The Circadian Clock: Your Body Also Ticks

August 09, 2017

Everything seems to tick in our world, and we can only hear the ticking sound whenever we decide to give a listening ear. The device we are more accustomed to [as it relates to ticking] is the clock but this is not just about some wall-hung objects; there are yet some special kinds of clocks. And it is one of such, we shall be discussing in this article: the circadian clock is a biochemical clock that drives the your sleep-wake cycle. The clock is also known by many other terms; among which are 'body clock', 'circadian oscillator' and 'circadian pacemaker'. It is important to note that just like the mechanical clock, the circadian clock also revolves round the 24-hour cycle hence the body clock works in synchronization with the daylight clock.

So, how does the circadian clock work?

Well, unlike the conventional clock; the circadian clock cannot be used to measure or know the time pointedly but it can intimate you about something more critical to your health- disturbances in your sleeping pattern. The circadian clock is present in the brain, and it regulates the body's biochemical and physiological processes like brain wave activity, hormone production, sleeping and feeding patterns and so on. This clock basically influences how our bodies respond to tons of events [including triggering sleep during nighttimes] that we are faced with on daily basis but its functioning could be disrupted by certain habits. In such instances the link between the internal- and external- clocks, is somewhat broken thus causing problems health wise.

Your body clock does tick but in a noisy world as ours, it's really hard to hear its sound. Nevertheless, you can make a disciplined effort to listen to it and flow with its rhythm.

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