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Biorhythms

© Copyright 1997, Jim Loy

We all have our ups and downs, our swings in moods and fortunes. Some of these are caused by external events, and others are caused by forces inside our bodies.

Biorhythms is the interesting theory that some of these ups and downs are the result of regular, repeating rhythms. Supposedly these rhythms began on the day you were born, and have been oscillating ever since.

Supposedly, there are three different rhythms:

When all three rhythms are up, you have a great day. When they are all down, you have a miserable day. Normally, you have an in-between day. Midway between up and down is "critical."

Supposedly, your three rhythms all began with a critical (but on the way up), on the day of your birth, and have been running, with perfect accuracy, ever since.

Hogwash. And, if you've ever washed a hog, you know how interesting that can be (a Steve Allen-ism). Of course, we DO have ups and downs, for no apparent reason. But nothing biological is ever that accurate. No 23-day cycle will stay 23 days throughout your life. And the length of the cycle will tend to be different for different people.

Superficially, biorhythms sound like they might be scientific, until you notice the perfect accuracy that is claimed. Hogwash.

Above, I said that nothing biological is ever that accurate. We are, of course synchronized with the rising and setting of the sun, some people more than others. But, this is still not as accurate as the biorhythms people claim. People may argue, "Well I always wake up just a few seconds before my alarm clock rings." I sometimes do that, too. It took me a while to notice that my alarm clock made a sound, a click, just before it rang. It was this click that was waking me up. It was a pretty neat subconscious trick that I was performing. But, it was not some miracle of my otherwise inaccurate internal clock.

Addendum #1:

Biorhythms are a joke. You cannot take this stuff seriously.

I agree that our emotions (or other variables) go up and down, seemingly in cycles. I cannot believe that the cycles are of constant length and are the same for everybody, or started as an "up" at birth. Aren't they influenced and maybe even reset by external events? Biorhythms would be more interesting, and more difficult to laugh at, if it weren't so rigid. Shouldn't they take more obvious cycles (menstrual, work week, and daily cycles) into consideration?

The menstrual cycle is about 28 days, and biorhythms have a precise 28-day emotional cycle. So that is about right. Are women's menstrual cycles exactly 28 days. I will bet that that is rare. If the menstrual cycle is not identical to the emotional cycle, then there are times when they are opposite to each other, one up and one down. Then, of course, the menstrual cycle would still be given as evidence of biorhythms, even though you are supposedly having emotional ups when menstruating, and emotional downs when not menstruating.

What is a physical cycle? Is a physical "up," perhaps, more energy, lack of pain, not so clumsy, the ability to run faster? If it can be defined, it can be tested. There should be huge quantities of data on track and field athletes. A 23-day cycle could be verified, or disproved. Scientists do not test this mass of data, because this 23-day cycle is a joke.

Addendum #2:

Is it possible to see cycles where none exist? Here is a list of twenty random digits:

70928 61711 87922 62428

random digitsI have graphed them on the left. Being random, these numbers have no pattern. They are part of a larger list which passes every standard test for randomness. But, doesn't the graph look like it has a pattern? Let's find a false pattern in this list which has no real pattern. Using U for up, D for down, and N for neutral (not much of a change), we start with an N (as the previous digit was 8), and we get NDUDUNDUDNUNNNDNUDNNU. Ok, we see six ups and six downs, which alternate, seemingly a rough cycle. The average length (from up to up) of the cycle is 20/6 or 3.333. The cycles varied somewhat in height and frequency. What is the cause of these oscillations? When you are up, you are most likely to go down, as that is where most of the numbers are. Similarly, when you are down, you are most likely to go up, just as in life.

Any series of random digits behaves very much the same as the one I chose (with my eyes closed). You will always find false patterns.

Addendum #3:

Here is a list of random coin flips: HHHTTHHTHHTHTTHTHTTTTHTHH. Does it look random to you? There are patterns and clustering of heads and tails, aren't there? Most of the letters are in pairs or threes of the same letter. People don't know what random data looks like. They would probably say that the above data is not random. But this is from a different part (again chosen with my eyes closed) of the same larger list as above, which (as I said above) passes every standard test for randomness.

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