A PSA for changing your clock to daylight saving, this is not. I’m talking about your circadian clock. The one that is on a 24-hour cycle and regulates your physiology. It’s what makes us sleep at night and have strong digestion during the day. All of our physiological functions are pre-scheduled for us. We don’t have to think about activating our cortisol secretion or liver function, it happens on its own. Still, it is set to occur in a specific way throughout the day. This is what circadian medicine explains.
Our central circadian clock is in the suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN which is a region of the hypothalamus. What I’m saying is our central clock lives in our brain. This is sensitive to light and not only daylight, but artificial lighting and the glow from our devices. We take in light or daylight (at the right times of day) and our circadian clocks synchronize. We also have peripheral circadian clocks that are throughout our body, like in our liver, intestines, adipose tissue and heart. These may also be impacted by light, but have a strong response to our food, including how and when we eat.
When we have healthy and consistent routine, our circadian cycles stay on track. If we race against the clock, have sporadic schedules, skip meals and go against our own intelligence, these cycles get disrupted. This is so important to know because disrupted circadian cycles lead to a host of problems. It’s even been researched to increase aging and decrease our life span. That’s a pretty big deal.
If you keep your clock in sync or work to reset your clock when it is disrupted, you’ll have a greater likelihood of maintaining good health. You can do this by regulating your sleep and wake times (bed by 10pm and up by 6am is great), eating two or three meals a day (without snacks, making lunch your biggest meal), taking melatonin supplements at night (start with 1-3 mg 30 minutes before bed) and by eating foods that are rich in melatonin and tryptophan throughout the day. Melatonin is synthesized by tryptophan, so intake of foods high in tryptophan can not only induce a Thanksgiving nap, but it can also lead to better production of melatonin. Two foods high in tryptophan are cow’s milk and garbanzo beans. High in melatonin are tart cherries, walnuts, pistachios, bananas and (drumroll please) nighttime milk. Holy cow. Mammalian milk produced at night, called nighttime milk, has more melatonin than milk produced at other times. This makes complete sense.
This is all one big reminder to pay attention to the cycles of nature and to eat by nature’s table. Rise with the sun and take time to eat. Keep your routine consistent eat your bowl full of cherries.