bodyclocks - Profile (original) (raw)

on 30 July 2005 (#7881224)

Biological Rhythms, Chronomedicine & Light Therapy

This community is for discussing biological rhythms in humans and how they relate to various conditions. We have a particular interest in light therapy.

From Wikipedia:
Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines time-related phenomena in living organisms. These cycles are important in many essential biological processes that occur in a "scheduled" fashion, such as eating, sleeping, mating, hibernating, migration, and cellular regeneration.

The most important rhythm in chronobiology is the circadian rhythm, which refers to the 24-hour daily biological cycle; however, many other important cycles are also studied, including:

Infradian rhythms, which are long-term cycles, such as the annual migration or reproduction cycles found in certain animals or the monthly menstrual cycle of human females. Ultradian rhythms, which are short cycles, such as the 90-minute REM cycle in sleep or the 3 hour cycle of growth hormone production. They have periods of less than 24 hours. Tidal rhythms, commonly observed in marine life, which follow the (roughly) 12-hour transition from high to low tide and back.

Introductions are welcomed. Tell us a little about yourself and your interest in the subject.

Please do not post rants about having a bad time with your illness, or questions such as "am I pregnant?" which would best be discussed elsewhere. No astrology or similar.

Posts should be in normal-size, regular black font as some people have visual difficulties. Long posts should be put behind an LJ-cut: if you have to scroll down the screen, it's long.

Other communities of interest:

apothecarium The Herbal Apothecarium
autoimmune Autoimmune disease community
cfids_me CFIDS and ME Support
cfs_fibro_ideal Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia - a holistic touch
fam Fertility Awareness Method
menstrual_lib Menstrual activism
menstrualhut Menstruation topics
migraines Support group for migraine sufferers
naturalmed Natural Medicine
sadsupport Seasonal Affective Disorder support
sleep_disorders Sleep disorders
womenhealth Women's health

Moderated by elettaria.

advanced sleep phase syndrome, alternative medicine, autoimmune diseases, biological rhythms, bipolar disorder, body, body clock, cfids, chronic fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronobiology, chronomedicine, chronotherapy, circadian rhythm, circadian rhythm disorders, complementary medicine, dawn simulation, delayed sleep phase syndrome, depression, dsps, fertility, fertility awareness method, health, hormones, insomnia, jet lag, light therapy, lightbox, m.e., manic depression, medicine, menstrual cycle, menstrual migraine, menstruation, mental health, migraine, multiple sclerosis, natural medicine, pmdd, pms, premenstrual syndrome, seasonal affective disorder, serotonin, sleep, sleep disorders