> The problem there is in suddenly being 4 hours out of synch with the
> sun, and having to shift phase. Phase shifting is difficult. I think
> people are much more flexible about diurnal frequency than you think,
> especially if the appropriate cues are around to support it.
The cueues for this frequency shift look just like a 4 hour phase
shift every day. Of course, there could be a long-term adaption
I guess.
> There's some fairly well-known research to the effect that the human
> biological clock actually has a natural period of 26 hours or so,
> and its only our exposure to planetary rotation that keeps us on a 24
> hour cycle.
AFAIK, that research has been shown to be flawed.
> I've previously mentioned on this list that my personal
> free-running diurnal cycle is 40 hours, empirically determined when I
> was an undergrad and had no daily responsibilities.
Unless you were living divorced from daylight, it's unlikely this
is your natural period. According to this article (found via
wikipedia):
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/07.15/bioclock24.html
95% of people have a natural period of 24h11m +/- 11 minutes, though
the range went from 13 to 65 hours. The article also suggests that
a 28 hr day is long enough to prevent people's hormones getting in
sync with the day. I'm not sure what the practical implications of
this are.
David.
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