Professor Emeritus publishes book on the mysteries of biological time

The book, Night Owls and Early Birds, takes the reader on a journey across a broad vista of science to make sense of the mysteries of biological time. It poses questions such as how do rotations of our planet shape our biology? What did human sleep cycles look like before artificial light? What happens to a person’s waking and sleeping if they spend weeks in a dark cave? How adaptable are we to today’s 24/7 living?

The book illuminates the science of biological time and how all of life is shaped by the daily, monthly and yearly cycles of planet Earth. The book’s main focus is our circadian timing system, which modifies how we function and feel very minute of every day of our lives, although we are largely unaware of this except for the sleep/wake cycle.

The book also explores the essential nature of sleep as a third of our lives and one of the three pillars of health, along with diet and exercise. How shift work and jet lag disrupt the circadian timing system and sleep are described, together with the consequences for our health, safety, and wellbeing.

Professor Gander says, “The book highlights what we are doing to ourselves and the rest of life on our planet by trying to override our genetically programmed circadian rhythms, and by our rapidly increasing use of artificial light at night. The advances in scientific knowledge expose new challenges caused by 24/7 living, but they also provide some potential solutions.”

Professor Colin Espie from the University of Oxford says, “The importance of sleep/wake cycles to our life on Earth is as inestimable as it is intriguing. Philippa Gander succeeds in communicating this complex science in her highly informative and engaging book.”

Professor Gander is an internationally recognised scholar of sleep and circadian rhythms. She has a PhD from the University of Auckland and has conducted research at Harvard University Medical School and the NASA Ames Research Center.

She was the inaugural director of Massey’s Sleep/Wake Research Centre, was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2017 for services to the study of sleep and fatigue, and was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus in 2021.

Night Owls and Early Birds has been published by Auckland University Press and was launched on 8 June.

You can purchase a copy here.