A Source of en-LIGHT-enment

Rhythms of Life by Russell G. Foster Leon Kreitzman

Lately, I've been fascinated by circadian rhythms.  I want to know more about these cycles that affect pretty much all cells in all creatures, bacteria, fungi, mammals, amphibians and more!  This book was recommended to me in passing.  I haven't had a chance to get a hold of it, but it looks like a nice break from festival planning.

How do they affect me and what I do?  What happens when I stay up all night...how does that relate to jet lag?  From the little I know, I'm just genetically wired to need 7-8 hours of sleep to function, while some folks I know are able to be sharp on 5.  I think it would be interesting to read about how the timing of one's biorhythms affect daily life, and especially effects it has on medication, mood, and mental acuity.

This is definitely going on my list of reading for fall!

Amazon's Review:  From Publishers Weekly
Are you a morning "lark" or a "night owl"? Do you put your feet up after lunch, or can you get by on a few hours' sleep? Foster, a professor of molecular neuroscience in London, and Kreitzman (The 24 Hour Society) survey the biological clocks that dictate circadian rhythms, the daily cycles that affect creatures from cockroaches to humans. A little bundle of nerve cells in the front of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei is responsible for many circadian functions in mammals. Other controls may be embedded in our genes. The authors explain that all living creatures run on several different biological clocks simultaneously: some make it possible for us to recognize the passage of short intervals of time, whereas others (in the retina) respond to light and regulate our bodily functions over 24 hours and even longer cycles. Your very perception of time depends on your body temperature, which varies by almost one degree Celsius during the course of a day. In their final chapters, the authors explain that the very efficacy of medication for many diseases, notably cancer, depends on when it is administered. Biology buffs will marvel at the fascinating material, and medical professionals should put the book at the top of their must-read lists.

Rhythms of Life: The Biological Clocks that Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing

Definitions of Circadian Rhythms & Random Thoughts

The circadian rhythm is a name given to the "internal body clock" that regulates the (roughly) 24 hour cycle of biological processes in animals and plants. (The term circadian comes from the Latin circa, meaning "around" and dies, "day", meaning literally, "around a day").
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

Mine are really out of whack right now.  I spent a couple hours outside yesterday and was able to wake up for the first time in several weeks.  I'll try and go outside again today to continue to reset my circadian rhythms.  Modern human life can make these things go nuts.  I've been thinking about eliminating coffee from my diet because I'm trying to get back on a more even plane.  I came across an article http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040512041022.htm that talked about how caffeine in small, regular doses can help stave off sleep, but does this alter the human circadian rhythm cycle?  I drink caffeine all day, and not always in big quantities... they also state:

As the researchers hypothesized, the behavioral differences between the groups appear to be due to caffeine's effects on the homeostatic rather than circadian system.

Flower Clocks

With the weather getting nicer in Seattle, my usual gardening urges are coming back.  Unfortunately, I don't remember to water things by the middle of August, so I'm not sure I can call myself a gardener.  I'd have to be a lot more ambitious to undertake a project like this. 

Different types of flowers open under different circumstances.  Typically, they are either temperature driven, light driven, or open at the same time of day despite outside stimuli.  Linnaeus, father of moder taxometry made notes about growing a flower clock.  With this, you'd be able to glance out your window and see what flowers were opening.  This of course depended on using aequinoctales, or flowers with fixed opening and closing times.  Looks Like humans aren't alone in our biological clock functions.

A British list of approximate opening and closing times for flowers is suggested here:

0200 – Night blooming cereus closes
0500 – Morning glories, wild roses
0600 – Spotted cat’s ear, catmint
0700 – African marigold, orange hawkweed, dandelions
0800 – Mouse-ear hawkweed, African daisies
0900 – Field marigold, gentians, prickly sowthistle closes
1000 – Helichrysum, Californium poppy, common nipplewort closes
1100 – Star of Bethlehem
1200 – Passion flower, goatsbeard, morning glory closes
1300 – Chiding pink closes
1400 – Scarlet pimpernel closes
1500 – Hawkbit closes
1600 – ‘Four o’clock’ plant opens, small bindweed closes, Californian poppy closes
1700 – White waterlily closes
1800 – Evening primrose, moonflower
1900
2000 – Daylilies and dandelions close
2100 – Flowering tobacco
2200 – Night blooming cereus

The Northwoods August Activity Calendar (northern Wisconsin) suggests you try the flowers in the list that follows.

6 a.m. Spotted cat's ear (opens)
7 a.m. African marigold (opens)
8 a.m. Mouse-ear hawkweed (opens)
9 a.m. Prickly sow thistle (closes)
10 a.m. Common nipplewort (closes)
11 a.m. Star-of-Bethlehem (opens)
Noon Passion flower (opens)
1 p.m. Childing pink (closes)
2 p.m. Scarlet pimpernel (closes)
3 p.m. Hawkbit (closes)
4 p.m. Small bindweed (closes)
5 p.m. White water lily (closes)
6 p.m. Evening primrose (opens)

Have fun and plant yourself some flowers this summer.

Great Summary of Circadian Rhythms

, The Health Link at the Medical School of Wisconsin has one of the easiest to read and understand broad overviews of circadian rhythms that I have come across.  Circadian rhythms are important because many of us with SAD have body clocks that are very sensitive to light.  It's these circadian rhythms that help you wake up in the morning, go to sleep at night, and function on a day-to-day basis.  The circadian rhythms control your hormones, blood pressure and more.  The internal clock runs on a 25-hour schedule but can be reset by outside stimulus like light or alarm clock.

There is much reasoning out there that the lack of light and how it affects the body leads to SAD for some people.  Check it out, it's interesting!

Basic Overview: http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/922567322.html

10-month Annunal Clock

New research is apparently pointing to the fact that the body may function on a 10-month clock, and not the 12-month year we are faced with.  The body has a chance to reset itself each summer with the longer days. 

The research was conducted with sheep, so I don't know how soon we'll see identification of similar genes in humans or if this will directly impact research into SAD and why the body increases it's desire for carbs, sleep, and depressive tendencies in some people. 

The body is an odd machine though and I"m glad it's able to adapt to most of what we throw at them!

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/global/2007/04/27/nclock27.xml

Circadian Rhythm Cells Control Seasonally

If I were a fly, apparently my brain would be entering a phase where my evening cells would be taking over from the so-called morning cells.  The circadian system in flies are made up of two different types of cells that share control over genetic seasonal behavior based on external clues, like how much light there is in a 24-hour range.  Researchers at the National Center for Behavioral Genomics lab led by Michael Rosbash, talked about how the neurons alternate control and how this affects behavior in the flies.

"In this study we show how the 24-hour intrinsic molecular clock can produce a variable output, so that it fits any seasonal condition," said lead author Dan Stoleru. "This is especially exciting because it gives us an understanding of how animals extract vital information from the environment to drive innate behavior such as reproduction, migration or hibernation."

There is speculation that how these neurons interact can give some insight into how the human brain and some mood disorders function, especially SAD and others that have been shown to be driven by body-clocks.

Link: http://www.huliq.com/17697/circadian-neuronal-network-is-seasonal-timing-device

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrom Video

Here's an interesting video from YouTube created by a sufferer of  delayed sleep phase syndrome.  I've read this before, but I can't imagine actually being affected by such a body clock irregularity that I'm awake when everyone else is sleeping.  Of course, I've never had a problem sleeping, but many of my friends have had a hard time for whatever reason.  I've heard of using light therapy to help someone shift their body clock, but I know that doesn't help everyone. 

The poster has this commentary: I'm not really an insomniac. I just can't fall asleep until far later than I would like, but once I'm asleep I sleep well. Getting up earlier doesn't help... my circadian rhythms just don't have the same phase as everyone else. Perhaps I am evolved for a planet with a longer rotation period.

Actually I think a lot of people have DSPS but just don't know it

The advent of the Internet seems to make resources more available to people.  Good luck to anyone and everyone that has problems with their biorhythms!  If nothing else, know that you're not alone out there.

Need Some Darkness? Try Light Blocking Glasses

Changing time zones or sleeping when your body is getting external clues that it should be awake is hard. 

Our body clock responds to a variety of 'cues' in our environment, the strongest of which is light. A pulse of sufficiently bright light at the appropriate time will move (or 'phase shift') our body clock forward ('phase advance') or back ('phase delay'). Phase shifting requires both a 'seek light' phase, and an 'avoid light' phase.

I know that I have a hard time staying asleep if I take a nap during the day since my body clock has become more regulated.  I'll often shove my head under an extra pillow to block the light.  That works fine when it isn't the middle of summer and I'm not overheating.  I end up sleeping four or five hours some nights which I can't do for more than about a day, so I nap. 

Most people would want to block light if they are trying to fall asleep earlier by triggering the melatonin release that is natural for your body at night. While these glasses might not be  made for sleeping, it might be helpful if you're headed east a couple time zones for a business meeting or something and need to fall asleep before 3 am local time for an 8 am presentation where you've got to be on your toes!

Mutant Clock Gene Studied In Mice

There is much speculation that human psychiatric disorders are tied to abnormal circadian rhythms.  This has been pretty well proven in association with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).  Colleen McClung, a neurobiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas has been studying mice with a mutant version of the circadian rhythm gene called "Clock" for about three years now.  She and her lab have discovered that mice with this mutant version were much more hyper and slept less than typical mice, often not exhibiting normal signs of caution such as hiding when in an open field.

Like humans with mania, these mice were calmed by lithium.  The findings indicate this gene and perhaps others involved in regulating an animal’s internal body clock are associated with at least the manic part of bipolar disorder. 

I thought it was interesting that the mutant mice seemed more responsive to stimulants (cocaine or sugar) than normal mice.  I wonder if this is also true with humans with a mutant version of the gene and their response to coffee.  I drink a lot of coffee, and find that I do react quite positively to it, but yet don't end up with the caffeine withdrawal symptoms that other people do if they were to drink the same amount of coffee as I. 

Link: http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070319_mania_clock.html

Better Performance? Exercise Later in the Day

According to this article, an elite athlete might have a better performance later in the day when your body has warmed up because of your circadian rhythm cycle. 

For some of us, that just means that it might be easier to get up & exercise once our body rhythms are in full swing for the day.  Peak performance in this study was reached about 5 PM in a group of highly trained swimmers. 

While I'm not so sure that this means I need to exercise later in the evening, its an interesting thing to think about. I swam for years and while I hated getting up in the morning to go to practice during the summers, I did enjoy being up after practice was done.  Of course, all of my circadian rhythm tests show that I tend to be a bit more of a morning person anyway.  Ask my mom about how I liked to wake up at 6 am as a baby...