Your Body Clock and Sleep

The human body is so wonderful! Have you ever realized that inside every one of our brains is a very accurate "Clock"? Yes, we have a very accurate time keeping apparatus that functions like the conductor of a symphony orchestra, keeping everything in rhythm. The Body Clock keeps all the various functions of your body coordinated, and moving to the same rhythm.

The Body Clock is located deep in the center of the brain, in a little group of cells known as the Pineal Gland. Within the Pineal Gland is a store-house of the neurochemical messenger Serotonin, which is the chemical "mainspring" of the Clock. Each day the Serotonin is chemically converted to a related compound, Melatonin; and then the Melatonin is converted right back to Serotonin. The whole cycle from Serotonin to Melatonin and back to Serotonin takes exactly 25 hours - and this forms your Body's Clock.

The Body Clock cycles every 25 hours under experimental conditions of an unchanging environment, such as in a cave kept at a constant level of illumination for weeks on end. If, however, a person is exposed to a natural outdoor cycle of daylight and darkness, the Pineal Gland will automatically set itself to a 24 hour day to match its cycle to the length of one Earth's day. That way, noon in the Pineal Gland is always noon on Earth. If exposed to daylight, the Pineal Gland will neither gain nor lose time, but will always cycle exactly in concert with the Earth as our planet twirls through space. The whole process of setting the Body Clock to Earth time takes about three weeks.

The 24 hour cycling of the Body Clock is important. It adjusts your body chemistry for sleeping and for waking. Every evening your Body Clock will set your physiology for sleeping; then you feel drowsy and sleep soundly. After a while, your Body Clock adjusts your physiology for waking. You then wake up and feel refreshed. Isn’t it a wonder?