Can Life Hacking Overcome Jet Lag? A Relevant Question for Top Optimist Athletes in Canada.
Jet lag is a very serious issue for athletic performance and is essentially incompatible with it. "Common symptoms involve fatigue, confusion and lack of awareness. Imagine those symptoms lasting for days as you grapple with the mental and emotional adjustment to your new surroundings" -- according to "The Truth About Jet Lag and How to Overcome It," https://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-jet-lag-and-how-to-overcome-it-1575151287
As a parent, why should I subject my kid to such an ordeal - of having to compete in two major regattas, just separated by a few days, which is already inappropropriate, but in addition being separated by 10 time zones?
In this particular case, the events are the Worlds - on August 27 - Sept 6 at Famagusta Nautical Club in Cyprus, and the Canadians, on August 17 to 23 in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada.
There are 10 time zones between the two venues, which require 10 days for athletes to properly adjust, according to a consensus in the scientific and sports litterature. As the travelling is Eastwards, the 10 days are particularly needed, as adjustement to jet lag travelling Eastwards is harder.
Yet, the schedule that sailors are asked to comform to allows only for 4 days of adjustment, including the travel between the two venues, distant from each other by over 10 000 km.
As discussed in a previous blog post - 2018 Canadian Optimist Summer Regatta Calendar: a Critique - the Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association has decided to maintain this schedule, despite numerous attempts to get them adopt a different schedule, or different trials for 2019 international events, that would be respectful of the young athletes.
Note that in this akward situation in which parents have been placed, by other parents (the Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association is a parents-run organization), some parents have decided to agree with the schedule mentioned above and have their kids to attend both the Canadians and the Worlds, while others have refused.
The implications are numerous and detrimental. For example, the coach for Canada, unlike most of his colleagues, will not be present for the official Worlds pre-event to coach the athletes of the delegation who will already be in Cyprus -- as he will be over 10,000 km away, in British Columbia! He will instead arrive at a very late stage, not have enough time to get acquainted with the local conditions, and suffer jet lag during the worlds, like the late-coming athletes.
Another example is that some of the best sailors in Canada, who will not be present at the Canadians because of the calendar conflict imposed upon them, will not have the opportunity to become Canadian champion. And they will be excluded -- yes excluded -- from all the 2019 IODA events, while being among the very best sailors and with very very less skilled sailors allowed to participate.
All of this was a decision that the executive committee of the Canadian Optimist Dinghy Association took, knowing perfectly well it is detimental to the development of some of Canada's top youth sailing athletes. Something going against its very own mission to promote the sport, not making any sense, but well ...
Now, let's turn to the jet lag issue per se and how to possibly alleviate it.
There is lots of litterature on jet lag and essentially no truly effective formula to overcome it, other than properly planning appropriate recovery time before a competition.
Yet, there are some approaches to attempt adjusting faster, which are covered in the article below -- "The Truth About Jet Lag and How to Overcome It," https://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-jet-lag-and-how-to-overcome-it-1575151287
Here are key excerpts:
As indicated above: "Common symptoms involve fatigue, confusion and lack of awareness. Imagine those symptoms lasting for days as you grapple with the mental and emotional adjustment to your new surroundings."
But ... in addition .. "As if that's not bad enough, jet lag has also been shown to seriously disrupt our genes, throwing them off their normal rhythms. It's also been shown to reduce neuron growth in the brain, decrease learning ability and memory capacity and induce stress."
"Some studies have shown that attempting to advance or delay your body clock gradually before you travel can make the adjustment faster and easier on your body, reducing the effects of jet lag."
"Steven W. Lockley, a neuroscientist and consulting member of NASA's fatigue management team, says that trying to adjust to your new time zone immediately is "exactly the wrong thing" to do. Adjusting to a change of multiple time zones, Lockley says, will only exhaust you if you attempt it right away: 'What you need to do is to ease yourself into the new time zone by consciously manipulating your exposure to light.'"
"To help your body clock reset to the new time zone, it's important to seek out and avoid light at the right times of day. If you're traveling east, you'll want to advance your body clock, so seeking morning light and avoiding late afternoon light will help your body clock adjust to your earlier time zone. If you're traveling west, you'd want to do the opposite."
Regarding melatonin, "Dr. Lewy, of Oregon Health & Science, recommends taking a small dose at the local bedtime each night until your body clock catches up. If you're traveling west, he suggests taking melatonin in the second half of the night instead." - yet note that melatonin is typically not recommended for children.
Another avenue that is mentioned is to stay on home time. "If your trip is short and you're not traveling over more than three time zones, you could be better off not adjusting at all. Jim Waterhouse, a professor of biological rhythms at Liverpool John Moores University often recommends staying on the same schedule you had at home rather than trying to adjust to local time if you're not there for long." This latter solution obviously will not work in this particular instance.
