HWN Suggests

Your Body’s Witching Hours

Heart attacks often occur in the morning. Epileptic seizures peak in the late afternoon. Asthma attacks get worse and more deadly between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.

Researchers are finding that circadian rhythms, which cycle every 24 hours or so, drive virtually every system in the human body, from circulation and cognition to metabolism, memory and mood. And they play a big role in determining when we are most vulnerable to disease.

Chronobiology—the study of these internal clock mechanisms—has exploded in recent years thanks in part to the discovery of specific genes, to which scientists have given names like Clock, Period and Cryptochrome. Those genes help keep our biological…

read full article

Featured

 The circadian rhythm research that just won a Nobel prize in medicine, explained

The award celebrates the study of the tiny biological clocks in every living thing.

 What Are Circadian Rhythms and What Happens When They’re Out of Whack

When your circadian rhythm is disrupted, the immediate repercussions are that your sleeping, waking and digestive systems are thrown off; for lack of a better phrase you’ll, well, feel like crap

Articles of Interest

Circadian Rhythm Chronotherapy for Depression – Experiment

In all honesty, the results are just too juicy not to at least try. I might fail. In fact, considering I have to stay up for 36 hours I’d say there’s a high likelihood that I’ll fail, but I think it’s worth a shot anyway. I could be wrong. It could all go horribly wrong and I’ll end up jumping off the roof in mad mania or suiciding in depression. But I’m hoping not.

Circadian Rhythms: Are Yours In Sync?

Ingrained in all of us is a natural instinct for continuity in our sleeping and waking schedule each day — our circadian rhythms. While we can choose to ignore this need for continuity by working at night or sleeping late into the day, it carries consequences.

How Modern Society Taints Our Circadian Rhythm

By messing with our circadian rhythms through constant exposure to light, we may be accelerating our aging process and be actively weakening our health and resistance to disease.

Seeking the Gears of Our Inner Clock

Throughout the day, a clock ticks inside our bodies. It rouses us in the morning and makes us sleepy at night. It raises and lowers our body temperature at the right times, and regulates the production of insulin and other hormones. The body’s circadian clock even influences our thoughts and feelings. Psychologists have measured some of its effects on the brain by having people take cognitive tests at different times of day.

What Is The Circadian Rhythm And How Does It Influence Human Behaviour?

Beyond light, your circadian rhythms are guided by a variety of other internal and external factors...

Resources

B-Society

The B-Society is working towards making a flexible society, which can accommodate different types of families, ways of working and circadian rhythms.

Center for Circadian Biology

Fostering innovative research that reveals the mechanisms, general principles, and applications of biological rhythms in diverse organisms.

Circadian Sleep Disorders Network

Circadian Sleep Disorders Network is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people with chronic circadian rhythm disorders. We aim to increase awareness within the medical community and among the general public, to provide emotional support and practical ideas for people living with these disorders...

Journal of Circadian Rhythms

The Journal of Circadian Rhythms aims to include both basic and applied research at any level of biological organization (molecular, cellular, organic, organismal, and populational). Studies of daily rhythms in environmental factors that directly affect circadian rhythms are also pertinent to the journal's mission.

Society for Research on Biological Rhythms

The Society for Research on Biological Rhythms is an international society established in 1986 to promote the advancement and dissemination of basic and applied research in all aspects of biological rhythms, enhance the education and training of students and researchers in the field, and foster interdisciplinary communication through the organization of biennial meetings and informal gatherings.