A Natural NTP Server?

There are chronologists all over the world working constantly to find new ways of telling time that are the most accurate that can possibly be created. The first atomic clocks were developed in the 1950's and thus began the race for millisecond accuracy. In the US the National Institute for Standards of Time has been particularly successful, as has the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, producing increasingly accurate atomic clocks all the time.

Atomic clocks are used as the primary time source for many high technology systems such as air traffic control and satellite navigation systems. The atomic clock is also a widely used source for the synchronization of NTP servers, which synchronize the time used across a computer network.

NTP servers operate by constantly adjusting a networks system clocks to ensure the time matches that of the atomic clock at all times. By doing this the NTP server can make sure its clocks are running within milliseconds of the atomic clock time.

Although this seems like marvelous and advanced technology it may be that good old Mother Nature has been running our own body clocks in this way all along.

Chronobiology is the growing science of the medical study of the human body's inbuilt time mechanisms. Although there is still a lot to be learnt chronobiologists do know that the human body clock is highly accurate and in fact works in a way that is very similar to an NTP server.

Just like an NTP server receives a signal from an atomic clock and adjusts its system accordingly, the human body clock does much the same thing. When the sun rises in the morning for instance, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the part of the brain that controls the human body clock automatically adjusts for the sun's movement.

This all may sound complicated but it really is not. The body is timed to wake with the sun in most cases. Do you notice that it takes a few days sometimes to adjust to Daylight Savings Time? The body's clock may be very accurate but it is not as fast as an NTP server.

This may explain why so many people find it harder to wake on winter mornings. This again tends to pass quickly however as the body synchronizes its clock with the sun again, just like the NTP server synchronizing with its atomic clock.