[00:00:00] Vesna: Welcome to the Peak Revival podcast. My name is Vesna and today we're going to talk about. How to improve sleep quality through realigning your circadian rhythm So if you find yourself going through the day, feeling really tired, you just can't wait to get into bed at nighttime, but come the evening, you're either Not tired or you go to bed and you can't fall asleep or you wake up between two, three, four AM and you can't get back to sleep and you feel even more tired the next day.
[00:00:27] So this is not an uncommon problem that I hear and it makes it really hard to recover from exhaustion and high stress and fatigue when you're not getting that sleep recovery time. Now, there are many things that can be causing this. It can be circadian rhythm, which is what I'm going to talk about today.
[00:00:47] It can be blood sugar level fluctuations. It can be high stress hormones as well.
[00:00:52] But let's talk about circadian rhythm because I, this topic is just going to be so much bigger as the years go on. Because Our circadian rhythm affects so much in our body and we're only just really discovering how much of an impact it has. So all this is, is that the fact that our body runs on a 24 hour clock.
[00:01:10] So every single cell in our body has like a little clock and when our circadian rhythm is, out of whack or disrupted, it means that all the clocks in our body are keeping different time. they're not synced up on the same time. It also means because our organs also run on a 24 hour clock.
[00:01:29] Our gut has a clock, our liver, our body fat, our pancreas, and so much more. And so, you know, When we have a circadian rhythm disruption, it starts to affect our hormones, our organs, our systems, our mitochondria, so our energy, our mood, and how quickly our body can recover. And all of that means it has a huge impact on performance and peak performance.
[00:01:55] Okay, so what causes circadian level or circadian disruption? Number [00:02:00] one is So if your sleep's been disrupted for a long time, it's going to be out of sync. If you're a shift worker, if you're going to bed really late, if you've got jet lag and obviously if we're on our devices too much, too much blue light exposure at nighttime, but even during the day and not enough sleep.
[00:02:20] Sunlight is going to cause circadian disruption.
[00:02:24] So in order for our body to re sync these clocks to the master clock in our brain, we need sunlight. Now, if you think about how much sunlight you actually get. So if you're anything like me, I have to deliberately go out and get sunlight because otherwise I'm on my computer all day, I will be on my device.
[00:02:44] And it's quite easily to just be consumed by blue light during the day. And so. Have a look at how much sunlight you're actually getting. And the most important time is the sunrise and the sunset. So the sun will reset our circadian rhythm. It will reset our clocks. And the only way that our body can reset those clocks is through these external cues.
[00:03:06] So we need sunlight. We are designed to have sunlight in order to reset our clocks. The other ways that you can reset is through, but they're not the predominant ways. The main one is through the sun. Light and dark, so sunlight. Then we have temperature, we have the timing of meals, and exercise also helps to realign the circadian rhythm.
[00:03:24] So it's one of these things that as your sleep quality becomes, well, you've got poor sleep quality, it becomes chronic. So for months or for years, I have women who join my programs that are like, But having poor sleep for many, many years. And so there is a, a readjustment period. And so it's about really realigning those circadian rhythms, which is really easy to do and it's free, right?
[00:03:48] All you need to do is step outside and get sunlight.
[00:03:50] So my recommendation, so if you're unable to fall asleep at night, if you're waking up in the middle of the night, or even if you. struggle to wake up in the morning, [00:04:00] then really do this exercise. So you're going out to watch the sunrise and you're also watching the sunset. And so that means taking 10 minutes to be outside, looking at the sun, obviously not directly in where it's hurting your eyes, but you're looking in that direction, you're blinking in case it hurts, but you're having the sun on your face and your eyes are absorbing the sun because the way that we reset the master clock is through the sun getting into our eyes to stimulate that master clock in our brain.
[00:04:26] So if you're in a cold climate like I am right now, it can make it challenging to see the sunrise because it kind of comes up and goes straight behind the clouds. But the best that you can on the days that the sun is visible, go and see the sunrise. Make sure it's not behind a glass window. It has to, you actually have to be outside, not wearing any glasses or sunglasses either, because that prevents the sun from getting in.
[00:04:51] So the benefits of Having this sunrise, sunlight exposure it gives us, infrared light. So we, during the day, we have a lot of blue light. So from our devices, from our lights, from the fluorolights in the ceiling and our devices, we are bombarded with blue light, which throws out our circadian rhythm, but can also, affect so much of our glucose response, our fat burning ability, and so much But the other thing that, you know, getting that sunrise exposure is that it actually helps to stimulate hormones and peptides, which gives you a really good surge of energy in the morning. So it's one of the quickest ways to wake yourself up better than caffeine. And I do, I love coffee too, but this one is better than caffeine to wake up the system, get your body and your hormones charged for the day.
[00:05:36] So you have energy in the morning and then it's It starts to, you know, those hormones start to change at nighttime. So you're increasing the melatonin come the evening, you're feeling tired, you're feeling relaxed and you're ready to go to bed and you can sleep. Have a restorative sleep and wake up feeling refreshed.
[00:05:51] The other little thing that I also use, uh, blue light blocking glasses, right? You've got the yellow ones. You've also got orange [00:06:00] ones for at nighttime. And these are a really good way if you're on the computer a lot like I am, it helps to block the blue light from getting into the eyes so much.
[00:06:09] So if you're feeling exhausted, but you can't sleep, or you know that your sleep cycle is out of whack and that you're not getting a proper restorative sleep because you're waking up tired and you're waking up during the night, then tomorrow morning, get out there, watch the sunrise if you can in your climate and also get sunlight during the day as well.
[00:06:29] So the morning and the sunset are really good ways to get some sleep. sunlight, even if you have fair skin, because it's very low UV factor, but it has the infrared light, which is really important for our circadian rhythm. So go try that tomorrow morning.
