There are people who say that they have never had to use an alarm clock to get up on time. The causes are not entirely clear, but we do have some idea why this occurs. The reason must be found in our internal clock. All of us have an internal clock that is the one that marks our chronobiology, the times of our organism: when to be awake and active or when we should be sleepy and go to sleep.
The internal clock is fundamentally regulated by light. The information about whether there is natural light and how much light enters through our eyes and tells our suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is the main center of regulation of the so-called circadian rhythm in the brain, whether it is time to sleep or it is time to be active. In addition to light, there are other stimuli, for example, meal times. If we have regular schedules, that information is very relevant to our internal clock. And also the degree of activity that we have throughout the day.
With this information, this clock is synchronized and there comes a time when, if we also have a very regular schedule of going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, we know when we have to wake up, even if we are sleeping. In people who lead a more or less regular life, the clock works and this happens when you wake up just before the alarm goes off.
It also happens that if we are very accustomed for long periods of time, as it happens during the period of the year in which we are not on vacation, to getting up every day at the same time, the weekend arrives and we wake up at the time of always even without alarm clock. That’s because our brain has that information.
The factors that regulate the internal clock start a series of hormones such as cortisol or melatonin. Those hormones are the ones that regulate whether we are awake or that we get sleepy. Another aspect that must be taken into account is the sensitivity of each person. There are people who are very sensitive to light and waking up without an alarm can happen to them and others who are much less sensitive and it will never happen to them.
Another issue also matters. From the functioning of the biological clock we distinguish two types of people. Early sleepers, who are people who go to bed very early and, therefore, meet their sleep hours earlier and therefore wake up early, and then those who have a phase delay. People whose clock works as slow, go to sleep very late and, consequently, also wake up very late. It is very difficult for these types of people to wake up without an alarm because first thing in the morning they will always have a lot of sleep pressure, it is difficult for them to wake up. What happens to them is the opposite, the alarm goes off and they turn it off over and over again.
There are two other types of people, not in terms of the phase delay that I just told you about, but related to the number of hours they sleep. There are people we call short sleepers and who are people who with five hours of sleep have a perfect activity during the day, feel good, do not feel sleepy, but there are also those who need to sleep more than the recommended eight hours. It is much more difficult for these seconds to happen to them, it is much more likely that they will be the first to wake up without an alarm.
If a person has very regular sleep schedules and always goes to bed at eleven and gets up at seven, during the night this person will go through certain sleep cycles: first superficial sleep, then deep sleep, and then REM sleep. . And this will also unconsciously make this person’s brain know that after three or four complete sleep cycles, it is time to get up. That’s why they wake up.
Olga MediumShe is a specialist in pulmonology, she investigates sleep at the University Hospital of Guadalajara.
Question sent by Paula García.
Coordination and writing:Victoria Bull
we answeris a weekly scientific consultancy, sponsored by theDr. Antoni Esteve Foundationand the programL’Oréal-Unesco ‘For Women in Science’, which answers readers’ questions about science and technology. They are scientists and technologists, members ofAMIT (Association of Women Researchers and Technologists), which answer those questions. Send your questions to[email protected]or by Twitter #werespond.
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