The Inner Clock
Presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Science Festival.
How the groundbreaking science of circadian rhythms can help you sleep better, feel happier, and improve your overall health.
Your body contains a symphony of tiny timepieces that are synchronized to the sun and subtle signals in your environment. But modern insults like artificial light, contrived time zones, and late-night meals can wreak havoc on your internal clocks. Misaligned circadian rhythms disrupt sleep, reduce productivity, and raise the risk of serious, life-threatening ailments.
Armed with advances in biology and technology, a circadian renaissance is reclaiming those lost rhythms, with profound impacts on our health and well-being. The Inner Clock explores the emerging science and its applications: How could taking a walk in the morning and going to bed at the same time each night keep your body in sync? Why are some doctors prescribing treatments at specific times of day? And how might a better understanding of our circadian rhythms improve educational outcomes, optimize sports performance, and support the longevity of our planet?
Science journalist Lynne Peeples seeks out the scientists, astronauts, athletes, and patients at the forefront of a growing movement. Along the way, she sleeps in a Cold War-era bunker, chases the midnight sun, spits into test tubes, and wears high-tech light sensors to decipher what makes our internal clocks tick and how we can reset them for the better.
In conversation with Deborah Blum.
Lynne Peeples
Lynne Peeples is a science journalist whose writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Scientific American, Nature and other publications. Before her move to writing, she crunched numbers as a biostatistician for HIV clinical trials and environmental health studies. Peeples was an MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow and holds master's degrees in biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health and in science journalism from New York University. She lives in Seattle.