'Sun' glasses can help reduce jet lag

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ADELAIDE, Australia, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Australian researchers say a wearable pair of "sun" glasses that imitates sunlight patterns could reduce jet lag and help insomnia sufferers and shift workers.

Scientists at Flinders University in Adelaide say the glasses emit a soft green glow to target a part of the brain that regulates the human body clock to help a traveler adapt to changing sleep patterns and time zones in "small steps," Britain's The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

The light from the glasses can change the behavior of a gland at the base of the brain that controls the body clock, causing it to send signals to the rest of the body to help it slowly realize it is in a different area of the world.

These signals that trigger the production of hormones and regulate daily cycles known as circadian rhythms can be affected by the battery-powered glasses dubbed Re-Timers, researchers said.

"These rhythms vary regularly over a 24-hour cycle," chief inventor Lean Lack said. "However, this process is often impaired by staying indoors, traveling to other time zones, working irregular hours or a lack of sunlight during winter months."