There are many secrets our body clocks reveal. On certain days, we do not feel like doing anything worthwhile. On other days, we feel on top of the world. Most people dismiss such changes as moods. 
However, psychologists claim that such changes are due to biorhythms or regular changes in the speed at which physical processes happen in your body. The trouble with biorhythms is that they make you a different person in the evening than you were in the morning.
Most people are anxious to know why they feel better or think better than on other times. Even some students do not feel like attending school on certain days. They feel that they should relax at home. Their moods do not allow them to do any serious work. Most of the time, they want to eat and sleep. Sometimes, parents are alarmed at their behaviour and seek medical help. On some days, even parents find it difficult to drag themselves out of bed.
A middle-aged bank employee once complained that he felt cranky early in the morning. However, as the day progressed, he became very active and enthusiastic. Psychologists say not only humans but also all living organisms exhibit such biological rhythms. The duration of such changes may vary from person to person. Sometimes, your feelings change faster than your thinking. The danger is that some biological changes last for a long time.
Monthly rhythm
Your body temperature increases towards evening making it a daily rhythm. Women experience the menstrual cycle, and it becomes a monthly rhythm. Poets say your sexual drive increases in autumn but not in spring. You may call it a seasonal rhythm. If you look at the world critically, you will note that everything happens according to a rhythm.
Look at a speeding train and you will hear a certain rhythm of movement. Even when you walk or talk, there is a rhythm. The world, however, is in a constant flux. You cannot step into the same river twice because the water and your feet have changed. In the past, even medical authorities did not believe in such a system. They thought that the human body had a relatively stable internal environment. They did not pay much attention to such fluctuations. They thought that such changes were random happenings.
The view that the human body had a stable environment was challenged by scientists in the 1940s. Franz Halberg, a scientist in the United States, noticed that the number of white blood cells in laboratory mice was dramatically higher and lower at different times of the day. Scientists carried out more tests and came to the conclusion that there were body rhythms that changed a person’s behaviour.
After a long process, a new science known as ‘chronobiology’ came into existence. Universities and medical colleges began to treat chronobiology as a major science subject. Today, there are chronobiologists working for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and national institutes of health in the United States and other developed countries.
If we really care, we can make use of their findings to regulate our lives. Their simplest method is to follow your natural rhythm without going against them. If we do so, we can perform any given task effectively. To begin with, we should understand our daily rhythms in sleep and wake cycles. However, we should bear in mind other rhythms such as temperature, blood pressure and hormone levels which affect us daily. When you do so regularly, you will understand the changing rhythms that make you a different person at different times.
Body rhythms
When you begin to understand body rhythms, you will be able to acquire some knowledge of how you feel, how you work and your alertness. The ultimate goal is to feel better and enjoy life to the full. To give a simple example, you reach your peak of alertness around noon. After lunch, you feel drowsy and your alertness declines. As a result, you will not be able to engage in any creative work in the afternoon.
The morning is usually considered as the best time for studies. Even those who are sitting examinations can refresh their memories by reading their short notes a few minutes before the examination. However, your long-term memory works more efficiently in the afternoon than in the morning. What you study during that time will stay in your memory for a long time. If you wish to study a difficult subject, do so in the afternoon rather than late at night. Some students burn the midnight oil to revise their lessons. If they can do so early in the morning the retention is long lasting.
As a general rule, morning hours are better for doing sums and juggling of words. It is also a good time to solve crossword puzzles. However, there are manual workers who are engaged in carpentry, masonry, typing and sewing. They will also find it easy to perform their tasks in the morning. Children engage themselves in sports at different times of the day. The best time for sports is the afternoon or early evening. At such times, your coordination reaches its peak. For physical workouts, the ideal time is late in the evening. Even runners, swimmers and rowing crews perform well in the evening.
Five senses
All the five senses – taste, sight, hearing, touch and smell – are at their best during the late afternoon and early evening. That is why people enjoy dinner more than breakfast. Although they are the general rules, they may affect different people differently. In other words, each individual has to decide the best time for them. Although some writers do better in the morning, there are many others who prefer to work at night. This is due to biological differences. Even a nodding acquaintance of biorhythms will help you to increase your performance in diverse fields. This can be done easily by listening to the inner beats of your body. Even the Bible seems to agree with biorhythms when it says, “To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.”