89 | Resetting Your Circadian Rhythm - Seasonal Change

Hoorah. Go Gators. They are, man. The Seminoles are I mean... It's the greatest thing ever.

Well happy October, happy fall here in East Tennessee. It's gorgeous. The weather is changing, the air is cooling off and it's, it's awesome. What a great season. So over the next few weeks of the month of October, we're really gonna be talking about seasonal change with today's episode being the top 10 ways to reset your circadian rhythm.

The circadian rhythm is is vital to the health of your body. Circadian rhythm really just means like a- think of it like 24 hour rhythm, and every organ has its own circadian rhythm which is wild. Like there's certain organs that are more active during the day versus at night, for instance, like the liver is more active at night whereas like your muscle, the circadian rhythm of your muscle is more active during the day. So everything's built upon this clock and it's when this circadian rhythm or the clock of organs gets out of balance or out of sync is when we can get into trouble. So circadian biology really just means looking at how the body is supposed to go through a normal like 24 hour response where it's awake and it's asleep or it's more active metabolically or it's less active metabolically.

Where this matters is, I was thinking about how to frame this for the fall and winter. Research shows that we need more sleep during winter. It's estimated that anywhere between 1.5 to 2.5 hours more of sleep is needed, which makes sense. It's colder, it's darker, and so I really kinda wanna help you unpack. If you're struggling with sleep, if you're struggling with waking up with energy, if you're struggling with getting tired midday, then we should look at resetting your circadian rhythm.

So today we're gonna talk about 10 ways to reset your circadian rhythm. When we think about sleep, think of it this way. If I were to frame its importance, 1 third of your life is spent in bed. One third. If we sleep roughly 8 hours a night and there's 24 hours in a day, 1 third of your life, potentially 30 years of a 90 year lifespan will be spent in bed, which also begs the question- when I was framing that question out to you which begs the question- this, what are you sleeping on?

What's what's the mattress you're sleeping on? I would say one of the most toxic substances in your home is the furniture in the bed that you're sleeping on. Most beds are made with formaldehydes and they're made with toxic ingredients that cause cancer. There are known carcinogens. Most of them come from factories in China.

And when we assess the health risks of these chemicals that are used in your mattress sheets, we have to assume that a third if you're breathing this in, absorbing it through your skin for 8 hours a day, every day for 80, 90 years, it poses a health risk. So then you probably ask me, well, what do I sleep on? So I sleep on a mattress from a company which I have no affiliation with, but it's called Essentia, e s s e n t i a. And Essentia is a all natural organic latex, which is made from rubber trees mattress that has certain rocks and, I don't know, stones that are kind of broken up and created or put into the even the topper that allows for deeper REM sleep and a natural grounding effect, but I take my sleep seriously. If you if you walk in my home at 8 o'clock at night, I'm not asleep but my room is already set.

I already go ahead and I reduce my house temperature. I put my red light on in my bedroom, my blackout curtains are closed, there's no light allowed in my room. So you literally walk into a cold, dark room with a little bit of red light and, and that's just kind of- it almost like preps me, my body to say, hey, this is where you're gonna go to sleep, this is where you're gonna shut down and heal and be restored. So when we have this, you know, when we talk about these 10 ways to reset your circadian rhythm, we have to- I did wanna kind of make mention, hey, what do what are you sleeping on? And make sure because there are plenty of organic bedding options that we start moving in that direction as a house, as a home so we reduce that toxic exposure.

If you are in this category of persistent sleep issues, waking up at 3 AM, not getting deep restful sleep, then this episode is really gonna help you. It's gonna help you significantly. Now there's this circadian rhythm conversation. There are other reasons why you may wake up and we can explore that in future episodes. We've explored that on previous episodes in terms of mouth taping, nasal, you know, nasal breathing versus mouth breathing, sleep apnea.

But today, the main focus is circadian rhythm reset. So resetting your circadian biology specifically with your awake and sleep cycles to help you get a deep restful sleep. Sleep at night is essential to your health. It's where your brain heals. It not only helps you formulate form memory, but it's also where your brain flushes out the toxins and the metabolic, byproducts from burning, you know, fats and carbs throughout the day.

This system is called a glialymphatic system and deep sleep is absolutely vital for this glialympatic system to operate. If you feel foggy when you wake up in the morning, it's because your brain didn't clear out these metabolic wastes efficiently and we- So again, we have to look at deep sleep. I monitor my sleep periodically with a ring called OURA. I say periodically because I don't love getting caught up in looking at data every single day. Sometimes I just like to exist and just listen to my body versus looking at data all the time.

I think it can get just super heady and even almost anxious. But OURA, it has a great wearable that you can use at night to look at how well you're sleeping, how many times you're waking up, your restlessness, your sleep latency, how fast you go to sleep, but all of those things should improve if you have an OURA or not with looking at these 10 sleep or circadian rhythm hacks. I would say if we look at the most important trigger and help in our sleep awake cycle, research shows light. Light is your your single greatest trigger. It triggers when you should be awake and it triggers when you should be asleep.

And so when we look at these 10 ways to reset your circadian rhythm, light is gonna be a vital one. Circadian rhythm is a rhythm. So when we look at the resetting your circadian rhythm, we have to think about, okay, this requires discipline. These rhythms are really, disciplines that won't be perfect in the beginning, but as we stay consistent, these, rhythms or disciplines will start to have their effect. Let's choose a couple from this list of 10 and start applying these immediately.

Some are easier and some are harder, so let's get into it. Let's talk about the 10 ways to reset your circadian rhythm, starting with number 1, get in rhythm with the same bedtime and same awake time. Get in rhythm. Wake up at the same time and go to sleep at the same time. I say do this 6 out of 7 days a week, even on the weekend on that Saturday or Sunday.

It is vital that you actually teach your body when to wake up and when to go to sleep. Your stomach has a circadian rhythm, you teach your- you train your stomach by eating at the same time every day when it's hungry. So that's why when we fast and you miss that breakfast or lunch or dinner window whenever that is, your stomach starts to growl, it's already producing enzymes, it's already ready for the meal because you set a clock on that stomach and the countdown is on and it's ready to eat, the same thing is true with your brain. It is ready to go into a sleep mode or awake mode and it is based upon the rhythm of you saying, hey, this is what time I'm going to sleep, I'll go to sleep at 9 o'clock and I'll wake up at 5 o'clock every single day. So the first and one of the most important rhythms to get into is go to sleep, go to bed at the same time within a, like, 15 maximum 30 minute window every single day.

So for me, that's that's 9 o'clock. I may still be awake at 9:15. It's, you know, it's it's a wild night if it's 9:30, but if anybody knows me my butt's in bed by 9. And then 5 o'clock is usually when I wake up. If I were to quote unquote sleep in on the weekend, I may make it to 6 o'clock, but my body's pretty used to waking up at the same time. So that's the first one, go to sleep and wake up at the same time 6 days a week.

Number 2, eat in rhythm. So helping establish circadian rhythm for sleep at night is actually eating in a rhythm and we'll talk about a eating window in a in a fasting window when to cut off your eating, but right now try to eat the same time every day as this helps set the circadian rhythm of your stomach which actually helps you get into deep sleep and getting into a more restful sleep at night. So eat at the same times every single day.

Number 3, your environment should be dark, create a have a dark environment. So if you need a mask because of all the devices and all of the little bit of, like, lights that are on, you know, fire alarms or or whatever or you don't have maybe dark dark, blackout curtains, create a dark environment somehow. So for us, we use blackout curtains and then we actually tape over that little green light on our fire, our smoke detector and we try to sleep in like absolute pitch black environment. So a dark environment is very important. There's some studies that show just even a few lumens of light is enough to disrupt sleep. So we don't even want the clock next to us giving off any light, so dark environment. Before bed, for us, we limit blue light exposure which we'll talk about here in a second with devices but the way we do that as we're reading like books at night, journaling or whatever, one of my alarm clocks called a hatch and the hatch works on a works on a circadian rhythm of light as well but it has a red light feature so I turn on the red light only at night when I read. So get into a dark environment.

Number 4, get into a cold environment. Ideally, our body temperature, needs to get cold at night so that we get a more deep restful sleep. That's why we shouldn't work out too late, that's why we shouldn't take a really like hot shower at night. It's why we shouldn't eat too late because we don't want to drive metabolism, we actually want to do the opposite. So number 4, a cold environment preferably at below 67 degrees. We sleep at 65 degrees. If you need a blanket, that's fine. I wouldn't go from 70 to 67 or 65 in one night. If you sleep at 70 degrees, tonight maybe go to 69 for a couple nights and then 68 for a couple nights, but a colder environment will always create a deeper, more restful sleep. And just find out what that sweet spot is for you.

Number 5, when you awake in the morning, look at the sun as fast as possible and try to get about 20 minutes of first morning sunlight as this helps train your body to wake up. I'd also like to say, hey, if you can delay your consumption of caffeine for an hour, that would even be better, actually enhance that first morning sunlight. For me right now, it is fall time and gosh, that sun didn't come up for a while if you're up at 5 o'clock. So there's some unfortunate situations there. So for me, to kind of drive that cortisol production, which is really what we're doing with sunlight, I get in my sauna first thing, which wakes my body up, creates a stress response, and helps my body release that cortisol to start establishing that circadian rhythm. So for me, a sauna is is really helpful. A first morning workout is great, if we can't see that sunlight doing something in the morning to get that cortisol production. But if you do wake up and the sun is already up or just coming up, get that first morning sunlight as that helps reset your your circadian rhythm.

Number 6, a cooler shower at night is preferable. So take your normal shower, but right before you get out, maybe do about a minute to 2 minutes of a cooler shower as a cooler shower or a colder environment immediately starts lowering your body temperature and helps you get into deep sleep faster. So actually a colder shower at night is preferable.

Number 7, exercise earlier in the morning as this helps kind of meet, when your muscles are more metabolically active, you have higher cortisol levels. So typically, our bodies are more apt to train in the morning time versus versus the evening. Now there are some variances there, but in general, if we're doing a general rule of thumb, getting up and getting the body moving is important. And in lieu of exercise, again, a sauna works fantastic first thing in the morning.

Number 8, another way to reset your circadian rhythm is cut off caffeine 7 hours before you go to bed. So right now it's 1:52 Eastern Standard Time. I go to bed at 9. So I've got 8 minutes to finish this little bit of coffee left. Because the half life of caffeine is about 7 hours and so everyone now processes, you know, genetically caffeine a little bit differently. But again, a general rule of thumb is cut off your caffeine 7 hours before you typically go to sleep. So if you go to sleep at 10, we want to cut off that caffeine consumption at 3 o'clock as that half life of caffeine still is lingering in the body can have an effect on getting deep restful sleep.

Number 9, alcohol absolutely impacts your sleep. Eliminate alcohol. If you're going to consume it earlier in the day is better, but consuming alcohol before bed, an hour before bed, 2 hours before bed is absolutely going to ruin your quality of sleep. Alcohol and food ruin your quality of sleep. Big meals later in the day are going to alter the- your health the depth of your sleep. So cutting off food even 2 hours before bed can really help enhance your sleep. For me, this is the most difficult because of my schedule that later day, later evening meal is always my largest meal and I know it impacts my sleep, my resting heart rate, my heart rate variability always takes a little bit longer to drop because I had that big meal at at 7:30, 8 o'clock and I'm in bed at 9. So this impacts- it's the hardest one for me. Number 10, the last one, cut off your blue light 3 hours before bed. Now your phone, like Apple Devices, naturally have a blue light eliminator where you can where you can just shift it into nighttime mode. I would encourage that where it's more amber or orange color screens. But your kids cut off the iPads, cut off the blue light exposure and you say, hey, well, I work. Well, this is where blue light glasses come in. Don't wear blue light glasses during the day. That's just silly. Okay? We need blue light during the day to to stimulate the awake cycle. But before bed, a couple hours before bed, if for some reason you have to go to work you have to work on a device, put those blue light blocking glasses on as this can significantly help drive that sleep awake cycle.

You know, it's interesting when we look at these 10 ways to reset, we all have a couple areas there that we can improve on. So when looking at these 10 ways to reset your circadian rhythm, choose 1 or choose 2 that you can start developing a rhythm with and then as that evolves and your sleep improves and your sleep hygiene improves, then you can start adding on others. So as we head into the fall winter time, this is all about helping your bodies heal with seasonal change as, right, we get less sunlight, there's less vitamin d, we get less sunlight so we need more sleep, but if you're already not sleeping well and you want to establish a healthy sleep awake cycle, but you don't, you don't have a healthy one, you're tired, you're using caffeine to overstimulate the body, whatever, this is a great episode to help you reset your circadian rhythm.

Next week, we'll be talking about seasonal allergies particularly in the fall and even have a touch point on vitamin d, what your level should be, how to test it, and why it's so critical at reducing the symptoms of viral loads that you will come in contact this winter. Thanks again for listening to another episode of the Real Health Podcast.