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Biological Rhythms

History, Types Of Internal Clocks, Adaptations To Time, Problems Due To Circadian Desynchrony, Medical Uses



Biological rhythms are often referred to as biological clocks, since they operate on time schedules on a daily, monthly, seasonal, or annual basis. Some biological rhythms even occur on the basis of fractions of seconds. These internal clocks operate independent of the environment, but they are controlled by environmental conditions in changing situations. During times of change, such as seasonal decreases of light, or those caused by travel in an east-west or west-east direction, human beings are able to reset their biological clocks to become synchronized with the environment.




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