The changes our internal clocks undergo throughout our lifetimes could also be related to this evolutionary legacy. That would have allowed members of groups to stay awake at night in order to watch for predators or hunt for food that was easier to catch in the dark. As humanity evolved, it was probably advantageous for some of us to be more alert at different times of day. Roenneberg explains in his book that there might be an evolutionary explanation for why people have such varied body clocks. Those whose internal clocks run short tend to be early risers - sleep pressure builds up for them more quickly, pushing them to fall asleep earlier and rise with the sun. Instead, they tend to be a little longer than 24 hours (though some people's clocks are far longer or shorter). Most of our internal clocks also don't match the 24-hour cycle of our planet. Most adults need between seven and nine hours, though some require slightly more or less, and a tiny number need far more or far less. And alongside preferences about when we go to bed, people also require different amounts of sleep. For most of their lives, men have slightly later chronotypes than women. The broad range of human chronotypes also take several other variables into account. (Young people prefer to be up late.Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images) Your chronotype is more than a feeling - it can be verified by measuring your body temperature and the levels of certain hormones in your blood at different times during the day, since those factors are regulated by our circadian clocks. There's no line that distinguishes different chronotypes. Welsh says that if you look at large surveys of populations, you get a normal distribution of chronotypes - most people have fairly "average" chronotypes, some prefer to get up a bit earlier or later, and small groups naturally rise extremely early or late. David Welsh, an associate professor studying circadian clocks at UC San Diego. ![]() "Where you define owl or lark is really arbitrary," says Dr. Most of us think of ourselves as morning or night people, but those divisions aren't scientific - they're just ways of comparing ourselves to one another. ![]() Research into chronotypes helps explain why people have natural sleep patterns, how that changes throughout life, the differences in circadian rhythms between men and women, and what we can do to modify our schedules.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |