Inner Time: The Science of Body Clocks and What Makes Us Tick

Surveys the new science of chronobiology, explains how this information is now used to schedule surgery and medications, assign work hours, and plan travel, and suggests future applications

Chromobiology is the science of "body clocks," attuned to the earth's cycles and encoded in our cells. As explained in this engrossing, popular study by freelance journalist Orlock, we are endowed with more than 100 "clocks," unrelated to our watch time, that can vary widely with the individual. They determine our hungers, moods, metabolism, rate of growth and aging, and represent "life's adaptation to a world that is itself constantly cycling." The author further notes the havoc wrought on our inner time sense by light bulbs and by jet travel. In conclusion, Orlock speculates how chromobiology could improve our lives, especially in regard to the use of light, e.g., to help workers adjust to rotating schedules, and as therapy for sleep and other disorders of the aging, cluster headaches, depression and more. Above all, "coordinating the natural time cycles" of "out of sync" states could help in treating both physical and mental diseases. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The whys and wherefores of our inner clocks, zestfully presented by journalist and novelist Orlock (The Goddess Letters, 1987). You say hello, and I say goodbye. So it goes, for people's body clocks are rarely in sync--and, according to Orlock, these internal timekeepers control just about everything we think, feel, or do. Chronobiology has uncovered over a hundred biological rhythms so far, with more on the way. They fall into three categories: ultradian (short--e.g., the firing of neurons); circadian (24-hour--e.g., the wake-sleep cycle); and infradian (long--e.g., the menstrual cycle or--the longest of them all--the life/death cycle). Orlock's jaunty tour of this fledgling science includes plenty of ethology, including Darwin's studies of biorhythms in plants and earthworms. The focus, however, is on humans--who appear to be a lot like puppets tugged by chemical strings. Migraines, calorie intake, alacrity of thought--all bow before internal cycles. Some facts amaze: when asleep, we ordinarily ``breathe through one nostril for three hours, with the tissue in the other nostril slightly engorged, then we switch''; more sobering is Orlock's discussion of the millions of Americans who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder--serious depression brought on by winter. To battle the cycle blues, Orlock proffers plenty of advice: If you want to lose weight, eat in the morning; for best sex, wait until October; to cure jet lag, splash yourself with sunbeams. How to tell inner time--and how to beat the clock. Fun. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.