Recent scientific studies suggest that less oxygen intake can cause laboratory animals to adjust faster to six hour time changes in schedules. The experiments were done on mice, but scientists are pretty sure that results are applicable to humans travelling to different time zones by plane.
Scientists discovered that animals that breathe 25 to 30% lower than their regular oxygen intake are able to adjust quickly than those who breathe their normal intake. Researchers from University of Bristol in England and Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have suspected that the control of oxygen intake can enable humans to keep their circadian systems in rhythm.
The human circadian system is the body function that sets the usual sleep and wake hours of the body. Scientists have established that mechanisms in the brain are responsible in establishing a biologic clock that the body involuntarily follows.
The retina of the eye and the pineal gland and some parts of the eye also form part of the system that sets a 24-hour cycle that adjusts to the earth's day and night environment.
The scientists suspected that oxygen intake directly affects the circadian system which is also present in plants and animals. In the experiments, mice breathe more air when exposed to darkness, when they are active, and breathe less when exposed to light, when they are at rest.
Knowing that oxygen is essential to animal cells in converting carbohydrates to energy, the scientists tested the oxygen levels in the blood and tissues of the mice tested and came up with promising results.
They created an environment where the mice were habituated to a 24 hour cycle of equal 12 hours daylight and 12 hours darkness. They discovered that when they quickened time by six hours just like what happens in a long plane flight, mice that were given less oxygen adjusted better and faster than those that that given more.
The best possible cure for jet lag might be taking less oxygen in flight.
