Do you struggle to drift off to sleep at night? Even after a night of sleep, do you wake up groggy in the morning? If this is a pattern for you, you may be suffering from a phenomenon called circadian misalignment. This is a fancy way to say your body clock is not set properly. Unfortunately, it’s causing you to miss out on quality sleep. So, you feel tired the next day.
Just as you have an external clock that reveals the time of day, you have an internal biological clock that’s your master timekeeper. This “invisible” clock helps regulate your sleep cycle and can even impact your health. If you have an irregular sleep schedule or have a lot of stressors in your life, your internal body clock and biological rhythms get off track.
If that’s the case, you may have trouble falling asleep or toss and turn when you do. Circadian misalignment can even lead to health problems, like prediabetes due to its impact on blood sugar control. That’s because it regulates the release of hormones that regulate many aspects of health.
So, what if you’re ready to get back on track? Here are five steps you can take to reset your biological clock and realign the natural circadian rhythms that make you feel your best and stay your healthiest.
Step 1: Set a Consistent Sleep Schedule
Are you ready to reset your biological clock? Smart move – you’re doing something good for yourself. Begin by establishing a consistent sleep schedule. Choose a set time to go to bed and wake up. This will keep you from staying up until midnight watching a movie you’ve already seen ten times or scrolling through your phone looking at memes. And there are other benefits too. Having a routine will give your life structure. That can help you relieve stress!
If you’re staying up late on weeknights and sleeping in on weekends, break that habit too. Aim for a consistent sleep schedule on weeknights and weekdays. For example, turn in at 10 PM. Wake up at 6 AM every day of the week. Stick with it for a few weeks and your body will adapt to the times you choose. Best of all you should get better sleep and wake up more refreshed.
Step 2: Gradually Adjust Your Sleep Times
If the thought of getting up earlier in the morning leaves you feeling exhausted, make incremental changes. Making sudden or massive changes is always hard. Instead, gradually adjust your sleep times. Start by shifting your sleep and wake up time by 15-minute increments. Then readjust again each week until you’re going to sleep and wake up at your desired time.
Here’s an example. Suppose you want to hop out of bed at 6:00 A.M. Set your alarm clock 15 minutes earlier each week until you reach that goal. You’ll gradually work your way up to your desired wake-up time without having your body rebel. Once you get there, stay consistent.
Step 3: Manage Your Light Exposure
What sets your internal body clock? The answer is light. When you expose your eyes to natural light in the morning, you set your master timekeeper in a healthy manner. But there’s another habit you want to avoid – using technology at night. Scrolling through a smartphone or tablet within two hours of bedtime exposes your eyes to blue light, an activating light that suppresses melatonin production. This makes it harder to drift off to sleep.
So, part of your comprehensive plan to reset your biological clock is to get natural light right after awakening. The other is to avoid blue light within a few hours of bedtime. For natural light exposure in the morning, take a short walk before you start your day. You could also enjoy a cup of coffee on a sunny front porch before work.
Step 4: Engage in Regular Physical Activity
Exercise isn’t just beneficial for health; it helps regulate your internal biological clock. And a well-set biological clock is necessary for the timely release of sleep hormones like melatonin. Studies show that morning workouts have an edge for boosting your sleep quality. Take advantage of it! According to the Sleep Foundation, doing an aerobic workout in the morning shifts melatonin release to earlier in the evening, so you can more easily fall asleep.
How can you put this into practice? Pencil your workouts in for when you first awaken. Several studies show that exercise improves sleep quality, regardless of the time of day you do it. However, morning workouts have the edge for inducing restful sleep.
Step 5: Cultivate Healthy Sleep Hygiene
Don’t forget the basics of health and good sleep hygiene. Most people don’t have sleep habits that serve them well. When you don’t, it’s easy for your body clock to get out of sync. Research shows these habits help cultivate healthier sleep:
- In the evening, engage in activities that calm your mind, like reading a book or meditating. Studies show warm baths before bedtime aid sleep.
- Cool down your bedroom (to no higher than 68 degrees F) and ensure it’s dark and quiet. If small amounts of light are slipping into your sleeping area, consider installing black out blinds.
- Avoid consuming caffeine after the noon hour. If you’re a slow metabolizer, you may still have caffeine in your system in the evening.
- Stay active during the day. Less sitting, more movement.
- Avoid naps after 2:00 p.m. If you take a short nap earlier, keep it less than 30 minutes.
- Keep nicotine and alcohol out of your life. Both degrade sleep quality. Alcohol can also disrupt your body clock.
- Don’t use your bedroom for activities like watching TV, working, or eating. You want your mind to associate your bedroom with restful sleep and relaxation.
Conclusion
It takes dedication to realign your natural sleep patterns. But the benefit of resetting your biological clock is worth it. Not only will you sleep better, but you’ll have a healthier pattern of hormone release. Introduce these changes gradually, so you don’t shock your system. Be patient too. It could take a few weeks for your internal clock to adjust to its new schedule.
References:
- “The Best Time of Day to Exercise for Sleep | Sleep Foundation.” 11 Oct. 2023, https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-activity/best-time-of-day-to-exercise-for-sleep.
- “Interrelationship between Sleep and Exercise: A Systematic Review.” 26 Mar. 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5385214/.
- Baron KG, Reid KJ. Circadian misalignment and health. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2014 Apr;26(2):139-54. doi: 10.3109/09540261.2014.911149. PMID: 24892891; PMCID: PMC4677771.
- Sletten TL, Cappuccio FP, Davidson AJ, Van Cauter E, Rajaratnam SMW, Scheer FAJL. Health consequences of circadian disruption. Sleep. 2020 Jan 13;43(1):zsz194. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsz194. PMID: 31930347; PMCID: PMC7368337.
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