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What would the effect on humans be of a 32 hour day rather than 24 hours? It would be a pretty much even split of 16 hour days, 16 hour nights. The people would have previously been on a spaceship for a few weeks rather than Earth or another planet, but the ship would be using the 24 hour day.

I've seen a few other questions that are similar, but their days are much longer and the closest answer I've seen is that a 30 hour day would leave them feeling very jet lagged. Any more detail would be great!

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The Fisher King
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    Possible duplicate: Effect of longer day/night cycle.... The question mentions values longer than specified here, but the (one) answer there appears to apply to both. – Frostfyre Jun 20 '16 at 16:17
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    I disagree witht he assertion that the previous question adequately cowers this situation @Frostfyre, this is a more specific question and it could be answered in more detail. Aslo, there is no mention of people having developed to deal with changes in their circadian rhythms. It is possible that the asker should make more of an account of the situation and how often people have visited worlds with different rhythms before. – Martine Votvik Jun 20 '16 at 17:15
  • Patrick Lowrie (the Sniper from Team Fortress!) erote a scifi book called Dancing With Eternity that covers that, but on a world with a 90-something hours day. Cycles other than 24-hours ones are doable - astronauts deal with those all the time. – The Square-Cube Law Jun 21 '16 at 03:35

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I work as a self employed game developer and favour a 32 hour day sleep cycle, this allows an hour when I wake up and an hour before I go to bed to relax, I then work for approximately 20 hours with regular breaks and sleep between 8-10 hours. I do this for 3-4 cycles and then take 2 cycles off from working. This is obviously very awkward when dealing with meetings or anything in the 'outside world' but I'm rewarded with huge amounts of free time and loads of time to get work done (which I greatly enjoy doing).

The only real issue is that everyone else on the planet works on a 24hr day sleep cycle so it's a nightmare arranging things or committing to regular weekly schedules at set times.

I've been using a 32 hour cycle for about 7months, it took around 3 weeks (on the 24 hour calandar) to adapt to this sleep cycle, the main issue is adapting a 32 hour day to a 24hour day calandar but once your body is adjusted your cycle stays at 32hours but you'll continue to abide by the 24 hour day calandar as a reference to the day/time.

If you're lifestyle permits it, I would recommend giving it a go. It's a little bit like magic, one day your complaining there's not enough hours in the week then after adapting to the 32 hour cycle it's like you suddenly have all the time in the world!

Again, not for everyone...

Lunar
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  • Welcome to Worldbuilding, Lunar! If you have a moment, please take the [tour] and visit the [help] to learn more about the site. You may also find [meta] and The Sandbox useful. Here is a meta post on the culture and style of Worldbuilding.SE, just to help you understand our scope and methods, and how we do things here. Have fun! – Gryphon Jan 29 '19 at 20:54
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    Do you still have that 32 hours cycle about 5 months later? Anything to add now, or does it sustain just as the first 7 months? – Louis CAD May 22 '19 at 20:46
  • I too am interested in hearing more about this. Any weird health effects so far? How do you manage social outings? – SurpriseDog Aug 24 '19 at 17:33
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It would work just fine for me. Some small percentage have a long natural rythm.

People will adapt, being selected as suitable candidates and using techniques to induce. It can't be any harder than getting to another world, right?

I see a problem with our pets though. What will our week be like if our dogs stick to 24 hour schedule and we adapt to 32?

JDługosz
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  • My jerk of a dog can't understand daylight savings time, let alone expanding the day by 8 hours. – Marshall Tigerus Jun 20 '16 at 20:16
  • Let me add non-24 to the DSPD link. Oh ... and also this It seems reasonable to assume that many people are affected by this, more than a small percentage; usually without seeking medical attention. This seems to be why clubs and bars are usually frequented during the evenings and nights (where this is allowed and not during the afternoons. – 0range Jun 22 '16 at 15:32
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To start off, I think that if a spaceship were transferring people from earth to another planet over the course of several weeks to another planet that had a 32 hour system, the goal would be to adjust people over the trip to the 32 hour system. Mexico (at least allegedly use to) have a system where everyone had nap (siesta) in the middle of the day to refresh them. Entire cities would shut down so that everyone could recharge. I have a feeling this might be a desirable means of elongated day. You would have your standard nightly rest of 7-8 hours and another 2-3 in the middle of your day to rest and recharge.

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You could still maintain an artificial 24hour cycle, you basically just need good curtains and spotlights.

The 32 hour day would probably affect people differently, some people would be fine with it, some people would experience sleep deprivation symptoms like thinking you are Bard Pitt and starting a Fight club

Fred
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Humans need about 7-8 hours of sleep per every 24 hours and living on a planet with 32 hour days would not change that (at least not for a very long time). We evolved our circadian rhythms in response to the 24 hour day, but our circadian rhythms are not dependent on it.

  • How does that answer the question? If you're making a point you need to clarify it. – JDługosz Jun 21 '16 at 01:15
  • I'm completely new at this so perhaps you can share with me what kind of clarity you might expect. Could you tell me why didn't you criticize the above proposed answer which in my opinion did not answer the question but instead suggested that there would be techniques that could help people adapt. The question is "What would the effect on humans be of a 32 hour day rather than 24 hours?", with no mention of concern for their survival or quality of life. It doesn't matter (as far as the question is concerned) if the people can adapt or not, only how the extended day would effect them. –  Jun 21 '16 at 02:41
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    To me, it felt like you were just repeating the question as "yes, that's a problem". But, maybe were suggesting that people will live a 24-hour day anyway, or did you mean the sleep time will be scaled to match? Or something else? Or was it just a random fact without such intent? – JDługosz Jun 21 '16 at 02:47
  • The sleep time would be 8 hours per every 24 hours, and it would be very difficult for people trying to live in an environment with 16 hours of light followed by 16 hours of dark, as their waking sunlight would vary from day to day. They live on 24 hour schedules, and if they want to try to adapt they would need to organize larger periods of time divisible by 24 (like 3 days/96 hours) into 24 hour periods and assign time for sleep and activities based on when it will be light/dark. But the question was of the effects of a longer day and adaptation won't necessarily occur. –  Jun 21 '16 at 03:24