ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

JETLAG gene

Okay kiddo, so you know how when we travel to faraway places, our body clocks get all messed up? That's what we call jetlag and scientists have found out that there's a special gene in our body that's responsible for this.

Now, this gene is like a little control center that tells our body when it's time to sleep and when it's time to wake up. It's kind of like a clock that ticks inside of us and keeps us on a regular schedule.

But when we travel to a place that's in a different time zone, our body clock gets confused because it's not used to the new schedule. This creates a little problem because our jetlag gene is still running on the old schedule, and it takes a little time for it to catch up with the new one.

So basically, the jetlag gene helps our body adjust to new time zones, but it takes a bit of time to get used to it. It's like when we switch from playing outside to playing inside, we need a little time to adjust to the new environment.

Scientists are still studying this gene to figure out how to help people get over jetlag faster, but for now, the best thing we can do is try to stick to the new schedule and get plenty of sleep. Does that make sense?