Reset Your Circadian Rhythm
Our brain and body clocks work together to create our circadian system which sets our sleep and wake cycles, as well as our energy levels.
Many things can affect how well our circadian clocks function and by optimising these areas we can prime our circadian clocks to work optimally.
The five factors that affect circadian function are:
- Light exposure,
- sleep and wake times
- food intake
- physical activity
- hormones
How to tell if your circadian system is out of whack?
- Do you struggle to get to or stay asleep overnight?
- Do you have a restless mind?
- Do you experience bouts of low mood?
- Do you experience brain fog, poor concentration and poor focus?
- Do you have bouts of low energy throughout the day?
If you experience some of these symptoms then you may benefit from resetting your circadian system.
Many common health conditions have been linked to suboptimal circadian function
- Psychiatric disorders
- Type 2 diabetes
- Obesity
- Chronic, low grade inflammation
- Neurodegenerative disease
- Cardiovascular disease
- Mitochondrial dysfunction
- Oxidiative stress
- Cancer
How do we optimise our circadian Rhythm?
- Reducing your eating window to between 8 and 12 hours. This is known as time restricted eating.
- As an example, if you are having breakfast at 7am then you should finish your last meal before 7pm at night.
- More advanced users of time restricted eating may skip breakfast entirely and just eat lunch and dinner
- Not eating too late in the evening
- Skip the snacks after dinner. If you are still hungry after dinner then you may benefit from increasing your protein intake and eating slightly more food at previous meals.
- Eating most of our calories earlier in the day
- Make your first meal of the day your biggest. The old saying “Breakfast like a king; lunch like a prince; dinner like a pauper” may benefit people who need to reset their circadian system
- Keep meal times relatively consistent
- Higher protein diets tend to reduce night wakings
- Aim for 1.1 to 2.2 grams of protein/kg of body weight depending on activity levels.
- Eat higher carbohydrate meals earlier in the day
- Skipping the afternoon coffee
- Limit intake of alcohol
- Get some sunlight first thing in the morning
- Going camping in nature is one of the ultimate ways to reset your circadian rhythm. Camping tends to make people get up early when the sun comes up and go to bed not long after the sun goes down.