in the context of sleep studies and disorder diagnosis, refers to lack of alignment between external signals and the biological clock.

Desynchronization is the out of syncing of hormone regulation and digestive cycles. This explains jet lag because lack of sleep doesn’t cause these problems, but by changing circadian rhythms, these other systems become unadjusted. Travelers are thus groggy.

a process causing an absence of synchronization; the relation that exists when things occur at unrelated times; as, the stimulus produced a desynchronizing of the brain waves.