Has it been proven that our body has it's own internal clock???

[Hoeboy]

On weekdays I always set my alarm to wake me up at 6:50am for work. This morning I woke up and realized I forgot to set my alarm the previous night. I jumped out of bed and took a look at the clock and it was 6:50am. I felt fresh and energized which is weird because I slept at 2am the previous night. Of course after awhile I realized it was a Saturday so I didn't have work. But this isn't the first time my body decided to wake up at almost the precise time that I always wake up at.

So does our body have it's own clock???

 

[chickenhead]

Every metabolism converges to needing a certain amount of sleep. For some people, this is 6 hours, for some 8, for some 10, or even longer. Under normal conditions, having spent a regular day, you will need a regular amount of sleep.

If you go to sleep at the same time every night, and if you sleep roughly the same amount of time every night, you will wake up at roughly the same time every day.

 

[cchen]

yes, it's called a circadian clock or something like that

 

[goog40]

When the guy went to live in a cave he found that the body's "day" was about 25 hours, so there's proof that there aren't enough hours in the day

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

<< yes, it's called a circadian clock or something like that >>



Circadian rhythm actually. Well documented. Every living thing has one.

 

[Spoooon]

Actually, without any other signs (like daytime/nighttime, clocks), the bodies natural day was 36 hours. 24 awake, 12 asleep. That guy that did the experiment suffered from some serious side effects. Not due to the sleep, but due to sensory deprivation.

edit: The more I think about it, the less sure I am that it was 36 hours. It was much longer than our day though.

 

[Ionizer86]

Yes, it seems that I get to know just when my alarm clock will go off after a while. Sometimes, I wake up before my alarm clock, and I smack my hand on the button to turn it off the second before it starts beeping (it clicks before beeping, so I can tell).

Interestingly, I had this dream in which my alarm clock went off the moment before I was going to get hit by lightening :Q

 

[kgraeme]

There's also apparently a "death gene". It is a life timer that sets our expiration. I can't really remember much about it, but I heard an NPR interview with the guy doing studies on moths. Pretty amazing and somewhat sobering stuff. If I recall correctly, he could modify the gene and the moth, which has a fairly short lifespan so easy to study, would not develop certain age-related problems that the control moths exhibited.

 

[Spoooon]

<< There's also apparently a "death gene". It is a life timer that sets our expiration. I can't really remember much about it, but I heard an NPR interview with the guy doing studies on moths. Pretty amazing and somewhat sobering stuff. If I recall correctly, he could modify the gene and the moth, which has a fairly short lifespan so easy to study, would not develop certain age-related problems that the control moths exhibited. >>


I remember reading about a similar study where the scientist was able to double the lifespan of flies. However, the usefull lifespan was shortened, meaning they were very decrepit (as far as flies go into decrepitude I suppose) and listless for flies. Another study doubled the life and increased the useful lifespan. So who knows, maybe in the future rich people will be able to live longer than us poor shlubs.

 

[Mookow]

<< Actually, without any other signs (like daytime/nighttime, clocks), the bodies natural day was 36 hours. 24 awake, 12 asleep. That guy that did the experiment suffered from some serious side effects. Not due to the sleep, but due to sensory deprivation.

edit: The more I think about it, the less sure I am that it was 36 hours. It was much longer than our day though. >>



Nope. Most people, deprived of outside clues, will have a 25 hour day. About 5% of the population, however, will slip into a 36 hour day.