Disruption to biological rhythms

Question 1

Shift work

Answer 1

Working patterns that enable organizations to work around the clock. This is because employees are usually required to work at times when they should be sleeping. Therefore, it is a major disruption to biological rhythms.

Question 2

Jet lag

Answer 2

Occurs in people travelling to places with different time zones. It happens as a result of rapid change in zeitgebers in relation to our biological rhythms.

Question 3

Phase delay

Answer 3

Travelling east to west. This means to adjust to the local time, our sleep needs to be delayed. Studies suggest that phase delay is easier to adjust to than phase advance.

Question 4

Phase advance

Answer 4

Travelling west to east. This means that our biological rhythm has to advance to catch up with local time.

Question 5

Factors that affect the severity of jet lag

Answer 5

Direction of travel (west to east or east to west)
Number of time zones crossed
Age. Some research suggest that jet lag decreases with age (Sack et al., 2007)
Individual differences/ phase tolerance- some people are more resistant to the effects of jet lag than others

Question 6

Technique used to reduce jet lag (Coren, 1996)

Answer 6

Have a good sleep before the flight, to not start off sleep deprived
Adjust flight behavior in expectation of time of destination (stay awake in plane if landing in daytime, sleep in plane if landing in night time)
Avoid caffeine and alcohol
Use melatonin as it is proven to speed up resynchronization. Take melatonin at bed time 3 days before flight and for 5 days after arrival (Beaumont et al. 2004)
If flight is for one or two days there will not be enough time to synchronize the body clock so stick to original sleep-wake patterns.