Jet Lag Research Paper

Words: 842
Pages: 4

In 1997, Bernhard Liese, Director of the Health Services Department of the World Bank, published a report on the medical insurance claims by over 10,000 staff and consultants of the World Bank. Liese found a surprising pattern that those who travel internationally had a higher rate of insurance claims than those who do not. These claims include infectious diseases, back disorders, injuries, psychological disorders, etc. The more the international trips, the more the insurance claims. For instance, compared to those without international travel, men who traveled once, 2-3 times, and over 4 times report 1.28, 1.54, and 1.97 fold increase in insurance claims for infectious diseases. The claims were more increased for psychological disorders. Compared …show more content…
It is associated with many psychological and physical problems, including impaired alertness, daytime fatigue, disturbance in sleep, anxiety, depression, irritability, gastrointestinal problems, and generalized malaise. Jet lag compromises work performance. After analyzing decades of data involving tens of thousands of games, researchers find that jet lag impairs professional sports performance in baseball, football, and basketball players. In a paper titled ‘Baseball teams beaten by jet lag’ published in the journal Nature, Lawrence Recht at the University of Massachusetts analyzed three complete season records of the North American Major League Baseball games based on whether there was transcontinental traveling or not, and eastward or westward traveling. Recht found that irrespective of the true competence of the teams, the winning rate of the home team was about 54.1% when the other team did not travel. When the other team did westward traveling, the winning rate of the home team increased to 56.2%. Further, when the other team did eastward traveling, the winning rate of the home team increased to 62.9%. These results could not be explained by a simple ‘home field’ advantage. It shows that jet lag decreases the visitor teams’