Chronically Off Clock
when the clock you follow isn't your own
Key Points
Time-sickness is a condition first introduced by Dr. Larry Dossey in 1982. It originally described the anxiety of always feeling behind, but today it also reflects the physical effects of living out of sync with your body’s internal rhythm.
A culture built around constant access, long workdays, and artificial environments has caused many people to lose touch with their natural sense of timing.
What became known as “quiet quitting” was often a physical and emotional response to sustained misalignment, not a lack of motivation.
Circadian wellness tools and biohacking products suggest a desire to feel better, but many of them focus on convenience rather than meaningful change.
Rhythm can be restored by noticing when your body is alert, when it asks for rest, and when it moves with ease. It starts with observation, not reinvention.
Introduction
Time-sickness is a condition.
The term was first introduced by Dr. Larry Dossey in his 1982 book Space, Time & Medicine, where he used it to describe the stress and health issues that arise from living in constant fear of running out of time. It’s the belief that there’s never enough of it, and that you’re always behind.
In the decades since, the definition has quietly evolved. Time-sickness today includes both psychological stress and physiological misalignment. It’s the body’s disorientation when it no longer moves in rhythm with light, rest, nourishment, or attention.
Most people live this way now. They just don’t call it by name.
The Myth of 24/7 Living
Time-sickness thrives in environments where time is treated as unlimited and unimportant. Cities that never sleep. Calendars that flatten time zones. Screens that blur the line between morning and midnight. The modern world was built for constant access.
This has led us to believe that if you’re not always available, you’re falling behind. But your body isn’t interested in being available. It’s trying to regulate, based on things like temperature, cortisol cycles, light exposure, and sleep quality.
The result? We confuse fatigue with failure. But most people aren’t tired from doing too much. They’re tired from doing everything out of sync.
The Burnout Backlash
In 2022, the term quiet quitting went viral. It described a shift in workplace behavior, people choosing to meet expectations but not exceed them. No extra hours. No unpaid emotional labor. No internalizing hustle culture.
It didn’t start online. People have always pulled back when systems demanded more than they could sustain. But what made this moment distinct was its timing: a global pandemic forced a reckoning with our relationship to work, rest, and well-being.
When workers across industries began opting out of the hustle at the height of burnout culture, many called it laziness. But for many, it was about reclaiming energy. It was a refusal to keep pushing against biological limits in order to perform for systems that never paused.
When the human body is forced to perform against its internal rhythm, it pushes back. Cortisol spikes at the wrong hour. Sleep becomes fragmented. Hunger cues shift. Mood regulation falters. You don’t burn out all at once, you unravel slowly, in pieces.
The Chrono-Anything Economy
Wellness brands know we’re off-clock. And they’ve built entire product lines around the promise of restoring rhythm.
Circadian-aligned skincare now claims to support the body’s natural repair cycles. Blue light glasses flood the market. Evening powders, blackout sleep masks, and “sleep syncing” teas are everywhere. Morning routines are biohacked.
The market has recognized people crave rhythm at the end of the day.
But instead of encouraging reconnection, most of these products sell convenience. They replicate the feeling of alignment, without asking for lifestyle change.
Ancestral Rhythms, Repackaged by Tech
Long before productivity apps and melatonin patches, humans lived by the sun.
Rhythm was built into the day, not scheduled on top of it. We rose with light. We slowed down with darkness. Food was seasonal. Rest was respected. Rituals emerged from seasons.
Today, we use tools like the Oura Ring to recover that knowing. The ring is useful. It tracks patterns many people have stopped noticing. It also reveals how far we’ve drifted from instinct. We now need reminders to sleep, hydrate, and step outside.
Technology can guide. But it cannot replace the deeper intelligence of your body.
The Return to Feeling Time
The culture is beginning to shift.
We’re moving from optimization toward awareness. From scheduling everything to sensing again.
Influencers are setting boundaries. Rest is becoming aspirational. Circadian rhythm is central to wellness branding. People are noticing that rhythm is emotional, spiritual, and deeply individual.
Tracking the moon. Syncing meals to daylight. Celebrating seasonal shifts. What once felt old is starting to feel correct again.
We’re remembering.
The Path Back to Rhythm
Time-sickness doesn’t need to become your baseline.
You can feel off for years and still return to yourself. The first step is observation.
Your body has timing. There are hours when focus comes easier. There are windows where digestion is stronger, where creativity flows more freely, where sleep deepens without effort. When you pay attention to that rhythm, your health stops feeling like a project and starts feeling like a relationship.
You don’t need to live slower. You just need to live on time.