
Internal time
by Till Roenneberg · first published 2012
5mentions
3recommended by
3HN commenters
2015–2026first – last mentioned
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Early birds and night owls are born, not made. Sleep patterns may be the most obvious manifestation of the highly individualized biological clocks we inherit, but these clocks also regulate bodily functions from digestion to hormone levels to cognition. Living at odds with our internal timepieces, Till Roenneberg shows, can make us chronically sleep deprived and more likely to smoke, gain weight, feel depressed, fall ill, and fail geometry. By understanding and respecting our internal time, we can live better. Internal Time combines storytelling with accessible science tutorials to explain how
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…outside by 645a, which meant waking up at 615a. Your average teenager's body doesn't want to wake up before 8 or 9a! BTW- If you're an early bird who thinks all of us night owls are lazy, please read Internal Time (http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre...) and then cut us some slack. If you are night owl you might want to pick it up to make you feel better :)
on “Mornings Don't Make You Moral” ↗For those interested, Internal Time [1] does a good job at explaining chronotypes. People that say they "changed from night owl to early riser" (or vice-versa) have never been night owls in the first place, but something else was the cause…
on “Early riser or night owl? New study may help to explain the difference” ↗See “Internal Time” by Till Roenneberg, which is a very accessible book by a researcher in this field. If I remember correctly, the book gives some good evidence of a potential genetic basis for chronotypes, although not…
on “New Office Hours Aim for Well Rested, More Productive Workers” ↗Puff piece. Check out Internal Time by Till Roenneberg. You can't "choose" when to go to sleep or wake up. It's in your genes.
on “A (Former) Night Owl’s Guide to Becoming a Morning Person” ↗…good videos, including some from the Royal Society Lectures that walk you through the basics of the clock, this one especially: https://youtu.be/KZJAmcpc9SE?is=5XZvvDQwLMC_rIdv A book recommendation: Internal Time — Till Roenneberg Papers: 1. https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1113/expp... Somewhat old, but still a good systems level review. We know some of this stuff to higher resolution now.…
on “ADHD as a circadian rhythm disorder: evidence and implications for chronotherapy (2025)” ↗