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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Nutrition scientists have long debated the best diet for optimal health. But now some experts believe that it's not just what we eat that's critical for good health, but when we eat it.
A growing body of research suggests that our bodies function optimally when we align our eating patterns with our circadian rhythms, the innate 24-hour cycles that tell our bodies when to wake up, when to eat and when to fall asleep. Studies show that chronically disrupting this rhythm — by eating late meals or nibbling on midnight snacks, for example — could be a recipe for weight gain and metabolic trouble.
That is the premise of a new book, "The Circadian Code," by Satchin Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute and an expert on circadian rhythms research. Dr. Panda argues that people improve their metabolic health when they eat their meals in a daily 8- to 10-hour window, taking their first bite of food in the morning and their last bite early in the evening.
This approach, known as early time-restricted feeding, stems from the idea that human metabolism follows a daily rhythm, with our hormones, enzymes and digestive systems primed for food intake in the morning and afternoon. Many people, however, snack and graze from roughly the time they wake up until shortly before they go to bed. Dr. Panda has found in his research that the average person eats over a 15-hour or longer period each day, starting with something like milk and coffee shortly after rising and ending with a glass of wine, a late night meal or a handful of chips, nuts or some other snack shortly before bed.
That pattern of eating, he says, conflicts with our biological rhythms.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday July 27 2018, @01:51AM (8 children)
Some of the folks at Kuro5hin felt that for me to work at night and sleep during the day was morally reprehensible.
Some Kuron actually asserted that there was no such thing as a Circadian Rhythm, to which I replied "Many animals are nocturnal. That must come from somewhere."
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is more common than you think:
I once dialed 9-1-1 at three in the morning then said "This is not an emergency. Please have any Vancouver PD officer call me back." And yes that it the official procedure around here.
That cop and I chatted for a solid hour. This because nobody was murdering anyone else that night, and banks my only be robbed during the day.
"The fact that you and I are having this conversation at three-thirty in the morning suggests that you have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome too."
"You know, I think you're right."
I once met a nurse who had worked graveyard shift for her entire twenty year career.
Sometimes when I meet a night shift worker I ask them "Do you work at night because you want to or because you have to?"
It's roughly half and half.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @03:51AM (6 children)
When I was a kid, every summer when school was not in session, I would stay up each night until 2 AM, then wake up at 10 AM. During the cruel schooltime, of course I had to wake up at 6 AM and sleep at 10 PM. I would always toss and turn for a long time before I could sleep.
During my career, I slept and woke as the job demanded. The insane early birds insisted I rise with them, and for the last decade, I had to get up at 4:30 AM to avoid the worst of the city traffic to get to my job. If I got 5 hours of sleep a night I was lucky, and most of Saturday was spent in bed trying to make up for the sleep deficit. It never quite was enough.
Now I'm retired and can finally sleep whatever damn time I want to. Within three weeks of being retired, I find myself staying up each night until 2 AM, then waking up at 10 AM. Maybe there's some 'syndrome' or something for whatever this is, but for me it's my normal.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by martyb on Friday July 27 2018, @11:59AM (4 children)
I've often wondered if one's circadian rhythm survived a change in time zones. IOW, what would happen if you moved a few time zones away from where you are now? Would you find that you were now naturally aligned with your new environment, or that you still maintained your 2AM-10AM sleep 'schedule'? Say, if you lived in California and moved to the US east coast? Or from the east coast to Europe? (I hope I got my directions correct... if not, then head the other way!)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @02:11PM (3 children)
I certainly don't *know* the answer, but from what I've read, the rhythm is calibrated by sunlight exposure. So changing time zones would probably be a very short-term fix, along the same lines as the duration of jet lag.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Friday July 27 2018, @02:20PM (2 children)
I suspect you are correct in it being sunlight-based. Still... any Soylentils have experience with this? Possibly even avoiding jet lag depending on which way you travel?
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday July 27 2018, @05:14PM (1 child)
It's always easier for me with jetlag traveling west. It's much easier for me to "reset" by staying up a little later and then getting up later (rather than the reverse -- partly because it's possible to force oneself to stay awake for a few extra hours, but not really possible to force yourself to sleep early, except with drugs I suppose). There's a limit of course. U.S. to Tokyo is going to mess just about anyone up for several days.
As for moving, I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of studies that show Circadian rhythms reset with natural light cues in a week or so for small displacements in most people, certainly within two weeks. Well, that is, you reset to your typical schedule... if you are delayed or get up earlier than average, you'll typically reset to your standard body behavior. For perpetual world travelers, I assume it's stressful, just like shift workers who go against their "natural" clock.
One interesting thing I've noticed in local cultures is influence of east-west location WITHIN time zone, particular for very "wide" time zones. I've spent extended periods at various times near the eastern edge of Eastern time zone, and other times toward the western edge. Cities on the western side of a time zone naturally seem to have schedules that are a little later, due to later sunrise I suppose. On the eastern side, you might see streets rather busy at 6:30am, but on the western side, streets may be deserted until after 7am.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday July 29 2018, @04:19PM
Thanks for the thoughtful reply!
Interesting... In my experience it was easier to travel east. I'd take the red-eye from the US to Europe, *try* to catch some sleep on the flight, and then just stay up as late I could into that day. Would usually run out of steam around 8pm or so. Would then head to bed and sleep soundly. An alarm clock would dictate the time I woke. Within a day or two, I was "converted" over to the local time of the destination.
In other words: I, too, find it much easier to stay up late, than trying to go to sleep when I'm not yet tired.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:31PM
I can't wait to retire. 2 am to 10am is my normal sleep window. After spending years trying to sleep anytime before 12 I just give up. Sleep at 2. Wake up at 7am. Catch up on the weekends.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday July 27 2018, @05:45PM
Some of the folks at Kuro5hin felt that for me to work at night and sleep during the day was morally reprehensible.
They've identified some genetic markers associated with our night-owlishness. [newscientist.com]
I seem to recall that they were hypothesizing that among early humans there was a survival benefit associated with groups that had someone awake while everyone else slept as a guard. (Didn't find that particular article though)