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Article: Researchers find switch for body clock.(News)
- Article from:
- Sunday Tribune (South Africa)
- Article date:
- December 23, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Independent News & Media PLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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london: A key chemical switch that turns a person's internal body clock on - and tells us when to wake, eat and sleep - has been discovered by researchers.
They say the findings could lead to treatments for jet lag and other serious sleep disorders, and may also allow drugs to be developed so night shift workers can adjust to their peculiar hours.
Body clocks - or circadian rhythms - control when we feel hungry or tired, the body's temperature and the ebb and flow of hormones.
The internal cycle is usually more than 24 hours and so has to be reset every day, or people would go to bed later and later.
Normally sunlight or breakfast help ...