Jet lag can be called the worst part of long-distance travel, mainly when you are left with feeling tired, cranky and off-kilter for days.

However, Stanford University scientists said that there could be a way to avoid jet lag without medication or changing your sleep schedule.

A group of researchers headed by neurobiologist Jamie Zeitzer has been working on a technique, exposing people to short light flashes while they are sleeping to help them adjust more rapidly to changes in time zone.

Existing light therapy treatment involves hours-long session in front of bright lights at a time in the day. This allows you to change your body clock to a different new time zone in short step before you take a trip.

Published on Monday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Zeitzer's latest study may make treatment easier by offering light exposure during sleep, prior to the trip, without bringing any change or interruption in your routine.

According to the researchers, flashing light is helpful in resetting the circadian system, which controls the human body rhythms and sets up normal sleep and wake phases.

Through light exposure, the circadian system is coordinated with the outside world. Zeitzer, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, said that it controls release of harmone, sleep timing and mood. An individual suffers jet lag when his sleeping and waking patterns are not in synchronization with circadian rhythms.

Zeitzer said that to become accustomed to a different new time zone, most people attempt to get as much light exposure as they could, corresponding to their destination, either by getting up early prior to trip or by staying up late on their arrival. If they don’t do any of the two things, they suffer the exhausting consequences’ their body adjusts with time at a slow speed of nearly one hour per day and take around three days in catching up.