When NOT go to the hospital.

Daniel Pink is a fabulous author.  He truly has a unique gift for integrating scientific, psychological, and even sociological thoughts and explains their relevance to work, society,  schools, and every aspect of life, but most import through truly engaging storytelling. 

I highly recommend one of his previously written books, Drive, where he tells a fascinating narrative about why cash incentives don't surely motivate people who have cognitively inciting and stimulating jobs.   In fact, pay these individuals enough in the first place to take the money conversation off the table, give them independence and autonomy, and support their development and sense purpose, the book explained.  And they will do the best job they possibly can.  This is true in business, and it is also true in school and every other level of our society.   

In his recent book, When:  The scientific secrets of perfect timing, Pink wants us to rethink the way we organize our days, base on 48 months of investigating chronotypes, circadian rhythms, and "Chronobiology."   

The book goes in exceptional detail on a study of 2 million schoolchildren in Denmark, to show that the difference between taking the test in the morning and the afternoon was equivalent to the impact of two weeks of missed school,  morning testing wins of course!

Let's think of our own daily schedule.  We typically follow a pretty similar rhythm of cognitive highs and lows during our day;  we start off considerably high, and then continue to improve,  peaking about a third of the way through our waking hours.  We then drop dramatically but recover strongly later before the cycle ends.  This pretty much holds for most of us, even if our cycles start, let's say at 4 a.m. or 10 or 11 a.m. or even 2 p.m. 

Here is a fun fact;  "The performance change between the daily high point and the daily low point can be equivalent to the effect on the performance of drinking the legal limit of alcohol."  

The book gives many examples of how regular breaks of decent length help cognitive function to recover.   In fact, nothing beats a nap, which is music to my ears.

Broadly speaking, we are actually better at analytic tasks during the early part of our cycle - whenever that might be 6 a.m. or 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. -  and relatively stronger at creative and insight work during the middle period.  So essentially more math and science in the morning and arts, humanities, and poetry - one of my favorite topics - built around naps in the afternoon.  

The book talks about the topic of Circadian rhythms.  It argues it shifts dramatically during the teen years and early twenties.  The average mid-point for a teenager's biological sleep cycle is actually 6 a.m.   We are typically waking them up in the middle of their sleep to go to have breakfast and go to school.  That's just fascinating for me but probably not much fun for teenagers.

Here is a frightening fact:  If you need to go to a hospital, try to be there in the morning.  Because the afternoon visit is very deadly.  Patients who book their operations around 'tea-time' are more likely to die within 48 hours of surgery.  In the afternoon or evening, gastroenterologists who perform colonoscopies are far less careful in detecting cancerous tumors than in the morning, internists are 27% more likely to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics, and pretty much all providers are 15% or so are less inclined to wash their hands before treating patients, therefore increasing the odds of infection.  Another word of caution, try to avoid teaching hospitals at all hours during the month of July when new med school graduates are just starting as physicians.  July is actually a month when fatalities at these hospitals are unusually high.  

The book has an exceptional amount of insight and practical advice.  Did you know getting married is also about timing?   Couples are less likely to divorce if they wait until they are out of their early 20s, have finished their education and have dated each other for at least 12 months.  However, waiting too long can cause problems too:  For those who marry past the age of about 32, the odds of divorce apparently rise by 5% a year for at least a decade.  

 Know that all times are not created equal...

I no longer associated timing with luck.  Timing is science.  And it is fascinating...