It brings together two otherwise disparate social groups: responsible folk thinking about Monday's 7am start, and complete wreckheads steaming through their circadian cycles.
Dr Lydia DonCarlos from Loyola University, Chicago, one of the experts on the study, says that the circadian rhythm of teenagers naturally shifts to make them feel sleepy later at night and to wake up later.
The solution The cause is uncertain but front-runners include disturbances in melatonin (the hormone that controls our pattern of sleeping and waking) that upset the circadian rhythm and levels of the "feelgood" hormone serotonin when there are fewer hours of daylight.
Others entrain that rhythm to the light and dark cycles detected by the eye.Diego Golombek and his colleagues at the National University of Quilmes, in Buenos Aires, realised the biochemical connection between Viagra and the circadian rhythm.
Ask a fungus Reprints Related items Predicting the menopause: Egg timerJun 17th 2004 Circadian rhythms: Early birds get itJul 26th 2001At its core, a biological talent for timekeeping requires some sort of regular, chemical oscillation the molecular equivalent of a pendulum's swing.
Vanda Pharmaceuticals' drug mimics the effects of melatonin, a hormone that regulates our bodies' circadian rhythms.
For a bee's sun-based compass to work, the insect must be able to compensate for changes in the sun's direction throughout the day something it does by referencing its own circadian clock.
Science publishes a report (digest here) suggesting that this approach altered the circadian rhythms of mice, and could do the same with humans.
But, with circadian inevitability, I woke up ready for the day at 3am: what would have been a civilised hour in London was ungodly in Toronto.And so to the appeal.
Sleepiness is controlled by the body's internal biological ("circadian") clock, so an earlier bedtime just means several wakeful hours staring in frustration at a darkened ceiling.For years, some travellers and shift workers have sworn by melatonin.
There is strong evidence that disrupting athletes' circadian rhythms hinders their performance: in football in Australia, the home advantage is correlated with the number of time zones crossed by the visiting team.
