This is how you get your circadian rhythm in order
It’s seven in the morning and you have to get up. The phone vibrates and plays the familiar tone, but the head is heavy and the body is limp.
Most people have tried to have a wrong circadian rhythm – perhaps due to stress, working hours or psychological problems. But it is a good reason to listen to the body’s signals.
If you neglect the circadian rhythm for several years, it can have serious consequences. Fortunately, these are things that can be done.
– It is a myth that the circadian rhythm is like an internal clock. It is influenced from the outside, says senior physician Klaus Martiny from Psychiatric Center Copenhagen. He researches circadian rhythms in depression.
– The circadian rhythm must be ligated at all times. If we neglect external input, we can have health problems, explains Martiny, who is also a professor at the University of Copenhagen.
This article talks about fire factors that are affected by stress. But you can also use them to get the circadian rhythm back on track.
Poor circadian rhythm is unhealthy
It is a myth that you can «sleep when you get old».
In the short term, a skewed circadian rhythm can be very uncomfortable. You are exhausted in the morning and are tossing and turning in bed at three in the morning.
– Sleep is not like smoking. If you take a smoke today, you can’t measure any significant difference tomorrow. It is not until many years later that smokers get lung cancer and die, pain sleep researcher Birgitte Kornum at the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen.
When people sleep fewer hours a night, reaction ability and concentration are felt to be worse already the next day. Leading American sleep researchers have measured this in several studies.
If you neglect the circadian rhythm over several years, it will often have serious consequences. Studies show that poor and too little sleep over time can increase the risk of diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases.
It also goes beyond the quality of life. At the same time, many with mental disorders such as depression, ADHD and bipolar disorder have sleep problems. Many researchers believe the risk of poor sleep increases for mental disorders.
In other words, there are more than enough arguments for treating the circadian rhythm with respect.
The circadian rhythm is controlled by a timer
The circadian rhythm is controlled by a small bundle of nerve cells – a core located deep in the brain, in the hypothalamus.
Here it is cells with special active clock genes. It is a type of gene that synchronizes the body to the 24 hours of the day.
– It is this center that controls everything. From here it sends out signals to all clock genes in the body, so that they keep the beat, says Martiny.
Most cells in the body are equipped with clock genes, so that activity is regulated to a rhythm of 24 hours.
– Clock genes are responsible for various things in the body. For example, breakdown of alcohol in deliveries, urine output, alertness and heart rate. A large number of physiological factors are regulated by circadian rhythms, he says.
Virtually all organisms, right down to bacteria, have clock genes and thus a circadian rhythm that follows the rotation of the earth.
Directs other timers
The scientific term for circadian rhythm is circadian rhythms, which comes from the Latin around per diem. It means “about a day”.
– It is not a pressure bell. Therefore, it is dependent on being regulated by external signals, says Klaus Martiny.
You can use the external signals to nudge the circadian rhythm in a healthier direction. The most important thing is light.
– Light is a mechanism that is under a lot of pressure. When flying to New York, the circadian rhythm will be shifted by six hours. With light in the morning you push the circadian rhythm back, with light in the evening you push the circadian rhythm forward, explains Martiny.
When the eye picks up blue light, a signal is sent to the pineal gland. It is a gland that produces the hormone melatonin.
It is a substance that makes us sleepy. When the pineal gland receives a signal that there is little light, it increases melatonin production.
Martiny therefore recommends that we get enough daylight every day. At least two hours, preferably early or mid-day.
Light and social contact
Klaus Martiny says that it is not just affected like the circadian rhythm.
– The second most important thing is social contact. Meeting other people. It can be talking on the phone or sending an SMS, but it is best to meet people, says Martiny.
The founder of chronobiological research, Jürgen Aschoff, showed in an experiment from 1971 that social contact can compensate for the lack of light.
I tried to have a group of people who were in total darkness for four days perform the same cognitive tasks as a group that had been exposed to normal amounts of light and darkness.
Other researchers have taken Aschoff’s findings further. They have suggested that the circadian rhythm disturbances often seen in people with depression may have been due to a lack of social contact.
Live healthier
Also meals and exercise circadian rhythm.
But meals are a factor that has been little researched, researchers conclude in a scientific overview from 2020.
– We assume that diet has an effect on the circadian rhythm. Presumably, the meaning lies in the structure of eating at certain times, says Klaus Martiny.
It may also be important in what you eat, but this has not been studied well enough, he says.
– Training counteracts depression and we know that it can affect the circadian rhythm, says Martiny.
This is shown by a systematic review of 26 studies from 2018. If you put the training at a reasonable time, you can get a better circadian rhythm, it appears.
Four tips for more energy
Enough light, enough social contact, enough exercise and meals at regular times.
This is Martiny’s advice for getting a healthy rhythm and thus reducing long hours of health problems.
But he knows it can be difficult.
– Many of my patients get too little light and exercise, isolate themselves and eat unhealthy and irregularly. This leads to problems with the circadian rhythm, he says.
If you have symptoms of depression, are stressed or for other reasons lack energy in everyday life, it is important to avoid this, he believes.
But it is important to find a system that works for you:
– Some can train at ten in the evening and eat late without it affecting them, says Martiny.
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© Videnskab.dk. Translated by Lars Nygaard for forskning.no. Read the original story on videnskab.dk here.