circadian rhythms Flashcards
Siffre 1962
spent 2 months in a cave with no natural light. his ‘free running’ biological rhythm settled down but was around 25 hours, he continued to fall asleep and wake up on a regular schedule
Aschoff and Wever 1976
participants spent 4 weeks in a world war 2 bunker with no natural light. one person circadian rhythm was 29 hours but all other participants was 24-25 hours
Folkard 1985
studies group of 12 who lived in dark cave for 3 weeks, went to sleep when the clock said 11:45 and woke when said 7:45. over time, the researchers gradually sped up the clock so lasted only 22 hours –> revealed one participants could comfortably adjust to new regime. suggests circadian rhythm cannot be easily overridden by exogenous zeitgebers
Bovin et al 1996
showed that night workers engaging in shift work have a period of reduced concentration at around 6am
Knutson 2003
relationship between shift workers and poor health, shift workers are three times more likely to develop a heart disease than those in more typical work patterns
solomon 1993
concluded that high divorce rates in shift workers may be because of the strain of being sleep deprived and missing family events
Bonten et al 2015
research supports that taking aspirin for reducing the risk of a heart attack is most effective if taken last thing at night. This is because heart attacks are most likely to occur in the morning
czeisler et al 1999
individual differences in sleep/wake cycle vary form 13 to 65 hours
Duffy et al 2001
showed that some people have a natural preference for going to bed early and waking early(called larks). however, others have a preference for going to bed late and waking late (owls)
Folkard et al 1977
showed how children who had stories read to them at 3 pm showed better recall and comprehension after a week than children has them read to them at 9 am
Gupta 1991
found improved performance on IQ tests when participants were assessed at 7pm than at 2 am and 9am
