Circadian Rhythm

What is our Circadian Rhythm, what does it do and why is it important? Along my journey of healing my gut and getting ready for pregnancy I worked toward balancing my circadian rhythm and I teach my clients how important a balanced circadian rhythm is to your health, hormones and gut health.

Your Circadian Rhythm is your bodies 24hour clock which triggers all your body functions and hormones and is triggered by the sun.

When the sun rises our circadian rhythm tells our bodies it is time to be awake and the hormone Cortisol is released. Cortisol is what give us energy throughout the day. Overly elevated Cortisol levels are not good but well discuss that in another post.

As the afternoon progresses our eyes perceive the changes in the light going from more bright blues and full spectrums to more reddish and oranges and cortisol is blocked and Melatonin is released to help our bodies relax and wind down for sleep. This is why we start to feel drowsy in the evening time. Melatonin is blocked by the exposure of blue light which I will discuss in another post as well.

Your circadian rhythm and the sun also tell our bodies when it is time to eat and exercise. During the day time we consume our meals and digest them but when the sun sets our bodies start to concentrate on relaxing and healing and less on digestion which makes really good sense to eat dinner around 6pm so we still have time to digest our foods before bed, while we sleep our bodies are healing and building. As for exercise it is best to do very slow thoughtful movements like yoga, stretching and walking before 12 pm and do heavier movements like resistance training around 2pm-4pm.

This is the natural clock our bodies follow so that our hormones are able to regulate, our digestion works optimally and we are able to get the full benefits of sleep. To help set our circadian rhythm it is important for our eyes to take in the full spectrums of the sun and to eat at certain times. This used to be easy for us since people were outside a lot more and a lot of jobs took place outside but in more recent times people go outside less and less and spend more time around electronics which affect our biological system with emf’s and blue lights.

We used to get up with the sun at and sleep when the sun went down so its easy to get your circadian rhythm back into balance. Set your alarm to go off around 6am and go outside to stare near the sun without any sunglasses, prescription glasses or contacts for 5-10 mins; all of these block the spectrum of light, doing this tells your body its time to be awake. During the afternoon the rays go from reddish orange to full spectrum and more blues and it is important to intake these rays also. In evening before the sun goes down the colors are more reddish and orange again and this spectrum tells your body its time for bed; at this point it is best to set your lights to low with red incandescent bulbs or salt lamps and wear blue blockers when using electronics. During the hours of 12-2am while you are sleeping your body goes into deep REM sleep and your brain’s glymphatic system cleans and transfers short term memories to long term memories among other things. Think about it like you’re cleaning your computers cache so it runs more optimally.

Another aspect that helps us set our circadian rhythm is nutrition and nutrition timing. Eat local foods that are grown in your region of the world at that seasonal time; in recent times we are able to consume foods from all over the world during all seasons and this throws our bodies out of balance. There is an app called Seasonal Food Guide that helps you find your location and season to see which foods are best to eat. As for timing eating breakfast around 8am-9am, Lunch around 1pm-2pm and Dinner around 6pm is optimal for digestion and to fast from 6pm-8am/9am which helps with our bodies healing and building along with regulation of hormones like insulin.

After a short period of time doing this your body will naturally wake up with the sun and be ready for bed around 9pm-10pm and will not need an alarm to wake you up. During the time of Daylight Savings Time we do experience a change in the time and when the sun sets and rises but it only takes a day or two for our bodies to adjust when we continue to follow our bodies natural clock.

Thank you for following my journey. Please leave a comment and share with your friends and family. If you like this post, want to add to it or have constructive criticism please comment, I would love to hear from you.