Michael Rosbash Quotes

Light helps the body predict the future: it's a sign of how our environment will change in the coming hours and days, and our bodies prepare themselves accordingly.

Life evolved under conditions of light and darkness, light and then darkness. And so plants and animals developed their own internal clocks so that they would be ready for these changes in light. These are chemical clocks, and they're found in every known being that has two or more cells and in some that only have one cell.

A functional biological clock has three components: input from the outside world to set the clock, the timekeeping mechanism itself, and genetic machinery that allows the clock to regulate expression of a variety of genes.

Most important for the circadian field was the pioneering work of Ron Konopka in Seymour's lab.

The same biological clock ticks away in humans and fruit flies, which underscores the importance of circadian timing to life on this planet.

It was morning by the clock but deepest nighttime in his body.

Biological clock? I don't even own a watch.

I feel like my body doesn't judge the hours, you know? It doesn't care if it's daytime or nighttime.

No one feels good at four in the morning. If ants feel good at four in the morning —three cheers for the ants.

I'm an afternoon person.

I noticed, as I had done before, that there was a lull among the mosquitoes about midnight, and that they began again in the morning. Nature is thus merciful. But apparently they need rest as well as we.

If you can wiggle your toes with the mere flicker of an intention, why can't you reset your biological clock?

I can't even sleep in. My body won't let me.

We can't feel the rotation of the planet, but in some ways we can because our bodily systems are reacting to it and have it inherent in them. To me, that's such a powerful thought.

Nobody knows what either sleep or waking consciousness is, even though these two have long been seen as the two sides of being: part of life's unvarying diurnal rhythm.

I'm never any good in the morning. It is only after four in the afternoon that I get going.

No clock is more regular than the belly.

I like that time is marked by each sunrise and sunset whether or not you actually see it.

Even though disciplined sleeping habits and the adrenalin of live radio ensures that we are very awake while on duty, there is evidence of a phenomenon called circadian desynchronosis which causes one's brain to function slowly at those times of day when it thinks it should be asleep, regardless how wide awake the body is.

I don't feel old. I don't feel anything till noon. That's when it's time for my nap.

When you're in nature, when you're going to bed when the sun goes down and getting up when the sun rises, and you get into that rhythm, your body just really responds positively to it.

I wake up as soon as it gets light.

The neurologist calls it 'Non-REM parasomnia'. For the sufferer, it might mean rising in the middle of the night, getting your motorbike out, going for a ride, and waking in the morning with no memory of the experience.

Melatonin levels start to rise around 9 or 10 at night in most people.

It's always morning for me until 4 in the afternoon.