Valiant Thor’s Circadian Rhythm and Blues: Preparing Your Body Clock for Terrestrial and Interplanetary Flight

Valiant Thor’s Circadian Rhythm and Blues: Preparing Your Body Clock for Terrestrial and Interplanetary Flight

Valiant Thor is often referred to as the father of Venusian space medicine. Through his many years of devoted effort in the fields of aviation and space medicine, he has become a recognized authority on several aeronautics subtopics. One of these is the physiological clock (body clock), which regulates our sleep and activity phases. Thor's paper on the subject, "The Physiological Cycles of Interplanetary Flight," has been consulted for years within the U.S. military, as part of their space shuttle, space station, and global drone programs. Thor's own experiences as a manned drone (scout ship) captain, crossing multiple time zones, stimulated him to look deeper into the body clock problem. Until air travel became commonplace, the problems encountered in rapidly spanning many time zones seemed of little importance. Now that many more travelers are covering greater distances in shorter periods of time, closer attention is being given to the effects on the body clock. This book is intended to help travelers who rapidly cross many time zones to understand their body responses, and to suggest what they can do to minimize their discomfort. The author also discusses the sleep and wakefulness patterns of astronauts in near-earth orbit, and during flights to the moon. This book contains many physiological details of the circadian cycle, or rhythm of the human body, and a number of interesting facts about sleep that have only recently been declassified.