In a Cold War era bunker turned into Airbnb, 50 feet underground in Arkansas, reporters Lynne Peeples An experiment was conducted to better understand her internal clock. She always struggles with sleep – growing up in Seattle, the long and dark winter helps Seasonal affective disorder (or sadness). She said she knew her since she was a child Circadian rhythm – The body’s time measurement drives everything from the sleep wake cycle to appetite – usually disturbed.
10 days, she blocked herself from all the signals her body used to tell time. She deprived her of light and electricity, clocks, most screens and others. (Peeples does have Some Light: She sets all LED lights in Airbnb on dim red lights, It won’t affect her circadian rhythm. ) She tied herself to a device that tracks temperature, glucose levels, sleep and heart rate and tried to live as normal as possible. For the past time, she juggled, played harmonica and read on the Kindle. She recorded her experience on the typewriter.
About halfway through her internal clock, her internal clock has been completely flipped. Her belly was “distant and dirty”, her breasts were heavy, her breasts were generally tired and drowsy. She didn’t know that she was awake when everyone on the ground was sleeping. Later, while combing through biometric data with scientists, she found that her pace was out of sync with each other. “I can feel it,” Peples said. “I feel all the symptoms of lethargy all day long, hot and cold at strange times, a little frustrated. I don’t know. My instinct is a disaster. All of these things happen around the same time.”
Peeples tells about her experiences in her book Neijing: Synchronize with our circadian rhythmdig into the science of circadian rhythms and explains how understanding the ebbs and flows of our bodies can help us feel better when we wake up and fall asleep. Here, Peeples shares what she has learned and how to better calibrate her own circadian rhythm.
This interview has been edited and condensed to ensure clarity.
Did you get anything surprising about your experiment in bunkers?
These inner clocks in our bodies are not precise timekeepers. That’s why we need these regular recalibration opportunities and during the light cycle of the earth. But they are good clocks. In the first few days, I lived 24 hours without any actual time. At that time, I would occasionally guess an entertainment, and I only had 11 minutes for a whole day.
So, why is light so important to our internal clock?
We are developing outdoors. The sunlight during the day illuminates a certain amount of light and centers on the blue wavelength. We evolved these cells behind the eyes, these photoreceptors that think blue light and send signals to the main clock in our brain, saying: I saw strong blue light. It must be during the day. This is how we start to tell the day from the night.
In today’s society, many of us in many modern worlds are hidden in bright days and dark nights.
In today’s society, many of us in many modern worlds are hidden in bright days and dark nights. We are losing the contrast with its evolution. Not only do we have this relatively dim light during the day, but we basically have the same light when we sit in it. In fact, our clocks evolved to differentiate between day and night.
Should we try to get more comparisons? So when the sun sets and tries to get bright light during the day, make it dim in our house?
I would say yes. That’s what I’m going to do. Especially in the mornings, if you can reach 15, 20 minutes in actual daylight, this does help recalibrate your clocks and sync them to a 24-hour day. During the day, even in the cloudy situation, you can walk slightly outside to the window and try to get close to it.
Then at night, the lights dim. Try using warm light colors. Orange, the better the red. Now at night in my apartment, I turn off the entire overhead light. I only use desk lamps and electric candles around the apartment. When you’re late at night, try absolutely cutting out all the light if you’re going to bed. If you have to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, please do not slide on the lights in the bathroom. Warm night lights or carrying candles are the best plan.
I often hear suggestions Light up in the morning. Can a sad lamp effectively imitate that light?
If you have the option to go out, that’s still the best because you can take a walk, which is good for you. But if you don’t have that option, it’s winter anywhere in high latitudes, and there’s no sun even in the morning, then the sad lights will surely have their place.
On the other hand, how should we pay attention Blue light of our electronic products?
To some extent, something may be exaggerated. The elevated lights in your apartment may have a greater impact on you, especially when compared to TVs. Because at that distance, if you don’t compete with TV, there may be very little blue light from TV. If you have an iPhone, it may not produce as much harmful light if you get darker. The consensus among scientists is that blue light affects our sleep, rhythm. The extent of this impact is still being debated. Try to limit this, but limit this. You don’t want to reduce all the fun in your life. If you are watching something calming, which helps lower your brain slightly to help you fall asleep at night, the benefits may outweigh the risks.
Is there an “ideal” time of day that can be used to accomplish certain tasks based on our circadian rhythms (such as afternoon exercises), or do you think hard in the morning?
At some point, depending on your personal phenotype or how your circadian rhythm runs, you will try your best to think, solve problems, run faster, increase more weight, and be creative. On average, science shows that morning time is usually the best in terms of your agility. To me, I do fall into this category. Since I learned this, I have indeed tried to use these times to solve my more challenging psychological tasks. Then, in terms of physical performance, on average, most of us are at their best in the afternoon or evening. For example, most world records have been broken into swimming. It is personal, so you have to know your own pace to time these activities.
On average, science shows that morning time is usually the best in terms of your agility.
How do we figure out when it might be better for certain tasks without having to lock ourselves in bunker?
The best way to do this is when you are on vacation, let your body do what it can. Go to bed when you are tired, and when your body wakes up naturally, you get up without an alarm. Then pay attention. When did I feel it exist? When will the dip sauce that day? Many of us fell that afternoon, which was part of the circadian rhythm, but this may vary in different times. When did you step on the spring and it feels like running? Try to see if you have some room to swing to keep yourself following your body’s schedule as much as possible.
What are the actual gains you will give people and make sure their systems work effectively?
There are three things. The first one I talk about is the contrast: trying to spend those brilliant days, those dark nights.
The second thing is what I call contraction. This is related to diet and caffeine and alcohol. Try to consolidate the time you eat during the day and focus your calories earlier in the day. For most of us, in the evening, in the afternoon, our bodies are able to process incoming calories. This is the opposite of what modern society does. We tend to eat the biggest meals at night. Try to get calories earlier and try to remove the two hours three hours before bed, ideally. Drink, if you are going to drink, you drink more in happy hours than the latter.
Finally, consistency – trying to go to bed at the same time every day. More research says The consistency of your sleep Getting up seven days a week is more important than how long you sleep.
