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an interesting thought......
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| SportTrance |
as I am getting ready to crash.....a thought passed my mind....
everynight, in every part of the world, theres a time when the sky turns dark, and everyone goes to sleep (excluding night owls like me etc), nonetheless, we all sleep at one point and the cycle continues.....
the interesting part is, how extremely well the day/night cycle of the earth's rotation works with the human function of sleep. Two totally seperate entities. Its almost as if, if we were able to stay awake for longer hours, there would be an inbalance. Our bodies are pretty muched sync'ed with the earths clock.
I guess the question is simply, did humans adapt to the earths clock through evolution? Or were we already developed? I guess thats something for the atheists/non-atheists to argue over. Eitherway, it gets pretty complex.
just an interesting thought. |
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| Dj Dovla |
I think humans adapt to the earths clock through evolution , because we can't see very well in the dark , and become easy food for big animals ..
so we had to go hide ourselves in caves and such things and get out and by day ..
this makes sense ...
:D |
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| Rememberence_ |
Definitely evolution at work here, but as you said it does get complicated - research studies into sleep cycles, the importance of sleep, and adaptation to deprivation of sleep etc, have proved that the amount of sleep one needs to get on a regular basis is not finite at all. So if for some odd reason Earth began to rotate more slowly, and the days/nights became longer, I think people would adapt in no time.
It's not immediately apparant but if you think about it, the concepts that one must get so much sleep a night, or that one couldn't physically adjust one's sleep cycles to longer/shorter days, are most likely based on what we are socially used to. From birth all we have known are ~24 hour cycles, but I bet it wouldn't be that difficult an adjustment, and in this day and age I don't think that an abrubpt change in human sleep cycles would require thousands of years of evolution for us to adjust as we aren't prone to nocturnal dangers and inabilities to function as much as the 'caveman'.
$0.02 |
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| twisted420 |
i love thinking about like this...
one of my favorites: is it possible that there could be new shapes and different colours somewhere in the universe. ok, everything is based on different shapes..you cant make an octagon or a circle without lines..but what if there were a shape that didnt require lines. if it was a complete new shape that was not created by any lines. also, if there where new colours that werent on the spectrum..that couldnt be created by combining different colours togther..just some weird to think about:eyespop: |
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| RubiK Cube |
Circadian rhythms or the body clock are controlled by hypothalamus by releasing hormones such as melatonin. The secretion of this hormone increases during the night and falls during the day.
An abrupt shift in sleep patterns is encountered all the time when people who fly across time zones, the most extreme being say England to Australia. The pattern is often restored within a few days |
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| Ocean-Glow |
| Yeh volution pops to my head also once i think of this. :) |
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| choukri |
Here in France, a guy stood 6 months in a cavern without TV, Watch... and he doesn't see the day light during this period. Sometimes he was awake during 96 hours long and sometimes he slept for more than 3 days in one shot.
This explained that our body clock follows up the day/night cycle. |
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| Spad |
| quote: | Originally posted by SportTrance
I guess the question is simply, did humans adapt to the earths clock through evolution? Or were we already developed? I guess thats something for the atheists/non-atheists to argue over. Eitherway, it gets pretty complex.
just an interesting thought. |
I don't think we are all in sync. My natural sleeping pattern seems to be about 7am - 1pm. I found this when I was working nights, I'm much more comfortable sleeping these hours. Plus that's only 6 hours, if I force myself to get into a pattern where I go to bed at 9pm, I can easily sleep until 9am the next morning (12 hours) and not feel at all refreshed.
People who have nothing to do during the day often fall into reversed sleeping patterns. There's an old lady (I think she was the oldest lady in the world, or Europe or something) who sleeps 2 days then stays awake for 2 days.
I think we all have our own sleep patterns and rythems and we're "forced" by the way our society operates to adopt similar patterns. |
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| SportTrance |
| quote: | Originally posted by Spad
I don't think we are all in sync. My natural sleeping pattern seems to be about 7am - 1pm. I found this when I was working nights, I'm much more comfortable sleeping these hours. Plus that's only 6 hours, if I force myself to get into a pattern where I go to bed at 9pm, I can easily sleep until 9am the next morning (12 hours) and not feel at all refreshed.
People who have nothing to do during the day often fall into reversed sleeping patterns. There's an old lady (I think she was the oldest lady in the world, or Europe or something) who sleeps 2 days then stays awake for 2 days.
I think we all have our own sleep patterns and rythems and we're "forced" by the way our society operates to adopt similar patterns. |
Its an interesting point, because I am 23 years old, and probably have never had a 10pm-7am sleep pattern for longer than 4 days in about 10 years. This includes junior high and highschool, which started at 8am everyday for 12 years total. I cant tell you how many days I would be in class in highschool running off of 3 hours of sleep. Although horrible, I never got myself to completely adapt to a "regular" pattern to this day.
It pretty much started when I was a kid. But its just a plain solid fact, that I function, think, and just plain feel better, during late hours. I choose night school, late jobs, you name it. Most people are able to get up at 8am, but personally, whether I get 10 hours of sleep everynight and wake up at 8am sharp, i STILL do not feel well (literally) no matter how many times ive done it.
Ofcourse, most people dont understand it, and the idea of staying up till 4 am is inconceivable, but its just as inconcievable as me going to bed at 10pm everynight, I just cant imagine me functioning with that.
What rubik cube said was interesting, and id be interested in learning a bit more someday as to why I function better in the evening. I've come to the conclusion in the past 5 years that its not a "bad sleep pattern", but rather, the clock is set, and my body actually does function better, during late hours. Whether I developed this as a kid, im not 100% sure, I just know, it came natural, as I always have loved staying up late, since I was about 7 years old. It can be a tough thing to deal with in this 8am-5pm society, but I cant see myself living comfortable if I followed it. |
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| th0m |
| Apparantly your brain only needs one to two hours of sleep a day, it's the rest of your body that needs more. |
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| madhattared |
yeah my friends dad is a fireman, he says up for 48 hrs at a time and sleeps for like 18 - 22 hrs every 3rd day. he trained his body to do that through a pretty tough physical training course. i think he takes a couple 20 min naps during the 2 days he's on call.
interesting though |
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| jessicah |
| quote: | Originally posted by twisted420
also, if there where new colours that werent on the spectrum..that couldnt be created by combining different colours togther..just some weird to think about :eyespop: |
If they're not on a spectrum, they can't be colors. :) |
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