Circadian Rhythms Dictate Our Lives — Here’s How to Build Your Schedule Around Them
No matter how busy you are
In 2017, a team of 3 geneticists and biologists won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm. If that sounds complex, it’s because it is, but in this article, we’re only focusing on what this discovery means, not on how the whole process actually works: it means that our human biological clock helps us anticipate and adapt to the regular rhythm of the day.
This may sound obvious, but it somehow took 288 years and a group of 3 70-something friends experimenting with fruit flies to explain how this works scientifically. You see, this whole “circadian rhythm” thing started with a French researcher, who in 1729 placed a mimosa plant in a light-tight dark room to see what would happen. To his surprise, the plant continued to unfold its leaves in the morning and close them in the evening, despite having no indication about the current time of the day. Almost 3 centuries later, 3 geneticists realized it’s the same for humans. That’s why you feel like crap if you have to wake up at 4 am, it’s not time for your petals to open yet.
