Out of Sync: How Modern Lifestyles Scramble the Body's Rhythms

Digital devices and 24/7 lifestyles are messing with our body's natural rhythms, threatening our health. What does it take to keep our inner clock ticking?

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For much of her life, Sparrow Rose Jones was the kind of late riser about whom other people roll their eyes, the kind who goes to bed at dawn and wakes in the midafternoon. As a kid growing up in Louisville, Ky., she had problems at school, in part because she is on the autism spectrum and struggled socially but also because she was always tired. At 16 she dropped out and resigned herself to dead-end night jobs at bars and fast-food joints. The work was menial, but it enabled her to support herself while heeding her natural sleep needs. “I thought, well, my life was sort of working,” she recalls.

But Jones possesses a restless intellect. She has taught herself trigonometry, earned an FCC ham radio license and reads history for pleasure. In her mid-30s she decided to return to school—and not just for a high school equivalency diploma. She earned college degrees in both economics and political science, then continued to graduate school at Idaho State University, intent on a doctorate.

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