A new app called Entrain uses mathematical equations to help jet lag sufferers get back on track.
The app was designed by University of Michigan graduate student Olivia Walch. It works simply enough. Just punch in the time zone you are traveling to and the app will figure out a schedule telling you when you should stay in bright light, low light or the dark to help your body adjust to its new location.
Certain levels of light exposure, at the right time, can help a body adjust quicker to a new time zone, explained Walch.
"The conventional wisdom is for every hour you're shifting, it's about a day of adjustment," Walch said. So Washington, D.C., travelers going to Hong Kong - a 12-hour time difference - could take up to 12 days to adjust. The app can reduce that time to roughly four or five days, the inventors say.
The app is suppose to be available, but it could not be found on Google Play at press time.
Unlike other apps intended to help with jet lag Entrain was built by a team of mathematicians who devised a formula. To double check the team's findings the study is available online.
"In your brain you have a central circadian clock ... [that] sends signals all throughout the body," said Danny Forger, a professor of mathematics and computational medicine at Michigan and the other mastermind behind Entrain. "And that central clock controls all of the body's biological functions."
Once the calculations are complete the traveler just has to find the time and proper locations to reset their time bearings.
This calculation approach is not new, as NASA and the transportation industry have been using it for years, but this is the first time such an app has been made available to the general public and is not yet field tested.
But one outside observer believes it should work. Dr. Elizabeth Klerman, a sleep medicine and disorder researcher at Harvard Medical School, noted that as each person will react different so simply using a formula will not work in all cases.
Check out a demo below.
