Whether you travel for business or pleasure, you don't want to lose any time to jet lag. Being free from the effects of jet lag may make the difference between feeling fuzzy and fatigued or knocking the socks off a potential client. Even if you're on a pleasure trip, you want to be at your best with friends and family.

Jet lag, or dysrhythmia, occurs when the body clock isn't synchronized with your new time zone, causing a disruption of more than 50 physiological and psychological rhythms. Clinical studies show that jet lag gets worse with age, particularly after age 50. Until recently, jet lag was dismissed as merely an unpleasant side effect of air travel. New research suggests that it may also cause memory loss, shrinkage of parts of the brain and negative side effects on blood pressure.

How can jet lag affect you?
After arriving at your destination in a new time zone, you may find you experience some of the following:

• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Irritability
• Difficulty concentrating
• Minor Depression

After crossing three or more time zones, the effects of jet lag are at their worst for the first two days. The general rule is that, without any specific actions, adjustment time takes about a day for each time zone crossed and may take two or three weeks to completely realign your rhythms.