Introduction
Keeping cycles in sync
Your body relies on two cyclical processes to regulate its sleep:
- its body-clock and
- its sleep-drive
Let's begin by learning more about your body-clock first . . .
Your body-clock regulates processes that change with the time of day, such as your sleep drive, body-temperature and melatonin.
It follows a 24-hour cycle, just like the sun does. This allows your body to have a rough idea of the time of day or night, even when you can't see the sun or moon. The closer your body-clock is to the actual time of day, the better you will function.
Your body-clock's 24-hour cycle won't ever lengthen or shorten, but it can shift out of phase with the sun. This is how people who work night-shifts are able to adapt to this lifestyle and have their body's day-time processes occur at night-time and vice versa.
The next page will explore what is responsible for shifting your body-clock's time-of-day estimations in this way.