Routines like meals, exercise, social interactions, bedtime hours, they all help the body to find a relationship between these activities and the time of the day. In addition to light, routines are also extremely important to maintain the circadian rhythm in sync with the day night cycle. In addition to the “master clock” in the brain, there is also small clocks spread throughout the whole body called clock genes, which can influence and be influenced by the “master clock”. It turns out that our body has many ways to sync itself to the day-night cycle. Almost 50% of blind people suffer from a sleep disorder exactly because their light sensors are compromised.īut this statistic odd right? If light is so important shouldn't all blind people be affected by a form of sleep disorder? Routines and sleep But it becomes quite clear when we look at blind people and their relationship with sleep. We might not notice it but the sun is still what drives most of our routines. What makes light such an important circadian rhythm regulator is the fact that these light sensors are directly connected with our “master clock”. In the morning the opposite happens, melatonin stops being produced and we slowly wake up. In the evening there is less blue light in the sky which signals the brain to start producing melatonin, the sleep hormone that makes us sleepy. In our retinas we have sensors of blue wavelength that informs the “master clock” when is day and night. Light is obviously the most important variable. Today I will mainly focus on the main ones: light and routines. These cues are called Zeitgeber and include variables like light, social and behavior routines, food, exercise and more. It needs external cues so that it can exactly match the 24 hour cycle. This part of the part is also referred as the “master clock”.īut this clock is not perfect. The body has several ways to keep track of time, the main one being the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) located in the hypothalamus. The collection of this cycles are called the circadian rhythm, sleep being on of those cycles. Our bodies have several cycle that map the 24 hour cycle of our planet. Why we want to minimize these effects, it helps to know more about sleep, more specifically what allows the body to know when to go to bed and when to wake up. The bigger the offset from your current sleep routine, the longer it will take to get used to a new waking up time. But it usually is a not very pleasant process. We do it during school time or during night shifts. We have the power to control our sleep cycle. Meaning that if you don’t have any sleep schedule your body will tend to wake up earlier or later in the day.īut it is only that, a tendency. The two extremes are often called early birds and night owls and they refer to a predisposition to prefer to wake up at a certain time of the day. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.” ― Glen CookĪ good place to start is by looking at different chronotypes. The point of this post is to give you the tools you need to manipulate your sleep cycle to optimized it for your purpose and goals. They wake up early because they found that it is what works for them. They didn’t become successful because they wake up early. It is an habit developed out of necessity or simply discipline. My point is that you should adjust your sleep cycle to match your current goals and needs and not because successful people do it. It’s more important what you do while you are awake. Just because you wake up earlier don’t mean you will be more productive or accomplish more. This latter group seems to be praised by all for being the hard workers, the one that rise earlier to conquer the world and do amazing things.īut this is simply not true. Some sleep more, others wake up easier and others wake up early in the day. We all have to sleep but it seems like everyone has a very personal relationship with it. “It hurts when someone you love says mean things like… It’s time to wake up” How to Wake Up When You Want - Controlling your sleep routine
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