What to watch
Body Clock: What Makes Us Tick?
BBC TWO, 9.00PM
Evolutionary biologist Ella Al-shamahi is the host of this fascinating experiment, which sees former commando Aldo Kane agree to spend 10 days in a bunker with no light or ability to tell the time. Kane, who served on tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, is more equipped than most to deal with the onset of sleep deprivation and the crushing weight of being alone with your thoughts, but even he begins to struggle as the days blur into one and the team play tricks with his perception.
There’s some serious science at work behind all this trickery. Al-shamahi and her team are trying to work out whether our body clock can adjust without artificial aids such as watches and phones. They’re also keen to investigate why some people sleep more consistently than others, and to this end they recruit two couples. There’s Conor and Chloe, who are both struggling with lengthy night-shifts, and then there’s Naomi and Greg, who sleep at entirely different times, with Naomi crashing immediately and Greg lying awake transfixed by his phone. It all adds up to a truly interesting watch – even if you’re strongly tempted to yell at Greg “can’t you just turn the thing off ?” Sarah Hughes