Work, school or studies – for many, the day starts with the sound of an alarm clock. Still tired and sleepy, we try to get up to start the day. So why can’t we ever manage to go to bed earlier the night before, despite having made up our minds to do so? Late risers have a difficult time of it and have a bad reputation to boot. Young people, in particular, are seen as lazy and apathetic, because they can’t get out of bed in the morning. But that is simply untrue. For most people, our society gets up too early. This does not fit with our “internal clock”, which is supposed to stipulate when we sleep and when we rise.

For thousands of years, human beings lived in sync with their “body clocks”. In the modern world, however, this is scarcely possible. Many live a life that has fallen out of sync with their own natural rhythm and they consequently suffer from lack of sleep with severe consequences for their health. Sleep disruptions, depression, diabetes and even dementia have all been linked with the disruption of the “internal clock”. But if we understand how we “tick”, we can live better and healthier lives – and we can treat illnesses much more effectively.

Director: Sabine Kallwitz-Geißler
Writers: Sabine Kallwitz-Geißler, Andrea Ufer
Cinematographers: René Kirschey, Ralf Ilgenfritz, Theodoros Koutsoulis
Editor: Ingo Grigoleit
Sound: Matthias Kreitschmann, Moritz Bauer
Production manager: Bernd Schwarzer, MDR
Producer: Andrea Ufer
Commissioning editors: Pit Lehmann, MDR; Achim Schöbel, MDR