"Entrain" is a new mobile application about jet-lag that designs mathematical paths unknown until now and that can help travelers suffering from this syndrome of time zones to adjust their internal clocks to the new time in a lesser way. dramatic.
The application, which has been developed by the University of Michigan (USA), is available for the iPhone and is based on "drag" numbers, a scientific term that determines the synchronization of circadian rhythms with the time of day. Certainly light is the strongest signal that regulates our circadian rhythms and the disruption of this rhythm, which is caused by jet-lag, affects not only our performance and mood, but can also cause depression, cancer, heart disease and diabetes .
What the mobile application offers is a program of habituation to light and darkness depending on the itinerary that we have , in such a way that it helps to fit the jet lag in a more therapeutic way; that is, it designs a concrete plan to overcome jet-lag and predicts how long it will take us to adjust to the new schedule .
The “Entrain” design, published in the Public Library of Science Computational magazine, is based on two models of equations coupled with a technique called optimal control theory , to calculate scales of ideal fit at the jet-lag level in more than a thousand possible trips.
