The workings of your body’s biological clocks are very complex, composed of many interacting genes that turn the clocks on and off in an orchestrated way to keep time with the 24-hour cycle of a day.
Facts about your biological clocks:
- Every organism has biological clocks, from algae to humans to zebras and many have similar functions.
- They never stop ticking whether you are awake or asleep. They can be temporarily disrupted but usually our clocks can reset themselves.
- Chronic lack of sleep is a public health epidemic in the US. It disrupts your biological clocks and increases the risk for accidents, memory loss, obesity, heart disease, and some cancers.
- Staying up too late and waking up too early disrupts your internal biological clocks.
Sleeping too little is connected to:
- Consuming more calories
- Drinking less water
- Eating fewer vegetables
- Eating less carbohydrates which could reduce whole grain intake
- Lower intakes of vitamin C found in citrus fruits, broccoli, peppers, and strawberries
- Lower intakes of the mineral selenium found in nuts, shellfish and meat
- Eating more high fat food
- Eating more fast food
- Drinking more soda
- Increased feelings of hunger and lower rating of satisfaction after eating
- Overeating in the evening and during late night hours
- Less impulse control when it comes to food
It is obvious that more research is needed on how too little sleep affects our health. What we do know is that sleep, health and body weight are all connected. All the evidence is pointing toward – sleep well, eat well, be well.
Learn more here.
