How Modern Life and Other Things Affect the Normal Menstrual Rhythm
The perfect system is besieged from all sides by weight, exercise, behavior, drugs, and less than optimal circadian rhythms in today's after-work "second day" of nighttime entertainment. It used to be that when dawn arrived, the men would go off to the hunt while the women tended to the children. When the men arrived that evening with the food, the women prepared it, all ate, and then all fell asleep, exhausted. It was work all day and sleep all night. Even with the advent of farming, the work and daily activities were by the light of the sun, and at night everyone slept. Today there are over a hundred cable channels, bars open till two, late movies, late dinners, dancing, hanging out-all of the modern entertainment obligations if we want to lead a "full" life. Unfortunately, we one-life humans try to lead a two-life existence on one circadian rhythm. Our hormones, meanwhile, still adjusted to hunting wild boars by day and sleeping by night, carry on as best as they can. The hormones of yesteryear think the lifestyle of today is crazy. But being human does have its advantages. We do in fact have a great big brain that allows something the other animals don't have-flexibility. When life becomes more complicated, we adjust because we can. The bedlam of hormonal mismatches isn't all that mismatched after all. We do get along fairly well, even trying to cram two lives into one.