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Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

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Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#442

I used to be a typical 'owl' as a student and when I worked in research. My peak performance hour were from 10pm to 4am. When you get kids and an 'industry' job, that isn't an option. It took me about 7 years to switch. Now I'm a true morning person. Best hours are now from 6am to 2pm. Afternoons are horror though. I can barely stay awake 2pm - 5pm.

How did you make that switch? I'm having a lot of trouble in the transition from night owl to early bird and I could use any advice I can get

Getting up 7/7 at the exact same time.

Exercise, mostly cardio.

But I don't know if there is any causal relation.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#443
post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is really interesting is that human's natural sleep cycle is not to sleep continuously for 8 hours. Our natural sleep cycle is to go to bed when it gets dark and then to wake up for a few hours in the middle of the night and get up and do things (apparently this is also the time when most sex happened since other family members in the same room were still asleep) and then go back to sleep and get back up at dawn…

Does this mean the natural sleep cycle time is a lot less in summer than it is in winter? Why would other family members had been asleep? Wouldn't this natural sleep cycle have applied to everyone?

This just applies to adults. Children and teenagers naturally sleep longer than adults and probably slept throughout the night. Plus, apparently people didn't all get up at the same time during the night. Some would be up from midnight-2am, others from 2am-4am, etc.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a "night owl" having trouble to adjust to schedules imposed by "early birds" I find your comment offensive. I don't drink alcohol nor take drugs and didn't go to parties because I found it mostly a waste of time. I worked hard, but it is impossible to be good, when you are constantly sleep deprived.

I'm a night owl too. I dealt with it. It wasn't easy - you have to be disciplined with sleeping schedules. I have to work out every morning to push my body awake. I have to eat right. I have to get regulation lights and blockout curtains and earplugs and meditate before sleep. Good things have never been easy.

You see this is a struggle - you either keep up working against your body or you are out. People who are not night owls don't have to do all that. I don't think you should dedicate your life to keep sleep schedule that is not compatible with your body - this is a dead end and recipe for depression to say the least. Instead of making living a chore I decided to accept my situation and adapt - that means I now do freelancing and I am able to set my work hours as I see fit. I have never been happier, but that means I am unable to undertake "normal" work anymore.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#445

I used to have lots of problems getting up early and always championed later times. Growing up through my twenties, it was great seeing finally seeing more and more evidence for a later school start and I was hopeful for future teens. But it wasn't until my first kid that I finally understood that school doesn't start this early because it's good for the learning experience. It starts this early so parents can get th…

Why on earth would parents be personally taking their children to school? When I lived in a sprawling exurb, there was a school bus stop a couple blocks away supervised by another neighborhood parent. When I lived in a more compact suburb, everyone walked - again, in groups.

Something is catastrophically broken about your urban planning, school system, or community if every family is personally driving the kids to school. Maybe this meta-problem needs to be solved before addressing start times.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It starts this early so parents can get their kids to school and start working afterwards, without getting fired. Numerous teachers in my school told me the real reason school doesn't start later is because of... wait for it: Sports. Sports games/teams often finish practice/games as late as 6-8pm, especially after traveling for a game - and that's with a district whose high school started at 7:40am and middle schoo…

Sports could happen in the morning if school started later, they tend to be more free daycare than the root cause here. Sports have become a priority in schools, which will cause teachers to become resentful and blame them for everything.

I doubt it. You figure an hour to gather and travel to a game location, 2 hours for the game, an hour to return... schools would have to start at noon.

And can you blame them? Why are sports being prioritized by institutions whose existential purpose has nothing to do with athletics?

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#447
post #305

Interesting stuff but night owls could also go to bed early, drink a bit less etc I mean, bioritm it isnt the only datapoint.

If they could simply sleep earlier they wouldn't be night owls. Not sure how drink is coreleated with night owlism.

My hypothesis is that partying hard might also negatively influence school results.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source?

The UK. https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights (I was actually shocked that Americans don't always get paid holiday.) Note that we also have 6 months paid maternity leave, and 1 weeks paid paternity leave, with both of those extendable on a lower pay rate. New legislation from the 2010-2015 government allows parents to share this leave, even if they work at different companies, and start/stop it during the tim…

It's actually six weeks maternity on nearly full pay and then about nine months 'statutory maternity pay' which is about £145 per week. Paternity leave is the same level as statutory maternity pay. Obviously individual companies can offer better deals than this. I got four months full pay with my job for example.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sports could happen in the morning if school started later, they tend to be more free daycare than the root cause here. Sports have become a priority in schools, which will cause teachers to become resentful and blame them for everything.

I doubt it. You figure an hour to gather and travel to a game location, 2 hours for the game, an hour to return... schools would have to start at noon. And can you blame them? Why are sports being prioritized by institutions whose existential purpose has nothing to do with athletics?

>I doubt it. You figure an hour to gather and travel to a game location, 2 hours for the game, an hour to return... schools would have to start at noon.

If you guess it would take five hours, they could gather at 5 AM and school starts at 10.

>And can you blame them?

No. Doesn't change that they would be unfairly blaming this particular issue on sports.

Re: Poor Grades Tied to Class Times That Don’t Match Our Biological Clocks

#450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the biological property of 3am to you? Is it a particular time of darkness? Is it a set point of time after you have woken up? What happens when you travel to a different time zone, do you adapt?

Circadian rhythms depend on time since sunrise/sunset.

As I understand it, it's more of an internal clock that can be shifted by sunrise/sunset light/dark - but there appear to be a biological/inherited component. Hence some mammals have evolved a rhythm more dependent on seasons than day/night, due to polar day/night cycles: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41942188_A_Circadia...

Which in turn might imply that humans still being rather young species is tuned to a rather strict day/night cycle, as seen close to the equator.

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