How to Rewire Your Body's Clock for Better Sleep and Success
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What is the Circadian Rhythm?
The circadian rhythm are physical, mental, and behavioural patterns which follow a 24-hour cycle, which impacts your sleep pattern, hormone release, eating habits, body temperature and other functions of the body.
These processes largely respond to night and day, meaning you’ll find they mainly regulate during the sleep-wake cycle.
The circadian rhythm also occurs in animals, plants and even bacteria. To simplify, your circadian rhythm is your internal body clock, which guides you on when to sleep, wake up, and eat, using outside factors as its influencers.
Why is the Circadian Rhythm Important?
When your circadian rhythm doesn’t function at its best, you run the risk of exhaustion, weight gain, stress and other diseases.
To restore energy lost from being awake and performing day-to-day activities, maintaining your circadian rhythm at its optimal level is important for keeping yourself healthy both physically and mentally.
A sleep-wake circadian rhythm which is off balance can disturb the signalling from your body’s internal clock, waking causing you to struggle with falling asleep at night, wake up during the night, or not being able to sleep in as long as you would like, for example, on the weekends.
It’s also no secret that a lack of sleep can also result in underperforming at work, moodiness and irritation.
What Disrupts the Circadian Rhythm?
Lack of sunlight - Particularly during the winter months
Jet-lag - Travelling through different time zones can affect your sleep pattern until your rhythm adjusts to its new day-night cycle, depending on your new location
Stimulants - Drinking coffee and energy drinks too soon before going to bed
Shift work - Obligations at work can confuse a person’s circadian rhythm, especially if you sometimes work at night
Irregular sleep patterns - As well as jet-lag, this could include frequent nighttime social events, not being able to fall into a deep sleep
How to Optimise Your Circadian Rhythm
Avoid exhaustion, moodiness, the risk of weight gain and added stress by sustaining a well-functioning circadian rhythm. Try incorporating the following suggestions into your lifestyle to support your sleep-wake cycle.
Stick to a consistent sleep-wake schedule.
Maintaining a sleep-wake cycle which is consistent and habitually built into your routine will stabilise your body clock.
Although going to bed at the same time every night isn’t enough, try to wake up at the same time every morning too.
When you do this, you reset your body clock and train it to operate at these times. This will help you with not waking up prematurely. Use a journal or sleep tracker to track your progress and consistency.
Of course, the circadian rhythm differs for everyone depending on your current routine, so you may need to experiment with different sleep-wake cycles to find out what works best for you.
Use an alarm clock if necessary; however, resist relying on it as much as possible in an attempt to wake up naturally.
Get some sunlight/daylight.
Most of us don’t get as much daylight as we should, since we spend much of our time working in offices and from home.
And don’t get me started if you’re a fellow UK girly. Light is a complete myth.
Nevertheless, once you have woken up, draw back your curtains to let the light in, go for a walk if you have the time, or if you have a garden or balcony, enjoy your morning coffee outside instead of in the kitchen.
The morning light sends an indication to your body clock, letting it know it is time to reset and start another cycle.
Take advantage of this particularly during the summer months since the mornings are so much darker in the winter.
Conscious Consumption
Avoid eating heavy meals too soon before going to bed; this lets your liver do its job without having to overwork throughout the night.
Furthermore, if you find drinking coffee late at night is keeping you up, try moving your late-night cuppa to a few hours earlier before you go to bed. Stimulants such as coffee and energy drinks can throw your circadian rhythm out of balance and prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep.
Create a Sleep-Well Environment
Optimise the quality of your sleep by creating an environment which supports it.
Much like the need to expose yourself to light in the mornings, the same stands for evenings.
Artificial light, such as the blue light from your laptop and mobile phone mimic the light of day and can therefore trick your body clock into wakefulness. Switch off work-related tasks and smartphones an hour or two before bedtime, which will help you to wind down and enjoy a better sleep.
The Body Clock - Using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Now that we understand how the circadian rhythm works, let’s look at a different take on how to optimise the body clock.
Unlike the Circadian Rhythm, which is based on the mental, physical and behavioural changes during a 24-hour cycle, in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the Chinese body clock is based on the idea that you can make the most of your energy and specific organs.
It is believed that qi (energy) moves through our bodies to restore and activate different organ functions when they are at their peak. In TCM, our body clocks are sectioned into 12 segments of two hours over the course of the day for each organ to get to work.
Below is a chart explaining each segment and the organ functioning during this time:
