Have you ever felt thrown off your sleep schedule? Have you ever gotten plenty of sleep yet still woke up feeling not rested at all? If you are wondering how the quality of your sleep affects the way you experience life, you might want to learn about this amazing technology called Circadian Cycle.
By learning how to take advantage of the gifts our body’s inner clock offers, you can live your life with more joy, motivation, and rest!
The first step is to reset your internal clock or circadian rhythm by sticking to a regular sleep schedule, exposing yourself to natural light during the day, avoiding exposure to excessive blue light before sleep, sleeping in the dark, exercising, and avoiding alcohol and coffee in the evening.
What Is Circadian Rhythm and Why It Matters
Every living organism has a circadian rhythm. This is the natural 24-hour cycle that regulates sleep and wakefulness, hunger and satiety, body temperature, blood pressure, hormones, cognitive function—almost everything in our bodies. You might be surprised like me that the circadian rhythm has been even observed in plants through a considerable amount of scientific research!
Circadian Cycles are based on an endogenous transcriptional clock, which itself is affected by environmental factors such as changes in light and temperature. It’s no surprise that changes in external stimuli, such as the ones mentioned, have an indirect impact on the state of your well-being. These external stimuli are known as zeitgebers, external signals that influence your internal clock.
Even the timing of when you eat has an effect on your circadian rhythm! If you have ever wondered why you get more hungry (or full) in certain locations (maybe a trip you have taken recently) or times, it might be connected to your sleep routine. “For example, if your sleep times are off, your hunger could be off or your eating times,” says Dr. Roth. When and where we work, exercise, eat, sleep, and socialize are all zeitgebers, creating an influence on how relaxed we feel after a night’s sleep.
By changing your habits of daily interactions you can transform your circadian cycle. It is helpful to think holistically when it comes to learning how to reset the cycle of your inner clock to create the most peaceful and rested version of yourself and to reach the highest version of yourself!
Let’s talk about the things you can do to reset this internal clock! Feel free to have a paper and pen, or notes section of your phone/computer to take notes. Remember, you can begin to take action today if you know that one thing you can adjust to feel more rest in your life.
What Causes Your Circadian Rhythm To Get Out of Sync
There are several things that can cause your circadian rhythm to get out of sync, including working night shifts, flying across time zones (known as jet lag), staying up late, and sleeping in. If you’re having trouble sleeping or waking up, resetting your circadian rhythm may be the bridge to a happier life!
Artificial light, exposure to blue light while using your phone and other electronic devices, noise pollution, excess caffeine, stress, and alcohol can all disrupt your circadian rhythms. We have discussed the external factors that can eventually harm this inner clock by overloading it with too much information and/or not meeting its natural needs.
Now we are also going to talk about the internal factors that can induce circadian rhythm disruptions, including our genes and our hormones.
Circadian rhythms are developed by distinct molecules (circadian clock proteins) interacting with cells throughout the body. Our genes make up the molecular elements that eventually build our biological clocks that run our circadian rhythms.
While we usually talk about one, singular “circadian rhythm,” there are actually several circadian rhythms that exist body, with the most apparent being the sleep-wake cycle.
The sleep-wake cycle and circadian rhythm are two important aspects of our lives that we often take for granted. The sleep-wake cycle refers to the natural 24-hour cycle that regulates when we feel sleepy and when we’re awake.
As I have explained before, our circadian rhythm is this incredible biological process that regulates this cycle, and anything that disrupts this cycle might cause your circadian rhythm to get out of sync. If you’re desiring to have a better quality of sleep and rest, keep reading to learn about the practical steps to reset your circadian rhythm.
How To Reset Your Circadian Rhythm
There are several things you can do to reset your circadian rhythm if it’s out of sync.
– First, try to stick to a regular sleep schedule as much as possible. This means going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, even on weekends.
– Second, expose yourself to natural light during the day, either by getting outside for a walk or spending time in front of a window.
– Avoid exposure to blue light from screens at least two hours before bedtime. This will also help your brain to feel rested because the optic nerve will rest by taking a break from carrying light stimulants for sight from the retina to the brain.
– Avoid sleep-disrupting substances such as alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine in the evening. Consuming them too close to bedtime may give you a hard time falling asleep and remaining asleep. It often results in circadian disturbance and not feeling rested.
– Create a dark sleeping environment. The perfect sleeping environment is cool, dark, and quiet. Try using earplugs, a blindfold, and blackout curtains or blinds. The release of melatonin happens during the night with a vital circadian rhythm and it reaches its maximum levels around 3 to 4 AM. Melatonin is a hormone that is released by the pineal gland during the night and regulated by the central circadian rhythm generator-the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the anterior hypothalamus.
– Exercising regularly can help you get a higher quality of sleep during the night because of the chemicals released during physical exercises such as dopamine, endorphins, and endocannabinoids. Endorphins will support you in reducing the perception of pain and stress, while dopamine will boost positive feelings in the body. Get these neurotransmitters going before sleep to wake up feeling relaxed and pain-free!
– Jet lag: Both travel jet lag (from crossing multiple time zones faster than our body is used to) and social jet lag (when sleep and wake times keep changing depending on the day of the week) can induce sleepiness during the day and/or nighttime insomnia because they throw your circadian rhythm off balance. Try using a melatonin supplement to balance your circadian rhythm after a jet lag.
If you are excited to learn more tips on forming healthy habits, check out the last article I wrote on longevity!
Remind Me! Tell Me Again!
If you’re having trouble sleeping, resetting your circadian rhythm may be the answer.
Try following these tips: exposure yourself to natural light during the day, avoid too much exposure to blue light from screens, try creating a routine of a regular sleep schedule, exercise, avoid alcohol and caffeine in the evening, and create a cozy sleeping environment in dark as much as possible.
See how you feel after giving it a try! Let us know in the comments.
[…] exercise regularly. Exercise can improve sleep quality by helping to regulate our internal clocks (Circadian rhythms). Finally, eat a banana before bed. Bananas are a natural source of melatonin, a hormone that helps […]