#Circadian rhythm

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[mindblowingscience]

Cyanobacteria, an ancient lineage of bacteria that perform photosynthesis, have been found to regulate their genes using the same physics principle used in AM radio transmission. New research published in Current Biology has found that cyanobacteria use variations in the amplitude (strength) of a pulse to convey information in single cells. The finding sheds light on how biological rhythms work together to regulate cellular processes.

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[thelandofmemes]

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

“Winners don’t hit snooze” drop dead actually. Fucking die.

Winners don’t go around assuming everyone is just as privileged and healthy and well rested as them

Winners don’t shame others for whatever accommodations they might need to maintain a decent quality of life

Winners don’t act like pretentious ableist assholes in fact I’m pretty sure winners are perceptive open-minded kind and understanding. Idk

[existennialmemes]

So excited we're about to horrifically torture our Circadian Rhythms by rearranging the clock, because of something that was allegedly more convenient for people over a hundred years ago

[tumbler-polls]

Please tag/comment your age, country, and gender! For the sake of this poll, we went with 7 hours of sleep, but we're aware that some people need less/more 💤

[grrlmusic]

Orienteer Mapazine

[latenightdemo]

"...some stay and some go, but the love is always there."

"Problems are there to get fixed, baby."

Drake

[may-be-a-plant]

Having a sleep disorder is at least a little funny.

I've literally been prescribed sunlight and water as a part of my chronotherapy.

Excited to see what other medieval fantasy sidequests my life has in store.

[the-banks-of-lethe]

Circadian Rhythm: The Basics

As voted on on Wednesday, I'll be covering the basics of the circadian rhythm! When I say basics, I mean the basics, this isn't a deep dive by any means and really just scratches the surface of it. Feel free to add anything on or go and research more yourself if you find it interesting. I might do a deep dive once I get more knowledgable on the subject, but for now, this is it!

[My writing will be in blue for ease of recognising what is my writing and what is quoted. Quoted things will have their links attached.]

Dictionary definition: Circadian rhythm (sir-KAY-dee-un RIH-thum). The natural cycle of physical, mental, and behavior changes that the body goes through in a 24-hour cycle.

"Circadian rhythms are the physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle. Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, but food intake, stress, physical activity, social environment, and temperature also affect them. Most living things have circadian rhythms, including animals, plants, and microorganisms. In humans, nearly every tissue and organ has its own circadian rhythm, and collectively they are tuned to the daily cycle of day and night.

Circadian rhythms influence important functions in the human body, such as:

Sleep patterns

Hormone release

Appetite and digestion

Temperature" National Institue of General Medical Sciences

Basically, your circadian rhythm is your biological time clock*. Telling your body when to do stuff based on your environmental factors and habits; also called a Zeitgeber (German, literally translating to 'time giver', also translated to 'synchronizer'). A Zeitgeber is anything that resets the bio-time-clock. Most commonly its the sun, but it can really be anything that is consistently reoccuring enough in your scheduele for your body to recognize it as a signal of 24hrs passing. This could be food, excercise, social interactions, etc. Humans are creatures of habit, and our brain reflects that.

*Technically, it's not. I know, sorry. But it is at the same time. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is your bio-time-clock; but the SCN is what triggers your circadian rhythm, not just for sleep but for all the other things affected by it; like body temperature, which rises during the day to keep you awake, and drops at night.

My personal favourite experiment / study on the circadian rhythm is the Richardson & Kleitman Mammoth Cave Experiment, 1938.

^^ short video from 1938, subtitles are available.

"Normal sleep--wakefulness cycles operate on a seven day, 24 hour cycle; Kleitman wanted to adjust himself and graduate student Richardson to a six day, 28 hour week."

"Kleitman and Richardson spent 32 days in the cave with a strict schedule of sleeping for 9 hours, working for 10, and 9 hours of leisure time. The absence of light and noise and a constant temperature made for a great experimental environment."

"The goal of their experiment was to determine if humans had an ingrained 24 hour cycle or if we can adjust our circadian rhythm. Measuring changes in body temperature shows a range of 1–2°F change with the highest value in the afternoon and the lowest in the early morning. This curve is not seen in infants, but develops as children adapt to rest-wakefulness cycle of 24 hours."

"It is known that the body temperature curve can be shifted any number of hours, as when a person moves from the United States to China, or it can be completely inverted as when a person regularly stays up at night and sleeps in the day-time [sic]. In either case, however, the duration of the cycle remains unchanged, namely, 24 hours. It is our purpose to find how easy or how difficult it is for a grown up individual to change his body temperature curve from a 24-hour to a 21-hour or 28-hour cycle."

^^ above four (4) paragraphs and video from here

After the experiment concluded, Kleitman wrote and published a study based on their findings called 'Sleep and Wakefulness'.

^^ you can borrow the book for free online, you kind find lots of books / videos / texts / media on here, you just need to sign up <33 (The Internet Archive)

"Nathaniel Kleitman, who died on August 13, 1999 at the age of 104, can be properly described as “the father of modern sleep research”. His claim on this title stems from both his scholarly integration of the work in the field and his own research. His 1939 compendium of prior work on sleep and wakefulness, revised in 1963 (18), includes thoughts on sleep ranging from Aristotle and other ancient thinkers to 20th century pioneers such as Pieron, Hess, Nauta and Kleitman’s contemporaries. The explosive recent growth of the field guarantees that this will be the last such comprehensive, research oriented integration of the literature in sleep research. In the introduction to the 1939 edition, Kleitman apologizes that his reading abilities are “limited to French, German, Italian and Russian” (and English). However, despite this “handicap” he critically integrates 4337 references covering sleep, circadian rhythms, sleep disorders, hibernation and theories of sleep function." - A Tribute to Nathaniel Kleitman

Okay, so not as short as I originally expected, but I could've written more, so yall are lucky I decided to cut it off there. If you have any questions or noticed that I got something wrong, or would ilike to add anything - please feel free!!

I have gotten a lot of what I know of sleep from an amazing amazing book called 'Why We Sleep' - by Matthew Walker. I'm only part way through it but I love it so much, and can definitely see myself buying a copy in the future. Here's a link to his website: https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/ [I only just found his website and omg I didn't know he had a podcast, I know what I'm going to be listening toooo]

Anyway, I hope this has been informative and is a good starter to get you into the science of sleep! I love Hypnos and his realm.. and I hope I can spread further information on him and his domains to others!

Χαίρε Hypnos, and sweet dreams!

[mindblowingscience]

Most plants and animals are exposed to a wide range of environmental variations. A study published in the journal Nature and conducted by the team of Richard Benton, professor at the Center for Integrative Genomics in the Faculty of Biology and Medicine at the University of Lausanne, looks at the ability of Drosophila to adapt to fluctuations in day length. Species with a wide geographical distribution, such as humans, are confronted with multiple environmental variations, which they manage thanks to the flexibility, or ("plasticity") of their behavior. This ability to adapt to the world around them is crucial to their survival. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying it remain poorly understood. It is therefore important to decipher how behavioral plasticity is regulated by genes and the nervous system, in order to understand how widespread species have evolved to cope with environmental changes and how they will adapt to a changing climate.

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[thomas-jeffferson]

anyone else with circadian rhythm sleep disorders get so insanely mad at people when they tell you to "fix your sleep schedule" or "oversleeping isnt healthy" or to "go to bed"

shut up. literally shut the fuck up.

m sorry but I have been dealing with this my whole life and this is how my body functions. YOU'RE body actually fits a 24 hour day cycle. MINE DOESN'T.

i cant fucking "fix my sleep schedule" because my body doesnt recognize that im on a 24 hour cycle dumbass. I cant make myself get tired and i cant make myself get out of bed.

I've missed my drivers test 3 times bc of my sleep issues and i keep having to reschedule. I don'y have a single memory of having a consistent sleep schedule ever.

I HAVE to "over" sleep for my body to be able to function. it's how i can get out of bed at all. before I homeschooled i was staying up for 24-30 hours once or twice a week just to not miss school.

please just stop telling people how to fix their disabilities when they have probably tried every solution or remark you have offered them. Its not the goddamn caffeine sharon.

[ticklace]

Shout-out to my chronically and/or mentally ill friends who are sensitive to shifts in meal & sleep schedules and had their routine shot to hell by the time change today.

One hour's difference isn't a trivial thing. Please be gentle with yourself this week.

Some helpful routine-recalibration things I've collected from various friends and nurses, in case they might be helpful to anyone else:

If you take medications at exactly the same times every day, be aware that your body might need to get used to the shift.

Don't be afraid to bring some extra snacks with you to work/class if you can. (this doesn't just help with delayed mealtimes - sleep schedule disruptions can also really throw your blood sugar out of whack so keeping it steady is important)

Drink lots of water.

Keep your support network close.

If you suddenly feel unbearably shitty, maybe eat a snack.

Sunlight is good for re-calibrating your circadian rhythm. Fresh autumn air is good for just about everything.

Please please please try to resist the temptation to doomscroll this week. (USA, I'm looking at you.)

Most of all, please give yourself plenty of grace. I love you. You're doing so well. ❤️