Improve Your Sleep by Decoding Your Circadian Clocks

More energy throughout the entire day. 

Sustained focus on my projects. 

Faster, effortless decision-making. 

Calm, intentional interactions with colleagues & loved ones.

I need all of those, and I found a book with the code to improve them and so much more. 

What I discovered after reading The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchin Panda was a better respect for all the circadian clocks in our body and the importance a good night of sleep has to ensure better performance the following days after.

The most surprising discovery was to learn that not only does our brain need to be aligned with the circadian clock of wake/sleep, but that many of our internal organs also have their own circadian clocks.

When the brain and key organs are in sync with their individual circadian clocks, this is the circadian rhythm of our body, the ballast to health and longevity. It’s the key to more energy, sustained attention and better interactions with others.

Learning the body’s daily rhythms is a Rosetta Stone on how to operate your day and more readily drop into flow. 

Disrupting your circadian clocks

When the brain and key organs are out of sync with their individual circadian clocks, even for a day or two, they impact our daily performance. 

Over time, this can lead to infections and chronic diseases ranging from insomnia to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety, migraine, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and even cancer.

"Slowly it became clear that a disrupted clock is the mother of all maladies, and, conversely, in most chronic diseases, clock function is compromised," Dr. Panda wrote in The Circadian Code.

Dr. Panda is a professor at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, where his research focuses on the circadian regulation of behavior, physiology and metabolism. Much of this book references his landmark study with mice in his lab at the Salk Institute. 

While results in mice aren't an exact correlation with humans, many of his studies have been replicated in humans since his research was conducted and the book was published in 2018. Just a few months ago, a new paper was published in the journal Endocrine Reviews which did just that.

"Circadian rhythms are usually perceived as the sleep-wake cycle and dependent rhythms arising from the central nervous system," the authors, including Dr. Panda, wrote. "However, the recent discovery of circadian rhythms in peripheral organs and the plasticity of these rhythms in response to changes in nutrition availability raised the possibility that adopting a consistent daily short window of feeding can sustain robust circadian rhythm."

"The clocks in different organs work like an orchestra to create three major rhythms that form the essential foundations of health—sleep, nutrition, and activity. The rhythms are entirely interrelated and are also under our control. When they all work perfectly, we have ideal health."

For example, your pancreas, which produces insulin, goes to sleep in the early evening "because for millions of years, we didn’t eat at night and it would be unnecessary to keep the pancreas up and running full steam throughout the night."

With low evening insulin production, there won't be enough of it to soak up the glucose from the blood, leaving your body left to store the excess sugar as fat instead of using it as fuel. Then add in the circadian clock in your brain, which produces sleep-inducing melatonin.

Melatonin tells the pancreas to suppress insulin release at night... any food you eat into the late evening leaves the blood glucose levels dangerously high, causing further damage. This is just one example of how having your circadian clocks out of sync can impact your health and wellbeing.

When you eat is more important than what you eat

This is a key insight from The Circadian Code. It's the cornerstone idea for Dr. Panda’s recommendation of Time-Restricted Eating (TRE), or having an eating window each day between 8-12 hours. TRE puts people back in sync with their circadian rhythm.

The health benefits that you get from eating within a 12-hour window double at 11 hours, and double again at 10, and so on, until you reach an 8-hour window. Hugh Jackman’s famous Wolverine diet is actually an 8-hour TRE interval.

Just as the first light of the morning resets our brain clock, the first bite of the morning resets all other organ clocks.

When you eat is more important than what you eat.

When you are exposed to light impacts every area of your health

In addition to synchronizing eating, a good night of sleep begins when you awaken. Just like in a spy movie when two agents begin their mission & synchronize watches, seeing the first ray of bright light signals the brain to set its own clock time to the morning.

The dirty little secret sunglasses companies don't want you to know is that sunglasses can reduce bright light reaching the eye by 7-to-15 fold. In reality, most people spend so much time indoors & don't get enough sunlight exposure needed to help with sleep in the evening. So most people really need to be outside in the sun without their sunglasses.

Light exposure in the evening, on the other hand, reduces your body's ability to help you fall asleep. Having a good circadian rhythm begins with knowing when to eat and when to turn off the lights. Just paying attention to those small parts of your day will go a long way.

In 2007, the World Health Organization declared shift work that involved circadian disruption to be a probable carcinogen. When cancer experts say that shift work is a known carcinogen, they are referring to bright light exposure that allows shift workers to stay up at night.

We are all shift workers

In addition to the roughly 20 to 25 percent of traditional shift workers in the world, in our always now, instant feedback, data-streaming world, we all live a shift-work-like lifestyle with the potential carcinogenic outcomes.

The shift-work-like lifestyle includes high school and college students, musicians, performing artists, new mothers, in-home caregivers, and spouses of shift workers. 

Also jobs in the gig economy such as part-time drivers, food delivery services, flexible workers, etc are part of this lifestyle that works against the body’s circadian rhythm.

The shift-work-like lifestyle includes jet lag which occurs when you travel across two or more time zones within a day. Nearly eight million air travelers take to the air each day, and half of them travel over at least two time zones.

Social jet lag is also the shift-work-like lifestyle like when someone wakes up at least two hours later on the weekends. More than 50% of the population experiences social jet lag. Just one late night of partying can be just as disruptive as traveling from one time zone to another. 

Digital jet lag happens when you chat with friends or colleagues that are several time zones away over social networks or digital devices and as a result have to stay awake for more than three hours between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

As much morning light as possible helps mitigate the impact of the shift-work-like lifestyle, ideally stepping outside for 10-15 minutes for morning light. Even when it’s overcast outside, you will bring in more light than what is filtered through windows. 

To reduce light exposure in the evening and prevent the suppression of melatonin that helps you fall asleep, utilize:

  • Night mode feature on your computers to warm the colors on the screen

  • Smart light bulbs for dimmers

  • Newer TVs that automatically create warm color options

  • Blue light glasses

Sleep Keeps Your Brain & Body On Point

Sleep impacts our ability to learn, be less reactionary, & consistently get into flow.

"After only one night of poor sleep, adults may experience brain fog and confused thinking the next day that affects their decision making, reaction time, and attention," Dr, Panda wrote. 

Additionally, research by the team at Stamina Lab, where I am its founder, found that the duration and quality of REM sleep impacts your ability to get into a flow state. During REM sleep the brain consolidates and processes new information and then retains it in your long-term memory. REM sleep also helps to ensure better mental concentration and mood regulation.

At night, the brain detoxifies. During the daytime, brain cells absorb and process nutrients, creating by-products. Having a good night’s sleep is the best way to remove all the waste products from your brain, which is presumed to help prevent dementia.

Additionally, keeping to a restricted eating time strengthens the connections or synapses between brain cells. These connections between neurons means the brain can think better and remember better, regardless of how rested you are.

A good night's sleep puts you in better alignment with your circadian code by increasing growth hormone production while you rest, rejuvenating your brain and body.

A good night's sleep increases cortisol production in the morning, which helps with alertness, and balances your hunger & satiety hormones for stronger, more efficient metabolism. It synchronizes all of your internal clocks so your whole body is working at optimal levels.

Sleep is the beginning of our biological day, not the end

You can maintain a healthy circadian clock and preserve your normal brain function by following four simple habits: sleep, TRE, exercise, and the appropriate exposure to daylight.

“Your performance at any moment during the day is primarily determined by what you did the night before—when you ate and how much you slept—because that is what sets your clock, which then primes your body and brain,” Dr. Panda wrote.

Correcting habitual behaviors is the key to improving your circadian code. Our entire sense of health is guided by our daily rhythms. Behavioral changes are the key to good sleep and aligning your entire body to its circadian clocks.

Consistency

One of the first steps is to try and be consistent and wake up at the same time every day. If you are waking up 2 hours later on the weekends, it is a fair sign that you are not getting restorative sleep during the week. 

Time-Restricted Eating

Your first bite in the day and your last sets everything else in motion, especially if you can maintain an eating routine or schedule. Those who eat all of their food within an 8 to 11-hour window most days will reap the most health benefits.

Light

Limiting light at night, especially exposure to bright lights, goes a long way to getting to sleep sooner and staying asleep longer. Sunlight first thing in the morning and as much as possible during the day is essential.

Worried about lights from devices in the evening impacting sleep? Get more sunlight during the day.

"When you spend a full day (4 to 5 hours) at the beach or at a park with bright daylight, you’re less sensitive to the effect of bright indoor lights at night," according to Dr. Panda

Exercise & Movement

Exercise makes you tired and at the same time improves brain health—we know that the majority of work enhancing your brain health happens while you sleep anyway. Exercise is best if paired with sunlight during the morning or before the sun sets.

Dr. Panda made a strong case in The Circadian Code for building your day around your body’s circadian clocks and now that many of his studies with mice have begun to be replicated in humans, the case is even stronger.

Looking for help creating the behavior changes you need to improve your sleep and get aligned with your circadian clocks using science-backed expert advice, the latest insights in behavior design, along with data-informed coaching? Register for early access to Stamina Lab’s Champions of Sleep program.

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