Review on Effect of Biological Clock on Diet and Exercise Performance

Day-night reversal and external environment change will affect people’s biological clock. When the biological clock cannot synchronize with external environment, jet lag occurs, influencing people’s sleep and bringing them fatigue, inappetence, indigestion, emotional lability and other body-mind problems. Many world records of athletics events were broken in the afternoon or at dusk, during which people’s temperature reaches the plateau period. For instance, athletes of long-distance running and short-distance swimming can have better performances in the afternoon or at dusk. However, the nerve conduction velocity is fast when the body temperature reaches the plateau period, leading to the inverse relation between speed and accuracy for those simple and repetitive events. Therefore, athletes of events (e.g. archery)required by higher stability and accuracy have relatively worse performances. This thesis is aimed to make a summary on the effect of physiological changes on nutriology, including the effect on gastrointestinal functions, substance digestion and metabolism and hormone. The purpose of the thesis is to provide theoretical basis for lowering theses effect.