SEATTLE, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Jet lag has more impact on people going from west to east than in the opposite direction and may involve molecular processes in the brain, U.S. researchers say.
Researchers, including a University of Washington biologist, say they've found evidence that differing molecular processes in an area of the brain known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus might play a significant role in those differences.
Human circadian clocks run on a cycle about 20 minutes longer than one day, so they must synchronize themselves by delaying or advancing their time in response to light, a process disrupted by sudden large shifts in the light-dark cycle because of long-distance travel.
It has been shown that delaying or advancing our body clocks involve different pathways in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, but the new research shows that at a molecular level the mechanisms responsible for resetting the expression of the "clock genes" are drastically different.
"We have known for decades that, in humans and other organisms, advances are always much harder to achieve than delays," UW biology Professor Horacio de la Iglesia said in a university release Thursday.
"For example, compare jet lag going to Europe with that coming back," he said.
Understanding the underlying molecular processes could help in understanding potential remedies for jet lag, the researchers said.
