Interesting Little Piece

This clip from the Australian show Catalyst has some good info about circadian rhythms in general, and is one of the first I've seen that even mentions what I call "sleep hangovers" - the nausea and malaise so many of us experience when we're off our natural rhythm.

Although this is about people with a normal circadian rhythm, those of us with DSPS are doing shift work all the time when we're forced to work the day shift. I find it interesting that it's apparently perfectly okay for someone to say that they're just not cut out for the night shift and need to go back to daytime work, but when we say we're not cut out for the day shift, all hell breaks loose.

And for what it's worth, the part in the video linking circadian rhythm abnormalities and bipolar disorder doesn't really seem to fit...I'm not sure why that's in there. It doesn't seem earth-shattering to me that you can tell that someone's coming up on a manic episode because they stop sleeping. That doesn't prove that bipolar disorder is linked to circadian rhythm disorders, just that people who are having manic episodes stop sleeping. It's a totally different thing.

Anyway, overall it's a pretty short and interesting clip about how circadian rhythms are supposed to work, even if it is a bit lacking on what happens when they don't work that way.