User:Turtle987654321

Sleep is a vital and crucial part of our everyday lives. When you sleep, your body restores and rests itself both mentally and physically. A good night of sleep leads to a faster recovery from injuries, helps one to cope better with stress, leads you to feeling awake and energized throughout the day, and live a healthier life. Having control over your sleeping patterns is not always easy. There might be a way to take control of our inner clocks, and set them to fit the crazy lives that we live. There has been a recent discovery by scientists that say they have found how our biological clocks work, and where they are located. The biological clock drives our circadian rhythm, and our circadian rhythm is responsible for our twenty four-hour cycles, which includes our wake-sleep cycle. Our clock is also responsible for many of our health issues. This discovery can be beneficial to everyone. It not only can be a great health benefit, but can help with issues of jet lag and night shift work. Scientists have uncovered the mystery of our timers, and they are suggesting that we may be able to regulate them to our desire, instead of them regulating us. To understand how our clock works, we must start by looking at our circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms are regular changes in mental and physical characteristics that occur in the course of a day (Stibich). These rhythms are controlled by the body’s biological clock. This “clock” is also known as the Suprachiamatic nucleus, or the SCN, which is a cluster of nerve cells. The hypothalamus is the part of the brain in which the SCN rests. This is right above where the optic nerve crosses. When light reaches the photo receptors in the retina, at the right time, it creates signals that travel along the optic nerve (Cladwell, p2). These signals spread messages to several parts of the brain. The brain uses these signals for spreading messages by setting the sensitivity of the endocrine glands. These endocrine glands include the adrenal, thyroid, and pineal gland. To a person who is uneducated about what all of the endocrine glands can help with, this communication connection from the SCN to these glands seems insignificant. You are about to find out that these connections are essential to our lives. They help control major parts of what we do in our lives, and how our brains and bodies manage to do it.