Creation’s Invisible “Clocks”

‘I HATE being tied to a clock!’ Is that the way you feel at times? If so, perhaps the thought has crossed your mind: ‘How nice it would be to leave clocks and watches behind, never again to be troubled by their incessant ticks and alarms!’

However, no matter where you go on this planet, there are certain clocks from which there is no escape. They started ticking when you were just a tiny fetus in the womb. They stop only when you draw your last breath.

Scientists call these our biological clocks, or circadian (meaning ‘about a day’), rhythms. Failure to abide by our clocks’ schedule often results in problems for us.

The Biological Clocks

The Creator wisely put within us clocks that regulate certain physical processes. Do you find yourself getting sleepy at night? One reason for this is that your body temperature rises and falls according to a definite pattern or rhythm. At night your temperature begins to drop. But as morning nears, it rises again, and soon you are awake, ready for activity. Do you get hungry near mealtime? Well, your pulse, blood pressure, and sugar levels are timed according to certain biological rhythms.a

Actually, medical scientists have discovered that invisible clocks govern over a hundred different cycles in our bodies. And interestingly, many of these clocks synchronize with yet another sophisticated timekeeping system: the rotation of planet Earth. As our planet whirls on its axis, it subjects every living thing on it to regular rhythms of temperature and light change. So as one writer put it: “It is not surprising . . . to discover that the behavior and metabolism of most organisms follow a 24-hour schedule.”

Researchers, though, have tried to fool these internal clocks by placing life forms in a laboratory setting, keeping the temperature, light, food, and sound constant. Invariably, though, the 24-hour rhythms persist! This shows us that the circadian clocks are internal, even though some external influences can affect or even upset them to a degree.

Upsetting the Clocks

Right now your body’s clocks are probably adjusted to the time zone in which you live. However, afternoon in California, U.S.A., is nighttime in Europe. Therefore, after flying on a jet aircraft between these two points, you might experience headaches, sluggishness, and sleep problems​—a condition commonly known as jet lag.

What has happened? Your biological clock has become confused. It is desperately trying to adhere to your home schedule. (Shift workers often experience similarly disagreeable symptoms.) Business plans, conferences, or even the pleasure of a vacation can be adversely affected by the headaches, insomnia, irritability, digestive problems, and fatigue that jet lag often brings.

Interestingly, such problems did not occur in the days of slower transportation. The body’s clocks had time to adjust to a new time zone before the traveler ever arrived at his destination. But with jet travel, one can cross four or five time zones in only a matter of hours. This can throw your eating and sleeping schedule completely out of order! As you can imagine, this is particularly troublesome for airline personnel. A former pilot for an international airline told Awake!:

“I experienced no problem crossing many time zones on what we called a 12-hour turnaround schedule because that would bring me home again within the same 24-hour period. However, when given a five-day stopover run from Vancouver [Canada] to Amsterdam or Rome, my problems began. My whole system seemed upset. Trying to overcome the problem, I would go walking until I got so physically tired I just had to sleep. After five days my system would just get adjusted to European time, and then it would be back to Vancouver to do the same thing all over again. Sedatives were not the answer. It was really hard.”

Experience shows that west-to-east travelers suffer the most severe adjustment problems. Those going east to west suffer less since the day simply becomes longer, making it easier for the body to adjust. One airline pilot assigned to the Vancouver-Tokyo run minimized his problem by always remaining on Tokyo time no matter which city he was in. Circadian rhythms, though, are usually not affected by north-south flights because they remain within one or two time zones at the most.