Your Schedule Could Be Killing You

Our internal clocks are tick-tocking away along with our health, as modern lifestyles are working against the way our bodies evolved to function, research in chronobiology shows. This branch of science looks at our biology, but also gives utter importance to the effects time has on it. For instance, on our cells and the way they form and function. The internal clocks are the mechanisms of our bodies that “are constantly syncing based on the food we eat, our exercise routines, social interactions, and light patterns. And whether we know it or not, we’re constantly working against them”.

New studies are analyzing the links found between chaotic sleeping patterns and mental health issues — especially severe depression and anxiety, diabetes, cancer, obesity and cardiovascular disease. The effects of other changes in our modern lives (like our relationship to light and the time when we eat) on our metabolisms are further elaborated in the article.

But despite the findings of these researches, scientists interested in chronobiology are struggling to find funding for their studies. The science community is falling behind on understanding how it could use such results in improving their treatment of a number of diseases. Meanwhile, obesity and heart disease rates are through the roof in more and more countries; in the US almost 40% of the population is obese.