Daily cycle

You have a biological clock like most living things. This clock is called a suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN. It controls your body temperature, metabolism, and sleeping patterns. Your SCN produces personal fluctuations in your bodily functions. Even though people have different fluctuations, they are similar in many ways. This text focuses on the daily cycles during the moments you are awake.

People with normal fluctuations and owls

Let's keep things simple and acknowledge that there are two kinds of daily patterns. First, and a much bigger group of people have normal fluctuations. Then there is a second group called owls who have an inverse type of fluctuations compared to normal people. To understand how you can use these patterns into your advantage, you have to first find out which group you belong to. The best way to do it is to have the next day off and go to sleep in a normal time without artificially controlling the moment you wake up or you go to sleep. Now ask yourself three questions:

1. When did I go to sleep?
2. When did I wake up?
3. What was the midpoint of the sleep?

The midpoint of sleep for normal people is somewhere between 02.00 am and 05.00 am. If you are an owl, the midpoint of your sleep is 06-00 am or after. Age can make a difference. Around puberty most people are owls. After becoming twenty, people start changing their sleeping patterns from owls to normal. If you cannot define your type after a first attempt, try again. Your type defines the optimal timing for different tasks and the way you normally feel during the day.

Two different three-part daily patterns

Let's divide your daily fluctuations to two different three-part patterns:

1. Normal people have a peak-slump-rebound pattern
2. Owls have a rebound-slump-peak pattern.

What these patterns mean is that all the people have to maximize the advantages of the peaks and rebounds and minimize the effects of slumps. Peaks are the high points of the day. They are good for analytical tasks, you feel happiest, most refreshed, and focused during them. The best thing you can do during the peaks is to perform the most important analytical tasks. Normal people have their peaks somewhere from early to midmorning and owls have their peaks somewhere from the late afternoon to evening. Peaks are the ideal times for doing analytic tasks or making decisions. Rebounds are good for creating insights. Your creativity is at its highest point in rebounds. Brainstorming sessions should be performed during them. Normal people are the most creative in the late afternoon and owls are most creative in the morning.

Minimizing the effect of slumps on you

Slumps start in the early afternoon and end in the early evening. The exact timing depends on the person. You can find out the exact timing by checking out how you feel in the afternoon and how productive you can be. Repeat this often enough and you will find the timing for your slumps. The most fatal failures and errors happen during the slump. Avoiding them is as important as using your peak hours for the most important tasks. If you can only relax during the slump, do it. Take a short nap, have a long break, preferably for the whole afternoon, and forget all the important things. If you cannot have a break in the afternoon, do the less important tasks, like answering your emails or some other administrative tasks.

The next best thing after having a long break in the afternoon is to have a shorter break that lasts, for example, from 20 minutes to an hour. The perfect afternoon break has several elements. None of them includes your workplace or your colleagues. Do not stay close to your desk or even the building where you work. Leave your smartphone to your desk and go outside and start moving. Have someone with you, preferably someone who doesn´t care about your work. To have an ideal break, you need to be detached from your duties.

Sleep is an important way of recovering from the day and avoiding slumps. I will write about it next week.

-TT