Circadian rhythms AO3

• strength - RLA, understanding of negative consequences that occure when they're disrupted - e.g, night workers are less concentrated at 6am - research shows a relationship between shift work and poor health (shift workers 3x more likely to have heart disease - real world economic implications in how to manage worker productivity
• weakness - use of case studies and small samples - e.g siffre or Aschoff and Wever - may not represent wider populations - Siffre did it recently at 60, intenal clock was much slower - factors can vary and prevent general conclusions from being drawn
• weakness - poor control - pps still had access to artificial light - like phones and lamps - Czeisler et al found that they could adjust circadian rhythms through dim lighting - artificial light may affect the circadian rhythm in the same way natural light does
• strength - application to pharmacokinetics - can determine best time to administer drug treatments - e.g., risk of heart attacks is greater in early morning so drugs should be taken at night or dusk - peak times for administration and dosage of variety of drugs that treat a range of disorders like cancer, epilepsy and respiratory issues, that increase their efficiency