Your body has a clock of sorts inside, but it is not very accurate.

A hotel without clocks, calendars, night and day indicators would allow you or your favorite researcher to see if your internal clock is fast or slow or random. Ports or tv cameras could track your natural activity cycles. To find out how long you normally sleep without the sunrise or rooster resetting your clock daily. How long you work at a task etc.

Over a two week vacation you could be completely unhinged from the clock.

Only a wing or section of the hotel need be in lock down mode.

also. Maybe a TV series "The Chronically Disabled".
-- popbottle, Jul 01 2014

21 Hour Prison 21_20Hour_20Prison
Another attempt at chrono-bending... [lurch, Jul 01 2014]

Blindness and Non-24 http://www.non-24.c...ness-and-non-24.php
[ytk, Jul 02 2014]

Wikipedia: Non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder http://en.wikipedia...%80%93wake_disorder
“The majority of patients with non-24 are totally blind, and the failure of entrainment is explained by an absence of photic input to the circadian clock.” [ytk, Jul 02 2014]

I don't think circadian rhythms quite work that way. It's not so much that your body is on a natural cycle that would continue more or less on its own but is “tweaked” by the presence or absence of sunlight; it's really more like your body is constantly adjusting based on external cues. For example, morning light is stimulating, basically telling your brain it's time to wake up and function. Also of note is the fact that there is a strong link between total blindness and non-24-hour sleep cycle disorder.

So removing these cues wouldn't really give you any sense of how accurate your internal clock is, because it's not really an internal clock in the first place. It might still be an interesting experiment, however (though my guess is “terrifying” and “disturbing” would be the adjectives more likely to be used by subjects). [+]
-- ytk, Jul 01 2014


I haven't searched, nor will I most likely, due to a bad case of laziness, but something inside of me says I bet this exists, somewhere on one of those expensive, very remote, tropical islands in the Pacific.

If I get a second wind today, or remember, I will naturally search the internet world for this, come back and delete this wordy anno. Thanks and have a special Tuesday.
-- blissmiss, Jul 01 2014


Experimentation has shown that in the absence of external cues, your species' circadian cycle is about 25 of your Earth hours, although artificial lighting above minimal levels can severely bias the results.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 01 2014


I have the feeling you may have hit an a (possibly already in use somewhere) form of torture / imagine a prisoner who has no idea how long he's been held.

Throw in some periods of drug induced unconsciousness making sure to shave them (etc.) before waking them so they've no clear indication from such cues as to how long they've been out.

Obviously they would be kept in solitary with no access to mirrors (you don't want them marking time by their own changing appearance, plus (for men) having to shave by touch is it's own form of torture), TV (accept maybe taped episodes of The Prisoner, but with the last & one other random episode missing / because it's annoying & they'll wonder why) or papers (etc.).
-- Skewed, Jul 01 2014


//A hotel without clocks, calendars, night and day indicators would allow you or your favorite researcher to see if your internal clock is fast or slow or random. Ports or tv cameras could track your natural activity cycles. To find out how long you normally sleep without the sunrise or rooster resetting your clock daily.//

So... every hotel in Las Vegas then? : ]
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 01 2014


Many a true word ... Vegas hotels are deliberately configured to give just the sorts of psychological effects described; dissociation, loss of time sense.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 01 2014


Maybe an annoyingly full of clocks and calenders hotel in Vegas would attract business? Right by the airport with cabs outside with motors running. Gotta Go. See ya.
-- popbottle, Jul 01 2014


Old Boy.
-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 01 2014


Yes I was thinking of that.

Also mission impossible style prisoner detention & interrogation, maybe with fake newspapers & TV reports at some stage (i.e. of the death of someone you want information about).
-- Skewed, Jul 01 2014


I once found myself @ a new job away from home without an alarm (my watch @ the time was non-digital).

I'd recently seen a TV program that suggested a form of self visualisation.

So I imagined a number of stones dropping into a pond one after the other (7 stones for 7am) & the ripples spreading out (could have been arrows hitting a target at the appropriate clock position / pixies skipping rope / whatever) while repeating (in my head) the time it was, how many hours b4 I had to rise & the time I had rise: repeat until sleep claims you.

I really didn't expect it to work but it did, seemingly almost to the minute most days.

So there's something there & it can be fairly accurate over periods of a day or less (not that I'd ever trust to it if I actually had an alarm clock).

I doubt I could repeat the trick now though (neither as young or eager / my subconscious doesn't really care if I get into work on time or not any more).
-- Skewed, Jul 01 2014


//Also of note is the fact that there is a strong link between total blindness and non-24-hour sleep cycle disorder.//

Source please.
From what I have been able to glean, the pineal gland (light sensitive third eyeball) controls circadian rhythms in even those born profoundly blind.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 02 2014


[2 fries]: See links.
-- ytk, Jul 02 2014


minor quibble "...explained by an absence of photic input to the circadian clock.[1] However, the disorder can also occur in sighted people...."

Looks like they have confounded two different syndromes...
-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 02 2014


Maybe they did, but you can't conclude that from the statement you quoted. The pathway in the brain between the optic nerve and the circadian clock may be damaged in such patients.
-- ytk, Jul 02 2014


Well crap. I can't find the articles first read this information in.

Closest I could find;
"When people are completely isolated from environmental time cues, their circadian rhythms free run with a nearly 24-h cycle, generated by an internal body clock. Free-running temperature, cortisol, and melatonin rhythms have also been described in totally blind people, even though they were living in normal society and had access to abundant time cues; thus an intact visual system may be essential for synchronization of the circadian system. However, because of the small numbers of subjects studied, the incidence and clinical significance of circadian rhythm abnormalities among the blind has remained uncertain." fr. Pub Med

The original paper I read stated that even in people born without eyeballs whatsoever still had their own circadian ryhythms.

and another:

RGCs -> melanopsin ->SCN -> SCG -> pineal gland -> melatonin supression

In the absence of light or melanopsin, melatonin is produced by the pineal gland. In humans, it induces an almost irresistible urge to sleep. Its primary function is to signal day length to the SCN so that it can synchronise the day/night cycle with: •Endocrine rhythms •Body temperature •Glucose homeostasis •Lipogenesis •Locomotor activity
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 02 2014


// In humans, it induces an almost irresistible urge to sleep. //

Ahhh, the so-called "Baseball" hormone …
-- 8th of 7, Jul 02 2014



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