8 Things You Didn't Know About...Your Body Clock

This smart internal system keeps everything ticking over nicely

- Ali Horsefall

If you think your bedtime, when you rise, or the time that you tuck into lunch is all down to choice, you’re mistaken. It’s actually your body clock that is calling all the shots. ‘Almost every bodily function is governed by 24-hour biological cycles called circadian rhythms,’ explains Dr Satchin Panda, professor at Salk Institute, San Diego, and author of The Circadian Code (£15.99, Penguin Random House). ‘These rise and fall throughout the day, and help us to prepare for daily activities – when to eat when to sleep when to wake.’ We’ve got the lowdown on understanding your body’s natural rhythms.

1. Clockwork control

Our ‘master clock’ – the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), lives in the hypothalamus area of the brain. ‘The SCN receives information through the eyes about light and darkness, and shares it with the rest of the body,’ explains Dr.Panda. This controls our sleep-wake cycle, and signals other tiny clocks in all parts of the body to activate processes, including digestion, metabolism, body temperature, hormone production, immune, muscle and brain function.

2. Get in sync

Tuning into your natural biological rhythms means doing day-to-day activities at optimum times so the body runs smoothly. Bad habits such as skipping meals and working late into the night can disrupt the body clock and have negative effects on your health.

3. Disruption damage