Jet lag is the bane of travelers, especially those who travel a lot. It’s hard to be fully functional when you’ve flown from Seattle to Paris, for example, because the time zone difference has your body all messed up. You don’t know whether to be awake or asleep, but you just know you’ve got to pick up your baggage, get out of the airport, and find your hotel or Airbnb.
But there’s an app that just might help weary, jet-lagged travelers. Developed with Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Steven Lockley, a world-renowned expert in sleep and circadian rhythms, Timeshifter uses the latest research in sleep and circadian neuroscience to help travelers reduce, if not completely eliminate, their jet lag.
“Generic jet lag advice is, well…generic. It won’t reduce your jet lag and can actually make it worse,” reads the Timeshifter website. “Each traveler and trip is different and requires a personalized approach taking your sleep pattern, chronotype [early bird, night owl, or neither], itinerary, and a range of personal preferences into account.”
Timeshifter allows users to create their own personalized plans based on their sleep patterns and itinerary. Travelers can use optional preferences such as pre-travel adjustment or the use of melatonin for faster adaptation to new time zones. The app gives advice such as “see bright light and avoid caffeine,” depending on the time zone and time of day, and users can see the shifting time zones are they are traveling. It also has what it refers to as a practicality filter that adjusts advice to fit the “real world.”
The tips the app provides combine the only elements shown to significantly reset the circadian clock (light exposure and melatonin) and alleviate the symptoms of jet lag (melatonin, caffeine, naps).
“Timeshifter tackles the underlying cause of jet lag by literally helping you shift your biological clock to a destination’s time zone quickly—and counterintuitively, this may even mean not sleeping on a long-haul flight,” said Global Wellness Summit Chairman and CEO Susie Ellis.
The app has many positive reviews, including this one from HeleneSBK of Denmark, who gave it a five-star rating. “I downloaded Timeshifter in an act of desperation in the middle of the night,” she wrote. “It worked really well even though I only followed the advice like 60-80% of the time. I rated my jet lag mild-insignificant. The layout is also super clean and pretty, which makes it easy to follow the advice.”
Timeshifter is available in the Google Play store and the iOS App Store.
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