Life Time: Your Body Clock and Its Essential Roles in Good Health and Sleep

A fascinating journey through our circadian rhythms, sleep, and health, by a world-leading expert on circadian neuroscience

“Full of surprising and useful facts. . . . Unlike many science books with similar subtitles, it really might ‘revolutionise’ your life.”—James McConnachie, The Times (London)

“Life Time should certainly be mandatory reading for night-shift workers, but its messages are so universal that it would be hard not to gain some sleep smarts from its pages, whoever you are.”—Alex Wilkins, New Scientist

The routines of our modern lives—home working, night shifts, technology—are playing havoc with our body clocks, sleep patterns, and health. Packed with cutting edge science, this book by award-winning scientist Russell Foster takes the reader on a journey through our days and nights, and explains how we can get back into rhythm and live healthier, sharper lives.

In the past few decades, there has been an explosion of discoveries around the science of the body clock and our twenty-four-hour biological cycles. Sleep and daily rhythms emerge from our genetics, physiology, behavior, and the environment. Like most of our behaviors, they are not fixed. These rhythms are modified by our actions, how we interact with the environment, and how we progress from birth to old age.

Cutting through long-standing myths, Foster empowers readers by providing concrete information and guidance that can be used to understand what makes the body clock “tick.”