Posted by BobG (155.13.48.8) on November 23, 1999 at 07:27:44:
In Reply to: not that lineal a connection-AND- thoughts on lifestyle CH posted by gary on November 22, 1999 at 14:37:21:
You bring up some valid points about light cycles, both daily cycles and yearly. Yesterday I posted that I work a rotating schedule
and didn't find the amount of daylight I received had anything to do with CH. Light cycles and sleep/awake periods have been a
topic of many conversations among those that share this rotating schedule. It is mostly agreed that the daily circadian cycle is easy
to beat if you think about it. Most people are awake and working, going to school, etc during the daylight hours and sleep during
the night (dark) hours. These habits are "taught" from birth, during the day you're awake and sleep when it's dark. To "rotate" your
awake/sleep pattern you first have to throw out your clock (it doesn't matter what "time" it is) and just count hours no matter what
time of day it is. For instance, most people get up about 2 hours before their job starts, they work about 8-9 hours and go to bed
about 5 hours after the end of the work day and sleep about 8 hours then start over. Now, start counting
at any point, such as the end of the work day. In my case this week it is 8am. About 5 hours (1pm) later I will be asleep and about
8 hours later I'll be up a couple of hours before going back to work. The point is by looking at the number of hours of sleep, work,
time off instead of what "time" it is, it is easy to beat the daily circadian cycle. How does this affect CH? In my case, not at all.
99% my clusters attack when I'm alseep. It makes no difference if I'm asleep at 1am or 1pm. It's during the REM sleep mode
when the attacks occur, during daylight or dark.
You may be correct about working a rotating shift being unhealthy. But, I think if you pay attention to your life style, when/what to
eat, when to sleep, when to play, the rotating won't do harm. Some people are "day" people and some are "night" people. It's more
attitude than anything.
The annular or astronomical light cycles may be a different story. I don't know. Could it be also connected with the weather. The
shorter days of winter being cold and/or windy? I can't answer that. Maybe the clusterheads in Alaska, Canada or other far
northern regions of the world where daylight hours can be very short can help us with an answer.
Whadda ya think folks? Anybody else out there that work rotating shifts?