Want help to beat jet lag?
McKinsey & Company’s “State of Tourism and Hospitality 2024” reports that the post-pandemic era has led to more travelers prioritising cross country trips. While that is good news for the hospitality industry, international travel often comes with a major headache: jet lag.
Jet lag effects go beyond sleepiness. It affects a traveler’s alertness, mood, metabolism, immune function and more. That weakened performance can hurt travelers’ ability to fight off viruses and also increase a person’s likelihood of getting into an accident.
Although some people may say they don’t get jet lag, the truth of the matter is that jet lag affects everyone. One can measure it in the lab it seems, according to Mickey Beyer-Clausen, co-founder and CEO of Timeshifter, an app works with users to create personalized jet lag plans, recommending practical steps to shift time zones more easily, such as reducing light exposure and avoiding caffeine during certain hours.
“Jet lag is not just about feeling off for a few days,” Beyer-Clausen said. “Your entire biology is disrupted.” When a person’s time zone doesn’t sync with their internal circadian rhythm (24-hour cycles that are part of the body's internal clock, running in our brain to regulate alertness and sleepiness, etc), their brains send signals to their bodies to rest or be alert at the wrong times.
Timeshifter addresses this by offering tips to better align travelers with their internal cycles, such as avoiding light exposure during certain hours. (Beyer-Clausen said that accomplishing this can be as easy as wearing sunglasses when outside.) “It’s all about the right timing of light exposure and light avoidance,” he added.
With rising interest in wellness tourism, guests are increasingly prioritizing rest and relaxation when they travel. To tap into “sleep tourism” demand, hotels and resorts are offering sleep-focused wellness retreats and amenities designed to foster restful sleep. But while sleep-focused amenities are trendy now, they don’t have a meaningful impact on sleep health when they don’t include circadian rhythm science says Beyer-Clausen.
According to him, “Most of the advice out there is just incorrect, scientifically. If your focus is on ‘sleep’ you’ve already failed Sleep is regulated by your circadian clock and therefore, what you need to look at is circadian shifting.”
In February, the app announced a partnership with IHG Hotels & Resorts’ InterContinental brand, which aims to enable its guests to tap into Timeshifter, which uses science to assist travelers navigate time differences and to improve the guest experience.
Guests staying at InterContinental hotels will have complimentary access to the Timeshifter app. In tandem with this, InterContinental is also debuting a “restorative guest room’s concept” by neuroscience-based designer Isabelle Sjövall and nutritionally rich menu items “to counter the body’s natural response to travel.”
IHG Vice President of Luxury and Lifestyle Brands Tom Rowntree said the Timeshifter partnership “is about putting the right technology in the hands of our guests so they can seamlessly shift through their day-to-day.”
“By harnessing the power of cutting-edge solutions like Timeshifter, we’re not only addressing the common challenges faced by travelers but also redefining the entire guest experience,” Rowntree said in a statement.
Beyer-Clausen said travel companies were skeptical about Timeshifter when he first approached them about the app, but that IHG took the time to read up on the science and test it before launching their partnership.
“I’m so incredibly grateful to [IHG],” Beyer-Clausen said. “They took the time to be serious about it and not just think about Timeshifter as a gimmick or campaign that can bring a few more new guests to their properties. They’re looking long term at how can they improve the experience [for guests].”
Source: External
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