How to make your body clock work for you

In today’s world, we increasingly live our lives late into the night. Whether it's work obligations, socializing, or being glued to a screen, we ignore the sun's rise and fall. 

But most of us are unaware that a clock is ticking away inside us. 

It uses light to keep time and tells us when to sleep and eat. Should we listen? Or is this biological clock simply a relic from a past time?

In today’s episode, Jonathan speaks to a leading authority to unravel the latest science that reveals that this body clock, or circadian rhythm, has a dramatic impact on our health, weight, and mental wellbeing:

• Russell Foster is an Oxford University scientist who has dedicated his life to studying circadian rhythms. He’s a world leader in the field and the author of Lifetime: the new science of the body clock. 

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Timecodes:

00:00 - Intro

00:12 - Topic introduction

01:23 - Quickfire questions

02:30 - What is the biggest myth about our body clock that drives Russell crazy?

03:19 - What are circadian rhythms?

06:41 - Why do they matter to us?

10:32 - How does your body sync its clock?

14:07 - How does the circadian rhythm influence sleep?

15:18 - What happens if we don’t live alongside our circadian rhythms?

21:26 - What should night workers do?

26:45 - Does your circadian rhythm change when going through menopause?

29:42 -Is there a circadian rhythm for our gut?

33:12 - Will it damage our long-term health to continuously be awake by our small children?

35:15 - Summary

36:14 - Goodbyes

36:36 - Outro

Episode transcripts are available here.

Get Russell’s book here.

Follow Russell: https://twitter.com/oxscni

Follow ZOE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoe/

This podcast was produced by Fascinate Productions.