OddballGreg - Circadian Rhythms

This picture makes about as much sense as my own circadian rhythm does these days. Still, head with a clock seemed fitting strangely.

If you've ever pulled an all nighter writing some horrific report while some weird person does their best to keep you awake, or decided that playing video games until 5AM was a good idea; then it is likely that you know the consequences of not holding to a regular sleep cycle. Lets talk about Circadian Rhythms and why they're important.

As always, some fantastic, scientifically minded individual on YouTube has done some manner of discussion with regards to the subject. Hooray. Below is a video by YouTube's very own Hank Green as he does a SciShow video on what the Circadian Rhythm is and why it's important. As always, Hank Green's demeanor in itself makes the scientific talk a fair bit more entertaining to listen to.

In the event that you couldn't be bothered anyway, the Circadian Rhythm is essentially the body's internal clock by which it regulates your need for sleep. It's also rather inherently linked with things like metabolism and energy levels. (And as such, it's kind've a bad idea to screw with it since they've linked it's disruptions with everything from obesity to diabetes and various other issues like a depression and dementia.)

So why is this interesting? For a couple of reasons really. Firstly, you've probably figured that humans don't exactly hold to their Circadian Rhythms very much. Pilots suffer from Jet Lag, Night Owls end up looking like the walking dead and I just suffer from general exhaustion. (Which is why I've yet to put up a blog post before 12PM. It's really hard getting up early when you were up until 2 making changes to a blog. Beats being a plumber though I guess.) Somehow, despite our incessant need to disregard the rhythm, our bodies manage to adapt to our lifestyles.

A little known fact is that humans are the only creatures in nature that exhibit the nature of sleeping only once each day. As stated in the earlier video, there is actually a period during the day around 2 to 4PM where chemicals in the body would make sleeping easier to do. Apart from that, there is a fair bit of evidence suggesting that taking a midday nap could be beneficial to ones well being. (And my teachers always complained that I was wasting my time when I slept in class. Teehee)

However, more interestingly, disregarding the fact that it might not be super good for you in terms of your metabolism, there are actually more efficient sleep cycles that a person can adopt with a bit of work that will allow them to reduce the total amount of time they sleep. Most humans keep to the earlier mentioned once a day sleep cycle which usually involves about 8 hours of sleep each time. (And yet we all still feel like train wrecks afterwards anyway.)

The interesting things about it is that of those 8 hours, it is only the last 2 or so hours that are technically restful for the body, due to the body having multiple phases of sleep that it goes through. The most restful phase, known as REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep, takes place in those last hours and is also the phase in which one dreams. (That's why those good dreams are always getting interrupted by alarm clocks or yelling mothers depending on your age. *facedesk*)

What's fun about that though, is if you've ever been exhausted, you might have noticed you fall into a deep sleep rather quickly. So the idea behind changing your sleep rhythms is to exhaust yourself to the point that you fall straight into deep sleep at regular intervals. If I am not mistaken, you can have as little as 2 hours of sleep by doing this and still be as rested as you would normally be on 8. The tradeoff being that these altered sleep cycles have to be rigorously held to in order to be effective. The 2 hours cycle requires 30 minutes of sleep at the exact same time each day to prevent exhaustion. There are slightly more malleable systems involving less sleep periods of greater lengths, but more than 4 periods begins to see diminishing returns as far as I am aware. 

Still, considering how much work I put into the maintenance of this blog, I don't have time to exhaust myself. Feel free to try it yourself though. If you do, be sure to let us know how it went in the comments below or via Facebook or Twitter. And of course, if you have any friends that enjoy psychologically minded articles or facts, be sure to share this article with them, I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Also, if you would like to read more interesting articles like this, (written by yours truly), do be sure to like the official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Regardless of what you do however, I thank you for having taken the time to read this article; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Sleep well my friends.