Biological/Circadian rhythms
AO1
Different Rhythms
Biological Rhythms - distinct patterns of changes in the body facticity that conform to cyclical time periods, influence body clock governed by two different clock
endogenous pace makers - internal influences on the body (supra chiasmatic nucleas)
exogenous zeitgebers - external influences on the body (meals, time of day, temperature, social queues)
Circadian rhythms - biological rhythms, subject to 24 hours cycle, which regulate a number of body preocesses such as the sleep/wake cycle
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Ultrdian rhythms - happens more than once during the day
Infradian - something that takes longer than a day to complete
AO3
cave study - Michel Siffre
Aim - to investigate what would happen if there were no external influences on the body and to let the body clock "free-run"?
method - Siffre spent over 6 months living in a cave underground with no natural light and no one to tell him what time of the day it is, he allowed his body clock to free run and followed his bodys inclinations
Results - after 2 months in the cave believing it was mid August, when it was September, still continued to fall asleep on a regular basis although it was a 25 hour clock not 24
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conclusions - this is evidence for an innate naturally occurring circadian rhythm, we have an internal mechanism that regulates our sleep wake cycle, but shifts in length as we do not have exogenous zeitgebers to reset it
HOWEVER THERE ARE MANY ISSUES WITH HIS STUDY
lack of ecological validaty
an inference was concluded from only one person meaning that we cannot generalise these results to fit a whole population.
confounding research
many research that has been carried out goes against what has been said e.g. Czeilser et al found that a person wake/sleep cycle can range from 13-65 hours, this was backed up through people sleeping at their own preference
Positives about the research
Created standardised procedures