It’s called the circadian rhythm: the 24-hour cycle of biological processes, controlled by our oh-so-temperamental hormones, that determines (among other things) when we sleep and when we wake up. It’s our body clock, in other words, and it’s what jet lag has a terrible tendency to mess with – until now.

Scientists at the Salk Institute in California have identified a protein – REV-ERBα – that controls the strength of our circadian rhythms. Control the strength or “volume” of those rhythms – rather than the timing of them – and you essentially control the body clock.

“Whether it is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on your stereo or the symphony of genes in our bodies, both require volume to be heard,” Salk’s Ronald Evans said. “Our recent work describes how REV-ERBα acts as a molecular conductor to allows the volume or activity of thousands of genes to be dialed up or down.”

What this means is that jet lag might soon become a thing of the past.

“Pharmacologically, we can manipulate this system,” Salk senior scientist Michael Downes said.

Salk’s discovery of REV-ERBα follows a number of other studies into the circadian cycle. In February, scientists from Stanford University found that flashing light could help trick the brain into waking up (as anyone who has been on a red-eye flight when those jokers flick on the cabin lights knows only too well). Scientists at Nagoya University in Japan have gone one further and actually designed new molecules to shorten the cycle.

Of course, messing with REV-ERBα is not necessarily a good idea, even if it does make long-haul international travel that much easier. “Evolution has given us a Goldilocks – or ‘just right’ – circadian cycle that is optimal for our health,” Salk research associate Xuan Zhao said.

On the other hand, disruptions to the cycle have been linked to heart disease, sleep disorders and certain cancers – medical conditions that, with this newfound knowledge, scientists might now be able to cut off at the pass.

And on a rather more trivial note, the aftermath of flights from Europe to Australia might become that little bit easier, too.