Article: Rise and shine // Night owls, larks can change their sleeping patterns

Getting a good night's sleep - or a good day's sleep, if you prefer - is more easily accomplished when you're in sync with your body's internal clock.

Body temperature, exposure to light and what a person eats all affect how that clock - known as circadian rhythm - runs.

While many of us use an alarm clock to awaken, research shows that when our bodies are allowed to run unencumbered by clocks, an internal gauge keeps us up and puts us to bed at certain times. "Researchers have placed people in caves and allowed them to free-run as far as time," says sleep specialist Sarah Mosko, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif. "Subjects who had no access ...

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