"Because we are one. We don't need to have studied the intricacies of circadian rhythms to know that we are ravenous at certain times and not others, that the mid-afternoon slump is real, and if we party until 4am we're unlikely to sleep for eight hours afterwards, because the body clock has no sympathy for hangovers. But to better understand this all-encompassing daily cycle is to truly know our animal selves."
"Most of us are awake for 16-17 hours each day, during which we never stop changing, biologically speaking. Every minute, says Debra Skene, a professor in chronobiology at the University of Surrey, our bodies are different. She is referring not just to our chemical makeup, bodily functions and energy levels, but also our motivations, behaviour, mood and alertness. At every point in time, we've got rhythms that are either going up or going down."
Human bodies follow a 24-hour circadian cycle that influences hunger, energy, mood, motivation, behaviour, and alertness throughout waking hours. Most people are awake 16–17 hours and continually change biologically from minute to minute. Individual chronotypes produce early larks and late owls as normal genetic variation, with some internal clocks running faster or slower. Environmental light–dark exposure resets internal clocks each day to align with Earth's rotation. Excess artificial light at night disrupts entrainment and can desynchronise physiological rhythms, producing negative effects on sleep, alertness, and overall timing of bodily processes.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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