Circadian Rhythm

Do you notice patterns in your day to day life? You feel hungry at some specific time, while you feel aroused at a peculiar time (ultradian rhythm), the sun sets at particular time and rises after a determined time(Diurnal). Menstrual cycle in women (Infradian rhythm). The seasons change at a course of time. You may feel productive in the morning and evening and lazy in the afternoons.

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Similarly we have a natural clock ticking inside our body which tells us when to sleep and when to rise, naturally. Every cell in our body has a clock which is controlled by the master called Suprachriasmatic Nucleus (SCN). SCN works on cues, as soon as it gets cue from daylight and the darkness of the night we feel sleepy or awake respectively. SCN was dependent on light and food for cues and now! all thanks to junk food, night out’s and super bright lights which have contributed in disruption of the circadian rhythm. Now the SCN has to deal with conflicting cues from the environment.

Another reason of disruption of circadian rhythm is JET LAG. Long distance travels can make you feel exhausted, your ability to focus is at a toss, which may lead to loss of memory and other serious health related issues. Our bodies didn’t evolve to fly at high speeds via different time zones. Then does this mean we should not travel at all? No, we can recalibrate the natural cycle by short meditations https://youtu.be/ztLkLKMN5L8 , healthy food and ample amount of sleep. We will look into this in up coming blogs.

The social Jet Lag

This term is for the party animals🥳🎊. Its the fantastic Friday night. After a long weekend all you wanna do is go home change and have a worthy weekend. You go for outings munch junks of food, have good gossips , listen to loud music🔊💽 and before you call it a night it is 3:00 am in the morning. The next day you get up and have your breakfast at the time of lunch and an almost midnight dinner. Probably repeat the same sequence on the Saturday and Sunday with minor variations. The abnormal cues cause a havoc and you experience so called Monday blues, this effect is same as what jet lag does to you.

Photo by Aleksandr Popov on Unsplash

You can prevent this nastiness by doing following :

1.Get plenty of morning sunlight. The SCN gets its light cues from your eyes, so remember not to wear sunglasses when you take a morning walk. 15 minutes to half an hour of direct sunlight is fantastic.

2.Exposure to sunlight a few times during the day is highly recommended.

3. No bright lights in the evening, from around 3 hours before bedtime. Switch off lights that are not being used and dim others. Watching the sunset, as the whites and blues of daylight fade into yellows, oranges and pinks of dusk and the into the darkness is one of the best things you can do for your SCN.

4. Sleep and wake up at around the same time every day even on weekends.

Stay tuned for some more exiting content!🥳

Refrences Sleep your way to success , a book by Khurshed Batliwala and Dinesh Ghodki