What is the importance of the circidian rhythm?

Is there any particular circadian rhythm that you’re curious about? I mean, going to sleep once per day is a circadian rhythm. There are many.

Yes our daily circadian rhythm is what I am primarily curious about.

Sleeping and waking hours are very complicated in my opinion.

For instance, women tend to ovulate late afternoon, so I would assume our circadium rhythm affects our natural cycles.

If people tend to be awake during light hours and sleep during dark hours, that made a lot of sense before electricity, so we naturally were awake when we could see and do our work. People who naturally seem to be nightowls possibly served to protect the group. However, groups that traveled a lot, nomads, it served them well to all wake together, travel, and rest at the same times. There is a theory that yawning is contagious so a group would rest at the same time.

Most adults move through all stages of sleep in about 1.5 hours. If you are short on sleep and take a nap, check to see how long you nap if allowed to sleep uninterrupted. I usually nap 1.5 or 3 hours, so that reinforces this idea to me, but I don’t really know a lot of facts about sleep. Anyway, infants also tend to sleep at about 1.5 intervals while breast feeding. This seems like an efficient way for mommy to get sufficient sleep. Although, I would guess even in caveman days parents were exhausted with new infants.

Very interesting. You seem to know more then me. The cat naps I take are usually aroun 10 to 15 minutes. However I programmed myself that way for convenience sake I do notice if I have time for 20 minutes I invariably have a harder time getting myself up.

I have as of late been trying to stay awake and avoid napping at all. That and reprogramming myself to sleep earlier, so as to get more then 5 or 6 hours a night. Such a simple objective yet such a huge battle.

Maybe there is no side effect to splitting the sleep cycle in half. That might just be an old wives tale if it is true about the 1.5 and 3 hours. I had read, mind you no study, that you don’t actually achieve R.E.M. until the last hour of sleep. How ever it seems like you can modify or speed the process with various deep sleep techniques.

Sleep is such an amazing thing. And yet there seem to be a shortage of facts about it.

@rosehips I think how you feel when you wake up has a lot to do withwhat stage of sleep you are in when you are awoken. My guess is if we are in a deep sleep stage it really sucks to have your alarm go off. 8 hours seems like an odd amount of sleep to me, and it is often the amount that is discussed. Most of my life I needed 9. Now, as I get older and also have a screwed up thyroid, that number is no longer consistant. I have a feeling people would feel best at 7.5 or 9 hours, but 8 makes sense in that a person would compete a cycle at 7.5 and be in a lighter stage of sleep when the alarm sounds at 8 hours. But, each individual would have a slightly different cycle I’m sure.

Little cat naps can be useful, but they are not restorative like sleep that goes through all the stages. Although, I do wonder if in a state of complete exhaustian if we move to deeper sleep stages faster. That the brain adjusts to compensate. I have no idea if our bodies are able to do that. My guess is your naps that were longer were not minimum 90 minutes, but rather you were trying to wake before that when in deep sleep and felt disoriented or glued to the bed so to speak.

I found this. There are actually a lot of links to sites about sleep if you google a little.

Here is the wikipedia on sleep.

I usually sleep for 5 hours, get up and wander into the kitchen, get a drink and go back to bed until I have to get up. Doesn’t seem to matter when I go to bed, it is always five hours later when I wake up the first time.
I recall reading about how people used to sleep pre-electricity and ten hours sleep was not unusual. It was also common to sleep in stages much like I do now. People might get up and be productive (or at least read, write letters, etc) for an hour or more before going back to bed.
I will see if I can find the article again.

All I really know is that I am much better off when I follow my natural sleep inclinations. That is, go to sleep only when I am actually tired enough to sleep, and wake up naturally when I’ve had enough. Sometimes I need 5 hours, and sometimes I need 18! Though it’s been a major pain in the ass for most of my life, I am finally quite content to be a night owl – now that I can actually sleep on my own schedule rather than society’s more common one.

Thank you @JLeslie. I am will experiment with that formula. 1.5 hours does sound about right.

I often wake up mid sleep cycle and wish to be productive feeling perfectly alert. @rojo. Unfortunately my need to be up so early and my habit to be in bed far too late, this option if taken is one I live to regret.

@Augustlan That sounds perfectly ideal. If only, huh?