Diurnal (24 hour) activity of citizens of Poznań

Jerzy Parysek

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0044-6582

Abstract

The life of living organisms, including people, displays a rhythmicity caused by the Earth’s rotational movement around its axis (24-hour rhythmicity) and its orbital movement around the Sun (yearly rhythmicity). The rhythmicity imposes an order on human activity during the day and the year. But it is the Sun-controlled diurnal rhythmicity with its alternating waking and sleeping time which is of special importance. The waking period is the time in which people organise their family and working life, pursue an education, develop interests, maintain interpersonal contacts, relax, etc. The activities in which they are engaged fit the time interval between getting up in the morning and going to sleep at night. While the activity structure of city inhabitants is generally similar, it differs in details as determined by sex, age, marital and family status, level of education, time and nature of the work performed, distance between the place of residence and that of work, studying and other types of occupation, duties, interests, material situation, etc. It is also different on working days, Saturdays, Sundays and various holidays. This paper discusses the diurnal activity of the inhabitants of Poznañ. Its elements include: getting-up time, activities performed before leaving, leaving time, time of arrival at work and school, way of getting there, time of working and learning, activities performed after work and school, time of return to home, activities performed before going to bed, time of going to bed, and sleeping time. The detailed analysis closes up with a synthetic diurnal summation of time ‘between day and sleep’ (including the sleeping time).

Keywords:

living organism, waking and sleeping, diurnal rhitmiticy, human activity, activity of inhabitants of city (Poznań)