Biological Clock and how it works:
Our body has a clock of its own, often called our Biological
clock. It controls everything. From feeling hungry, to feeling active or sleepy,
all are controlled by this one clock.
Not only us, all the animals has a body clock which controls
their basic necessities i.e. eating, sleeping and mating. That clock is called circadian rhythm or
circadian clock. Now, this clock is old sun-dial. So, day-night cycle
influences the circadian clock.
Regulator of circadian clock or circadian is in
Hypothalamus, deep inside our brain.
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| SCN in Hypothalamus control Circadian Rhythm |
Group of cell in hypothalamus known as
Suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN control this clock. SCN is connected optic nerves of eyes. Hence it
adjusts our body clock with day-night cycle.
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| SCN tries to sync our Biological clock with Day-Night cycle |
In morning, with exposure to light SCN instruct our body to
increase temperature, heart beat and blood pressure and get ready to for
action. Then it gradually stops melatonin secretion, the hormone which makes us
feel sleepy. With melatonin gone, we gets into top gear in late morning between
10 to 11 am.After sunset, in absence of natural light SCN instruct to release
melatonin. As melatonin rises during night we feel less active.
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| Circadian Rhythm |
Consequences altering body Clock:
But, our body clock can be altered by ourselves. Like people
who does night shift can stay awakes whole night. But circadian circle doesn’t
only control sleep cycle, it also controls many other functions in body. So,
changing your sleep pattern can put sleep cycle out of sync with other
activities. So, when you try altering body clock you just mess up the
synchronization between brain and other organs. That is why people who do shift
works often experience a sleeping disorder named “Shift Work Sleeping disorder”.
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| Shift Work Sleeping Disorder |
Shift Work Sleeping Disorder:
Because of changing shift they get obliged to sleep in
different times on different days. Hence, their body often has to adjust
against the scheduled made by their Biological clock. So, feel active or sleepy
on abnormal times as their circadian cycle gets messed up because of their
changing schedules.
They experience some drastic consequences of it.
Symptoms:
- Feeling tired when they need to stay awake
- Inability to sleep or being sleepy suddenly
- Difficulty in concentration
- Irritation, depression
- Difficulty in coping up with situations and peoples
Jet Lag:
People who fly across the time zones frequently experiences
sleeping issues, tiredness, lack of concentration etc. That condition is called
Jet Lag. It is considered a circadian rhythm sleep disorder as it is caused by disturbance
in the internal body clock.
Reason of Jet Lag:
Say, you live in USA and you visit Japan. During your natural sleeping time, it is daytime in Japan. So your brain try to
make adjustment to keep you awake but your body wants sleep. Then again you change
your time zone. Say, you go to India. Again your body clock tries to make adjustment
for the 5-6 hour change in time because of sudden change of time zone. But this adjustments are not as easy to make as it sounds. This adjustments requires resetting
times of secretions of many hormones (like melatonin ) , synchronizing all
organ clocks with the change and that can’t be accomplished in just few
hours. So, you end up feeling fatigued, confused, having sleeping issues.
Messing up with body clock is never a good idea.
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