8-Hour Workday Biologically Hard-Wired

Attention, workaholics: Twelve hours on the job may go against Mother Nature.

Don't fight that 5 p.m. whistle. New research from the University of Pennsylvania and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggests that humans are biologically hard-wired to work only eight hours a day.

The standard work cycle appears to be programmed in the genes.

"There is the possibility that there could be a biological basis to an eight-hour cycle," said senior author John Hogenesch, an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania.

His research team focused on the "circadian clock" that coordinates human physiological and behavioral processes on a 24-hour rhythm. People anticipate changes in their environment and prepare accordingly. In the course of a day and night, thousands of genes are affected - switching on and reacting to outside stimulus with predictable regularity.

Previous research has concentrated on the 12-hour cycles governed by light and dark, which set our regular waking and sleeping hours and eating habits. When the timely inner routine gets disrupted, the body can suffer from jet lag - or worse. A compromised clock has also been linked to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, cancer and aging-related disorders. More here.

Washington Times