chronotype

Aug

2017

How to be a Morning Person

There are morning people and there are night owls. That’s just the way it is. That’s what I’ve always thought, and this belief gets repeated again and again, by both parties.

[Update: I wrote this article 4 years ago, and can confirm that it is possible to retrain your bodyclock! I’ve written a new article series on How I Overcame Insomnia in 10 Steps detailing exactly how I retrained my bodyclock.]

Morning people get to have an air of superiority and smugness about them, as if they’re somehow more productive than night owls, who are burdened with the feeling that morning people look down on them as ‘lazy’ and ‘undisciplined’. (Even though I can continue being productive for hours after those morning people have gone to bed.)

The work world is structured around the habits of morning people, despite the fact that more than 50% of those aged under 30 are night owls, and about 50% of those aged 30 to 50 are night owls. It’s only after the age of 50 that the balance tips in favour of morning people. Yet the positive associations with early rising are pervasive in our society, and makes getting up for work quite uncomfortable for a surprising percentage of people.

In a study published in 1998, no evidence was found to support Franklin’s claim that “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. Health, wealth and cognitive ability have no bearing on whether someone is a morning person or a night owl. A 1999 study showed a very slight correlation with higher cognitive abilities in fact belonged to the night owls.

However, other studies show that morning people frequently self-report more happiness and perceived healthiness than their night owl counterparts. This is thought to be influenced by the fact that society is set up more for the early bird routine, while night owls feel that their natural cycle is at odds with society. Also, night owls correlate highly with procrastination – something that probably won’t shock most night owls.

Studies also suggest that your chronotype (or how ‘morning’ or ‘night’ you are) is roughly 50% dependent on your genetics. So there is some predisposition to early rising or late sleeping; however the other 50% is down to habit, and can therefore be changed, and does change somewhat over the course of your lifetime.

Which is good news for those of us who want to kick our late-sleeping habits and shift our cycle round the clock to an earlier wake-up time.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to bed earlier

Pretty obvious, huh? Work back 8 hours from the time you’d like to get up and that’s your new bedtime. Work back another hour to give yourself time to establish a getting ready for bed routine to help your body feel settled before trying to sleep.

It will take a few weeks to adjust to a new routine but the key is consistency. You won’t always be able to get to bed early every night but if you can manage 5 or 6 days a week that will increase the likelihood that you’ll stick to it.

It’s worth bearing in mind where you’re starting from – if your current bed time hovers somewhere around 1am, you’re going to find it very difficult to shift to 9pm in one fell swoop. It would be more realistic to shift back in increments of an hour, and maintain that for a few weeks, before shifting back a little further.

2. Wake up at the same time EVERY morning

And I mean, every morning. Weekends and holidays as well. This is the best way to accustom your body to a morning routine, and every time you sleep late (to ‘catch up’) what you’re actually doing is confusing your body into thinking that 10am is now your new wakeup time. Which is why going back to 7am again on Monday is so painful.

Set your alarm for the same time, seven days a week. To begin with, it will feel awful, especially when you’ve been out the night before – but you must force yourself to power through, and remind yourself that the more rigidly you stick to this, the more readily your body will adapt. This is driven by how well you stick to your bedtime, so make sure you keep on top of that so you’re getting enough sleep.

3. Stop pressing snooze

This is where the procrastination thing comes in. Every time you press snooze, you are putting off the inevitable. Yes, it somehow feels good to slip back into unconsciousness after the blaring noise of your alarm, when you know you have another ten minutes’ peace and quiet before you REALLY have to get up. But stop allowing yourself that time. The more you do it, the more your body will expect it, and the longer you are dragging out the inevitable fact that you have to get up.

In fact, the time you sleep after pressing snooze is doing nothing for you. It is not deep sleep, it’s never going to make you feel more refreshed however many times you press snooze. You’re going to feel just as tired when you wake up in ten minutes than you do now. Bite the bullet, turn off your alarm and simply get. Out. Of. Bed.

4. Have a morning routine

I’ve mentioned in other posts the importance of having a night time routine to give your body and mind an hour or so to wind down and relax, and prepare for the onset of sleep. Well it turns out that morning people often have a regular morning routine which helps them face the day. (And no, I’m not talking about three cups of strong coffee before you even get dressed!)

A good morning routine should include some sort of brisk physical activity to get the blood pumping around your body. You really don’t have to have a big early morning workout, but some yoga stretches, running on the spot, star jumps etc, can really help to wake your brain up with an infusion of oxygenated blood. Deep breathing is also good for this.

Also, make sure you eat breakfast. I have never been much of a breakfast person (would be interesting to see if this also correlates to night owls), but the studies clearly indicate that eating breakfast provides you with energy and brain power for the day ahead. Even if you can’t face a cooked breakfast or anything too stodgy, try to find a snack that you can stomach first thing, and have a bigger breakfast later in the morning. Fruit, yogurt, a cereal bar, or a piece of toast will help to kick start your metabolism.

Coffee does not count, and you should be looking to replace caffeinated beverages with decaf, or even something like ginseng, which will help to boost your energy in the morning without being followed by the caffeine crash later in the day. My favourite decaf coffee is Kenco Millicano Decaf Americano – it’s actually really good and you’d never know it was decaf by taste.

Finally, get some bright sunshine to help synchronise your Circadian Clock. If you live in a sun-free country like I do, invest in an SAD lamp and give yourself a daily blast of bright light therapy every morning. This will help to reset your Circadian Clock to a more conducive time, and will simultaneously help you feel sleepier earlier in the evening.

Other Tips and Tricks

The above steps are the main structure to getting your sleep cycle shifted round and settling into a new regime. Other ways to support this routine include:

- Cutting out caffeine altogether – start by gradually reducing the number of caffeine beverages you drink each day by stopping drinking them earlier and earlier. For the first week, stop drinking coffee (or tea or cola) after about 6pm. The next week, stop drinking caffeine from lunchtime onwards. The following week, replace your morning coffee with something caffeine free, such as ginseng which is naturally energising without containing caffeine.
- Taking melatonin – melatonin is the sleep hormone produced by the body as light levels fall to promote sleepiness and restful sleep. You can take melatonin supplements an hour or two before bedtime to help increase your melatonin levels and regulate your Circadian Clock. Don’t take melatonin long term, just use it for a few weeks to kick start your new cycle.
- Other vitamins and supplements – magnesium deficiency is marked by poor quality sleep, so taking magnesium supplements will ensure you have enough magnesium. You can also take a multivitamin, vitamin D3 drops are great to help boost your mood, especially in the dark winter days.
- For more herbal remedies and supplements to try, read this article on Natural Sleep Remedies.

I hope this information has been helpful!

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Aug

2017

Circadian Clock

I’ve often said to my friends and family, “it’s not that I don’t sleep enough, it’s that I seem to naturally sleep at the wrong times.” Can you relate?

If I was left to my own devices and had nothing to be up for in the morning, I would probably sleep between 2.00 am and 10.00 am. It often takes me at least until 12.00 to properly wake up, so my “alert time” is definitely not in the morning!

I’ve long been aware that I am a “night owl” – and for some reason, we always get looked down on by the “larks” as if their natural body clock is somehow better than ours. Anyway, that’s a story for another day, but I thought I’d share with you some of the research I’ve done into the Circadian Clock, since it is responsible for our natural sleep patterns and – importantly – can be influenced by external factors and techniques you might find helpful.

[Update: If you’re interested in learning How I Overcame Insomnia in 10 Steps, I’ve written an article series on my method.]

What is the Circadian Clock?

The Circadian Clock, or Circadian Rhythm, also known as the body clock, is a 24-hour physiological cycle present in all mammals including humans. It is controlled by a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus. The Circadian Clock takes its cues from external factors such as daylight and temperature, and controls the secretion of certain hormones, particularly those involved in the regulation of sleep and eating.

Circadian Clock Diagram from Wikipedia

Since humans are diurnal (awake during the day) our Circadian Clock is synchronised to the daylight hours and is roughly congruent with the Earth’s 24-hour rotation period (although not exactly: studies indicate that most people’s Circadian Clock falls somewhere between 23.5 and 24.5 hours, when left to naturalise under conditions where no natural daylight is seen). The word Circadian comes from Latin circa (“approximately”) and diem (“day”).

How does the Circadian Clock work?

The Circadian Clock regulates sleeping, eating, hormone production, cell regeneration and brainwave activity. Retinal cells of the eyes are sensitive to natural daylight, particularly the shorter-wave blue light characteristic of early morning light. These cells send neural signals to the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), which then signals to the pineal gland to suppress the production of melatonin, a hormone which brings about the drowsiness needed to fall asleep.

At the other end of the cycle, a drop in the amount of daylight reaching the retinal cells signals the SCN that it is night time, and the SCN in turn signals the pineal gland to begin secreting melatonin.

Other hormones controlled and regulated by the Circadian Clock include cortisol (produced by the adrenal glands, and which has an anti-stress, anti-inflammatory function), growth hormone, and thyrotropin, which is suppressed during the sleep cycle.

Melatonin production begins around 8.00 – 9.00 pm with a fall in natural light, peaks at around 2.00 – 3.00 am, and then stops at around 7.00 – 8.00 am. There is also another, smaller peak of melatonin production at around 2.00 – 3.00 pm (the “post-lunch dip”) which suggests that the Circadian Clock is also involved in the feeding cycle, and also that our bodies may benefit from an afternoon nap.

Although the SCN uses information from the eyes’ retinal cells as a cue, the Circadian Clock is not entirely dependent on light, and will continue to be regulated by the SCN even in complete darkness. People who live in very northern regions, where winter days are almost completely dark, still continue to display Circadian cycles.

However, without regular exposure to natural light, after a while the Circadian Clock can fall out of synchronisation to the Earth’s cycle of darkness and light over 24 hours.

Artificial light is not usually sufficient to synchronise the Circadian Clock, which explains why shift workers find it difficult to adjust to a pattern of sleeping during the day and being awake in the night. Their Circadian Clock is working against them and continuing to produce melatonin at night time.

However, it only takes a few days to adjust to a new light and dark pattern when moving to another part of the Earth, as demonstrated by the experience of jet-lag. For a day or two, the Circadian Clock tries to continue producing melatonin at the original sleeping time, however the cues from the daylight cycles in the new region fairly quickly enable the Circadian Clock to re-synchronise.

When disrupted, the sleeping and eating patterns can fall out of balance and correlates with physical problems such as cardiovascular health and obesity, and mental problems including bipolar and depression.

Circadian Clock Chronotypes

Human Circadian Clocks can vary from person to person up to around 2 hours difference, which explains the phenomenon of “larks” and “night owls”, where some people naturally seem to sleep and wake earlier, while others’ patterns start and end later in the day.

The different patterns followed by Circadian Clocks are sometimes called different “chronotypes”. Cycles can also change over a person’s lifetime – babies take a few months to establish their Circadian Clocks, children and teenagers need more sleeping time while older adults find they sleep less.

Circadian Clock disorders

Shift-workers and people suffering from jet-lag are two examples of Circadian Clock disorders which can cause physiological and psychological problems. However these are caused by external factors and can be remedied by re-synchronising the Circadian Clock.

However, some people suffer from an internal imbalance in their Circadian Clock which goes beyond the natural chronotype range, which can cause serious social and physiological problems. This is known as Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder (CRSD). There are some treatment options available including dark therapy (the use of goggles which block out the short-wavelength blue light at certain times of day) and melatonin supplementation, but the cycle is intrinsically out of balance and often cannot be “fixed” permanently.

However the majority of people who have a disrupted Circadian Clock can find relief by re-synchronising their cycle to the Earth’s cycle of darkness and light.

How to re-synchronise your Circadian Clock

If your Circadian Clock has become disrupted or fallen out of balance, it is possible to help guide it back into synchronisation with the daylight patterns.

Schedule. Stick to a consistent schedule of sleeping and eating, even on weekends. The Circadian Clock also takes its cues from mealtimes so try to keep these to a schedule too.
Morning Light. Increase your exposure to natural light first thing in the morning, by getting outside before breakfast, or standing by a bright window on waking.
Evening Darkness. Avoid exposure to bright lights in the evening, especially short-wavelength blue light, which is characteristic of the light emitted by devices such as tablets, laptops and mobile phones. Limit the use of devices with screens in the evening or install a blue-light filter.

So, I hope that information was helpful to someone out there. For quite a while now I have used a blue-light filter on my mobile phone when I use it after about 8.00pm. The one I use is Eye Protect Blue Light Filter from the PlayStore (I don’t know if it is available for iphone, but there are many other versions that do the same thing). The reason I like this one is because it is free, it doesn’t require any special permissions or display ads, it’s just a simple filter that you can easily turn on and off when you want it.

If, like me, you’re a Night Owl who struggles to wake up early, you could try putting some of these techniques to work in your daily routine. Using a blue-light filter certainly seems to help a bit, another way to address the light issue is to put on a podcast and listen to information instead of reading it.

As for morning light, I’ve tried experimenting with leaving the curtains open for morning sunshine to wake me up (it works, by the way! But the street lamp outside my window also keeps me up at night, so I’m still working on getting around that).

The best thing I’ve found for helping wake me up especially in winter when the mornings are dark, is the Lumie Bodyclock Starter 30 alarm clock, which has a lamp that gradually increases in brightness before the time you want to wake up, simulating a natural sunrise. I’ve had mine for over a year and I really love it. You can read my review of the Lumie alarm clock here.

[UPDATE: The Lumie Starter 30 has been replaced by the Lumie Bodyclock Spark 100, which has similar features and is around the same price on Amazon, £60ish. I will be writing a review of this product soon.]

That’s it from me today. Hope some of this information and techniques were useful.