The core message is that biological rhythms drive peak attention, seasonal activity, and health, but artificial lighting and around-the-clock schedules disrupt them; reading about these rhythms and aligning with them can boost health and productivity.

Practical takeaway: By reading about circadian and other biological rhythms and using wearables wisely, individuals can enhance attention, mood regulation, stress resilience, and overall well-being.

Daniel B. Forger, a University of Michigan professor of mathematics and computational medicine and bioinformatics, explains that rhythms are governed by mathematical patterns and that real-world wearable data can reveal these patterns.

Mood rhythms are harder to track but can aid diagnosis and personalized treatment; large studies show that regular sleep timing stabilizes mood and that stress-sleep cycles can create reinforcing feedback loops.

Wearables enable rhythm tracking, but data come with noise; effective interpretation requires separating signal from noise and combining robust algorithms with physiological knowledge.

Key rhythms include dopamine rhythms (difficult to measure), heart rate rhythms (informative for activity, rest, and health), and circadian rhythms that govern daily mood and physiology.

Genetics, environment, and lifestyle shape rhythms; they are adjustable, and individuals can track alignment with social rhythms and use tools to optimize timing for health and performance.

Forger, author of Biological Rhythms, situates the discussion in MIT Press Essential Knowledge to make the topic accessible to the general public.

The article surveys multiple rhythms—from neural to seasonal—and how wearables help measure them, with implications for sleep, mood, and performance.

Modern life’s seasonal tracking and shift work complicate timekeeping, but regular sleep and light routines can realign rhythms, with apps offering guidance that still requires user interpretation.