Jet-Lagged? There’s an App for That

There’s no quick solution when it comes to jet lag but unsurprisingly, there’s an app.

It may be Paris, but there’s still no magic pill to make you feel like it’s mid-morning on arrival at CDG in France when every bone in your body knows it’s hours ’til the sun is supposed to rise.

But now there’s a free iPhone app, devised by a couple of cunning Michigan mathematicians, which can snap you into your new time zone in just three days.

It’s exposure to light that gets you in synch with the clock where you are. But getting light in the wrong way at the wrong time can send you in the wrong direction clockwise, says University of Michigan’s Daniel Forger.

His new app, Entrain, uses computer modelling to provide custom schedules of light and darkness depending on your itinerary. “Our predictions show the best and quickest ways to adjust across time zones,” says Forger.

The schedules show one block of time each day when you should seek the brightest light possible and another when you should put yourself in the dark or, at least, in dim light. Yes, it’s not your normal schedule, but that’s the whole point, n’est-ce pas?