However, in other situations, like shift work, it may prove more beneficial to change the pattern of shift work in accordance with a person’s chronotype rather than force people to work against their internal clock.Ĭéline Vetter and colleagues tested this by analysing sleep quality, sleep duration, social jetlag (the time difference between the mid-point of sleep on work days and the mid-point of sleep on free days), and ratings of wellbeing and stress, in people working on three different shift schedules: morning (06:00 – 14:00), evening (14:00- 22:00) and night (22:00 – 06:00). In some situations (like international air travel and jet lag), interventions like these are the only way to speed your adaptation to the new time zone. It is possible to adjust your circadian rhythm to make it easier to adapt through taking drugs and exposing yourself to bright light at key times (Burke et al 2013). This does not come lightly: more and more research is showing that overriding your natural rhythm can result in increased incidences of cancers, heart problems and neurological disorders, as well as impairing short-term cognitive function (Takahashi et al 2008).Ĭan anything be done about this? Possibly. So people force it, delay sleep until convenient times and rely on alarm clocks and stimulants to keep them awake when they need to be. Shift work is the most striking example: there’s no point in an A and E doctor being asleep when an emergency comes in at 3am. When duty calls, they need to be available. In some professions, people have to override their chronotype. For example, some people are naturally inclined to be morning people – the larks or early birds – and some people are inclined to be evening people – the night owls. We as a species are broadly diurnal, meaning we’re awake during the day, but there are a range of chronotypes that result in people having there peaks at different times of day. A significant proportion of this preference is hardwired within them, the outward sign of their internal circadian clock, and is known as their chronotype. You are very probably aware of whether your friends and colleagues are morning or evening people, when they are most awake during the day, or how dependent they might be on coffee at certain times of day. Coffee: Are you an early bird or a night owl? But many scientists, myself included, are fascinated in the details, and some scientists, like Céline Vetter and colleagues at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, use this eye for detail to find out how we might best cope with our biological timing in a 24-hour society. Detailed explanations involving transcription-translation feedback loops and phase response curves don’t change those facts, they’re a fact of life when we live on a rotating world. We sleep in the night and are awake during the day, long-haul flights like those from the UK to Australia gives you jetlag, and night shifts are a right pain in the bum. To many people, the phenomenon known scientifically as the circadian rhythm is bleeding obvious.
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