Relation to Circadian Rhythm - Case Study Example

Circadian Rhythms The human body is one vastly affected by various natural phenomena in the contemporary environment. Themanner in which it is affected has become a source of fascination for many people across different cultures over the years. The interested groups of people have sought to engage in a much deeper understanding of the phenomena and this has got to a point that they have published books that have sought to enlighten people on these issues. One of the acclaimed authors with this respect is Karen Thomson Walker. The Age of Miracles is a major book that has engaged in understanding the various phenomena and the effects that they have on human beings. Circadian Rhythms is an example of a topic that the author discusses deeply. Going through the relationship of the general factors revolving around circadian rhythms and comparing them with the various concepts provided in the book is imperative for it offers the reader with a greater understanding of the topic. Circadian rhythm is a term that describes biological principles and transformations that take place in a period of 24hrs. Circa is a latin word that means approximately while dian is another that means 24hrs. When there is the combination of the two terms, the circadian rhythm is formed. One of the most common biological phenomena discussed in the book with relation to circadian rhythm is the difference in sleep patterns that exists in the contemporary environment. The major cause for the difference in sleeping patterns is the variation in the length of either days or nights. According to the book, the length of the days and night varies greatly and the reason for this is the manner in which the earth rotates. When this takes place, it becomes difficult to understand the rotation process of the earth because there are times that the days may appear longer than the nights while there are those times that the opposite may take place (Ural 143). The book further engages in the discussion of the manner in which the changes in the lengths of the nights and daytimes may lead to changes in the health of these individuals. In order for the human system to remain in synch with the environment, it is critical that it is reset every 24hrs to start afresh and consequently work well to ensure that it is not overworked to a point that people fail to understand the various changes that may take place in the environment. Entrainment is important in both human beings and animals and this is majorly achieved when human beings are exposed to almost equal amounts of sunlight and darkness. When this changes in a manner that the lengths of the days and nights vary, the human beings may fail to function properly where some of the behaviors they portray are very weird. The book critically discusses this in the manner in which it explains the fact that some people may have different sleeping patterns where for example an individual may spend high amounts of time sleeping during the day and very little time asleep during the nighttime and this is a condition commonly known as insomnia. Research has shown that human beings are somehow different from other organisms and this is from the manner in which they react to sunlight and other circadian rhythms (Duffy 5). There are times that human beings may fail to conform to changes that present themselves such as the beginning of a new day and the entrance of darkness. Rather than doing this, human beings tend to depend on social factors revolving around them and thus do not have to follow the various rules that other organisms follow. An example is where a security guard can spend the entire night guarding and rather than going to sleep after the job, engages in other activities during the day. This is something other organisms cannot carry out since they assume that it is in their schedule to sleep and consequently have to follow it seriously. According to the book, Karen engages in discussions that seek to prove the various changes that the human body goes through with regard to light and darkness. The human eye very fast as compared to the process in other organisms normally detects short pulses of light. Light treatments are very easy to interrupt and this is from the manner in which they cannot affect the effectiveness of the human eye (Sinors 86). The book further states that depending on the location that an individual is in, he or she has different reactions to bright light. The reason is that there are various locations with different light intensity. A location close to the equator has a large chance of grasping high light intensities as compared to other locations especially at the axes. It is thus very difficult for people near the equity to notice small changes in light intensity as compared to the others. Karen further states that bright light stimuli are some of the contemporary methods of adapting workers so that they can work during night shifts (Walker 79). Having these bright lights is important for it ensures that people can maintain their working schedule without having misfortunes such as dozing off while at work and consequently they are deemed more productive. Sleeping or rather scheduled daytime sleeping is a factor that can lead to greater productivity at night. This is the main reason why it is not quite clear whether the bright lights have led to a more effective working team at night or it is the combination of both factors. Non-Image Forming Responses (NIF) is the one responsible for the photic resetting of the human circadian system. The difference between human and other organisms is the fact that human beings have a short wavelength that is highly sensitive to changes that may take place around them. There are some cases where blind people have the ability to show responses to changes in light around them despite the fact that they do not have the ability to see. This further goes to prove the high efficiency of the human eye as compared to other organisms that do not have this ability. For the synchronization of both the daylight and the nighttime, it is important for the human body to be exposed to a regular supply of both sunlight and darkness. According to the book, most animals have the circadian system operating lower than 24hrs. However, due to the complex nature of the human body, the system operates in a span of more than 24hrs (Thomas 121). This operation is important for it ensures that the people receive an extra phase space where they have the ability to adjust to the changes that take place in the environment. However, some people do not have the ability to maintain a circadian period that goes beyond 24hrs. For these people, phase delay shift is the factor that enables people to attain entrainment. The entrainment theory is one that states that its range is directly related to the strength of the signal that is used to combine them. Poor synchronizers have the ability to entrain people that have a circadian system of 24hrs and below. However, people with an effective and strong synchronizer have the ability to operate well even beyond 24hrs. Another factor to go through that Karen critically discusses in the book is regarding the moods of people that are affected by these changes of the circadian system. Many of the people that have a problem with their bodies with relation to this tend to portray some tendencies that other people do not bear. For example, for a person with a strong synchronizer, he or she has the ability to spend many hours awake without having any problems of sleep and these people are effective for they get to work for many hours and achieve a lot (Rosato 65). However, when these people work for these many hours without getting any form of rest, they get very exhausted and are found to act very rudely towards people that may disturb them in their exhausted condition. For the people that have short or rather poor synchronizers, they do not have the ability to spend many hours awake and the consequent of this is having them sleeping for many hours. When staying with such people, it is normal for people to assume that they are lazy and the common thing is waking them up. However, after attempting to wake these people up, they may react so negatively that they may insult the person attempting to wake them up. When relating this information to the content of the contemporary world, it is rather simple to understand the reason for the various changes in the functioning of the human eye. The Age of Miracles is a book that offers a lot of insight with relation to Circadian Rhythms and the manner in which human beings are affected by the various changes that take place in the environment. Going through this book offers one the amount of information required to understand the concepts present in the contemporary environment. Work Cited Duffy, Jeanne. Effect of Light on Human Circadian Physiology. 2009. Web http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2717723/ Walker, Karen. The Age of Miracles. London: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print. Rosato, Ezio. Circadian Rhythms: Methods and Protocols. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2011. Print. Sinors, Damian. Circadian Rhythms and the Human. New York: Palgrave Mcmillan, 2013. Print. Thomas, Richard. Circadic Rhythms. New York: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Ural, Erdem. Towards Estimating Entrainment. London: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print. Read More