Why I enjoy the pseudo-science of biorhythms

We have a saying in my family: “Bad biorhythms”. It is used in humour a couple of times a year when, for some inexplicable reason, you become impossibly clumsy, emotional or mentally inefficient. You may have had the best night’s sleep and be without any stress from work or school, you will not have recently suffered jet lag or bumped you head. Absolutely nothing will be out of the ordinary and yet here you go walking into door frames and dropping plates, mixing up your words and laughing without a punch-line. That’s when we call “bad biorhythms” and maybe you should too…

Circadian rhythms have a strong amount of scientific validity, unlike biorhythms.

We, as living organisms, are affected by biological cycles. All living creatures, from elephants to fungi, evolve and adjust to the universe around them. They have patterns that sometimes we see, and sometimes are so subtle, not even the organism its self is aware of them. For example, just as creatures on the seashore will follow the movements and timings of the tide, we too, as humans, experience a 24-hour cycle of wakefulness. Humans also prefer to sleep in the dark, as opposed to other nocturnal animals (and contrary to the belief of my own body’s sleep-cycle), which is one of the reasons so many people have studied circadian rhythms; And not surprisingly as circadian rhythms have a strong amount of scientific validity, unlike biorhythms. But where would be the fun in discussing that?

A circadian rhythm is a roughly 24-hour cycle in the physiological process of living beings. And the word ‘circadian’ stems from the Latin ‘circa’ meaning about, and ‘diem’ meaning day. Ergo, the biological rhythms that happen during each day, which has helped to explain many of our quirks as humans, such as why we feel slightly sleepy in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon. So next time someone catches you napping, blame it on your circadian rhythms!

Biorhythms on the other hand, though widely disproved, detail the idea that a person’s life may alter depending where in their various biorhythmic cycles they are. The similarities come from the fact that both biorhythms and circadian rhythms use a cyclic structure, or wave correlation, with high and low points throughout this cycle.

The theory of biorhythms was first developed by a man called Wilhelm Fliess in 19th century Berlin. Fliess was a medical doctor at the time, as well as an amateur numerologist and a friend and patient of Sigmund Freud. Need I say more? He speculated that a person’s biorhythms derived from two categories; a 23-day physical cycle and a 28-day emotional cycle. Though referred to by Fliess as a male and female cycle due to the fact that women have, on average, a 28-day menstruation cycle. Fliess had come to the conclusion of these numbers as he found that he could express any other number in terms of 23 and 28. This led to him having the belief that these numbers ruled the universe, and everything in it.

Then in the 1920s, a Professor of Engineering at the University of Insbruck, Alfred Teitscher, added another category into the biorhythmic theory: a 33-day mental cycle, this was because he found his student’s work would wax and wane periodically.

I understand wanting a reason or way to predict the highs and lows of your life.

Now obviously this is a load of tosh. People have tried to use mathematic equations to predict their future based on these, and I have yet to read the success stories. Though I understand wanting a reason or way to predict the highs and lows of your life, even if this system did work as some form of clairvoyance to the future; I believe this would cause mass unproductivity as when you get to a low point in the cycle, you will expect that things will go wrong and therefore stay away from anything too strenuous or that might cause the slightest bit of discomfort. And would people disregard the bad things that might happen simply because they were at a high point I their biorhythmic cycle? I don’t know.

Regardless, there have been over 3 dozen studies relating to this topic, but each has been stricken as not valid due to methodological and statistical errors, most notably by Terrence Hines. For example, Fliess did not realise, that although 23 and 28 can express any other number, so can any other two numbers without a common denominator. Though the theory of biorhythms is silly, over the next half century it did help give way to real research into real human biorhythms, such as the cyclic release of hormones from the pituitary gland vs the release of hormones from other sources.

Theories relating to biorhythms have been around for centuries.

My interest comes not from science, but from a sense of underlying order within the world. My theory on biorhythms is that, much like circadian rhythms, everything in the universe has a pattern. Sometimes it can be so clear that you will have a sense of Déjà vu over a full day you have never experienced before, or a pattern in the way a song has been played at every shop you’ve been to in the past two days. I think the universe is predisposed to like order. But I also believe that every so often things fall out of that order, or off-kilter, which results in what my family and I call “bad biorhythms”, until your body, mind or emotions regulate back into order. I think that if we’re being honest, we have all at some point felt this. It runs in line with feeling a shift, or glitch, in your version of reality — which is completely ludicrous when thought about seriously, but very fun to debate in the meantime.

This is not the most unusual notion. Theories relating to biorhythms have been around for centuries, albeit under different names and in various different cultures. From the beginnings of astrology (3,200–500 BC in Mesopotamia) to horoscopes. Though none have much scientific merit, other than historic advancements leading to what we know now, and are now looked on as a purpose more for fun than anything else; I do think that the fact we have been, and are still, searching for a reason as to why our universe happens as it does, counts for something. I enjoy the theory of biorhythms because although ridiculous, it gives me an excuse to blame my off days on something other than my body failing me!

Logically there are many explanations for this phenomenon, one being pattern matching. Pattern matching, or pattern recognition, is how we process the world around us — as the world runs on patterns this is not a strange concept. Though pattern matching occurs with all our senses, for the purpose of this quick example, we will stick to sight:

When a visual stimulus enters our eyes and is recognised by the brain, it starts a chain reaction, whereby we subconsciously search for a similar stimulus from our past experiences; If it is not recognised, then our brain interprets this as new.

It could be that your body is out of balance due to a subconsciously unmatched stimuli.

Pattern matching influences how stimuli feels as well. The more often you see something, or recognise that pattern, the easier it is to recognise said pattern and the more at ease you are to feel with that pattern. Unmatched or difficult stimuli can feel foreign and sometimes upsetting. If you apply this to my theory of world patterns and biorhythms, it could be that your body is out of balance due to a subconsciously unmatched stimuli, making you feel as though something is different and even causing physical reactions such as clumsiness for no perceived reason.

So there you have it. I like biorhythms because it is a fun take to have on life, despite the fact it will make no discernible impact whether true or not (spoiler; it’s not). Our ‘bad biorhythms’ may come from external stimuli or simply a cyclic internal structure, but even if you were able to predict and figure out why — should we change anything because of it? I surely wouldn’t.