Tip Of The Week: Don’t Try To Reset Your Body Clock

We all have in us a body clock or the technical name for it is circadian rhythm. Most of us equate our body clock with our sleep patterns, you know it tells us when to go to sleep and when to wake up but it does so much more. This body clock is responsible for other systems, like hunger, mental alertness, and mood, stress, heart function, and immunity also operate on a daily rhythm.

Simply put, When you open your eyes in the morning, light floods your brain. It turns certain genes on and off to get you revved up for the day. It also tells your brain to stop making melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. Later, as the day fades, darkness flips the melatonin switch back on to set you up for sleep.

Disrupting our body’s natural cycles can cause problems.

Studies have found there are more frequent traffic accidents and workplace injuries when we spring forward and lose an hour of sleep. Heart patients are at greater risk for myocardial infarction in the week following the Daylight Savings time shift. But even more significant is that science continues to discover important connections between a disrupted inner clock and chronic health issues, from diabetes to heart disease to cognitive decline.

A part of your hypothalamus (a portion of your brain) controls your circadian rhythm. That said, outside factors like lightness and darkness can also impact it. When it’s dark at night, your eyes send a signal to the hypothalamus that it’s time to feel tired. Your brain, in turn, sends a signal to your body to release melatonin, which makes your body tired. That’s why your circadian rhythm tends to coincide with the cycle of daytime and nighttime.

Other systems also follow a daily rhythm, many of which are controlled by hormones and other compounds that receive cues from the biological clock. For example, the hormones responsible for hunger and metabolism rise and fall over the course of the day. The chemicals involved in immune system function also vary. Compounds that encourage the inflammatory response rise at night, (which is why fevers tend to spike then), and those that inhibit it rise during the day.

If we tamper with our circadian rhythms set by the body clocks that regulate all the automated processes that take place inside the body — we tamper with our health. Our body clocks control metabolism, contributing to the proper functioning of every organ in our body if we regularly bypass our natural day to night cycles — by working through the night, traveling long-distance, or spending too much time looking at bright screens in the dark — our body clocks become disoriented and stop functioning correctly.

Studies have reported that older adults tend to perform complex cognitive tasks better in the morning and get worse through the day, We know also that the circadian rhythm changes with aging, leading to awakening earlier in the morning, fewer hours of sleep, I think we can all relate to that. 

When your clock’s off, it doesn’t just mess up your sleep. Your hormones, digestion, and even your immune system can take a hit, too. Scientists think fighting against your clock can make you sick. Some studies show connections between circadian rhythms that are out of whack and conditions like cancer, diabetes, bipolar disorder, and obesity.

I have been preaching for years the importance of regimentation in your lifestyle.  A regular schedule, day in and day out, is one of the best things you can do. Go to bed at the same time each night, then wake up at the same time each morning. Do your workouts at the same time every day, eat your meals at the same time. Get into the habit of doing this and you will be a much healthier person for it.