A cure for jet lag? Scientists experimenting on mice say they may have found one

A new study using mice may have hit upon an unlikely cure for jet lag: oxygen deprivation. According to a report published in the journal Cell Metabolism, when the animals breathed air with about one-quarter to one-third less oxygen than usual, they adapted to a six-hour time change more rapidly than mice that breathed regular air.

Oxygen is essential to humans, mice and other animals. The cells in our bodies need oxygen to convert carbohydrates into energy.

A team of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and the University of Bristol in England suspected oxygen might be useful for another reason as well – keeping our circadian systems in sync.

The circadian system makes sure that all of the body’s cells are in tune with our master internal clock. Our daily cycle of eating and fasting helps with this. So does our body temperature, which falls in the hours before we go to sleep, then rises as we prepare to wake up. The researchers realised that both eating and temperature regulation are “tightly linked to ­oxygen consumption”.

To learn more about oxygen’s role in regulating circadian rhythm, the scientists monitored oxygen levels in the blood and tissues of mice. What they found was that the mice consumed more oxygen when they were exposed to darkness – this is their active phase, since they are nocturnal – and consumed less oxygen when exposed to light – when they rest.

Next, they conducted experiments with mouse cells cultured in laboratory dishes. The cells were ­exposed to varying amounts of oxygen, and researchers checked to see which genes were expressed.