Wade and Tavris explain that each person’s body experiences ups and downs throughout the typical day. In fact, biological rhythms, the fluctuations that occur in one’s biological system, dictate numerous factors within one’s body, including hormones, urine output, blood pressure, and our reactions to stimuli. Most of the time, our biological rhythms are in sync with the external environment, and they typically occur within a 24-hour cycle known as circadian rhythms. In this assignment, you will keep an hourly record of your mental alertness level for a minimum of three days using the following five-point scale: PSY 1010, General Psychology 2 1–extremely drowsy or mentally lethargic 2–somewhat drowsy or mentally lethargic 3–moderately alert 4–alert and efficient 5–extremely alert and efficient At the end of your observation period, you should compose an essay that defines circadian rhythms and explains how one’s biological clock works. Additionally, you should describe what happens when it does not work properly. You must also address the following questions in your essay: Did your level of alertness follow a certain pattern or circadian rhythm? Did you reach a noticeable high and low point once every 24 hours, or did you have a shorter rhythm? Did your level of alertness rise and fall numerous times throughout the day? If you performed this activity on the weekend, were your cycles the same as during the week? Finally, think about how this experiment affects your life and your perception. What other factors influence your perception? To conclude your essay, you should discuss four psychological factors that could be used to explain how you perceived the world around you. Draw on the research from the textbook as you compose your essay. In addition to your textbook, you must use at least one other academic source. Your response should contain an introduction and conclusion and be at least one page in length, but it can be longer if necessary to address all aspects of the assignment. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. I have attached the old paper and the teachers comments.
UNIT VII CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS
Emerald Hines
Columbia Southern University
May 15, 2018
Emerald, this was a good start to the essay; however, only the discussion of your pattern portion and a beginning of the circadian rhythm portion of the requirements of the syllabus was included, the rest of the requirements are omitted! The syllabus required that you define and discuss the circadian rhythm according to the questions it raises (not all of the questions were answered), then discuss your pattern according to the questions in the syllabus( again the questions were not answered), then discuss how perceptions affect your pattern, and finally discuss the four psychological factors noted in the text and their relation to your pattern (not the ones you looked up). All of this, of course, is to be done with supporting information from the text (you did not appear to use the text which is required) and sources and cited (citations are always required) and referenced appropriately. If you would like to add these missing pieces and resubmit this paper, please let me know!
For this week’s assignment we were to keep track of our circadian rhythms hourly for three days. Circadian rhythm is any biological process that displays an internal, entrainable oscillation of about 24 hours. Sleep-wake and other daily patterns are part of our circadian rhythm which is our body’s biological clock. Research recently shows that the body’s clock is responsible for more than just sleep and wakefulness. Not getting enough sleep can affect our body’s clock by not only leaving us tired throughout the day but also by affecting our mood, mental alertness, hunger, and heart function. Your circadian rhythms could be drowsy, extremely drowsy, alert, extremely alert, and even lethargic. They do not always stay the same which is why we were to keep track of our levels hourly because they can always change any time of the day and it can even change during the week to the weekend.
I chose to keep track of my circadian rhythms from Thursday to Saturday. On Thursday I mostly stayed between 1-3, I found that during the week I was way drowsier than I was on the weekends and I was somewhat alert but not too much. On Friday and Saturday, I stayed between 3-5 I wasn’t drowsy because I knew it was the weekend and that was my time to be free from during the week. My circadian rhythms did change from week days to weekends I think because your brain already knows that during the week it is time to focus on work and school and getting things that you need done, and on weekends you know that its your time to be worry free and forget about the stress from work and school. My alertness did rise and fall throughout the day like when I was at work or at home sitting down working on homework I was more alert than I was when I was just laying down or watching tv or just doing something or than work.
Your body’s clock and circadian rhythm affects your life because it all keeps track of whether you get enough sleep, how alert you are throughout the day and how drowsy and lethargic you are also. Also, your diet depending on what foods you eat can affect your perception, your sleeping patterns, even stress and your emotions. Four psychological factors that can affect your life are personality traits because it can determine whether you are going to be alone in life, whether you are going to have friends or not because nobody wants to be around someone who isn’t friendly or rude. Learned cognition can affect your life because we learn cognition through our day to day interaction. Motivation can affect your life because sometimes people need that motivation from either others or from themselves to get up and go make a change or get something done, sometimes people don’t feel confident enough on their own so they also need to hear someone else say it
References
https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/what-circadian-rhythm
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/18/body-clock-jet-lag
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/your-bodys-internal-clock-and-how-it-affects-your-overall-health/254518/