By Richmond Natural Medicine

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November 20, 2017

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When trying to figure out sleep imbalances, there are so many avenues you can take to track down the elusive source, and one of the main areas to look at is what may be triggering your circadian rhythm.

Is it lifestyle factors that cause disrupted sleep? Or other underlying imbalances that cause lack of sleep? Or is is disrupted sleep itself that causes those other underlying imbalances?  Getting to the root cause of sleep imbalances is key.

What is a circadian rhythm and how does it affect us?

Our circadian rhythm is our 24 hour internal clock which makes up our sleep and wake cycles. It is an intricately entrained biological clock that functions both diurnally (daily), circannually (yearly) and even seasonally! You know it’s dictating a big part of our lives when you fly to the other side of the world, for example, and you’re still on your “normal” time for a few days. You may want to sleep when the sun is high in the sky for the first 48-72 hours abroad even though your environment is completely changed. Eventually, your body adjusts, and that’s due to your environmental triggers dictating your hormones. But other lifestyle factors are just as important to your circadian rhythm, and they’re collectively known as “zeitgebers” – any external lifestyle or environmental cue that synchronizes an organism’s biological rhythm to earth’s 24-hour light/dark cycle. Paying attention to what your triggers are (or lack thereof) can answer several questions about why you may have trouble sleeping.

Here are 4 main circadian rhythm triggers that may be affecting your sleep:

1. Light and Dark Exposure – It is extremely important for the body to experience both a sunrise and a sunset. The sun rising in the morning sends a direct signal to your brain that melatonin (your sleep hormone) should decrease, and your cortisol levels (your stress and energy hormone) should begin to rise. Likewise, in the evening, the absence of light should cause your melatonin levels to increase to make you sleepy, while decreasing your cortisol to allow you to relax and wind down. If you’re waking up in the dark, or trying to fall asleep 2 minutes after turning off the house lights, your hormones just aren’t in the right place to respond to that.
2. Stress & Cortisol – Cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, is one of the essential circadian rhythm hormones that manages our sleep wake cycle, and it is by far the most disrupted during our day. If we live a life of high (or even moderate) stress, our cortisol production is constantly disrupted, leading to an imbalanced sleep/wake cycle over time.
3. Food Inputs – Food is predictably available at certain times. The body comes to anticipate food at certain times during the day, and the most important time to eat is in the morning, after having fasted for 6-8+ hours. Eating your breakfast at the same time every morning will allow the body to maintain this predictable input of food, while it also re-enforces your cortisol increase in the morning to prepare for energy expenditure for the day.
4. Appetite – This can be predictable if set for a while by eating at consistent times during the day. A lack of metabolic rhythm regarding appetite is clearly associated with a loss of biological rhythm and disrupted sleep. This means that activities like grazing throughout the day, skipping meals, or overeating wreck havoc on an otherwise healthy circadian rhythm.

Our triggers are predictable, both seasonally and daily

Reinforcing our biological rhythms and our circadian rhythm triggers is key to supporting overall wellness and especially a good night’s sleep. Biological rhythms are set with our relationship to the world, and the further we drift away from our predictable environmental cues, the more disrupted our rhythms become. Our triggers are predictable, both seasonally and daily. Keeping your triggers predictable and stable is critical to maintaining a good night’s sleep.