Fasting, Jet Lag & Shift Work

Factors contributing to symptoms of jet lag are (1) external desynchronisaion due to immediate differences between body time and local time at the end of the flight. (2) internal desynchronisation due to the fact that different circadian rhythms in the body re-synchronise at different rates, and during the re-synchronisation period, these rhythms will be out of phase with one another.

International travel across time zones produces symptoms of jet lag such as sleep disturbances, gastro-intestinal disorders, decreased alterness, fatigue and lack of concentration and motivation.

General symptoms arising from desynchronisation include tiredness during the day and disturbed sleep and reaction time. The severity of these adverse effects and therefore the time required for re-synchronisation depends on the ability to pre-set the bodily rhythms prior to flying, the number of time zones crossed, the direction of flight, age, social interaction and activity.

NASA estimates that it takes one day for every time zone crossed to regain normal rhythm and energy levels. A 6-hour time-difference thus needs 6 days to get back to normal. 

Rapid adaptation to a new zone can be facilitated by maximising exposure to zeitgebers for the new cycle e.g. changing to meal times and sleep times appropriate to the new time zone.

Maximising social contact and exposure to natural lgihting will result in faster resynchronisation than staying at home in a hotel and eating and sleeping without regard to local time. There are widesperead individual viariations in the rapidity of resynchronisation. 

Muslims who fast regularly and who have experienced disturbed wakefulness/sleep cycles on a daily lunar annual basis, can adapt themselves much faster to different time zones during international travel and do not suffer from the ill effects of jet lag.

Moreover, the social contact during the Tarawih congregational prayer and the other social-cum–spiritual activities act as zeitgebers which regulate any desynchronised biological rhythm.

Shift workers also experience similar symptoms as jet lag, especially gastro-intestinal, cardiovascular, and sleep disorders and also reproductive dysfunctions in women.

The inverted schedule of sleeping and waking also results in diminshed alterness and performance during night-time work with attendant increase in the number of fatigue-related accidents during night time shift hours.

Normally, a period of three weeks is required for re-synchronisation among shift workers, and as the fasting Muslim atunes himself to resynchronization processes during the space of just over four weeks in Ramadan, his health problems as a shift worker would be negligible, as his synchronization processes would be more rapid, whether during Ramadan or at any other time.

It is also a common observation that as soon as Ramadan is over, normal circadian rhythms are established in the fasted Muslims with such great rapidity as to be at par with pre-Ramadan levels on the first day of Shawwal, i.e. Eid-ul-Fitr.

To be continued........

https://www.islamstory.com/en/artical/1880/Circadian Rhythm While Fasting 3