Scientists are developing a jet leg pill that could relieve millions of long-haul passengers from sleepless nights and mid-afternoon drowsiness.
The pill is made from a natural chemical, dubbed ‘longdaysin’, which has been proven to dramatically slow down the body’s biological clock, allowing it to catch up with the local time.
The breakthrough paves the way for a host of new drugs to treat severe sleep disorders, jet jag and problems caused by night shifts.
American researchers have carried out tests using longdaysin to lengthen the biological clocks of zebrafish by more than 10 hours.
Lead scientist Dr Steve Kay, of the University of California, San Diego, said: “Theoretically, longdaysin or a compound like it could be used to correct sleep disorders such as the genetic disorder Familial Advanced Sleep syndrome, which is characterized by a clock that’s running too fast.
“A compound that makes the clock slow down or speed up can also be used to phase-shift the clock—in other words, to bump or reset the hands of the clock.
“This would help your body catch up when it is jet lagged or reset it to a normal day-night cycle when it has been thrown out of phase by shift work.”
The pill is made from a natural chemical, dubbed ‘longdaysin’, which has been proven to dramatically slow down the body’s biological clock, allowing it to catch up with the local time.
The breakthrough paves the way for a host of new drugs to treat severe sleep disorders, jet jag and problems caused by night shifts.
American researchers have carried out tests using longdaysin to lengthen the biological clocks of zebrafish by more than 10 hours.
Lead scientist Dr Steve Kay, of the University of California, San Diego, said: “Theoretically, longdaysin or a compound like it could be used to correct sleep disorders such as the genetic disorder Familial Advanced Sleep syndrome, which is characterized by a clock that’s running too fast.
“A compound that makes the clock slow down or speed up can also be used to phase-shift the clock—in other words, to bump or reset the hands of the clock.
“This would help your body catch up when it is jet lagged or reset it to a normal day-night cycle when it has been thrown out of phase by shift work.”
