ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jessa Gamble - Writer
Jessa Gamble writes about sleep and time, showing how our internal body clock struggles against our always-on global culture.

Why you should listen

Jessa Gamble is an award-winning writer from Oxford, who lives in the Canadian Subarctic. Now that humanity has spread right to the Earth's poles and adopted a 24-hour business day, Gamble argues that our internal clocks struggle against our urban schedules. Her work documents the rituals surrounding daily rhythms, which along with local languages and beliefs are losing their rich global diversity and succumbing to a kind of circadian imperialism.

A dynamic new voice in popular science, Gamble was awarded a 2007 Science in Society journalism award from the Canadian Science Writers Association for her first-person account of daily life at the Eureka High Arctic Weather Station. She is the author of Siesta and The Midnight Sun: How We Measure and Experience Time.

More profile about the speaker
Jessa Gamble | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2010

Jessa Gamble: Our natural sleep cycle is nothing like what we do now

Jessa Gamble: El cicle natural del son

Filmed:
3,071,823 views

En el món actual, amb l'escola, la feina, els nens i altres coses, la majoria de nosaltres l'únic que vol són les vuit hores de son recomanades. Estudiant la ciència subjacent al rellotge intern del nostre cos, Jessa Gamble revel·la el programa de descans, important i sorprenent alhora, que hauríem de seguir.
- Writer
Jessa Gamble writes about sleep and time, showing how our internal body clock struggles against our always-on global culture. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:16
Let's startcomençar with day and night.
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Comencem amb el día i la nit.
00:18
Life evolvedevolucionat undersota conditionscondicions
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La vida va evolucionar en condicions
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of lightllum and darknessfoscor,
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de llum i foscor,
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lightllum and then darknessfoscor.
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llum i després foscor.
00:24
And so plantsplantes and animalsanimals
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Després les plantes i els animals
00:26
developeddesenvolupat theirels seus ownpropi internalintern clocksrellotges
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van desenvolupar rellotges interns
00:28
so that they would be readyllest for these changescanvis in lightllum.
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per ajustar-se a aquests canvis d'il·luminació.
00:30
These are chemicalquímica clocksrellotges,
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Són rellotges químics
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and they're foundtrobat in everycada knownconegut beingser that has two or more cellscèl · lules
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i són presents en tots els éssers coneguts de dues o més cèl·lules
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and in some that only have one cellcel·la.
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i en alguns éssers unicel·lulars.
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I'll give you an exampleexemple --
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Us posaré un exemple.
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if you take a horseshoeferradura crabCranc off the beachplatja,
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Si traiem un cranc de la platja,
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and you flyvolar it all the way acrossa través de the continentcontinent,
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el duem a l'altre extrem del continent,
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and you droptirar it into a slopedpendent cagegàbia,
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i el posem dins una gàbia amb pendent,
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it will scramblelluita up the floorpis of the cagegàbia
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s'enfilarà a la part alta (del fons) de la gàbia
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as the tidemarea is risingpujant
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quan pugi la marea
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on its home shoresRibes,
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a les costes del lloc del qual prové
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and it'llho farà skitterskitter down again right as the wateraigua is recedingretrocés
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i baixarà novament quan la marea baixi
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thousandsmilers of milesmilles away.
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a milers de quilòmetres de distància.
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It'llAixò ' ll do this for weekssetmanes,
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Ho farà durant setmanes,
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untilfins a it kindamable of graduallygradualment losesperd the plotparcel · la.
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fins que, a poc a poc, perdi el ritme.
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And it's incredibleincreïble to watch,
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És increïble de veure
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but there's nothing psychicpsíquica or paranormalparanormal going on;
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però no succeeix res psíquic o paranormal,
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it's simplysimplement that these crabscrancs have internalintern cyclescicles
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simplement aquests crancs tenen cicles iterns
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that correspondcorresponen, usuallygeneralment, with what's going on around it.
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que coincideixen, generalment, amb allò que passa al seu voltant.
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So, we have this abilityhabilitat as well.
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Nosaltres també tenim aquesta capacitat.
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And in humansels éssers humans, we call it the "bodycos clockrellotge."
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En el cas dels humans se'n diu rellotge corporal.
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You can see this mostla majoria clearlyclarament when you take away someone'salgú watch
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Es pot veure més clarament si li traiem a algú el rellotge
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and you shuttancat them into a bunkerbúnquer, deepprofund undergroundsubterrani,
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i el tanquem en un búnquer sota terra
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for a coupleparella of monthsmesos. (LaughterRiure)
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durant un parell de mesos.
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People actuallyen realitat volunteervoluntari for this,
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Les persones s'ofereixen voluntàries
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and they usuallygeneralment come out
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i generalment en surten
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kindamable of ravingdelirant about theirels seus productiveproductiu time in the holeforat.
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desvariant sobre el temps útil al forat.
01:34
So, no mattermatèria how atypicalatípica these subjectstemes would have to be,
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Així, sense importar la raresa dels individus,
01:37
they all showespectacle the samemateix thing.
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tots mostren el mateix.
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They get up just a little bitpoc latermés tard everycada day -- say 15 minutesminuts or so --
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Es lleven una mica més tard cada dia, al voltant de 15 minuts,
01:42
and they kindamable of driftderiva all the way around the clockrellotge like this
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i desvien el seu cicle biològic
01:45
over the coursecurs of the weekssetmanes.
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durant setmanes
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And so, in this way we know that they are workingtreball on theirels seus ownpropi internalintern clocksrellotges,
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D'aquesta manera, sabem que es guien pels seus rellotges interns,
01:50
rathermés aviat than somehowd'alguna manera sensingdetecció the day outsidefora.
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en lloc d'experimentar el dia que fa afora.
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So fine, we have a bodycos clockrellotge,
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Així, doncs, tenim un rellotge corporal
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and it turnsgirs out that it's incrediblyincreïblement importantimportant in our livesvides.
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i resulta que es summament important a les nostres vides.
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It's a hugeenorme driverconductor for culturecultura
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És un gran motor de la cultura,
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and I think that it's the mostla majoria underratedsubestimat forceforça on our behaviorcomportament.
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i penso que és la força més subestimada del comportament.
02:07
We evolvedevolucionat as a speciesespècie neara prop the equatorEquador,
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Vam evolucionar com a espècie a prop de l'equador,
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and so we're very well-equippedben equipat
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i és per això que estem ben equipats
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to dealacord with 12 hourshores of daylightllum natural
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per fer front a 12 hores de llum
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and 12 hourshores of darknessfoscor.
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i 12 de foscor.
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But of coursecurs, we'vetenim spreaddifusió to everycada cornercantonada of the globeglobus terraqüi
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Però, és clar, ens hem escampat per tot el planeta
02:17
and in ArcticÀrtic CanadaCanadà, where I liveen directe,
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i a l'Àrtic canadenc, on visc jo,
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we have perpetualperpètua daylightllum natural in summerestiu
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tenim llum perpètua a l'estiu
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and 24 hourshores of darknessfoscor in winterhivern.
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i 24 hores de foscor a l'hivern.
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So the culturecultura, the northernnord aboriginalaborigen culturecultura,
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Així, la cultura aborigen del nord
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traditionallytradicionalment has been highlymolt seasonaltemporada.
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tradicionalment ha estat molt estacional.
02:29
In winterhivern, there's a lot of sleepingdorment going on;
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A l'hivern dormen molt.
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you enjoygaudir your familyfamília life insidedins.
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Gaudeixen, a casa, de la vida familiar.
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And in summerestiu, it's almostgairebé manicmaníac huntingcacera
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I a l'estiu hi ha una activitat frenètica
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and workingtreball activityactivitat very long hourshores,
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i feina durant moltes hores,
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very activeactiu.
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frenètic.
02:42
So, what would our naturalnatural rhythmritme look like?
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Com seria el nostre ritme natural?
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What would our sleepingdorment patternspatrons be
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Quins serien els patrons del son
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in the sortordenar of idealideal sensesentit?
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en un sentit ideal?
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Well, it turnsgirs out
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Doncs resulta que
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that when people are livingvivent
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quan les persones viuen
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withoutsense any sortordenar of artificialartificial lightllum at all,
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sense llum artificial de cap mena
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they sleepdormir twicedues vegades everycada night.
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dormen el doble a la nit.
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They go to bedllit around 8:00 p.m.
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Se'n van a dormir pel volts de les 8 de la nit
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untilfins a midnightmitjanit
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fins a mitjanit
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and then again, they sleepdormir
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i després dormen una altra vegada
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from about 2:00 a.m. untilfins a sunrisealba.
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des de les 2 fins a punta de dia.
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And in-betweenen el medi, they have a coupleparella of hourshores
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I, entre mig, tenen un parell d'hores
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of sortordenar of meditativemeditació quiettranquil in bedllit.
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de tranquil·la meditació al llit.
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And duringdurant this time,
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I durant aquest temps
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there's a surgeaugment of prolactinprolactina,
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es dóna un augment de la prolactina,
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the likesM'agrada of whichquin a modernmodern day never seesveu.
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cosa que no veiem avui dia.
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The people in these studiesestudis
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La gent d'aquests estudis
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reportinforme feelingsensació so awakedespert duringdurant the daytimediürna,
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diu que es sent tan desperta durant el dia
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that they realizeadonar-se
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que s'adona
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they're experiencingexperimentant trueveritat wakefulnessvigília
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que han viscut una vigília verdadera
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for the first time in theirels seus livesvides.
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per primer cop a la vida.
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So, cuttallar to the modernmodern day.
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Tornem a l'actualitat.
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We're livingvivent in a culturecultura of jetjet lagretard,
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Vivim la cultura del jet lag,
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globalglobal travelviatjar,
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dels viatges pel món,
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24-hour-hores businessnegocis,
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dels negocis de 24 hores,
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shiftcanvi work.
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de les feien a torns.
03:41
And you know, our modernmodern waysmaneres
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La forma moderna
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of doing things
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de fer les coses
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have theirels seus advantagesavantatges,
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té avantatges
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but I believe we should understandentendre the costscostos.
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però penso que hauríem d'entendre'n el preu.
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Thank you.
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Gràcies.
03:52
(ApplauseAplaudiments)
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(Aplaudiments)
Translated by Marta Catarecha
Reviewed by Xavier Novella Sinde

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jessa Gamble - Writer
Jessa Gamble writes about sleep and time, showing how our internal body clock struggles against our always-on global culture.

Why you should listen

Jessa Gamble is an award-winning writer from Oxford, who lives in the Canadian Subarctic. Now that humanity has spread right to the Earth's poles and adopted a 24-hour business day, Gamble argues that our internal clocks struggle against our urban schedules. Her work documents the rituals surrounding daily rhythms, which along with local languages and beliefs are losing their rich global diversity and succumbing to a kind of circadian imperialism.

A dynamic new voice in popular science, Gamble was awarded a 2007 Science in Society journalism award from the Canadian Science Writers Association for her first-person account of daily life at the Eureka High Arctic Weather Station. She is the author of Siesta and The Midnight Sun: How We Measure and Experience Time.

More profile about the speaker
Jessa Gamble | Speaker | TED.com