How often do we complain to each other, “After vacation, I go back to work and still have no energy,” or “I can barely make it to vacation,” or “I'm constantly sick.” But the reason could simply be that we don't know how to properly organize our lives.
But how can we do this? It's quite possible that understanding biological rhythms, which guide the human body's functioning and reflect the rhythms of nature, will help us. To maintain high performance and rest effectively, we'll need to calculate our personal annual biorhythms.
Even children know that the New Year begins on January 1st. But it turns out that everyone has their own starting point—their birthday. From that moment on, our body turns on its “biological clock,” and each revolution represents a year of our life. The biological year, like the calendar year, is divided into 12 months, but they are counted not according to the standard calendar, but starting from the date of birth. For example, if you were born on April 25th, your first month is from April 25th to May 25th, and your last month is from March 25th to April 25th.
Our body lives its biological year according to a specific rhythm—highs naturally alternate with lows. To maintain productivity and a good mood throughout the year, it's important to remember that heavy workloads and active rest shouldn't be scheduled during periods of low energy. If you defy your biorhythms and push yourself to overexert yourself during the “weak” months, you risk serious illness. Chronic fatigue syndrome and depression often occur as a result of a malfunction of our “biological controller.”
The second and twelfth months are considered bad, while the first, fifth, sixth, tenth, and eleventh are considered good. The remaining months are neutral and usually don't have a significant impact on our lives. So, by calculating your annual biorhythms, you can make your life a little more comfortable and try to anticipate what to expect from the future.
But, in addition to annual rhythms, there are also circadian rhythms. We must learn to plan our days so that they align with the biological rhythms by which our bodies function. There's a science called cosmobiology that helps us plan our days correctly.
Humanity is divided primarily into “larks” (they rise early and go to bed early) and “owls” (they can work at night, but are difficult to wake up in the morning). However, nature has given everyone equal amounts of “productive” and “unproductive” time, both in the morning and in the evening. The key is to wake up on time and go to bed on time. A “owl” who wakes up at the right time will be refreshed even in the morning, while a “lark” is capable of working in the evening – it's important to know when to start working.
Cosmobiology divides daylight (from sunrise to sunset) and night into 12 so-called “magic hours.” These hours are elastic: summer daylight hours are long, winter daylight hours are short, and at night, the opposite is true.
Calculating the “magic hours” is easy. Just look at the sunrise and sunset times on a calendar. For example, on May 17th, sunrise is at 5:20 AM and sunset is at 9:38 PM (this information is based on Moscow's latitude; yours may be different). The length of daylight is 16 hours 18 minutes. Now divide the length of daylight by 12. For convenience, convert everything to minutes.
16 hours 18 minutes = 978 minutes. Then divide by 12. 978 : 12 = 81.5 minutes, rounded up to 82 minutes or 1 hour 22 minutes. This is the “magic hour” for May 17th. Thus, the first hour of our human daily rhythm is from 5:20 am to 6:42 am. The second, third, and twelfth hours of the daily rhythm can be calculated in the same way.
We calculate the nighttime “magic hour” similarly. I won't go into detail here (if you'd like, check it out yourself). I found that the nighttime “magic hour” for May 17th is 38.5 minutes, or 38 minutes rounded off. And the countdown of the “magic hours” begins at sunset.
Productive, favorable hours of the biological rhythm, both day and night, are the first, third, fifth, sixth, ninth, and tenth. Unfavorable hours are the second, fourth, eighth, and twelfth. The seventh and eleventh are neutral.
So, if you set your alarm for the wrong hour, you'll wake up on the wrong side of the bed, get tired, get angry, do stupid things, and your day will go awry. If you fall asleep at the wrong hour, you'll let the day's worries spill over into your dreams and wake up feeling like you've just worked hard.
But at the right time, you can get a lot done without getting tired, and your good mood is guaranteed to last. And even if you go to bed late, as long as it's at the right time, you'll have a complete rest.
Of course, a logical question arises: if good and bad times are the same for everyone, then why are our lives so different? Because many, ignorant of the laws of nature, disrupt this wise rhythm—setting their alarm at the wrong hour, overexerting themselves at the wrong time, and then, even at the right hour, they lack energy and feel unwell.
However, some people have a unique autopilot—they seem to sense the most favorable hours of the day and night. They want to work during productive hours, and sleep comes at just the right time. And they don't suffer from insomnia.
If you are one of these lucky ones, then you are very lucky.