Align Your Circadian Rhythm for Better Quality of Life

Circadian rhythm is like the body’s own battalion of biological clocks, with a master clock in the brain that gives orders, and troops in the organs and glands that carry out those orders. Their mission? Keep your vital body functions — everything from converting food into energy to telling you when it’s time to sleep — operating on a 24-hour cycle that follows the planet’s rotation.

Factors that influence how well circadian rhythms function include food intake, physical activity, social environment, temperature, stress, and even planetary attacks like climate change. One of the most critical factors, however, is the sleep-wake cycle, which determines how sleepy or awake you feel and when.

At night, as the sun sets and night falls, the master rhythm in the brain sends out the order to increase melatonin production and decrease the body’s core temperature. These changes combine with sleep drive to cause you to fall asleep. In the morning, as the sun rises and light increases, the order is given to stop melatonin production and increase body temperature in order to wake you. 

Your circadian rhythm and the earth’s natural cycle of daylight and darkness work together to keep your sleep/wake pattern aligned. When they succeed in that mission, you enjoy restorative sleep at night, rising refreshed in the morning, ready to tackle your day. When they fail, problems arise, bringing various unwelcome symptoms:

• Sleeping troubles — trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and falling back to sleep after waking in the middle of the night
• Waking troubles — trouble waking up or waking earlier than desired
• Sleepiness and fatigue during the day
• Headaches, depression, and irritability
• Poor coordination
• Difficulty learning and focusing

Rhythm Disruptors

Although your body automatically sets your circadian rhythm, various factors can cause it to shift out of balance, resulting in a circadian rhythm/sleep disorder. These factors include:

• Overnight or off-hour work shifts
• Travel across time zones
• Certain medications
• Mental health conditions and health conditions involving the head or brain
• Habits that cause irregular bedtimes and poor sleep habits
• Illnesses
• Stress

These disruptions also can cause a number of health issues. Short-term disruptions may slow your ability to heal from wounds or illnesses, cause hormone changes and digestion issues, sap your energy, and cause memory loss. Long-term disruptions can increase your risk of developing obesity, diabetes, mood disorders, heart and blood pressure problems, and cancer. Most significantly, these disruptions can create sleep problems, which in turn can cause performance issues, emotional and social difficulties, depression, errors, and accidents.

The good news is that simple changes, adjustments, or treatments can often resolve these problems and reset your rhythms.

Rhythm Reset

“An adult’s natural internal clock is, on average, 24.2 hours,” said Dr. Lulu Guo, sleep medicine physician in Bellevue, Washington. “We can use external stimuli to help entrain this rhythm daily to 24 hours. Changing the amount and times of sunlight exposure, or changing our routines, can send signals to our master clock and shift our natural circadian rhythms.” 

Dr. Guo offers these tips to get your body to return to its 24-hour schedule:

• Stick to a daily routine for eating, sleeping, and waking
• Spend time outside in the sunshine every day, especially in the morning
• Follow a healthy sleep hygiene pattern
• Limit screen time before bedtime
• Participate in daily physical activity
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol in the evenings

See the SENS Solution Wellness Program blogs for more on creating healthy sleep habits.

Rhythm Disorders

Circadian rhythm disorders, which can cause abnormalities in your sleep and wake patterns, are rare (exceptions are jet lag and shiftwork), affecting about 3% of people worldwide. They can happen because of damage to the brain, vision impairments, travel, and shiftwork; however, some disorders occur for unknown reasons. Disorders include:

• Advanced sleep-wake phase, where you feel sleepy before your desired bedtime and wake up too early in the morning.
• Delayed sleep-wake, where you don’t feel ready for bed until very late at night and struggle to wake up at the desired time.
• Non-24-hour sleep-wake, where the master clock doesn’t align with the 24-hour rhythm and instead shifts every day, making it difficult to sleep at night and stay awake during the day.
• Irregular sleep-wake, where rhythms don’t rule the sleeping/waking cycle, so sleep happens sporadically in short intervals throughout the day.

Rhythm Treatments

You may be able to bring your circadian rhythm back into alignment by making simple changes. Adopting a lifestyle that includes proper rest, adequate physical activity, and healthy food, for example, is one of the best ways to keep your circadian rhythms humming happily along on their 24-hour cycle. However, more serious disorders might require treatments such as:

• Light therapy: This involves strategically timed exposure to light and darkness. Controlling exposure to light — via a light box or light-blocking glasses — can alter melatonin production and shift sleep and wake times.
• Melatonin supplements: These supplements can induce sleepiness, but correct timing and dose is important.
• Medications: Medications can induce sleep or promote wakefulness but may have undesirable side-effects. 

Takeaway

In general, circadian rhythm disorders aren’t dangerous, but they can increase your risk of exposure to dangerous situations, like falling asleep while driving, and the symptoms can trigger behaviors that cause problems at work, school, home, and during social events.

You don’t need to suffer through these difficulties. You belong to a concierge medicine practice that specializes in finding solutions to obliterate obstacles that get in the way of your health. If you’re having trouble falling asleep or waking up, or are feeling exhausted during the day, talk to your healthcare provider or your SENS Solution Health Coach. Your personal health team can design a solution that will help nudge your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle in the right direction. In no time, you’ll be back to sleeping at night, waking up ready to tackle your day, and feeling better about your overall health and well-being.

References

sleepfoundation.org, What Is Circadian Rhythm?, https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm

clevelandclinic.org, Circadian Rhythm: What It Is, How It Works & What Affects It, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/circadian-rhythm

NIH, What Are Circadian Rhythms? https://nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/Circadian-Rhythms.aspx

clevelandclinic.org, Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/12115-circadian-rhythm-disorders