For travelers the world over, especially frequent world travelers, jet-lag has been an enduring and unwelcome phenomenon for decades. But there could be a solution or at least a significant palliative that researchers have come up with to combat the problem.
The Los Angeles Times has a report headlined " New drug may put jet lag to rest". The newspaper says that "an experimental drug that mimics the effects of the hormone melatonin can reset the body's circadian rhythms, bringing relief to jet-lagged travelers and night-shift workers. A study of 450 people who were subjected to simulated jet lag in a sleep laboratory, a team from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that the drug restored near normal sleep the first night it was used". Most interestingly "there were no aftereffects from the drug, minimal side effects, and people who took it performed normally the next day".
If true the drug could bring about considerable relief for wearied travelers criss-crossing the globe. What the reports does not appear to cover is whether the supposedly harmful effects, including shortening of life spans, of trans-continental travel gleaned from earlier studies would be mitigated by the drug. Presumably, since the study's subjects "slept better" that aspect of the negatives of inter-national travel is minimized if not eliminated.