Hey Senior DUers -Sleep-wake cycle: why it’s vital to watch your biological clock

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/01/watch-your-biological-clock-vital-health-tips
<snip>
Breakfast in the morning, work during the day, relaxation in the evening followed by bedtime. The waking hours have a certain rhythm, and the 24-hour cycle of the Earth’s rotation has resulted in a human sleeping pattern that largely takes place at night for about seven or eight hours of continuous shut-eye.

Several studies have found that disturbing this ancient sleep-wake cycle can make people more prone to illnesses such as diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal disorders and heart disease. Now, a study on nearly 300 pensioners at 24 GP practices in England has found that the best time to have a flu jab is probably in the morning, as this is the time when the immune systems of older people are better able to produce virus-fighting antibodies.

A study at Harvard Medical School on 420 dieters found that those who ate their main meal before 3pm lost more weight

Scientists believe that up to 2,400 lives might be saved if all winter flu jabs were given to older patients before noon, as this is the time when their immune defences are at their best. It is further evidence that timing can be critical – even vital – for certain activities. So what else do we know about the “biological clock” that appears to control our circadian rhythm? Here are a few questions that can be answered.

What is the biological clock and why do our bodies follow a circadian rhythm?
Scientists are now pretty sure that there are two kinds of clock at work in the body. The central “master” clock of the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a collection of about 20,000 oscillating nerve cells in the hypothalamus of the brain, is intricately linked with daylight from the optic nerve of the eye. This internal clock signals when it is time to be awake or asleep, and is linked with hormone levels and body temperature, which correspondingly fluctuate over a circadian period of “about a day”.

[tularetom]

2. Please inform my dogs and cats that my continued good health

And thus my continuing ability to feed them, depends on them not sticking their wet noses and smelly breath in my face at 5 AM because they want food.

[1939]

5. 5am is rising time

Up at five, breakfast at six, dinner at noon, a light supper at five and to bed at ten. Humans were designed that way. Get your head out of the boob tube and got to sleep at ten so you wake up refreshed at five. Your critters are trying to tell you something.

[Person 2713]

13. Yep crack of dawn, a bird or ten chirping around 5 and the cats let us know get out of bed!!

[malaise]

7. Ha hahahahaha

Cat's don't care

[leftyladyfrommo]

21. My dogs line up beside my bed at 4 am

Telling them to go back to sleep doesn't work . They just continue to stand there and stare.

[eridani]

22. I'd say that beats jumping on a high window sill and then on your back with a 20-point landing

That's how my cats used to announce breakfast time.

[leftyladyfrommo]

24. Yes. Cats are just as demanding.

My friend'S cat walks on her head. He is 22.

[JesterCS]

30. Lol our cats are wenches

They sit outside the bedroom door and whine really loud. Also they do the thing with their paws like their digging on the door, so it thumps loud as well. This between 430 and 530am

[LiberalArkie]

3. Make sure you do not have any led's or anything that puts out a blue to white color. Red ok.

Tape over the light colored things.. I had an alarm clock with white led, dim but still white. I unplugged it and BAM solid sleep and waking up like I did when I was younger. Not wanting to get up. Before I unplugged it, I was getting up at 3am and not able to sleep again.

[malaise]

9. Yep there are so many lights on our technology

Something's always on

[LiberalArkie]

11. I never thought about it but I changed out my old alarm clock (red LEDS) to a new fancy one with

white led and that was when I started having trouble sleeping. Not so much falling asleep as waking up while asleep. Evidently I would roll over and face the clock and that would be enough to start the brain thinking it was morning. And once that happened I was awake from then on. I put tape over the apple tv led (white) and my direct tv (blue) and no more wake ups.

[JesterCS]

31. I had to start turning off my computer

It has really bright and multiple blue leds, they light up the room.

[nilram]

12. I got better sleep once I started using a sleep mask.

Cheaper than blackout curtains, and quite portable. No LEDs in the room.

[GliderGuider]

4. On the other hand: Your Ancestors Didn’t Sleep Like You

Your Ancestors Didn’t Sleep Like You

Ok, maybe your grandparents probably slept like you. And your great, great-grandparents. But once you go back before the 1800s, sleep starts to look a lot different. Your ancestors slept in a way that modern sleepers would find bizarre – they slept twice. And so can you.

The existence of our sleeping twice per night was first uncovered by Roger Ekirch, professor of History at Virginia Tech. His research found that we didn’t always sleep in one eight hour chunk. We used to sleep in two shorter periods, over a longer range of night. This range was about 12 hours long, and began with a sleep of three to four hours, wakefulness of two to three hours, then sleep again until morning.

References are scattered throughout literature, court documents, personal papers, and the ephemera of the past. What is surprising is not that people slept in two sessions, but that the concept was so incredibly common. Two-piece sleeping was the standard, accepted way to sleep. “It’s not just the number of references – it is the way they refer to it, as if it was common knowledge,” Ekirch says.

An English doctor wrote, for example, that the ideal time for study and contemplation was between “first sleep” and “second sleep.” Chaucer tells of a character in the Canterbury Tales that goes to bed following her “firste sleep.” And, explaining the reason why working class conceived more children, a doctor from the 1500s reported that they typically had sex after their first sleep.

I wonder how much the change in sleeping patterns had to do with the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of regimented factory hours?

[annabanana]

6. I've also read of the "second sleep" in accounts of Colonial times

In this country.

[malaise]

8. Interesting

Yep changes in space and time force changes to our inner clocks

[Person 2713]

14. I have a friend that sleeps like that. Thanks for the link. She goes to sleep very early as mentione

the cycle is about 12 hrs long.....she claims she feels terrible if she doesn't and does housework , paperwork, cooks etc in the session between the two sleeps . Then off to sleep until around 7am

Crazy and way to time consuming to me but to each their own

[Viva_La_Revolution]

19. electric lights keep us up in the evening now.

[Cornus]

28. This is exactly my sleep pattern...

...since retiring 20 years ago. When working I would sleep all night, but after retiring that all changed. I'll go to bed around 10 or 11, wake up around 2 or 3 and feel well rested. I keep my lap top next to my bed, so I just go on line for a few hours, then it's back to sleep for the rest of the night until 7 or 8 the next morning. This works for me along with an occasional nap in the afternoon.

[HeiressofBickworth]

10. It's opposite with me.

When I was working, I HAD to wake up early to get to work, therefore I was tired and ready for bed earlier. Now that I'm retired, I've reverted to my "natural" circadian rhythm of being up until 3AM, sleeping about 6 - 7 hours and repeating. I enjoy the quiet time of late-night, everyone else is in bed, even the animals have settled down for the night and don't need attention. On those (thankfully) infrequent days I need to be up early for something, it just feels unnatural for me. I've tried all the tricks: dark room, no caffeine after 4PM, reading something boring, etc. I'm still awake until 3AM no matter what. So, I'm just going to go with the flow and not stress myself about when I'm sleeping.

[Marie Marie]

17. Exactly!

What about us "night people". I fought my natural body clock for years and now that I don't have to, I go with MY flow. Up very late, sleep my 6-8 hours, and then start my day. I have more energy, feel more in sync with myself, and if that doesn't happen to gel with day peoples idea of a normal schedule, so be it. While some people love the quiet of early morning, I love the quiet of the still of the night. We may be in the minority, but that doesn't make us wrong - just differently wired. Glad to meet another kindred night spirit Heiress!

[Mojorabbit]

18. I am the same way. nt

[zentrum]

15. Interesting. Thnx.

[ashling]

16. DU Seniors remember your Canadian Rhythms are critical

&list=PL112440FE737111BF

[Hekate]

20. >sigh< This nightowl is doomed.

[malaise]

23. Yah think

[bemildred]

25. I will be 71 in June.

I don't seem to have a schedule any more.
That seems to work fine.
I think it is stress that makes people sick, not when they sleep and when they don't.
If they sleep when they want to, that's the best arrangement.

[Agnosticsherbet]

26. So we can rewind the clock before it stops.

[malaise]

27. LOL

We can try

[Javaman]

29. okay, stay with me here...

sleep takes up 1/3 of your life.

so suppose you could theoretically live to 90, but choose to not sleep and die at 60 but stay up 24 hours a day, what are you actually losing?

[malaise]

32. I could never stay up 24 hours a day

I used to test myself in grad school - made it to 19 hours more than a few times.

That said I don't want to reach 90.

[Javaman]

33. I have a friend that hates sleeping...

he says it's such a waste of time.

I love sleeping but oddly as I get older, I don't sleep as long or as deeply as I once did.

I know the reasons why we sleep.

but you got the joke I was making in my previous post, right?

living to ninety with sleep is like living to 60 with no sleep. lol

[malaise]

34. Love the joke

My father's youngest sister is the only blood aunt still living - she turned 90 in March and does not recognize anyone these days.
She receives quality care but I'm checking out before I reach that state of deterioration - sleep or no sleep

I've been lucky - never had sleep problems - like you I don't sleep for ridiculously long hours these days. Five to six hours and I'm good to go.

[hobbit709]

35. I'm usually up by 5, take a nap around 1 PM, in bed by 10.

that's assuming the dogs don't wake me for attention, the phone rings, or I have to fix a computer. If I get to reading a good book, I completely lose track of time.