In this video, I’m explaining what the body clock / circadian rhythm is, why it’s so important to have a regular routine, and sharing with a few clues to help you figure out if your clock is on time along with 3 easy steps to get it back on track.
Sleep disturbance can be both a cause and a symptom of mental health problems. But this relationship does not imply that sleep problems are always symptoms of a larger mood disorder. They might be indicative of a standalone sleep disorder, such as narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and more.
Because sleep patterns and mental health disorders are so intertwined, sleep disorders are often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed as a myriad of other mental health conditions, such as ADHD in adults.
This also means that not all people who experience trouble sleeping have insomnia. What might look like insomnia might actually be delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS). Those with DSPS complain of consistently falling asleep later than desired and difficulty waking up at the desired time. This delay in sleep onset can lead to significant distress or impairment in social and occupational functioning. However, when we’re able to regulate our sleep schedule, the quality of our sleep can improve.
Our body keeps its own routine by regulating our circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms are biological clocks that regulate our sleep-wake cycle and other bodily functions like digestion and hormone release. Every living thing has a circadian rhythm, including plants, animals, and microbes.
While our body naturally regulates our circadian rhythm, it is strongly influenced by signals in our environment, like light. Most people’s circadian rhythm cycles with the sun: when there is more light, like during the day, we feel more awake. When there is less light, like at night, we feel drowsy.
But in our era of smartphones and easy access to digital information, this constant exposure to light can throw off our body’s natural sleep routine and affect our mental health. A lack of routine can lead us to feel stressed and disorganized.
However, we can structure our environment in ways that help our circadian rhythm do its job. Minimize blue light exposure by turning down your screen brightness, dim your light a few hours before bed, and stay in bright light during the day.
Understanding your body clock or chronotype can help maximize feelings of restfulness and productivity. Chronotypes are the behavioral manifestations of our natural circadian rhythms, which influences the likelihood that we’ll fall asleep at a particular time during a 24-hour period. Chronotypes depend on genetics, environmental influences, age, and more.
Chronotypes are generally separated into morning types and evening types, but there are variations. Our chronotype dictates when we like to wake up and when we have our greatest energy or feel the most productive.
A mismatch between our chronotype and environment can have detrimental effects and lead to a loss of productivity, which means our chronotype is important to consider when planning activities and tasks. If you know you’re an early riser and feel most productive before lunch, try to plan all your meetings and deadlines during that time, especially if you anticipate a crash in the afternoon. Ensuring a good fit between our chronotype and environment can help increase our productivity.
Think back to when you were in school. Do you remember staying up late cramming for a test? You might have considered pulling an all-nighter, but then you remember someone told you to “just sleep on it” to ensure you remember the material.
During sleep, our brain organizes and consolidates information that we took in throughout the day. This is our brain’s way of making sense of what we’ve learned and influences three specific processes:
Poor sleep negatively affects all three processes. We’re less likely to retain and remember information. It’s almost as if all your teachers telling you not to pull all-nighters were onto something.
Similarly, “sleeping on it” allows us to brainstorm creative solutions to problems. Sleep facilitates creative problem solving by granting us an incubation period, or a period of time spent away from the problem at hand.
Some research on creative problem solving suggests our brain prunes misleading information and dead ends during sleep so that we can later return to the problem at hand with a clear mind.
Think about how you feel when you don’t get adequate sleep. Maybe you had trouble falling asleep, tossed and turned all night, or woke up much earlier than you’d like. Are you cheerful and ready to take on the day? Probably not. We’re often pretty cranky when we don’t get enough sleep.
Even small changes in the amount of sleep you’re getting can chip away at a normally cheerful exterior. In fact, the American Psychological Association recognizes a relationship between sleep and stress, whereby a decrease in quantity or quality of sleep can lead to problems with irritability and muscle tension. No wonder it feels like we’re waking up on the wrong side of the bed.
Sleep disturbances can also increase our risk for developing anxiety and depression. People with insomnia are 10 times more likely to suffer from depression and 17 times more likely to suffer from anxiety. The hypervigilance characteristic of anxiety forces people to stay alert at all times, which makes it difficult to truly relax and have restful sleep. For depression, the relationship between poor sleep and this disorder is so clear that insomnia has long been considered a risk factor for depression.
The relationship between sleep and mental health is clearly complex, but understanding it can help us live better, healthier lives. And that’s something that will help anyone sleep well at night.
Understanding these seven principles and the importance of a good night’s sleep is just the beginning. Schedule a consultation or sign up for my upcoming online course where we will do a deep dive into the science behind a good night’s sleep and help you discover how to make it a regularity in your life.
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In this video, I’ll be debunking 5 common myths about Psychiatry and I’ll be sharing an exciting new (but old!) paradigm in mental health that will help you sleep better, perform better, and achieve optimal wellbeing.
When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use; when diet is correct, medicine is of no need.
“What should I be eating?” is a question I hear frequently from my patients. Research shows that diet affects not only physical health, but also has a significant impact on mental health and wellbeing. Gastrointestinal and digestive complaints are common in psychiatric disorders and maintaining a well-balanced diet and healthy digestion is a cornerstone of holistic psychiatric treatment. As an Integrative Psychiatrist, my appointments are not complete without a discussion of diet and nutrition. From ketogenic, to paleo, gluten-free, vegan, intermittent fasting, and Atkins, there are so many diets to choose from and the plethora of information available can be overwhelming and confusing. There is no one size fits all approach and what works for one person may not be right for the next. So, when counseling my patients on diet, I offer seven basic Ayurvedic principles that apply to everyone:
In Ayurveda, quick, drastic changes in diet are not advisable. Rather, gradual, gentle changes are recommended to allow time for the body to adjust to your new dietary routine. Taking things slow and steady is also easier to implement and more likely to bring lasting success. For example, if you are currently consuming a Standard American Diet (SAD) and having trouble getting enough fresh fruits and vegetables, instead of a complete overhaul, start by dividing your plate in half. Fill one side with colorful fruits and veggies and the other with a half size portion of your usual food. With consistent small changes over time, you’ll find that your food choices naturally start to shift.
Many of us eat on the go, while in our cars, or at our desks working, checking email, or reading, not paying attention to what we’re eating or how we’re eating it. In Ayurveda, it is understood that the way we eat impacts digestion and overall health. First, slow it down. Take at least 10 to 15 minutes to eat while sitting in a calm environment, keeping distractions to a minimum. Chewing the food well is another simple but fundamental step that most of us forget about. Digestion begins in the mouth, thus it is important to chew thoroughly, as much as 30 times per bite for very dense foods. Lastly, whatever you are eating, take it with confidence! Enjoy and savor it, paying attention, slowing down, letting go of any associated guilt. If you are reading this right now while eating, close your browser, pay attention to your meal, chew it well, and enjoy!
Even 5,000 years ago, the importance of regulating the circadian rhythm was understood in Ayurveda. Eating at the same time every day helps to synchronize circadian cycles, improves sleep and energy, helps with weight loss, regulates blood sugar and hormone secretion, and improves digestion. Try to eat your meals around the same time every day, give or take an hour. Give yourself bonus points if your largest meal is midday when digestive power is at its peak. Eating your largest meal at lunch will help fuel you throughout the day and reduce the likelihood of overeating in the evening when metabolism slows down. Studies show that people who eat their largest meal at lunch time also have an easier time losing weight.
Spices are a key component of the Ayurvedic armamentarium. In addition to providing flavor, they also aid digestion, promote a healthy gut microbiome, and have myriad other health benefits. Fennel and cumin, for example, are effective for bloating, turmeric is recognized for its anti-inflammatory properties, cardamom is an anti-oxidant and anti-spasmodic, and cinnamon can help balance blood sugar levels. Have fun and experiment with different herbs and spices in your food. Indian, Mexican, and Mediterranean recipes are a great place to start. A caveat – be careful with hot spices like ginger or cayenne if you have any issues with heartburn, GERD, or inflammation of the GI tract.
Eating whole, minimally processed foods with an emphasis on plants provides a multitude of health benefits and is compatible with most diets. The tendency may be to include more salads or smoothies, but raw vegetables may not be suitable for everyone depending on your digestive balance and dosha type. Raw plants are harder to digest and can cause issues with bloating, gas, dryness, and feeling cold when the digestion system is not functioning optimally. In Ayurveda, lightly cooking vegetables on low heat is preferred and helps ease digestion.
As drastic changes in diet are not advisable in Ayurveda, nor are extremes in the temperature of food and beverages. Ice cold foods and beverages may dampen the digestive fire and affect metabolism, while piping hot foods can aggravate inflammatory conditions in the gut. Although the types of foods to consume may vary according to your constitution and digestive type, consuming room temperature or warm foods is a good rule of thumb for most people.
Your body has an innate intelligence and will tell you what’s working for your system and what isn’t. Many different factors determine what types of foods are best suited for you, and a diet that seems to work wonders for your best friend or coworker may not be right for you. Slow down and pay attention to how different types of foods interact with your system. How does the food you eat affect your energy, bowel movements, digestion, skin, sleep, mood, and cognitive functioning? Listening to your body will not only provide you with invaluable information, but the act of slowing down and paying attention can itself be therapeutic.
Moving from downtown Chicago to the valleys of Marin County, California was a lifestyle change in many ways, but one change was particularly striking: it was dark at night. I was accustomed to the bright lights of Chicago’s many street lamps and neon signs streaming in through my windows as if to call out that the day was not yet over, but in Marin it felt like bedtime at 5:30pm.
Light is a powerful force that affects our sleep cycles and the enveloping darkness of my new environment was like a velvety blanket inviting me to curl up into a deep slumber.
As a psychiatrist and sleep specialist, I am acutely aware of the impact of light exposure on mood and the circadian rhythm. During the daytime, sunlight stimulates light sensitive cells in the retina at the back of the eye. This results in a cascade of information being sent to different brain regions including the suprachiastmatic nucleus (SCN), the clock center of the brain. Peripheral clocks located in other organs interact with the central clock as part of the regulatory system. External cues such as light and temperature reset our body clock, or circadian rhythm. Every living organism, from individual cells to plants and animals have a circadian rhythm, which is set approximately to a 24-hour cycle.
The circadian rhythm is what drives our sleep cycles, hormone secretion, and metabolic processes. Exposure to light, specifically blue light, suppresses our brain’s natural production of the sleep hormone melatonin and stimulates the parts of the brain involved in alertness and attention.
Before the advent of the light bulb, we were exposed to blue light only during the daytime hours and the warm glow of firelight in the evenings encouraged a state of relaxation. Now, we are bombarded by blue light at all hours as it is found almost everywhere, from our televisions to smart phones, to fluorescent bulbs and LED lights. Exposure to blue light wavelengths in the evenings alters our sleep rhythms by inhibiting our brain’s natural production of melatonin, resulting in altered sleep patterns, insomnia, and daytime sleepiness.
Research has shown that people who are exposed to blue light at night, such as shift workers, have higher rates of chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and depression.
In our 24/7 society, there is no getting around technology and artificial lighting. So, what can be done? Regulating the timing of blue light exposure is a simple but critical way to reset our circadian rhythms and sleep cycle.
Source: TMO
Read the full article -> From Light to Dark: Transform Your Sleep This New Year
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