Ultradian Rhythms And Work

Biological rhythms are changes that occur in the body after a regular interval of time. Ultradian rhythms are part of biological rhythms and are related to cycles of rest and mental activity, as well as eating and motor behaviors.

Ultradian rhythms, as well as all biological rhythms, establish cycles . In other words, they involve a series of phases or stages that always take place in the same order and that, once completed, begin again to be repeated incessantly.

Biological rhythms have been classified according to the time it takes to complete each cycle. Most of us have heard of Cicardian rhythms, which are also known as the “biological clock.” In essence, they mark the times of sleep and wakefulness.

Ultradian rhythms are less well known and are related to work efficiency. Let’s see.

The different biological rhythms

There are several ways to classify biological rhythms, but the most conventional is to do the categorization based on the time it takes to complete each cycle.

From that point of view, there are three basic biological rhythms: the Cicardian rhythms, the Ultradian rhythms, and the Infradian rhythms. Let’s see.

• Cicardian rhythms. They are those biological cycles that have a minimum duration of 20 hours and a maximum of 28 hours. They basically comprise all the processes associated with sleep and wakefulness. This includes temperature, hormone release, appetite, etc.
• Ultradian rhythms. They are the biological rhythms that last less than 20 hours. They comprise processes ranging from one millisecond to several hours. They include stages of sleep, heart rate, breathing rate, and others.
• Infraradian rhythms. They are those that have a duration of more than 28 hours. They are divided into circaseptal, monthly, and circanual or annual. They include processes such as the menstrual cycle, reproduction, metabolism, and others.

Ultradian rhythms and rest

One of the crucial aspects of ultradian rhythms is that the sleep cycle is included within them. Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman was one of the pioneers in the study of them. From his research, today we know that there are basically two major phases during sleep. The first, called “non-REM,” or slow wave sleep. The second is the REM phase, or fast waves.

The complete sleep cycle (Non-REM and REM phases) lasts between 90 and 110 minutes. Typically, we complete about five cycles per night. Now, Nathaniel Kleitman also discovered that while we are awake, the brain carries out cycles similar to those that occur during sleep.

This means that, in a span of 90 minutes, the brain goes through various phases that involve different levels of “alertness.” In those 90 minutes, there are moments when we are a little more asleep – that is, more dispersed – and others when we are more alert. This, in other words, means that during the day we are more agile at some times and clumsier at others.

Ultradian rhythms and productivity

What has been established so far is that due to ultradian rhythms we have peaks and valleys in our daily productivity. This takes place in cycles of 90 to 120 minutes, depending on the person and the time.

On the other hand, the characteristic signs of these productivity valleys are various. You feel more drained, you start working at a much slower pace, you are easily distracted, and you make more mistakes. The best thing you can do in those moments is a pause: you will help your level of attention to recover sooner.

Added to this is the fact that there is not full agreement on the range of ultradian rhythms, although there is a common pattern. For example, a study from the University of Illinois (2011), published in the journal Science , indicated that productivity peaks are reached when pausing every 50 minutes.

For his part, Professor Peretz Lavie, a researcher at the Israel Institute of Technology and an expert on the subject, has pointed out that the ideal working time, before a break, is 20 minutes.

Likewise, an Italian factory installed a “chronobiological” device and found that the most productive workers were those who worked for 52 minutes at a time and then rested 17.

Given such heterogeneous data, what we do know is that the means are very good, but they represent few or even no people. In this way, it would be good for each of us to do an analysis of our productivity, to find the “most profitable” cut-off points.