A group whose sleep cycles may benefit from turning the clocks back one hour

dissolution sleep and wake patterns daylight Saving Clock changes reveal a lot about our reliance on everyday interactions Sleep Pressure and circadian clocks.

First, you need to understand the complex changes that occur in your body the night the clocks are turned back an hour. on Saturday eveningAssuming we are not in bright light, our body will begin the daily routine of secretion melatoninA key hormone for the timing of SleepIt will accumulate in the bloodstream and reach its peak concentration a few hours later, before steadily decreasing until the morning.

melatonin Doesn’t let most of us sleep, and certainly doesn’t let us sleep. It is like a reminder, indicating that sleep should not go away. Even brief periods of normal electric light delay or even prevent this sleep signal, depending on its brightness and wavelength or color.

In the evening, as melatonin increases, the heat generated by our internal organs increases to the highest levels of the day, followed by a decline – another signal of sleep. This is why taking a warm bath before bed can help us sleep.

Core body temperature continues to drop for the first few hours of sleep, which is mostly slow wave sleep. This occurs when more neurons in the brain are working together, and when our heart rate slows down. This becomes more regular as we have this first episode of deep sleep. Our coldest core body temperature more or less coincides with our highest levels of melatonin, reflecting the synchrony of these two circadian timing signals.

Our bodies’ time systems and clocks will likely align one minute before 02:00 on Sunday 26 October. Our inner core will approach its coldest temperature. As the body warms up again, and the melatonin signal subsides, another circadian process begins – a slow release of cortisol that will end upon waking.

If melatonin is a signal for sleep, cortisol is a signal for wakefulness. Unless we are too stressed during the day or consume too much caffeine, it will usually be at its most intense when we wake up. This is why waking up can sometimes feel both energizing and stressful, and, why it is more difficult to fall asleep when we are stressed.

These three important physiological timing systems, melatonin, core body temperature, and cortisol, are synchronized by a central clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain, which coordinates the timing of clocks in every cell of the body. The pattern of each signal is repeated approximately every 24 hours, but can be disrupted by various aspects of our environment such as light, vigorous exercise, and stress.

These cycles are not fixed to exactly 24 hours. They can be a few minutes more or less than 24 hours. This enables our sleep-wake cycle to gradually change with the seasons.

But change is slow. Sudden changes, flying east or west (which increases or decreases exposure to sunlight, affecting melatonin), heat waves, cold winds (raising or lowering core body temperature) or stress (which increases daytime cortisol) cause disruptions in this diet. We have not evolved to deal with sudden changes.

It will take several days for the biological and physical clock to reset. Just as a flight from London to New York takes more adjustment time than a flight from New York to London, the spring change often feels lighter, as it feels easier to move your watch forward than backward.

We are likely to lose morning sleep, especially REM sleep, which begins later and is involved in emotion regulation. Our biological clock will still start the cortisol-induced daily waking process at the same time it did the day before. But as it peaks you will remain awake, which can result in a bad mood.

This disruption is not the same for all of us. About one in 100 of the general population has a genetic disorder called delayed phase sleep syndrome, which makes it impossible to fall asleep until the early hours of the morning. Their melatonin levels rise much later than other people, meaning they would probably benefit from moving the clocks back, even if just for a little while.

Similarly, about ten to 20 out of 100 children in late adolescence – compared to adults – are biologically predisposed to start sleeping later. And for them, temporarily, their sleep may more closely match that of the rest of the household. But they will also get more sleep in the morning.

Another group of the population, about 1% of whom are middle-aged, feel that they should go to bed much earlier than other people, usually early in the evening, and wake up very early in the morning. It is not clear why advanced-phase sleep syndrome occurs more frequently in this age group, although the circadian system weakens as we age. Putting the clocks back forces this group to make more compromises.

The autumnal clock change is often difficult for menopausal women, who experience hot flushes – their body clock is advanced and they need to go to sleep earlier. Running behind the clock means they have to wait longer than they’d like to go to sleep and wake up earlier.

Daylight saving disruptions rarely last more than a week. But one is asking why we put our body clocks under this sudden stress. We challenge the synchronicity of our body clocks, thanks to fleeting moments of extra light.