Who has time for jet lag anymore? And why go through all the trouble of sleeping yourself into normalcy and maybe catching up on some late-night television when you could just stim yourself out and power through to the next time zone? These are the questions being asked by the drug-maker Cephalon as it seeks to market its newest stimulant, Nuvigil, for the treatment of jet lag and other causes of sleepiness, like working the graveyard shift. Meanwhile its anti-narcoleptic billion-dollar cashcow Provigil (aka trucker coke) inches closer to generic competition in 2012. The first step to marketing new stims is, of course, thinking of something that makes people tired normally and then turning it into a medical condition. Enter jet lag disorder.

The New York Times says,

A jet-lag antidote might seem to be the latest lifestyle drug, a further step in the “medicalization” of something that is not an illness. But sleep specialists, who call the affliction “jet lag disorder,” say that while not exactly a disease, it is a condition that can be dangerous — as when someone tries to drive a car right after arriving in a distant time zone … Some studies suggest that disruption of the daily rhythms can contribute to obesity, mental illness and other ailments.

Jet lag disorder joins a whole host of ailments that have been cooked up to sell drugs. These include excessive sleepiness, which is called ES on Nuvigil’s website, because the whole abbreviation worked so well for ADD/ADHD, and shift work disorder, which is for people who work late at night and then feel tired. The Times also reports that Cephalon will target business travelers who bounce between time zones a lot and might not have time to catch up on sleep, because think about how dangerous business travelers are to themselves and others when they hop into their Peugeot rental after a transatlantic red-eye. They need Nuvigil.

And of course Nuvigil isn’t cheap either. At $9 per pill, it would more than cover the cost of a traditional jet-lag remedy, say a pack of cigarettes and a Red Bull, or maybe even some gum to settle the jitters. But, then again, splurging on Nuvigil might be nice-- it'll get you high and insurance will pay for it.