and wake routine helps your body reset and prepare for the next day. Unfortunately, circadian disruption disproportionately affects cabin crew members as opposed to non-frequent flyers, which put them at higher risk for chronic jet lag symptoms. Therefore, it is crucial for everyone to try and set healthy sleep/wake patterns to maintain favorable circadian rhythms to avoid declines in health.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, May 9). Aircrew Safety & Health - Circadian Rhythm Disruption. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved March 3, 2023, from https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/aircrew/jetlag.html
Jansen, E. (2020, March 2). Sleep 101: Why sleep is so important to your health: The pursuit: University of Michigan School of Public Health: Adolescent Health: Child Health: Chronic Disease: Epidemic: Mental Health: Obesity. The Pursuit | University of Michigan School of Public Health | Adolescent Health | Child Health | Chronic Disease | Epidemic | Mental Health | Obesity. Retrieved March 3, 2023, from https://sph.umich.edu/pursuit/2020posts/why-sleep-is-so-important-to-your-health.html
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