Travelogue readers were previously alerted to a new drug being promoted for jet lag.
While this condition is not a serious threat to international travelers, such as malaria or yellow fever, it can significantly decrease the quality of your trip.
Most travel experts agree that touring foreign countries is more enjoyable when you are awake.
Similarly, corporate executives who are traveling abroad for business, agree that these meetings are more useful and productive if they are coherent and conscious during them.
Jet lag is a disruption in the traveler's internal clock that occurs when several time zones are crossed.
With preparation, it can be minimized.
International travelers have many tools available to minimize it's effects so you will not be stuporous when you want to be sharp.
This condition is more severe when traveling westward, so travelers headed in this direction should plan and prepare accordingly.
Is it worth losing 3 days of a short trip because you can't stay awake? The pharmaceutical company Cephalon was hoping that Nuvigil, which promotes alertness, would be approved for jet lag.
The company was hoping for approval as Provigil, a similar drug it manufactures, will be facing competition from generic alternatives 2 years from now.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected approving Nuvigil for jet lag, which is probably giving Cephalon executives and stockholders acute insomnia.
There is still no FDA approved prescription medicine for jet lag.
Travel doctors can give you specific suggestion to minimize jet lag's effect.
For now, Cephalon executives will be counting sheep instead of counting dollars.