Body Clock

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Almost every form of life-plant, animal or human being has an internal clock for measuring time, giving rise to rhythms. Rhythms are controlled by a 'biological clock' situated in the brain. This clock strongly relies on sunlight and darkness. In humans too, there are internal clocks that regulate metabolism, physiology and behaviour. When we are well, our body rhythms work in synchrony but illness, travel across multiple time zones, shift-work schedules, etc. often throw the rhythms out of tune. This book makes us feel the presence of the 'body clock' within us and realise its importance in bodily functions. Listening to our body clock tick and making amends in our day-to-day life holds implications for improving our lives.

Dr Parul R. Sheth is a prolific science writer. She obtained her doctorate in biochemistry from Seth G.S. Medical College, Mumbai and worked at the Institute for Research in Reproduction (ICMR) before joining the editorial boards of Science Today. She has to her credit many research papers, popular science books, and science articles in various newspapers, magazines and journals. She has also contributed to many science programmes broadcast by All India Radio.

Body clock and rhythms played on my mind since the time I worked for my Ph.D. at the Institute for Research in Reproduction (ICMR), Mumbai. My colleague and friend Dr P.G. Jayatilak, who worked for his Ph.D. thesis on this subject at the same institute, involved me in a few of his research projects revolving around body rhythms. I toyed with the idea of writing on this topic since that time but, luckily for me, the dream materialised after several years when I got this approval from NBT for writing a book on body clocks. Indeed, it was a dream come true for me.

Ancient cultures too recognised body time. Monuments built by ancient civilisations reflect knowledge of body time as well as planetary time. Demonstrations of the persistence of rhythms and cycles associated with light and darkness in human beings as well as in several other species suggested the existence of biological clocks. Today, the existence of biological clocks is widely accepted by the scientific community and these clocks have also been identified in several species.

Most of us do not know how to tell time the body time. The brain's clock governs all the possible rhythms in our body. We carry this clock around within us. And yet many of us cannot hear this clock tick.

The coming of dawn brings in a new day and the end of the night. For most, it is just another day that is a part of the universal cycle of day and night, not affecting our day-to- day life. Do these natural cycles of day and night and also of different seasons comprise merely phenomena that we adjust to, as we put on warm clothes during winter with short days or a raincoat in rains? Do the cycles of the Sun, Moon and seasons affect us superficially or do they have a deeper impact on all living beings? Just as there are cycles of day and night, high and low tides, and seasons alternating with one another, all living beings have body rhythms or cycles. They occur in the smallest of animals, in plants, and also in micro-organisms made up of single cells. These are the biological cycles controlled by the body clocks. Our body clock drives different processes in the body as per its schedule. The Sun is the master 'time-keeper' on whom the clocks of all living beings depend for counting time. However, we are neither fully aware of our body clocks nor do we know how and where they function.

Dr Sheth has very lucidly introduced the concept of biological rhythms and body clock in her book The Body Clock. She describes, in simple words, the rhythms that occur regularly in complex as well as simpler life forms and shows how they are related to the day and night cycle. Such a diurnal cycle regulates several physiological events in a clockwork precision, based on day and night.