Know Your Body Clock

Have you noticed how hard it is to get up on a Monday morning? How about the day after a vacation, or after traveling to a new time zone? Your body has an inner clock that sets up a 24-hour schedule of what it expects for each day. Whether it’s waking up, eating, sleeping or work, your biological clock helps to time it out. This inner clock can and does determine your sleep patterns, your levels of alertness, mood, physical strength… even your blood pressure.

What the clock does on a regular basis is regulate the fact that part of a given 24 hours will be spent in darkness and part of that time period will be spent in daylight. Our bodies use this information to organize waking and sleeping time.

Based on this, we’re likely to have more alertness, more physical strength, higher metabolism, higher blood pressure and body temperatures during the daylight hours. Then, as it grows darker, our metabolism slows, our blood pressure and body temperature drop – all signals to our bodies that it’s time to sleep.

Your body regulates itself via the hypothalamus in the brain. There’s a group of cells within the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). They respond to light and dark signals received by the eyes – when the eyes see light, they send signals to our bodies that we should be awake. This also controls the release of melatonin, a natural hormone that regulates sleep patterns.

If the SCN part of your brain gets destroyed – via an accident, a tumor or another problem, this can deregulate your body clock and wreak havoc on your body. Another way to deregulate the body clock is if our waking hours get out of synch with the daylight hours.

There are many health issues that result from circadian rhythm disruption. If you’ve ever worked the late shift, you’ll know that when your body is out of synch with daylight and darkness, you’ll experience problems. But sleep and circadian rhythm disruption doesn’t just change your sleep habits – it can make you prone to accidents, create difficulty thinking, cause increased stress, weight gain, and slowing of your metabolism.

Disrupted body clocks can lead to problems with your immune system, and increase the chance of getting diseases such as type-two diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and mental illness.

There are ways to avoid disruption of your internal clock. Doctors recommend that even people who are visually impaired should be sure to get sufficient sunlight during the day to help keep their bodies properly regulated. Get out in the sunlight for at least twenty minutes each day – ideally for exercise – and be sure to get a good look at the blue sky while you’re out there.

If you live in a location that has little sunlight, you might consider using a light box or a sunlamp to be sure you’re getting enough exposure. It’s important to keep a regular schedule and strive to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. Even shifting your schedule by an hour or two on the weekend can disrupt your clock and make Monday morning that much more difficult.

For those who work odd schedules, you might consider asking your doctor about melatonin, a synthetic version of the natural hormone that regulates sleep. Many people find that taking it six hours before sleep helps regulate the body clock.

Keeping your circadian rhythms on track can help you sleep better, regulate your body’s system and ward off illness. It’s important to know your body clock and keep it in check to keep your system running smoothly.