Rhythm of Life

Scientists have discovered that our bodies operate on a 25- hour day. So tuning into your bodyclock can make things really tick, says Jenny Hope, Daily Mail Medical Correspondent.

Choosing the right time to sleep, the correct moment to make decisions, the best hour to eat – and even go into hospital – could be your key to perfect health.

Centuries after man discovered the rhythms of the planets and the cycles of crops, scientists have learned that we two live by precise rhythms that govern the ebb and flow of everything from our basic bodily functions to mental skills.

But it’s not just the experts who are switching on the way our bodies work.

Prince Charles consults a chart which tells him when he will be at his peak on a physical, emotional and intellectual level. Boxer Frank Bruno is another who charts his bio-rhythms to plan for big flights.

Sleep, blood pressure, hormone levels and heartbeat all follow their own clocks, which may bear only slight relation to our man-made 24-hour cycle.

Research shows that in laboratory experiments when social signals and, most crucially, light indicators such as dawn are taken away, people lose touch with the 24-hour clock and sleeping patterns change.

In the real world, light and dark keep adjusting internal clocks to the 24-hour day.

As it falls from a 10 p.m. high of 37.2C to a pre-dawn low of 36.1 C, mental functions fall to. This is a key reason why shift work can cause so many problems – both for workers and their organizations.

The three operators in the control room worked alternating weeks of day, evening and night shifts – a dangerous combination which never gave their bodies’ natural rhythms a chance to settle down. Investigators believe this caused the workers to overlook a warning light and fail to close an open valve.

Finding the secret of what makes us tick has long fascinated scientists and work done over the last decade has yielded important clues.

For example, the time we eat may be important if we want to maximize intellectual or sporting performance. There is already evidence suggesting that the time when medicine is given to patients affects how well it works.

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