Biorhythms of various body functions. Biological rhythms of body functions

Biological rhythms— periodically repeating changes in the nature and intensity of biological processes and phenomena in living organisms. The biological rhythms of physiological functions are so precise that they are often called the “biological clock.”

There is reason to believe that the timekeeping mechanism is contained in every molecule of the human body, including DNA molecules that store genetic information. The cellular biological clock is called “small”, in contrast to the “large” one, which is believed to be located in the brain and synchronizes all physiological processes in the body.

Classification of biorhythms.

Rhythms, set by the internal “clock” or pacemakers, are called endogenous, Unlike exogenous, which are regulated by external factors. Most biological rhythms are mixed, that is, partly endogenous and partly exogenous.

In many cases, the main external factor regulating rhythmic activity is photoperiod, i.e., the length of daylight. This is the only factor that can be a reliable indication of time and is used to set the "clock".

The exact nature of the clock is unknown, but there is no doubt that there is a physiological mechanism at work that may involve both neural and endocrine components.

Most rhythms are formed during the process of individual development (ontogenesis). Thus, daily fluctuations in the activity of various functions in a child are observed before birth; they can be recorded already in the second half of pregnancy.

• Biological rhythms are realized in close interaction with the environment and reflect the peculiarities of the organism’s adaptation to the cyclically changing factors of this environment. The rotation of the Earth around the Sun (with a period of about a year), the rotation of the Earth around its axis (with a period of about 24 hours), the rotation of the Moon around the Earth (with a period of about 28 days) lead to fluctuations in illumination, temperature, humidity, electromagnetic field strength, etc. etc., serve as a kind of indicators, or sensors, of time for the “biological clock”.
• Biological rhythms have large differences in frequency or period. There is a group of so-called high-frequency biological rhythms, the periods of oscillations of which range from a fraction of a second to half an hour. Examples include fluctuations in the bioelectrical activity of the brain, heart, muscles, and other organs and tissues. By recording them using special equipment, they obtain valuable information about the physiological mechanisms of the activity of these organs, which is also used for diagnosing diseases (electroencephalography, electromyography, electrocardiography, etc.). The rhythm of breathing can also be included in this group.
• Biological rhythms with a period of 20-28 hours are called circadian (circadian, or circadian), for example, periodic fluctuations throughout the day in body temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure, human performance, etc.
• There is also a group of low frequency biological rhythms; these are peri-weekly, peri-monthly, seasonal, peri-annual, perennial rhythms.

The basis for identifying each of them is clearly recorded fluctuations of any functional indicator.

For example: The peri-weekly biological rhythm corresponds to the level of excretion of some physiologically active substances in the urine, the peri-monthly rhythm corresponds to the menstrual cycle in women, seasonal biological rhythms correspond to changes in sleep duration, muscle strength, morbidity, etc.

The most studied is the circadian biological rhythm, one of the most important in the human body, acting as a conductor of numerous internal rhythms.

Circadian rhythms are highly sensitive to the action of various negative factors, and disruption of the coordinated functioning of the system that generates these rhythms is one of the first symptoms of a disease in the body. Circadian fluctuations in more than 300 physiological functions of the human body have been established. All these processes are coordinated in time.

Many circadian processes reach maximum values ​​during the day every 16-20 hours and minimum values ​​at night or in the early morning hours.

For example: At night, a person's body temperature is lowest. By morning it increases and reaches a maximum in the afternoon.

The main reason for per diem fluctuations physiological functions in the human body there are periodic changes in the excitability of the nervous system, depressing or stimulating metabolism. As a result of changes in metabolism, changes in various physiological functions occur (Fig. 1).

For example: The respiratory rate is higher during the day than at night. At night, the function of the digestive apparatus is reduced.

Rice. 1. Circadian biological rhythms in the human body

For example: It has been established that the daily dynamics of body temperature has a wave-like character. At about 6 p.m., the temperature reaches its maximum, and by midnight it decreases: its minimum value is between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. The change in body temperature during the day does not depend on whether a person is sleeping or engaged in intensive work. Body temperature determines speed of biological reactions During the day, metabolism is most intense.

Sleep and awakening are closely related to the circadian rhythm. A decrease in body temperature serves as a kind of internal signal for rest to sleep. Throughout the day it changes with an amplitude of up to 1.3°C.

For example: By measuring body temperature under the tongue (with a regular medical thermometer) every 2-3 hours for several days, you can quite accurately determine the most appropriate moment for going to bed, and use temperature peaks to determine periods of maximum performance.

Grows during the day heart rate(heart rate), higher arterial pressure(BP), more often breathing. Day after day, by the time of awakening, as if anticipating the increasing need of the body, the content of adrenaline in the blood increases - a substance that increases heart rate, increases blood pressure, and activates the work of the whole organism; By this time, biological stimulants accumulate in the blood. A decrease in the concentration of these substances in the evening is an indispensable condition for restful sleep. It is not without reason that sleep disturbances are always accompanied by excitement and anxiety: in these conditions, the concentration of adrenaline and other biologically active substances in the blood increases, and the body is in a state of “combat readiness” for a long time. Subject to biological rhythms, each physiological indicator can significantly change its level during the day.

Life routine, acclimatization.

Biological rhythms are the basis for the rational regulation of a person’s life schedule, since high performance and good health can only be achieved if the rhythm of life corresponds to the rhythm of physiological functions inherent to the body. In this regard, it is necessary to wisely organize the regime of work (training) and rest, as well as food intake. Deviation from the correct diet can lead to significant weight gain, which in turn, disrupting the body’s vital rhythms, causes changes in metabolism.

For example: If you eat food with a total calorie content of 2000 kcal only in the morning, weight decreases; if the same food is taken in the evening, it increases. In order to maintain the body weight achieved by the age of 20-25, food should be taken 3-4 times a day in strict accordance with individual daily energy expenditure and at those hours when a noticeable feeling of hunger appears.

However, these general patterns sometimes hide the diversity of individual characteristics of biological rhythms. Not all people experience the same type of fluctuations in performance. Some, the so-called “larks,” work energetically in the first half of the day; others, “owls,” in the evening. People classified as “early people” feel drowsy in the evening, go to bed early, but when they wake up early, they feel alert and productive (Fig. 2).

Easier to tolerate acclimatization a person, if he takes (3-5 times a day) hot meals and adaptogens, vitamin complexes, and gradually increases physical activity as he adapts to them (Fig. 3).

Rice. 2. Work capacity rhythm curves during the day

Rice. 3. Daily rhythms of life processes under constant external living conditions (according to Graf)

If these conditions are not met, so-called desynchronosis (a kind of pathological condition) may occur.

The phenomenon of desynchronosis is also observed in athletes, especially those training in hot and humid climates or mid-altitude conditions. Therefore, an athlete flying to international competitions must be well prepared. Today there is a whole system of measures aimed at maintaining familiar biorhythms.

For the human biological clock, the correct movement is important not only in the daily rhythm, but also in the so-called low-frequency rhythms, for example, in the periweekly rhythm.

It has now been established that the weekly rhythm is artificially developed: no convincing data have been found on the existence of innate seven-day rhythms in humans. Obviously, this is an evolutionarily fixed habit. The seven-day week became the basis of rhythm and rest in ancient Babylon. Over thousands of years, a weekly social rhythm has developed: people are more productive in the middle of the week than at the beginning or end of it.

The human biological clock reflects not only daily natural rhythms, but also those that have a longer duration, such as seasonal ones. They manifest themselves in an increase in metabolism in the spring and a decrease in it in the fall and winter, an increase in the percentage of hemoglobin in the blood and a change in the excitability of the respiratory center in spring and summer.

The state of the body in summer and winter to some extent corresponds to its state during the day and night. Thus, in winter, compared to summer, the blood sugar level decreased (a similar phenomenon occurs at night), and the amount of ATP and cholesterol increased.

Biorhythms and performance.

Rhythms of performance, like the rhythms of physiological processes, are endogenous in nature.

Performance may depend on many factors acting individually or jointly. These factors include: level of motivation, food intake, environmental factors, physical fitness, health status, age and other factors. Apparently, the dynamics of performance are also affected by fatigue (in elite athletes, chronic fatigue), although it is not entirely clear how exactly. Fatigue that occurs when performing exercises (training loads) is difficult to overcome even for a sufficiently motivated athlete.

For example: Fatigue reduces performance, and repeated training (with an interval of 2-4 hours after the first) improves the athlete’s functional state.

During transcontinental flights, the circadian rhythms of various functions are rearranged at different speeds - from 2-3 days to 1 month. To normalize cyclicity before the flight, you need to shift your bedtime by 1 hour every day. If you do this within 5-7 days before departure and go to bed in a dark room, you will be able to acclimatize faster.

When arriving in a new time zone, it is necessary to smoothly enter the training process (moderate physical activity during the hours when the competition will take place). Training should not be of a “shock” nature.

It should be noted that the natural rhythm of the body’s life is determined not only by internal factors, but also by external conditions. As a result of the research, the wave nature of changes in loads during training was revealed. Previous ideas about a steady and straightforward increase in training loads turned out to be untenable. The wave-like nature of changes in loads during training is associated with the internal biological rhythms of a person.

For example: There are three categories of “waves” of training: “small”, covering from 3 to 7 days (or slightly more), “medium” - most often 4-6 weeks (weekly training processes) and “large”, lasting several months.

Normalization of biological rhythms allows you to carry out intense physical activity, and training with a disturbed biological rhythm leads to various functional disorders (for example, desynchronosis), and sometimes to diseases.

Source of information: V. Smirnov, V. Dubrovsky (Physiology of physical education and sports).

Any biological phenomenon, any physiological reaction is of a periodic nature, since living organisms, living for many millions of years in conditions of rhythmic changes in the geophysical parameters of the environment, have also developed ways of adapting to them.

Rhythm- a fundamental characteristic of the functioning of a living organism - is directly related to the mechanisms of feedback, self-regulation and adaptation, and the coordination of rhythmic cycles is achieved thanks to an important feature of oscillatory processes - the desire for synchronization. The main purpose of rhythm is to maintain the homeostasis of the body when environmental factors change. In this case, homeostasis is understood not as the static stability of the internal environment, but as a dynamic rhythmic process - rhythmostasis, or homeokinesis.

The body’s own rhythms are not autonomous, but are associated with the rhythmic processes of the external environment: the change of day and night, annual seasons, etc.

External time setters

There is no uniformity in the terminology characterizing external factors and the internal fluctuations generated by them. For example, there are names “external and internal time sensors”, “time setters”, “internal biological clocks”, “generators of internal oscillations” - “internal oscillators”.

Biological rhythm - periodic repetition of some process in a biological system at more or less regular intervals. Biorhythm is not just repeating, but also a self-sustaining and self-reproducing process. Biological rhythms are characterized by period, frequency, phase and amplitude of oscillations.

Period is the time between two points of the same name in a wave-like changing process, i.e. the duration of one cycle until the first repetition.

Frequency. Rhythms can also be characterized by frequency - the number of cycles occurring per unit of time. The frequency of rhythms can be determined by the frequency of periodic processes occurring in the external environment.

Amplitude is the greatest deviation of the studied indicator in any direction from the average. The amplitude is sometimes expressed through the mesor, i.e. as a percentage of the average value of all its values ​​obtained during rhythm registration. Double the amplitude is equal to the amplitude of the oscillations.

Phase. The term "phase" refers to any distinct part of a cycle. Most often this term is used to describe the connection of one rhythm with another. For example, the peak of activity in some animals coincides in phase with the dark period of the light-dark cycle, in others - with the light period. If the two selected time periods do not coincide, then the term phase difference is introduced, expressed in the corresponding fractions of the period. Being ahead or behind in phase means that an event occurred earlier or later than expected. The phase is expressed in degrees. For example, if the maximum of one rhythm corresponds to the minimum of another, then the phase difference between them is 180?.

Acrophase is the point in time in the period when the maximum value of the studied indicator is noted. When recording acrophase (batiphase) over several cycles, it was noted that the time of its onset varies within certain limits, and this time is identified as a zone of phase wandering. The size of the phase wander zone is probably related to the period (frequency) of the rhythm. The frequency and phase of biorhythms are influenced not only by the frequency and phase of the external oscillatory process, but also by its level.

Exists circadian rule: Diurnal organisms are characterized by a positive correlation between illumination and circadian rhythm frequency, while nocturnal organisms are characterized by a negative correlation.

Classifications of biorhythms

The classification of rhythms depends on the selected criteria: according to their own characteristics, according to the functions they perform, the type of process that generates the oscillations, as well as according to the biosystem in which cyclicity is observed.

The range of possible rhythms of life covers a wide range of time scales - from the wave properties of elementary particles

(microrhythms) to global cycles of the biosphere (macro- and megarhythms). The limits of their duration range from many years to milliseconds, the grouping is hierarchical, but the boundaries between groups are in most cases arbitrary. The upper limit of mid-frequency rhythms is set at 28 hours to 3 seconds. Periods from 28 hours to 7 days are either classified as a single group of mesorhythms, or some of them (up to 3 days) are included in the mid-frequency ones, and from 4 days - in the low-frequency ones.

Rhythms are divided according to the following criteria (Yu. Ashoff,

1984):

According to its own characteristics (for example, by period);

By biological system (for example, population);

According to the nature of the process that generates rhythm;

According to the function that rhythm performs.

A classification based on the structural and functional levels of life organization is proposed:

Rhythms of the molecular level with a period of the second-minute range;

Cellular - from circa-hourly to circa-annual; organismal - from circadian to perennial;

Population-species - from perennial to rhythms lasting tens, hundreds and thousands of years;

Biogeocenotic - from hundreds of thousands to millions of years;

Biosphere rhythms - with a period of hundreds of millions of years.

The most popular classification of biological rhythms is F. Halberg and A. Reinberg (1967) (Fig. 4.1).

SEPARATE RHYTHMS

In living nature, the most clearly expressed rhythms are those with a period of about 24 hours - circadian (lat. circa- near, dies- day). Later prefix "circa" began to be used for other endogenous rhythms,

Rice. 4-1.Classification of biorhythms (F. Halberg, A. Reinberg)

corresponding to the cycles of the external environment: near-tidal, near-lunar, perennial (circatidal, circalunar, circannual). Rhythms with a period shorter than the circadian are defined as ultradian, while those with a longer period are infradian. Among the infradian rhythms, circaseptidian with a period (7–3 days), circavigentidian (21–3 days), circatrigentidian (30–5 days) and circannual (1 year–2 months) are distinguished.

Ultradian rhythmics

If the biological rhythms of this range are arranged in order of decreasing frequency, then a range from multi-hertz to multi-hour oscillations is obtained. Nerve impulses have the highest frequency (60-100 Hz), followed by EEG oscillations with a frequency from 0.5 to 70 Hz.

Decasecond rhythms were recorded in brain biopotentials. This range also includes fluctuations in pulse, respiration, and intestinal motility. Minute rhythms characterize the psychological and emotional state of a person: the bioelectrical activity of muscles, heart rate and respiration, the amplitude and frequency of movements change on average every 55 s.

Decaminute (90 min) rhythms were discovered in the brain mechanisms of night sleep, which were called slow- and fast-wave (or paradoxical) phases, while dreams and involuntary eye movements occur in the second phase. The same rhythm was subsequently discovered in ultra-slow fluctuations in the biopotentials of the waking brain, associated with the temporal dynamics of attention and operator vigilance.

Circular rhythms were found not only at the systemic level, but also at lower hierarchical levels. Many phenomena occurring at the cellular level have this rhythm: protein synthesis, changes in cell size and mass, enzymatic activity, cell membrane permeability, secretion, electrical activity.

Circadian oscillations

The circadian system is the basis through which the integrative activity and regulatory role of the neuroendocrine system manifests itself, carrying out the precise and subtle adaptation of the body to constantly changing environmental conditions.

Circadian periodicity was found in integral vital signs.

Performance at night decreases, and the time required to complete a task, both in the light and in the dark, is longer at night than during the day under the same conditions.

Training in the early morning hours has slightly less effect than in the middle of the day.

Students’ performance is highest in the pre-lunch hours, by 2 p.m. there is a significant decrease, the second rise occurs at 4-5 p.m., then a new decline is observed.

Daily periodicity is characteristic not only of GNI, but also of the underlying hierarchical systems of the body.

24-hour changes in cerebral and cardiac hemodynamics and orthostatic stability were recorded.

A daily rhythm of the conjugation of the phases of the cardiac cycle and respiration has been revealed.

The literature contains data on a nighttime decrease in pulmonary ventilation and oxygen consumption, a drop in minute volume of respiration (MVR) in young, mature and middle-aged people.

Circadian rhythm is also inherent in the functions of the digestive system, in particular, salivation, secretory activity of the pancreas, synthetic function of the liver, and gastric motility. It has been established that the highest rate of acid secretion with gastric juice is observed in the evening, and the lowest in the morning.

At the level of biochemical individuality, daily cyclicity is open for some substances.

Concentration of macro- and microelements: phosphorus, zinc, manganese, sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium and chlorine in human blood, as well as iron in blood serum.

Total content of amino acids and neurotransmitters.

Basal metabolism and the associated level of thyroid-stimulating hormone of the pituitary gland and thyroid hormones.

Sex hormone system: testosterone, androsterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, prolactin.

Hormones of the neuroendocrine stress regulation system - ACTH, cortisol, 17-hydroxycorticosteroids, which accompanies

is caused by cyclical changes in glucose and insulin levels. A similar rhythmicity is known for melatonin.

Infradian rhythms

Biorhythmologists have described not only daily, but also multi-day (about a week, about a month) rhythms, covering all hierarchical levels of the body.

In the literature there is an analysis of the fine spectrum of fluctuations (with periods of 3, 6, 9-10, 15-18, 23-24 and 28-32 days) of heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle strength.

The rhythm of 5-7 days is recorded in the dynamics of the intensity of energy metabolism, mass and temperature of the human body.

Fluctuations in the results of clinical tests of the content of red blood cells and leukocytes in the blood are well known. In men, the number of neutrophils in venous blood changes over a period of 14 to 23 days.

Among the rhythms of this range, the most studied are the monthly (lunar) cycles. It has been established that during the full moon, the number of cases of postoperative bleeding is 82% higher than at other times; during the lunar phases, the incidence of myocardial infarction increases.

Circannual rhythms

In the body of animals and humans, oscillations of various physiological processes have been discovered, the period of which is equal to one year - perennial (circannual) or seasonal rhythms. Circannual periodicity has been determined for the excitability of the nervous system, hemodynamic parameters, heat production, response to acute cold stress, the content of sex and other hormones, neurotransmitters, child growth, etc.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BIORHYTHMS

When studying periodic phenomena in living systems, it is important to find out whether the rhythm observed in a biological system reflects a reaction to a periodic influence external to this system (exogenous rhythm imposed by the pacemaker) or whether the rhythm is generated within the system itself (endogenous rhythm), finally whether there is a combination of an exogenous rhythm and an endogenous rhythm generator.

Pacemakers and functions

External pacemakers can be simple or complex.

Simple:

Serving food at the same time, which causes simple reactions limited mainly to involvement in the activity of the digestive system;

The change of light and darkness is also a relatively simple pacemaker, but it involves not only sleep or wakefulness (i.e. one system), but the entire organism in activity.

Difficult:

The change of seasons, leading to long-term specific changes in the state of the body, in particular, its reactivity, resistance to various factors: the level of metabolism, the direction of metabolic reactions, endocrine changes;

Periodic fluctuations in solar activity, often causing disguised changes in the body, largely dependent on the initial state.

Relationship between time setters and biorhythms

Our modern ideas about the connection between exogenous time-setters and endogenous rhythms (the idea of ​​a single biological clock, polyoscillatory structure) are shown in Fig. 4-2.

Hypotheses about a single biological clock and the polyoscillatory time structure of the body are quite compatible.

The hypothesis of centralized control of internal oscillatory processes (the presence of a single biological clock) relates primarily to the perception of changes in light and darkness and the transformation of these phenomena into endogenous biorhythms.

Rice. 4-2.Mechanisms of interaction of the body with external time setters

Multioscillatory model of biorhythms. It is assumed that in a multicellular organism a main pacemaker can function, imposing its rhythm on all other systems. The existence (along with the central pacemaker) of secondary oscillators, which also have pacemaker properties, but are hierarchically subordinate to the leader, cannot be ruled out. According to one version of this hypothesis, disparate oscillators can function in the body, which form separate groups that work independently of each other.

MECHANISMS OF RHYTHMOGENESIS

There are several points of view on the mechanisms of rhythmogenesis. It is possible that the source of circadian rhythm is cyclic changes in ATP in the cytoplasm of cells or cycles of metabolic reactions. It is possible that the rhythms of the body determine biophysical effects, namely the influence of:

Gravitational field;

Cosmic rays;

Electromagnetic fields (including the Earth's magnetic field);

Atmospheric ionization, etc.

Rhythms of mental activity

Not only biological and physiological processes, but also the dynamics of mental activity, including emotional states, are subject to regular fluctuations. For example, it has been established that the waking consciousness of a person has a wave nature. Psychological rhythms can be systematized in the same ranges as biological ones.

Ultradian rhythms manifest themselves in fluctuations in perception thresholds, time of motor and associative reactions, and attention. The correspondence of bio- and psychorhythms in the human body ensures the normal functioning of all its organs and systems, so human hearing gives the greatest accuracy in assessing the time interval of 0.5-0.7 s, which is typical for the pace of movements when walking.

Clock rhythms.In the fluctuations of mental processes, in addition to temporary rhythms, so-called clock rhythms were discovered, which depend not on time, but on the sample number: a person cannot always react in the same way to presented stimuli.

If in the previous test the reaction time was short, then next time the body will save energy, which will lead to a decrease in the reaction rate and fluctuations in the value of this indicator from trial to trial. Tactical rhythms are more pronounced in children, and in adults they intensify with a decrease in the functional state of the nervous system. When studying mental fatigue, decasecond or two-minute (0.95-2.3 min) and ten-minute (2.3-19 min) rhythms were identified.

Circadian rhythmscause significant changes in the body’s activity, affecting the mental state and performance of a person. Thus, the electrical sensitivity of the eye changes throughout the day: at 9 a.m. it increases, by 12 p.m. it reaches a maximum and then decreases. Such daily dynamics are inherent not only in mental processes, but also in the psycho-emotional states of the individual. The literature describes the daily rhythms of intellectual performance, subjective readiness for work and the ability to concentrate, short-term memory. Persons with a morning type of performance have a higher level of anxiety and are less resistant to frustrating factors. People of morning and evening types have different thresholds of excitability, a tendency towards extraversion or introversion.

EFFECTS OF CHANGING TIME SETTERS

Biological rhythms are distinguished by great stability; changing the usual rhythms of time-setters does not immediately shift biorhythms and leads to desynchronosis.

Desynchronosis - mismatch of circadian rhythms - a violation of the original architectonics of the body's circadian system. When the synchronization of the body's rhythms and time sensors is disturbed (external desynchronosis), the body enters a stage of anxiety (internal desynchronosis). The essence of internal desynchronosis is a mismatch in the phase of the body's circadian rhythms, which results in various disturbances in its well-being: sleep disorders, loss of appetite, deterioration of well-being, mood, decline in performance, neurotic disorders and even organic diseases (gastritis, peptic ulcer, etc.) . The restructuring of biorhythms is most clearly manifested during rapid movements (air travel) on a global scale.

Long distance travel cause pronounced desynchronosis, the nature and depth of which are determined by: direction, time, duration of the flight; individual characteristics of the body; workload; climatic contrast, etc. Five types of movements are identified (Fig. 4-3).

Rice. 4-3.Chronophysiological classification of types of movement:

1 - transmeridian; 2 - translatitudinal; 3 - diagonal (mixed);

4 - transequatorial; 5 - asynchronous. (V.A. Matyukhin et al., 1999)

Transmeridian movement (1). The main indicator of such movement is the angular velocity of movement, expressed in degrees of longitude. It can be measured by the number of time zones (15?) crossed per day.

If the speed of movement exceeds 0.5 time zones per day, external desynchronosis - the difference in the phases of the actual and expected maximums of the daily curve of physiological functions.

Changing 1-2 time zones does not cause desynchronization (there is a dead zone within which phase desynchronization does not appear). When flying across 1-2 time zones, the flattening of daily fluctuations in physiological functions typical for phase desynchronization is not observed, and the rhythm is gently “delayed” by external time sensors.

As you move further east or west, the phase mismatch increases as a function of time. At different geographic latitudes, the critical angular velocity is achieved at different linear speeds of movement: in subpolar latitudes, even at low speeds corresponding to the speed of a pedestrian, desynchronization cannot be ruled out. Almost all vehicles speed significantly exceeds 0.5 arc-hours per day. The effect of desynchronization of biological rhythms manifests itself in the most pronounced form with this type of movement.

When the speed of movement exceeds three or more time zones per day, external synchronizers are no longer able to “delay” circadian fluctuations in physiological functions and desynchronosis occurs.

Translatitudinal movement (2) - along the meridian, from south to north or from north to south - without causing a phase mismatch of the sensors, gives an effect perceived as a mismatch of the actual and expected amplitudes of the synchronizers. At the same time, the phases of the annual rhythm change, and seasonal desynchronization appears.

The first place in such movements is the discrepancy between the seasonal readiness of physiological systems and the requirements of a different season in a new place. There is no phase mismatch between the rhythms of external sensors and the body’s biorhythms, but their daily amplitudes do not coincide.

The distance of movement, at which climatic conditions and the structure of photoperiodism in a new place begin to cause tension in the mechanisms of maintaining the seasonal rhythm of physiological functions, depends on geographic latitude: an assessment of the width of the insensitivity zone shows that it can vary from 1400 km at the equator to 150 km at a latitude of 80? .

- “Window of chronophysiological insensitivity”, its linear and angular dimensions depend on latitude. The speed, expressed in the number of “windows” crossed per day, will, at equal linear speed, increase in the direction from the equator to the pole to very large values. Narrowing

“windows” as you move north are an important circumstance, indicating increased chronophysiological tension when moving in subpolar latitudes compared to low or middle latitudes.

Moving diagonally (3) implies changes in longitude and latitude, great climatic contrast and significant changes in standard time. These movements are not a simple sum (superposition) of the effects of “horizontal” (1) and “vertical” (2) movement. This is a complex set of chronobiological stimuli, the reaction to which may differ significantly from reactions to each type of desynchronization considered in isolation.

Moving to another hemisphere (4) crossing the equatorial zone. The main influencing factor of such movement is the contrasting change of season, causing deep seasonal desynchronosis, displacement and inversion of the phase of the annual cycle of physiological functions.

The fifth type of movement is the chronoecological regime, in which the oscillatory properties of the environment are sharply weakened or completely absent. Such movements include:

Orbital flights;

Staying in conditions with sharply weakened daily and seasonal synchronizers (submarines, spacecraft);

Shift work schedules with staggered shift schedules, etc. It is proposed to call environments of this type “asynchronous”. The impact of such “chronodeprivation” causes gross violations of daily and other periodicity.

SUBJECTIVITY OF TIME PERCEPTION

The passage of time is perceived subjectively, depending on the intensity of the physical or mental activity of each individual. Time seems to become more capacious when you are busier or when it is necessary to make the right decision in an extreme situation.

In a matter of seconds, a person manages to do the most difficult work. For example, a pilot in an emergency decides to change the tactics of controlling the aircraft. At the same time he

instantly takes into account and compares the dynamics of development of numerous factors influencing flight conditions.

In the process of studying the subjective perception of time, the researchers used the “individual minute” test. At a signal, the person counts down the seconds, and the experimenter watches the stopwatch hand. It turned out that for some the “individual minute” is shorter than the true one, for others it is longer; the discrepancies in one direction or another can be very significant.

BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS IN DIFFERENT CLIMATE GEOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

Highlands. In high altitude conditions, the circadian rhythms of hemodynamics, respiration, and gas exchange depend on meteorological factors and change in direct proportion to changes in air temperature and wind speed and in inverse proportion to changes in atmospheric pressure and relative air humidity.

High latitudes. The specific properties of the polar climate and environmental features determine the biorhythms of the inhabitants:

During the polar night there are no reliable circadian fluctuations in oxygen consumption. Since the value of the oxygen utilization coefficient reflects the intensity of energy exchange, the decrease in the range of fluctuations in oxygen consumption during the polar night is indirect evidence in favor of the phase mismatch of various energy-dependent processes.

Residents of the Far North and polar explorers during the polar night (winter) experience a decrease in the amplitude of the daily rhythm of body temperature and a shift of acrophase to the evening hours, and in spring and summer to the daytime and morning hours.

Arid zone. When a person adapts to the desert, rhythmic fluctuations in environmental conditions lead to synchronization of the rhythm of the functional state of the body with these fluctuations. In this way, partial optimization of the activity of compensatory mechanisms under extreme environmental conditions is achieved. For example, the acrophase of the rhythm of the weighted average skin temperature occurs at 16:30, which practically coincides with the maximum air temperature, body temperature

reaches its maximum at 21:00, correlating with the maximum heat generation.

METHODS OF STATISTICAL ASSESSMENT IN CHRONOBIOLOGY

Cosine function. The simplest periodic process is a harmonic oscillatory process, described by a cosine function (Fig. 4-4):

Rice. 4-4.The main elements of the harmonic (cosine) oscillatory process: M - level; T - period; ρ A, ρ B, αφ A, αφ B - amplitudes and phases of processes A and B; 2ρ A - scope of process A; αφ H - phase difference between processes A and B

x(t) = M + рХcos2π/ТХ(t-αφ Х),

Where:

M - constant component; ρ - amplitude of oscillations; T - period, h; t - current time, h; aαφ H - phase, h.

When analyzing biorhythms, they are usually limited to the first member of the series - a harmonic with a period of 24 hours. Sometimes a harmonic with a period of 12 hours is also taken into account. As a result of approximation, the time series turns out to be represented by a small number of generalized parameters - level M, amplitude p, phase αφ.

The phase relationships between two harmonic oscillatory processes can be different. If the phases of two processes are the same, they are called in-phase; if the difference between the phases is T/2, they are called anti-phase. We speak about the phase advance or phase lag of one harmonic process A relative to another B when αφ A<αφ B или αφ A >αφ B respectively.

The described parameters, strictly speaking, can only be used in relation to a harmonic oscillatory process. In fact, the daily curve differs from the mathematical model: it may be asymmetrical relative to the average level, and the interval between maximum and minimum, unlike a cosine wave, may not be equal to 12 hours, etc. In view of these reasons, the use of these parameters to describe a real oscillatory periodic or close to periodic process requires a certain amount of caution.

Chronograms.Along with the harmonic approximation of the time series, the traditional method of presenting the results of biorhythmological research in the form of daily chronograms is widely used, i.e. averaged over many individual measurements of daily curves. On the chronogram, along with the average value of the indicator for a certain hour of the day, a confidence interval is indicated in the form of a standard deviation or error of the average.

There are several types of chronograms found in the literature. If the dispersion of individual levels is large, the periodic component may be masked. In such cases, preliminary normalization of daily curves is used, so that it is not the absolute values ​​of the amplitude p that are averaged, but the relative ones (p/M). For some indicators, the chronogram is calculated in shares (percentages) of the total daily volume of consumption or excretion of some substrate (for example, oxygen consumption or potassium excretion in the urine).

The chronogram gives a fairly clear idea of ​​the nature of the daily curves. By analyzing the chronogram, it is possible to approximately determine the oscillation phase, absolute and relative amplitude, as well as their confidence intervals.

Kosinor- statistical model of biorhythms based on approximation of the oscillation curve of a physiological indicator

harmonic function - cosinor analysis. The purpose of cosine analysis is to present individual and mass biorhythmological data in a comparable, unified form that is accessible for statistical assessments. Daily cosinor parameters characterize the severity of the biorhythm, transition processes during its restructuring, and the presence of a statistically significant difference between some groups and others.

Cosinor analysis has obvious advantages over the chronogram method, since it allows the use of correct statistical methods to analyze the structure of biorhythms.

Cosinor analysis is performed in two stages:

At the first stage, individual daily curves are approximated by a harmonic (cosine) function, as a result of which the main parameters of the biorhythm are determined - the average daily level, amplitude and acrophase;

At the second stage, vector averaging of individual data is carried out, the mathematical expectation and confidence intervals of the amplitude and acrophase of daily fluctuations of the studied indicator are determined.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL

1. Give examples of temporary parameters of the body and its systems?

2. What is the essence of synchronizing the work of various body systems?

3. What is biological rhythm? What characteristics does it have?

4. What classifications of biorhythms can you give? What is the fundamental difference between different types of biorhythms?

5. Name the mechanisms of rhythmogenesis.

6. What rhythms of mental activity do you know?

7. What happens when timers are removed or changed?

8. What types of movements do you know?

9. Name the methods of statistical analysis in chronobiology.

10. What is the fundamental difference between cosinor analysis?

The science that studies rhythm in biology arose at the end of the 18th century. Its founder is considered to be the German doctor Christopher William Gufeland. With his input, for a long period of time, organisms were considered dependent exclusively on external cyclical processes, primarily on the rotation of the Earth around the Sun and its own axis. Today, chronobiology is popular. According to the dominant theory, the causes of biorhythms lie both outside and inside a particular organism. Moreover, changes repeated over time are characteristic not only of individual individuals. They permeate all levels of biological systems - from the cell to the biosphere.

Rhythmicity in biology: definition

Thus, the property under consideration is one of the fundamental characteristics of living matter. Rhythm in biology can be defined as fluctuations in the intensity of processes and physiological reactions. It represents periodic changes in the state of the environment of a living system, arising under the influence of external and internal factors. They are also called synchronizers.

Biorhythms that do not depend on external (acting on the system from outside) factors are endogenous. Exogenous ones, accordingly, do not respond to the influence of internal (acting within the system) synchronizers.

Causes

As already noted, in the first stages of the formation of a new science, rhythm in biology was considered to be determined only by external factors. This theory was replaced by the hypothesis of internal determination. In it, external factors played a minor role. However, researchers quickly came to understand the high value of both types of synchronizers. Today it is believed that biological things are endogenous in nature, subject to changes under the influence of the external environment. This idea is at the center of the multioscillatory model of regulation of such processes.

The essence of the theory

According to this concept, endogenous genetically programmed oscillatory processes are influenced by external synchronizers. A huge number of internal rhythmic vibrations of a multicellular organism are arranged in a certain hierarchical order. Its maintenance is based on neurohumoral mechanisms. They coordinate the phase relationships of different rhythms: unidirectional processes proceed synchronously, while incompatible ones work in antiphase.

It is difficult to imagine all this activity without some kind of oscillator (coordinator). In the theory under consideration, three interconnected regulatory systems are distinguished: the pineal gland, the pituitary gland and the adrenal glands. The pineal gland is considered the most ancient.

Presumably, in organisms at low stages of evolutionary development, the pineal gland plays a major role. The melatonin it secretes is produced in the dark and breaks down in the light. In fact, it tells all cells the time of day. As the organization becomes more complex, the pineal gland begins to play a second role, yielding primacy to the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus. The question of the relationship in the regulation of biorhythms of both structures has not been fully resolved. In any case, according to the theory, they have a “helper” - the adrenal glands.

Kinds

All biorhythms are divided into two main categories:

physiological are fluctuations in the functioning of individual systems of the body;

ecological, or adaptive, are necessary to adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions.

Also common is the classification proposed by chronobiologist F. Halberg. He took their duration as the basis for dividing biological rhythms:

high frequency fluctuations - from a few seconds to half an hour;

average frequency fluctuations - from half an hour to six days;

low frequency fluctuations - from six days to a year.

Processes of the first type are breathing, heartbeat, electrical activity of the brain and other similar rhythms in biology. Examples of average frequency fluctuations are changes during the day in metabolic processes, sleep and wakefulness patterns. The third includes seasonal, annual and lunar rhythms.

Synchronizers external to a person are divided into social and physical. The first are the daily routine and various norms adopted at work, in everyday life or in society as a whole. Physical synchronizers are represented by the change of day and night, the intensity of electromagnetic fields, fluctuations in temperature, humidity, and so on.

Desynchronization

The ideal state of the body occurs when a person’s internal biorhythms work in accordance with external conditions. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. A condition when there is a mismatch between internal rhythms and external synchronizers is called desynchronosis. It also comes in two versions.

Internal desynchronosis is a mismatch of processes directly in the body. A common example is disruption of sleep-wake rhythms. External desynchronosis is a mismatch between internal biological rhythms and environmental conditions. Such violations occur, for example, when flying from one time zone to another.

Desynchronosis manifests itself in the form of changes in physiological indicators such as blood pressure. It is often accompanied by increased irritability, lack of appetite, and fatigue. According to chronobiologists, as mentioned above, any disease is the result of a mismatch of certain oscillatory processes.

Circadian biological rhythms

Understanding the logic of fluctuations in physiological processes allows you to optimally organize activities. In this sense, the importance of biological rhythms lasting about a day is especially great. They are used both to determine the effectiveness and for medical diagnosis, treatment, and even choice of dosage of drugs.

In the human body, a day is a period of fluctuation of a huge number of processes. Some of them change significantly, others - minimally. It is important that the indicators of both do not go beyond the norm, that is, they do not become health threatening.

Temperature fluctuations

Thermoregulation is the key to the constancy of the internal environment, and therefore the proper functioning of the body for all mammals, including humans. The temperature changes throughout the day, and the range of fluctuations is very small. The minimum indicators are typical for the period from one o'clock in the morning to five in the morning, the maximum is recorded around six o'clock in the evening. The amplitude of the oscillations is most often less than one degree.

Cardiovascular and endocrine systems

The work of the main “motor” of the human body is also subject to fluctuations. There are two time points at which the activity of the cardiovascular system decreases: one in the afternoon and nine in the evening.

All hematopoietic organs have their own rhythms. The peak activity of the bone marrow occurs in the early morning, and that of the spleen at eight o'clock in the evening.

The secretion of hormones is also inconsistent throughout the day. The concentration of adrenaline in the blood increases in the early morning and reaches its peak at nine o'clock. This feature explains the vigor and activity that most often characterize people in the first half of the day.

Midwives know an interesting statistic: labor in most cases begins around midnight. This is also due to the peculiarities of work. By this time, the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland is activated, producing the corresponding hormones.

In the morning - meat, in the evening - milk

For adherents of proper nutrition, facts related to the digestive system will be interesting. The first half of the day is the time when peristalsis of the gastrointestinal tract increases and bile production increases. The liver actively consumes glycogen in the morning and releases water. From these patterns, chronobiologists derive simple rules: it is better to eat heavy and fatty foods in the first half of the day, and in the afternoon and evening, dairy products and vegetables are ideal.

Performance

It's no secret that a person's biorhythms affect his activity during the day. Variations in different people have their own characteristics, but general patterns can also be identified. The three “bird” chronotypes that connect biological rhythms and performance are probably known to everyone. These are “lark”, “owl” and “dove”. The first two are extreme options. “Larks” are full of strength and energy in the morning, they get up easily and go to bed early.

“Owls,” like their prototype, are nocturnal. The active period for them begins at about six in the evening. Getting up early can be very difficult for them to endure. "Pigeons" are able to work both during the day and in the evening. In chronobiology they are called arrhythmics.

Knowing his type, a person can more effectively manage his own activities. However, there is an opinion that any “owl” can become a “lark” with desire and persistence, and the division into three types is due, rather, to habits than to inherent characteristics.

Constant change

The biorhythms of humans and other organisms are not rigid, permanently fixed characteristics. In the process of onto- and phylogenesis, that is, individual development and evolution, they change with certain patterns. What is responsible for such shifts is still not completely clear. There are two main versions on this matter. According to one of them, changes are governed by a mechanism inherent at the cellular level - it can be called

Another hypothesis assigns the main role in this process to geophysical factors that have yet to be studied. Adherents of this theory explain the differences in the biorhythms of individuals by their position on the evolutionary ladder. The higher the level of organization, the more intense the metabolism. In this case, the nature of the indicators does not change, but the amplitude of the fluctuation increases. They consider rhythm itself in biology and its synchronization with geophysical processes as the result of the work of natural selection, leading to the transformation of external (for example, the change of day and night) into internal (the period of activity and sleep) rhythm fluctuations.

Effect of age

Chronobiologists were able to establish that in the process of ontogenesis, depending on the stage the organism passes through, circadian rhythms change. Each development corresponds to its own vibrations of internal systems. Moreover, the change in biological rhythms is subject to a certain pattern, described by the Russian specialist G.D. Gubin. It is convenient to consider it using the example of mammals. In them, such changes are associated primarily with the amplitudes of circadian rhythms. From the first stages of individual development, they increase and reach a maximum in young and mature age. Then the amplitudes begin to decrease.

These are not the only changes in rhythms associated with age. The sequence of acrophases (acrophase is the point in time when the maximum value of a parameter is observed) and the values ​​of the age norm range (chronodesm) also change. If we take into account all these changes, it becomes obvious that it is in adulthood that biorhythms are perfectly coordinated and the human body is able to withstand various external influences, maintaining its health. Over time, the situation changes. As a result of the mismatch between different rhythms, the health reserve gradually runs out.

Chronobiologists propose using such patterns to predict diseases. Based on knowledge about the peculiarities of fluctuations in a person’s circadian rhythms throughout life, it is theoretically possible to construct a certain graph reflecting the health reserve, its maximums and minimums over time. Such testing is a thing of the future, according to most scientists. However, there are theories that make it possible to construct something similar to such a graph now.

Three rhythms

Let’s lift the veil of secrecy a little and tell you how to determine your biorhythms. The calculations in them are made on the basis of the theory of the psychologist Hermann Svoboda, the doctor Wilhelm Fiss and the engineer Alfred Teltscher, created by them at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The essence of the concept is that there are three rhythms: physical, emotional and intellectual. They arise at the moment of birth and throughout life do not change their frequency:

physical - 23 days;

emotional - 28 days;

intellectual - 33 days.

If you plot their changes over time, it will take the form of a sinusoid. For all three parameters, the part of the wave above the Ox axis corresponds to a rise in indicators; below it there is a zone of decline in physical, emotional and mental capabilities. Biorhythms, which can be calculated using a similar graph, at the point of intersection with the axis signal the beginning of a period of uncertainty, when the body’s resistance to environmental influences greatly decreases.

Definition of indicators

You can calculate biological rhythms based on this theory yourself. To do this, you need to calculate how long you have already lived: multiply your age by the number of days in a year (don’t forget that there are 366 in a leap year). The resulting figure must be divided by the frequency of the biorhythm whose graph you are plotting (23, 28 or 33). You will get some integer and remainder. Multiply the whole part again by the duration of a particular biorhythm? f subtract the resulting value from the number of days lived. The remainder will be the number of days in the period currently.

If the obtained value does not exceed one-fourth of the cycle duration, this is the rise time. Depending on the biorhythm, it implies vigor and physical activity, good mood and emotional stability, creative inspiration and intellectual uplift. A value equal to half the duration of the period symbolizes a time of uncertainty. Being in the last third of the duration of any biorhythm means being in the zone of decline in activity. At this time, a person tends to get tired faster, and the risk of illness increases when it comes to the physical cycle. Emotionally, there is a decrease in mood up to depression, a deterioration in the ability to restrain strong internal impulses. At the level of intelligence, the period of decline is characterized by difficulty in making decisions and some inhibition of thought.

Relation to theory

In the scientific world, the concept of three biorhythms in this format is usually criticized. There is no sufficient basis to suggest that anything in the human body can be so immutable. This is evidenced by all the discovered patterns that govern rhythm in biology and the characteristics of internal processes characteristic of different levels of living systems. Therefore, the described calculation method and the entire theory are most often proposed to be considered as an interesting option for spending time, but not a serious concept on the basis of which you should plan your activities.

The biological rhythm of sleep and wakefulness, therefore, is not the only one existing in the body. All systems that make up our body are subject to vibrations, and not only at the level of such large formations as the heart or lungs. Rhythmic processes are inherent in cells, and therefore are characteristic of living matter as a whole. The science that studies such fluctuations is still quite young, but it is already striving to explain many patterns that exist in human life and throughout nature. The evidence already accumulated suggests that the potential of chronobiology is indeed very high. Perhaps, in the near future, doctors will also begin to follow its principles, prescribing doses of drugs in accordance with the characteristics of the phase of a particular biological rhythm.

Many people associate the rhythm with the waltz. And indeed, its melody is a harmonious series of sounds placed in a certain order. But the essence of rhythm is much broader than music. These are sunrises and sunsets, winters and springs, and magnetic storms - any phenomenon and any process that repeats periodically. The rhythms of life, or, as they also say, biorhythms, are repeating processes in living matter. Have they always been there? Who invented them? How are they related to each other and what can they influence? Why does nature need them at all? Maybe the rhythms of life only get in the way, creating unnecessary frameworks and preventing you from developing freely? Let's try to figure it out.

Where do biorhythms come from?

This question is consonant with the question of how our world came into being. The answer may be this: nature itself created biorhythms. Think about it: all natural processes in it, regardless of their scale, are cyclical. Periodically, some stars are born and others die, activity on the Sun increases and decreases, year after year one season gives way to another, morning is followed by day, then evening, night, and then morning again. These are the rhythms of life known to all of us, in proportion to which life on Earth exists, and the Earth itself too. Subject to the biorhythms created by nature, people, animals, birds, plants, amoebas and slipper ciliates live, even the cells from which we all consist. The very interesting science of biorhythmology is engaged in the study of the conditions for the occurrence, nature and significance of biorhythms for all living beings on the planet. It is a separate branch of another science - chronobiology, which studies not only rhythmic processes in living organisms, but also their connection with the rhythms of the Sun, Moon, and other planets.

Why are biorhythms needed?

The essence of biorhythms is the stability of the occurrence of phenomena or processes. Stability, in turn, helps living organisms adapt to their environment, develop their own life programs that allow them to produce healthy offspring and continue their lineage. It turns out that the rhythms of life are the mechanism by which life on the planet exists and develops. An example of this is the ability of many flowers to open at certain times. Based on this phenomenon, Carl Linnaeus even created the world's first flower clock without hands or dial. Flowers showed time in them. As it turned out, this feature is associated with pollination.

Each flower, which opens by the clock, has its own specific pollinator, and it is for him that it releases nectar at the appointed hour. The insect seems to know (thanks to the biorhythms that have developed in its body) when and where it needs to go for food. As a result, the flower does not waste energy on producing nectar when there is no consumer for it, and the insect does not waste energy on unnecessary searches for the necessary food.

What other examples are there of the usefulness of biorhythms? Seasonal migrations of birds, migrations of fish for spawning, search for a sexual partner at a certain period in order to have time to give birth and raise offspring.

The importance of biorhythms for humans

There are dozens of examples of wise patterns between biorhythms and the existence of living organisms. Thus, the correct rhythm of a person’s life is subject to a daily routine that is unloved by many. Some of us hate eating or going to bed at certain hours, but our organs are much better off if we follow a cyclical schedule. For example, the stomach, having become accustomed to the schedule of food intake, will by this time produce gastric juice, which will begin to digest food, and not the walls of the stomach itself, rewarding us with an ulcer. The same applies to rest. If you do it at approximately the same time, the body will develop a tendency at such hours to slow down the work of many systems and restore the expended strength. By throwing the body off schedule, you can provoke unpleasant conditions and develop serious illnesses, from bad mood to headaches, from nervous breakdown to heart failure. The simplest example of this is the feeling of weakness throughout the body that occurs after a sleepless night.

Physiological biorhythms

There are so many rhythms of life that they decided to systematize them, dividing them into two main categories - physiological rhythms of life of organisms and environmental ones. Physiological ones include cyclic reactions in the cells that make up organs, the beating of the heart (pulse), and the breathing process. The duration of physiological biorhythms is very short, up to only a few minutes, and there are also those that last only a fraction of a second. For each individual they are their own, regardless of membership in the population or family ties. That is, even for twins they can be different. A characteristic feature of physiological biorhythms is their high dependence on a number of factors. Phenomena in the environment, the emotional and psychological state of an individual, diseases, any little thing can cause a disruption in one or several physiological biorhythms.

Ecological biorhythms

This category includes rhythms that have the duration of natural cyclic processes, so they can be both short and long. For example, a day lasts 24 hours, and the period is extended for 11 years! Ecological biorhythms exist on their own and depend only on very large-scale phenomena. For example, it is believed that days were once shorter because the Earth rotated faster. The stability of environmental biorhythms (length of day, seasons of the year, associated illumination, temperature, humidity and other environmental parameters) during the process of evolution was fixed in the genes of all living organisms, including humans. If you artificially create a new rhythm of life, for example, changing the places of day and night, organisms do not rebuild immediately. This was confirmed by experiments with flowers that were placed in pitch darkness for a long time. For some time, without seeing the light, they continued to open in the morning and close in the evening. It has been experimentally proven that changes in biorhythms have a pathological effect on vital functions. For example, many people with the change of clocks to summer and winter time have problems with blood pressure, nerves, and heart.

Another classification

The German doctor and physiologist J. Aschoff proposed separating the rhythms of life, focusing on the following criteria:

Temporal characteristics, such as periods;

Biological structures (population);

Rhythm functions, such as ovulation;

A type of process that generates a specific rhythm.

Following this classification, biorhythms are distinguished:

Infradian (last more than a day, for example, hibernation of some animals, the menstrual cycle);

Lunar (phases of the moon that greatly influence all living things, for example, during the new moon the number of heart attacks, crimes, car accidents increases);

Ultradian (lasting less than a day, for example, concentration, drowsiness);

Circadian (lasting about a day). As it turned out, the period of circadian rhythms is not related to external conditions and is genetically determined in living organisms, that is, it is innate. Circadian rhythms include the daily content of plasma, glucose or potassium in the blood of living beings, the activity of growth hormones, the functions of hundreds of substances in tissues (in humans and animals - in urine, saliva, sweat, in plants - in leaves, stems, flowers) . It is on this basis that herbalists advise harvesting this or that plant at strictly certain hours. In us humans, more than 500 processes with circadian dynamics have been identified.

Chronomedicine

This is the name of a new field in medicine that pays close attention to circadian biorhythms. There are already dozens of discoveries in chronomedicine. It has been established that many human pathological conditions follow a strictly defined rhythm. For example, strokes and heart attacks most often occur in the morning, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., and from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. their occurrence is minimal, the pain is more intense from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m., hepatic colic more actively causes suffering at about one a.m., and hypertension The crisis becomes more pronounced around midnight.

Based on discoveries in chronomedicine, chronotherapy emerged, which deals with the development of drug regimens during periods of their maximum impact on the diseased organ. For example, the duration of action of antihistamines taken in the morning lasts almost 17 hours, and those taken in the evening last only 9 hours. It is logical that diagnoses are made in a new way using chronodiagnostics.

Biorhythms and chronotypes

Thanks to the efforts of chronomedics, a more serious attitude has emerged towards dividing people according to their chronotypes into owls, larks and pigeons. Owls, with a constant rhythm of life that is not artificially changed, as a rule, wake up themselves around 11 o’clock in the morning. Their activity begins to appear from 2 o'clock in the afternoon; at night they can easily stay awake almost until the morning.

Larks easily get up without being woken up at 6 am. At the same time, they feel great. Their activity is noticeable until about one o'clock in the afternoon, then the larks need rest, after which they are again able to do business until about 6-7 o'clock in the evening. Forced wakefulness after 9-10 pm is difficult for these people to endure.

Pigeons are an intermediate chronotype. They easily wake up a little later than larks and a little earlier than owls; they can actively do business all day, but must go to bed around 11 pm.

If owls are forced to work from dawn, and larks are assigned to the night shift, these people will begin to get seriously ill, and the enterprise will incur losses due to the weak working ability of such workers. Therefore, many managers try to set work schedules according to the biorhythms of their employees.

We and modernity

Our great-great-grandfathers lived a more measured life. The sunrise and sunset served as clocks, and seasonal natural processes served as a calendar. The modern rhythm of life dictates completely different conditions for us, regardless of our chronotype. Technological progress, as we know, does not stand still, constantly changes many processes to which our body barely has time to adapt. Hundreds of drugs are also being created that significantly affect the biorhythms of living organisms, for example, the timing of fruit ripening and the number of individuals in populations. Moreover, we are trying to correct the biorhythms of the Earth itself and even other planets, conducting experiments with magnetic fields, changing the climate as we please. This leads to chaos in our biorhythms that have been formed over the years. Science is still looking for answers to how all this will affect the future of humanity.

The frantic pace of life

While the impact of changes in biorhythms on civilization as a whole is still being studied, the impact of these changes on a specific person is already more or less clear. The current life is such that you need to have time to do dozens of things in order to be successful and implement your projects.

He is not even dependent, but in bondage to his daily plans and responsibilities, especially women. They need to be able to allocate time for family, home, work, study, for their health and self-improvement, and so on, although they still have the same 24 hours in a day. Many of us live in fear that if they don't make it, others will take their place and they will be left behind. So they set themselves a frantic rhythm of life, when they have to do a lot on the go, fly, run. This does not lead to success, but to depression, nervous breakdowns, stress, and diseases of the internal organs. In the frantic pace of life, many simply do not feel pleasure from it, do not receive joy.

In some countries, an alternative to the crazy race for happiness has become the new “Slow Living” movement, whose supporters try to derive joy not from an endless string of activities and events, but from living each of them with maximum pleasure. For example, they love to just walk down the street, just look at flowers or listen to birds singing. They are sure that the fast pace of life has nothing to do with happiness, despite the fact that it helps to get more material benefits and climb higher up the career ladder.

Pseudotheories about biorhythm

Soothsayers and oracles have long been interested in such an important phenomenon as biorhythms. By creating their theories and systems, they try to connect the life of each person and his future with numerology, the movement of planets, and various signs. At the end of the last century, the theory of “three rhythms” rose to the peak of popularity. For every person, the trigger mechanism is supposedly the moment of birth. At the same time, physiological, emotional and intellectual rhythms of life arise, which have their peaks of activity and decline. Their periods were 23, 28 and 33 days, respectively. Proponents of the theory drew three sinusoids of these rhythms, superimposed on one coordinate grid. At the same time, days on which the intersection of two or three sinusoids fell, the so-called zero zones, were considered very unfavorable. Experimental studies have completely refuted this theory, proving that people have very different periods of their activity biorhythms.

The biorhythms of internal human organs consistently adapt to a certain time zone, thanks to which the body can work without failures. By listening carefully to your essence, you can achieve great success in various types of work. If a person’s biorhythms are disrupted, for example, after arriving in a foreign country with a different climate and time zone, then the body will need to adapt. It can last approximately three days.

Classification of biorhythms

According to modern research, biological rhythms in people change depending on age. For example, newborns have a short biorhythmic cycle. The active phase passes into the relaxation phase and vice versa literally after 2-4 hours. In addition, it is very difficult to recognize the chronotype in a preschool child, according to which he is a “night owl” or a “lark”. Biologically, the rhythms lengthen gradually as the child grows older. Around puberty they become diurnal.

Biological rhythms can be divided into three main groups:

1. High frequency rhythms, lasting no more than 30 minutes. These include breathing rate, heart rate, intestinal motility, brain biocurrents and the speed of biochemical reactions.
2. Medium-frequency rhythms, the duration of which can range from 30 minutes to 6-7 days, include wakefulness and sleep, actions and inactions, daily metabolism, changes in body temperature and pressure, changes in blood composition, and the frequency of cell divisions.
3. Low frequency rhythms are characterized by weekly, seasonal and lunar periods. The main biological processes included in this periodicity include changes in cycles in the reproductive system and endocrine activity.

Rhythms are also known whose period is fixed (90 minutes). This includes, for example, cycles of emotional fluctuations, sleep, and increased attention. Depending on the alternation of activity and rest of human systems and organs, daily, monthly and seasonal biological rhythms are distinguished. With their help, the restoration of the physiological potential of the body is ensured. It is noteworthy that the rhythmic cycle is reflected at the genetic level and is inherited.

Sometimes it happens that a person’s poor health has nothing to do with jet lag or illness. It's all about negative energy, which can be directed consciously or unconsciously by other people. It is very difficult to get rid of this negativity - damage or the evil eye - on your own. In this case, you will need the help of a healer who will help you quickly and effectively get rid of the scourge.

Calculation of biorhythms

Today on the Internet there are a large number of free special programs with which you can easily determine biorhythms by date of birth. This information makes it possible to find out on which days a person’s activity will be increased, and what time is better to devote to rest and not plan important things. In our Center, which is led by a famous psychic, you can get detailed information about biorhythms, as well as learn how to determine them yourself.

Programs that set biorhythms by date are convenient because they absolutely do not require an understanding of the methodology for calculating biorhythms. You just need to enter the necessary data and literally immediately get the result, which is usually accompanied by valuable comments. It is worth paying attention to the fact that human biological rhythms largely depend on weather conditions: on sunny days, mood and activity increase significantly. This may explain why in regions with long winters people are more likely to suffer from prolonged depression and apathy.

Biorhythm compatibility

When comparing biorhythms, you can understand why communicating with some people brings great pleasure, while with others, on the contrary, it is very difficult to find a common language. Compatibility in biological rhythms plays a very important role in matters of the heart and relationships between spouses. If the compatibility rate exceeds 75-80%, then this is excellent. With such values, the partners get along well with each other and their relationship can be called harmonious. Moreover, the higher this indicator, the greater the chances of becoming an ideal couple, because in this case people enjoy comprehensive communication.

You can also calculate the biorhythms of compatibility when contacting people with whom you have to communicate, for example, on duty or in other life situations: selection of a personal secretary, employees for an enterprise, personal consultant or family doctor. Establishing biorhythms of compatibility is a simple method to determine the possibility of mutual understanding between people in the event of their upcoming collaboration. A good option can be considered when the biorhythm of one of the partners decreases, while the second person during this period feels its rise. In this situation, thanks to the different energies of people, quarrels and misunderstandings can be avoided.

The dependence of human life on biorhythms

The quality of life of each person largely depends on biological rhythms. Such a concept as the daily chronotype represents the daily activity that is inherent in an individual person. Throughout the day, the peak of physical and mental activity for each of us occurs at a certain time. According to this, people can be divided into three types:

1. “larks” (those who fall asleep at 21.00-22.00 and wake up early in the morning);
2. “pigeons” (they go to bed after 23.00 and wake up with an alarm clock at about 8.00);
3. “night owls” (stay up until late at night and can sleep through the first half of the next day).

The chronotype determines how quickly a person can adapt to certain situations or conditions, as well as some indicators of his health. For example, the biological rhythms of “owls” are considered the most flexible - they are the easiest to change their mode of life. However, if we talk about their cardiovascular systems, they are the most vulnerable. Read more useful information on this and other topics on our website.

It is a known fact that in those enterprises where employees work in accordance with individual schedules, which are drawn up taking into account personal chronotypes, productivity and labor efficiency increase significantly. After all, when biorhythms are normalized, physical activity is not scary. But in the case when the biological rhythm is disturbed, hard work can lead not only to many functional disorders of the body, but also to serious illnesses.