Biological Rhythms : The Consequences Of Circadian Rhythms

A rhythm is something that is regularly repeated. All living organisms experience rhythmic changes which tend to coincide with seasonal or daily environmental changes. Most organisms have an internal biological clock called endogenous pacemakers, which are influences by external environmental factors called exogenous zeitgebers, these control periodic changes. The sleep wake cycle is a circadian rhythm that repeats itself every 24 hours. However these can become desynchronised, resulting in a disruption of your biological rhythm. It can be disrupted by many factors, including Jet lag and shift work.

You may choose to respond to this assignment yourself or interview another person. We often hear people commenting that their “biological” or “social clock” is ticking. What are the settings on your social clock? At what age do (did) you expect to be married? Have children? If you do (did) not marry by this time, what would you do? If you were told that you could not have children, what would you do? How would the absence of a spouse and/or children impact your plans for the future?

Commonly known as Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD) and other names, is a disorder in which the persons internal body clock is not in sync with the morning-rise evening-sleep pattern of the majority of people. Individuals with this disorder are not able to sleep and wake at the times that are regulated by normal work and school hours. They usually get enough sleep to keep them at a functional level through the day but not enough to be considered “well rested”. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests commonly ordered for some sleep disorders to determine the illness. The cause of Delayed Sleep Phase can include a variety of reasons; puberty being one of the main causes, but some people are born with the disorder. The short term and long term effects of this illness is unfortunate for a person’s overall health. Overall cures to this disorder have not been found yet. Doctors have suggested sleeping pills to help or other alternatives. The disorder affects the timing of sleep, peak period of alertness, the core body temperature rhythm, hormonal and other daily cycles.

Circadian rhythms occur every 24 hours; an example of a circadian rhythm is the sleep-waking cycle. We are diurnal animals who are active during the daytime and asleep at night, other animals are nocturnal they are active at night but asleep during the day. The circadian rhythm depends on the interaction of physiological and psychological processes to be tuned into the sleep-waking cycle so energy is provided when needed. As diurnal humans we have a fairly stable sleep pattern with the time we go to sleep and the time we wake up, this consistency suggests an internal mechanism controls sleep, endogenous pacemaker. However, this can be overridden by external factors, exogenous zeitgebers.

Sleep patterns are thrown off when the time changes. People tend to have a harder time waking up in the morning when they are exposed to sunlight later in the day. According to “Pros and Cons: Daylight Savings Time, light suppresses the production of melatonin, and melatonin helps everyone fall asleep. It takes people months to get back into a sleep pattern and when the finally do, time changes

I generally tend to go to sleep between 11 pm and 12 am, waking up around 8-9 on my own. When I have to be to work early in the morning, I sometimes rely on an alarm but sometimes my body wakes up on its own and usually go to bed around 10 or 11 pm. I wake up a few times throughout the night normally unless I am extremely tired. According to Myers and Dewall, age and experience can alter the circadian rhythm (2016). I have noticed over the last year my sleeping habits have changed quite a bit. I have started to feel tired later at night and go to sleep later as well. I used to go to sleep around 10 pm but now it’s an hour later than before. My house is normally quiet by 10 pm because my family has gone to sleep. Around that time I go to my

Circadian rhythms disorders is simply a disruption in one’s circadian rhythms which is a name given for one’s internal body clock that regulates ones 24 hour cycle of biological processes. There are patterns of brain wave activity, hormone production, cell regeneration and other biological things that go along with ones 24 hour cycle.()

Regimented sleep schedule: By sticking with a regimented or strict sleep schedule, your circadian rhythm should adapt. Those with variable sleep schedules may have a circadian rhythm that isn’t aligned with their sleep schedule, thus resulting in all types of physiological chaos. Decreasing this physiological chaos with a good sleep schedule may also reduce the

1. An example of this would be our response to light. We follow a circadian rhythm of being awake in the daytime, and sleeping when it is dark outside.

All living organisms have a biological rhythm. Biological rhythms are patterns of physical and psychological abilities overtime. In this lab, the biological rhythm that we studied was called circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythm is a twenty-four hour cycle and it includes patterns such as body temperature, alertness, eating, and sleeping. To evaluate biological rhythms, our class measured physiological parameters such as body temperature, heart rate, time estimate, arithmetic speed, and fine movement speed.

One important aspect that is beneficial to adult health is sleep. Not getting the correct amount of sleep has immediate effects that are often overlooked. One important effect is the lack of energy. [If someone gets fewer hours of sleep one night, instead of the correct amount, their energy level throughout the day is going to be lower than what it should and could be. They may notice halfway throughout the day that they are are tired and cannot get things done. Simply getting just a few more hours of sleep can increase energy and get them through the day.] Another immediate effect most people don’t take into consideration of getting the incorrect hours of sleep is the brain is less active when we are awake. Teenagers in school often times can’t think straight, are not as alert, and can’t get work done because of the amount of sleep they got the night before. Same thing for adults at work. When the brain is properly rested it is more alert and works faster. Without the brain functioning at full power nothing will get done efficiently. A teenager is more prone to staying up late without thinking about the consequences that will come the

This simply means that the body has a natural clock that runs it. The circadian timing system is no longer a twenty-four hour cycle, but it is just more of an individual timing system (Williams 111). As people have developed and changed, the system is no longer twenty-four hours, but it has become more personalized according to the individual. Circadian rhythms have a large impact on our sleeping patterns and if the system is changed, it can be the beginning cause of sleep deprivation.

The circadian clock holds large importance in a number of bodily functions including the cardiovascular system. In particular there are a number of connections between the circadian clock and myocardial infarctions (heart attacks). Myocardial infarctions (MIs) as a term is more commonly used in scientific journals than heart attacks, therefore, the term myocardial infarction (MI) will be used throughout the duration of this paper. Overall a discussion of the link between MIs and the circadian clock, the effect of disrupted sleep on MIs, and certain cases where there is an attenuation of the link between the circadian clock and MIs will be considered

Aside from noticing night and day and clocks our body has its own system to tell us when to sleep and when to wake, our circadian rhythm. The human body naturally runs on a twenty five hour clock, so living on a twenty four hour schedule is often hard on the body because it loses an hour each day. On top of this natural loss most people do not get the right amount of sleep each night which can cause a whole host of problems. This is part of

 Jet Lag: internal biological clocks collide with external clocks as a result of moving across several time zones.