Photo: ell brown / Flickr

By aligning your daily schedule with your natural body rhythms you’ll help your body and mind function comfortably and efficiently. Although everybody’s body clock is different, we’ll be looking at a cycle over a typical day, starting at 12 am and ending at 11.30 pm. If you work against your natural rhythms too frequently, you might cause yourself some physical and mental damage. On the other hand, one can’t be too obsessive as it’s not always possible to work within these guidelines.

A body clock over a typical day

Your deepest sleep occurs between 12 and 4 am. This is when you get the most rest and it’s imperative for body restoration. To avoid the effects of a hectic lifestyle, you should ensure that you sleep during this time.

Working between 4 am and 6 am is not advisable as your blood pressure and body temperature are at low levels – which means your level of concentration will also be low. Incidentally, the highest percentage of people who die pass away during this time.

From 6 am, your brain becomes more active and your REM (or dream sleep) increases. Melatonin levels start dipping and cortisol is activated. This ‘fight or flight’ hormone helps activate your waking state. If you’re feeling awake around this time, you’re a morning person so ignore the alarm and hop on out of bed.

You start pushing your body to perform between 8 and 9 am. This is not the time to be moving around too fast if you have cardiovascular problems or other health risks. Many heart attacks and strokes happen around this time so take it easy, let your body warm up gently and stay relaxed. Don’t forget to have breakfast.

Your body is most alert between 9 am and 12, so this is a good time to do important work. You will be in top form for all kinds of mental work and communicative work since your responses are quick. Schedule your high performance meetings, phone calls, problem-solving and written work for this time.

You’ll find you’re still functioning well from 12 to 2 pm – it may be worthwhile working through until 2 pm but be sure to fit in a late but light lunch break. Schedule manual tasks or tasks that don’t require too much concentration between 2 to 5 pm as this is when your mental performance starts waning.

The period between 5 and 6 pm is a great time to exercise because your body circulation and heart are working optimally now. Besides, your muscles are warm and you’re more immune to strain. Whether you’re heading to the gym or jogging home from work, you’ll find to work out at this time of the day than first thing in the morning.

If it’s summertime, you’ll have another peak of mental alertness between 6 and 8 pm. Winter will have you feeling more relaxed and possibly tired. Aim to be in bed from 10.30 and asleep by midnight.

Tags: health, lifestyle, time