The Rhythm of Life - Why Timing Matters
- Janice Cunningham
- Nov 26, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 25
Virtually every organ, cell, and gene in our body has its own Circadian Clock (circa - about, diem - a day). These thousands of body clocks have a pre-programmed time of day/night cycle for doing their jobs:
When to ramp up or down.
When to rest, repair, and restore.
When to help others cells and organs do their job.
Regrettably we're a society out of sync. Modern culture has evolved to override our natural programming. Circadian biologists have established strong links between this rhythm disruption and the unprecedented epidemic of illness and chronic conditions we're told to accept as normal. Obesity. Alhzeimer's Disease. Cardiovascular Disease. Diabetes. Insomnia. Depression. Anxiety and more.
But it's not normal. It's just the new norm. The good news: if we get closer to our natural rhythm, we don't have to follow the crowd into this new norm. We can create our own normal!
Why Care?
Short answer:
Being in sync with your circadian rhythm leads to better health and resilience. Being out of sync leads to more health issues, more vulnerability, less resilience.
The last two decades of research show links to chronic conditions such as:
Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,
Depression and Anxiety,
Weight Gain and Obesity,
Stroke and Heart Attacks,
Cancer (colon, liver, lung)
Inflammation,
Insomnia.
This is just a partial list, but I suspect you get the picture.
Optimizing when we do what we do makes a difference! What Impacts Our Circadian Clock?
Our body's circadian clocks have default timing codes but they are sensitive to numerous cues and disruptors – morning light, evening light and eating times in particular.
We have a reliable day-night cycle that's roughly 24 hours but every individual has their own rhythm which can vary by minutes or hours. I naturally wake up at 5:30 am but this is NOT the ideal time for many people I know. I also feel best eating a late brunch where others do better with an earlier breakfast.
We can improve our wellbeing by tapping into and reinforcing our natural rhythm where feasible. It's all about timing and keeping a regular schedule - most of the time. Specifically:
We have two big levers to manipulate to help reinforce our natural Rhythm for sleep which is at the heart of our circadian rhythm: light exposure (outdoor in particular) and eating.
The master conductor in the brain - the suprachiasmatic nucleus (the SCN) - resets our body clocks every morning, taking it's biggest cue from the blue waves we perceive in rising morning light.
Imagine a special forces team synchronizing their watches before a mission: "The new day has begun; synchronize 'now'.
Artificial bright lights during the night hours can confuse the SCN, triggering a new “wake-up” signal to reset our body clocks. These cues impact everything from rest, repair and restore functions to cues for signaling chemicals and hormones. Example: the AM light cue sets the timing for evening melatonin production to initiate sleep (but bright evening lights then suppress the melatonin production due to the new "wake-up" cue.
When we eat also reinforces our circadian Rhythm for both starting and ending the day.
Consider the evening. When the body starts slowing down for the rest, repair and restore functions of deep sleep, digestion also slows down. The body is no longer primed to deal with food: It has other priorities!
When we eat too close to bedtime or enjoy a late night snack, digestion becomes the bully in the room, forcing the restorative processes of our early hours of sleep to be put on hold. The next 2-4 hours are used to digest our late night snack. The result? Insufficient time for our sleep processes to complete their rest, repair and rejuvenation.
Our challenge: getting to know our personal Circadian Rhythm so we can figure out what (if anything) is messing with it and adjust where possible.Behavior Examples that Mess with our Rhythm
Regular schedules, ideally aligned with the day/night rhythm, are best. Chronically irregular schedules keep us out of sync. (We'll get to shift work in future posts.) Let's take an example of someone getting the recommended hours of sleep but not being synchronized in their timing for sleep or eating. Here are a few examples of what happens.
Example 1 - Waking up a few hours earlier than normal.
We miss our peak REM sleep cycle benefits: therapy, emotional balance, memory connections, learning and problem solving.
It becomes more difficult to make good choices and exert impulse control.
Example 2 - Eating breakfast a few hours early due to early wake-up.
The pancreas is not yet prepared to produce the insulin needed for processing the first meal of the day - blood glucose levels spike, sometimes as high as those seen with Type 2 diabetes.
Example 3 - Going to bed a few hours later than usual.
We miss the hours scheduled for deep sleep, thus we miss the detox cycles for cleansing our brain of beta-amyloid and tao proteins (not good for Alzheimer’s risk!).
We think we're losing our memory because we've had insufficient time to transfer the day's new memories to long term storage leaving less space to capture new memories the next day.
Example 3 - Eating Too Close to Bedtime
The liver overrides the synchronization signal from the SCN - the master regulator of our body’s circadian timing system. Digestion gets prioritized over other deep sleep processes.
The body and brain run out of time for rest, repair, rejuvenation, brain detoxification, memory reinforcement, and memory transfer.
Defining Your Normal
It may not be possible to change all timing aspects given the reality of our modern lives, but even a few small changes to timing can have a significant impact on overall wellbeing!
For links to a few expert resources on Circadian Rhythm, explore our Circadian Rhythm Portal.
Wishing you well,
Janice
PS
Don’t be surprised to see timing matters pop up throughout our posts. Its tied into virtually all our biological processes!
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