Lesson 3: How to Sync Your Life with Your Body Clock
We often go throughout of days without putting much thought to how the repetitive 24hr cycle of the rising and setting of the sun impacts our health especially our metabolic health. The circadian rhythm is what scientists use to describe the sleep/wake cycle of our body that syncs with the rising and setting of the sun. Many people often call it the body clock. Whatever you want to call it...it is a master regulator of our health (and the most under-appreciated).
The light/dark cycles that drive circadian rhythms are extremely important for the regulation of sleep. Your body's master clock is a group of cells in your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The SCN is located in very close proximity to the major nerves of your eyes (your optic nerves). This allows the light that your eyes take in to be readily analyzed and assessed by your SCN so that the SCN can properly direct different bodily functions depending on the time of day. (How incredible is the human body?!)
Humans invented light bulbs to help get around the limits of light/dark cycles of the sun so that we could work and live more on our own terms. This use of artificial light has biological consequences that are further enhanced depending on the kinds of lights that you are using.
Disrupted Circadian Rhythm and Health
Research shows that for optimal health you want to work to sync your life with your body clock—meaning that you are awake when it is light out and asleep when the sun is down (or as close to this as possible). There are numerous other strategies can you can use to optimize the syncing of your body clock (which we'll talk about below), but first I wanted to cover how disrupting your body clock can accelerate aging and support a progressive decline in health.
Research by Dr. Leonard Guarente at MIT showed that disruptions in your circadian rhythm negatively impact the production of the key anti-aging gene SIRT1, leading to accelerated aging in the animals he was studying.
Other research shows that in older individuals the negative effects of a disrupted body clock lead to greater metabolic impairments than in younger individuals, suggesting that as we age our body is less agile when it comes to adapting to disruptions in circadian rhythms.
So what are these negative consequences? Research shows that a disrupted circadian rhythm is associated with:
- Increased risk of diabetesIncreased risk of certain cancers (such as breast cancer and colon cancer)
- Increase risk of early mortality
- ...just to name a few
Pretty crazy, right? Fortunately entraining your circadian rhythm so that your body clock isn't disrupted isn't that difficult.
Here are 4 Things You can Do Today to Sync Your Life with Your Body Clock for Improved Health
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Expose Yourself to Light in the Morning - This is the first tip because it is the most important. Your body clock is driven by the appearance and disappearance of light. Getting light exposure when you wake up from sunlight or bright LED artificial light (see #4) is key for syncing your body clock.
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Eat Breakfast with Carbohydrates and Protein in the Morning -Eating breakfast is one of the best way to sync up your body clock. It literally kick-starts your day. Research shows that eating a protein (eggs, Greek yogurt, lean sausage, etc) containing breakfast in the morning will curb hunger throughout the day while also controlling blood sugar.
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Stop Eating Shortly After the Sun Sets -The later it in the day it gets, the worse our body gets at efficiently using the carbohydrates that we eat. Some researchers call this phenomenon afternoon diabetes. Later in the day our muscles are less responsive to taking in carbohydrates and our fat cells are more responsive (meaning that more food/carbs will get shuttled to fat cells instead of muscle cells). Being a little hungry at night may be a good thing too, as your body's primary hunger hormone, ghrelin, promotes sleep. Adelle Davis, a nutrition pioneer in the mid-20th century, was dead-on when she said, "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper."
- Minimize Your Exposure to Artificial Light After Dark -There is a particular kind of light emitted from phones, TV, computers, tablets, energy efficient lights, and LED lights called blue light that is a major disrupter to your circadian rhythm. It basically makes your body think it is still daytime and prevents the normal processes that your body goes through before bed from happening. It can be hard to remove all those light sources from your life at night (my house is full of energy-efficient lights!), so another alternative is blue light blocking glasses. I put these on ~2 hours before bed or anytime I'm using a computer after sunset. This blocks the blue light from messing with your body clock.
Use a Morning Cup of Coffee As Part of a Ritual To Support Your Body Clock.
Research shows that coffee itself isn't enough to sync your body clock. However, if you combine coffee with breakfast and bright morning light, you can fight off sleep pressure (your body's drive to go to sleep, which increases as the day goes on) while properly aligning your body and circadian rhythm—making you alert and setting yourself up for metabolic health.
Neuro Coffee is the best coffee to jump-start your day, as you get the health benefits of coffee, the body clock support of the caffeine naturally found in coffee, and the added support for neuron growth and repair only found with Neuro Coffee. It's the only clinically studied brain supplement delivered via a delicious cup of coffee.
