Page 176 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

160 • Chapter 6

days, you may have difficulty going to sleep and getting up
at the proper time, because it is one full hour earlier than it
had been. You may find yourself more irritable in the morn-
ings. In fact, traffic accidents increase by 8 percent during
the week following DST implementation. 1
Because exposure to sunlight is a mechanism you can
use to reset your circadian rhythm, you might go outside
each morning to help reset your internal clock. Neverthe-
less, until your body adjusts, be careful and don’t schedule
any important activities that require your peak mental con-
centration early in the morning.
Traveling across multiple time zones (especially moving
toward the east) also disrupts our internal clocks. It can re-
sult in irritability, gastrointestinal upset, drowsiness during
the day, and restlessness at night. These symptoms of a
disharmonious biological rhythm often are referred to as jet
lag. Some hotels now offer special rooms with full-spectrum
lights that you can use to reset your internal clock.

Full-spectrum lighting—Standard incandescent bulbs
do not produce the blue end of the color spectrum, and
florescent bulbs often miss out on the red end. Full-
spectrum light bulbs produce all the colors of the
rainbow and generate light similar to natural sunlight.

Glenn Austin uses a mental trick to minimize jet lag.
Whenever he flies into another time zone, as soon as he gets
on the plane, he adjusts his watch to the destination time. If
he falls asleep on the plane, all the better—he wakes up in
the new time.
Rotating shift work also results in the same jet-lag type of
symptoms as our bodies try to adjust to continually changing
systems of work and rest. Your body has numerous internal
rhythms synchronized within a daily pattern. Jet lag and ro-
tating shift work can desynchronize your internal clocks.
Sleep, blood pressure, body temperature, and other cyclic
functions can become out of phase with each other. It takes
several days for the body to readjust and reestablish your nat-