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MatherMcCarthy:
I. Getting a Handle on
FULLERTON COLLEGE
Reading and All That Jazz:
College
Tuning Up Your Reading,
Thinking, and Study Skills,
Fourth Edition

1. How We Learn: Finding

Out about Ourselves

The McGrawHill
Companies, 2010

PART 1 Getting a Handle on College

38

READING

continued

dexterity skill in using the body or hands; cleverness. The word dexterity is derived
from the Latin word dexter, meaning right. The origin suggests a bias in favor of
right-handed people. In the 15th century, you were not considered skillful unless you
were right-handed.
endurance ability to bear pain, hardship, or adversity. Endurance is derived from the
French word endurer, meaning harden or make hard. The meaning has changed
little over time. Today we talk about enduring pain and about endurance training for
long-distance runners.

THE TWO MOST DANGEROUS

HOURS OF YOUR DAY BY LOWELL PONTE

ou awaken after a good nights sleep

and start to climb out of bed. Take
care! You are beginning the most dangerous time of your day.
2
For the next two hours or so, you are
two to three times more likely to suffer a
heart attack or a stroke than you are in the
late evening, the safest cardiovascular time
of your day. According to a study headed
by Merrill Mitler of Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California,
6 A.M. to 10 A.M. is the average peak time
for many other major causes of death: ischemic heart disease, cancer, bronchitis,
emphysema and asthma.
3
Until recently doctors were taught that
the human body lives in homeostasis,
changing little during the day. The science
of chronobiologythe study of how
time affects lifeis sparking a medical
revolution by revealing how much our
bodies change through circadian (daily)
rhythms.
4
These natural biological rhythms are
as vital as our heartbeat, says Lawrence E.
Scheving of the University of Arkansas for
Medical Sciences in Little Rock. By learning their secrets, we are discovering new
ways to prevent and cure illness. There isnt
a function in your body that doesnt have
its own rhythm. The absence of rhythm is
death.
5
While you sleep, your blood pressure
falls, your temperature drops more than a
degree from its daily afternoon high, and
some blood pools in your bodys extrem-

ities. Come morning, the body has to

jump start itself from its sleeping to
waking stages with a surge of excitation
chemicals called catecholamines. Heart rate
increases and blood vessels constrict, raising
blood pressure and reducing blood ow
to the heart muscle; this might cause ischemia, or angina, as well as sudden death
from myocardial infarction. If hardened
plaques of cholesterol coat arteries, fragments may break loose, causing the clots
that lead to heart attacks.
6
Also, your blood swims with cell granules called platelets that are most likely to
stick together during these morning hours.
When a leap from bed and a surge of catecholamines combine to get your blood
moving, your blood is near its daily peak
in thickness and tendency to clot. Packing
kids off to school and rushing to get ready
for work add emotional tension to the
physical stress.
7
This circadian cardiovascular risk
comes not from your bedside clock but
from your interior biological clock. Whatever hour you get up, says Dr. James
Muller, chief of cardiology for New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston, your
peak risk of myocardial infarction will come
within two to three hours after awakening.
8
The master timekeepers in our bodies
help synchronize us with such outside
cycles as day and night. Like orchestra
conductors, they coordinate hundreds of
functions inside us. Our body dances
through the day to complex inner rhythms

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Reading and All That Jazz:
Tuning Up Your Reading,
Thinking, and Study Skills,
Fourth Edition

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How We Learn

of rising and falling tides of hormones, immune cells, electrolytes and amino acids.
9
The long-held belief that some of us
are larks, or morning people, and others
are owls, or evening people, has now
been conrmed. Measurements of circadian
rhythms in morning people show heart rates
peaking between 1 and 2 P.M., while evening people peak between 5 and 6:30 P.M.
Larks produce more of the stimulating hormone adrenaline during the morning
hours, followed by decreasing levels of performance through the day. Owls start the
day more slowly, produce more nearly level
amounts of adrenaline, and improve performance through the day and into early
evening.
10 Most people enjoy a peak in shortterm memory and mental quickness in
the late-morning hours until shortly after
noon. Then a measurable dip in energy and
efciency begins around 1 P.M. In some
Mediterranean cultures, shops close during
the afternoon for a period of siesta.
11 In the afternoon, exercise endurance,
reaction time and manual dexterity are at
their highest. Some research indicates that
from then until early evening, athletes put
in their best performances. From 6:30 P.M.
until 8:30 P.M. is the sharpest time of day
for long-term memory, an optimal time to
study.
12 Our daily rhythms can bring a dark
side to the early evening, however. These
hours include a second daily peak in heart
attacks, although smaller than the mornings. Around 7 P.M., alcohol takes longer
to be cleared by your liver, and hence can
be more intoxicating and performanceimpairing than at other times of day
except 11 P.M., which brings a second peak
of high ethanol susceptibility.
13 Students often cram during late-night
and early-morning hours. Research, however, shows this is the time of the circadian
cycle when long-term memory, comprehension and learning are at their worst.
14 Sensitivity to pain has generally increased throughout the day; it reaches its
peak late at night. But by early morning the
body may have almost doubled its nighttime levels of beta endorphins, which help

39

relieve pain. Researchers theorize that this

is what increases the bodys pain tolerance
during the hours after awakening.
15 For most of us, sleep is a time of lifes
renewal. Within the rst 90 minutes or so
of sleep, we reach our daily peak of growth
hormone, which may help regenerate our
bodies. And among pregnant women, the
hours between midnight and 4 A.M. most
commonly mark the start of labor. Early
morning labor and birth may be part of our
genetic inheritance and may have had some
survival value for the species, speculates
chronobiologist Michael Smolensky of the
University of Texas Health Science Center
in Houston.
16 By understanding our body clocks, we
can improve our health and continue to foster our survival. Without grasping, for instance, that our natural temperature rises
one to two degrees from morning until
evening, we could misjudge thermometer
readings. A temperature of 99 degrees
might signal perfect health at 5 P.M. but augur illness at 7 A.M.
17 The effects of drugs are also subject to
our rhythms. For instance, many doctors
are learning to give powerful cancer drugs
with the patients biological clocks in mind.
A given chemotherapy drug may be highly
toxic to the kidneys at one time of day, for
example, and far less harmful at another.
For every one of more than 20 anticancer drugs, there is an optimal time of
day, says Dr. William Hrushesky of the
Stratton Veterans Administration Medical
Center in Albany, New York.
18 Some prescription drugs can reduce
morning heart-attack risk, as can aspirin.
One major study found that taking an aspirin every other day reduced overall incidence of heart attack in men by almost 45
percent and morning risk by more than 59
percent. You should, of course, consult your
doctor about the use of aspirin.
19 Aside from using medicine, there are
ways to make your mornings less stressful
and, perhaps, less risky. Set the alarm clock
a bit earlier to give yourself time to stretch
arms and legs slowly while still lying down,
the way your dog or cat does. This gets the
pooled blood in your extremities moving.

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MatherMcCarthy:
I. Getting a Handle on
FULLERTON COLLEGE
Reading and All That Jazz:
College
Tuning Up Your Reading,
Thinking, and Study Skills,
Fourth Edition

1. How We Learn: Finding

Out about Ourselves

The McGrawHill
Companies, 2010

PART 1 Getting a Handle on College

40

Move slowly. Dont subject yourself to the

thermal shock of a very hot or cold shower,
which could boost blood pressure. Then
eat breakfast. Dr. Renata Cifkova at
Memorial University of Newfoundland at
St. Johns says, Skipping breakfast apparently increases platelet activity and might
contribute to heart attacks and stroke during morning hours.
20 To avoid the Monday morning blues,
dont change your schedule on weekends.
Your bodys clock naturally runs on a cycle
of about 25 hours. During the week, your
body uses mechanical clocks, mealtimes,

work schedules and other cues to reset itself

to 24 hours each day. On weekends it is
tempting to let the clock free run forward
by staying up late Friday and Saturday, then
sleeping late Saturday and Sunday. This action will leave you jet-lagged, an unnecessary stress.
21 By turning the cycles of your biological
clock in your favor, you may reduce your
daily danger and increase your days of life.
The Two Most Dangerous Hours of Your Day by
Lowell Ponte, Readers Digest, March 1992. Copyright
1992 by The Readers Digest Assn., Inc. Reprinted with
permission.

COMPREHENSION CHECKUP

Multiple Choice
Directions: For each item, write the letter corresponding to the best answer.
1. Your circadian rhythm is
a. a daily cycle.
b. a 1-hour cycle.
c. a 1-month cycle.
d. none of the above.
2. Which of the following statements is true based on paragraph 9?
a. Owls are awake at night.
b. Larks are more lively during the morning.
c. Some people are morning people and some are evening people.
d. All of the above.
3. When do you think you would be least likely to suffer a heart attack or
stroke?
a. just after you wake up
b. early evening
c. late evening
d. 2 hours after you wake up
4. Which of the following statements is true based on the information in
the article?
a. Orchestra conductors can help coordinate the functions of our body.
b. Babies are most likely to be born in the early morning hours.
c. Its best to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday mornings to readjust to
the 25-hour cycle.
d. None of the above.
5. The human body
a. changes little during the day.
b. lives in homeostasis.
c. changes a lot through daily rhythms.
d. has no rhythm.

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Tuning Up Your Reading,
Thinking, and Study Skills,
Fourth Edition

CHAPTER 1

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I. Getting a Handle on
1. How We Learn: Finding
The McGrawHill
Reading and All That Jazz: Tuning Up Your Reading, Thinking, and Study Skills, Fourth Edition
College
Out about Ourselves
Companies, 2010

How We Learn

41

True or False
Directions: Indicate whether each statement is true or false by writing T or F in the
space provided.
6. Cramming for exams late at night is unlikely to benet most students.
7. Most people show a decline in energy around 1 p.m.
8. For most people, alcohol is more intoxicating in the morning.
9. If you need to have surgery, you should plan on having it in the early
evening when you are least sensitive to pain.
10. Your body temperature increases as you go through the day.
11. If someone speculates about something, he or she is sure to know the
answer.
12. If youre sensitive to pain, be sure to tell the dentist to avoid the use of all
anesthetics.

Vocabulary in Context
Directions: In a previous section you were introduced to nding the meaning of new
words by using context clues. In the following exercise, try to discover the meaning of each of the italicized words by using a technique called scanning. Scanning involves quickly searching reading material to locate a specic piece of information. In
this exercise, we have indicated the specic paragraph in which the vocabulary word
is located. Quickly scan the paragraph for the context clues that will give you the
answer.
1. In paragraph 2, the word cardiovascular refers to what specic organ of
the body?
2. In paragraph 3, what is a synonym, or word that has a similar meaning, for
circadian?
3. After scanning paragraph 3, what do you think chronobiology means?

4. According to the context of paragraph 3, what does homeostasis mean?

5. In paragraph 6, what is the synonym for platelets?

Copyright 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

6. In paragraph 9, if something is stimulating to you, does it depress or energize

you?
7. In paragraph 10, is a peak a high point or a low point?
8. In paragraph 10, what is a siesta?
9. In paragraph 11, dene optimal.
10. In paragraph 15, what do you think the prex re- means? As another example,
one might need to renew a library book.
11. In paragraph 16, if we misjudge, are we judging badly or well?
12. In paragraph 16, what is the synonym for augur?
13. Use the context of paragraph 17 to dene the word toxic.