Modern circumstances and lifestyles will cause you to mess up your sleep schedule every once in a while. In this article, we will consider ten ways you can reset your body clock.
Have you noticed that you tend to fall asleep at the same hour every day? This is due to what is called your circadian rhythm, otherwise known as your body clock. Your circadian rhythm works by ensuring that your body’s processes work as they should when they should.
However, there will be times when certain circumstances will throw off your circadian rhythm. When this happens, your body’s systems are unable to function at their best.
This article will discuss how you can reset your body clock so that you are able to maintain a good sleep-wake cycle.
What Disrupts Your Body Clock?
- Jet lag. When you cross time zones or are in transit for an extended period, your body will find it difficult to acclimate to the time of your new destination.
- Delayed sleep phase. This occurs when you have a habit of going to bed late at night and sleeping in until noon.
- Irregular sleep-wake rhythms. This is when you have no set time for sleeping or waking, and you just take countless naps throughout the day.
- Work shifts. When you have a major project to finish at work, or you’re going through finals week in school, you would likely spend several days burning the midnight oil. This can entirely alter your sleeping schedule.
- Chronic disorders. Mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and seasonal affective disorder can cause difficulty sleeping. This is also true for health problems such as obesity and diabetes.
10 Ways to Reset Your Body Clock
Turn off electronic devices two hours before going to bed.
This includes the television, your cellphone, laptop, and tablet. I know that two hours seems like a long time, but according to research, the hormone that regulates your sleep cycle (you might know it by the name melatonin) rises two hours before sleep starts. Since blue light tricks our body into thinking it’s daytime, thereby inhibiting melatonin production, we need to block out all blue light from our rooms two hours before we go to sleep. This would give our body enough time to produce the melatonin to trigger the sleep cycle.
Expose yourself to the sun.
Being exposed to natural light during the day will trigger your body’s natural process, that by the time evening rolls around, it would be aware of the fact that night has come.
Avoid caffeine.
Many people enjoy drinking coffee, tea, cocoa, and colas, but all of these contain caffeine. Unfortunately for caffeine-lovers, studies have shown that having just 400 mg worth of caffeine can disrupt your sleep as it remains in your system for 8 hours. For reference, the typical 16-oz. of coffee contains around 500 mg.
And so if you really have to have caffeine, make sure you drink it in the morning and avoid having any beyond noon.
Get regular exercise.
Working out is beneficial in so many ways, and the fact that it can help regulate your sleep schedule should convince you to finally buy those running sneakers.
First and foremost, exercise is able to alleviate feelings of stress and anxiety, as it produces endorphins. This means that if your messed up body clock is caused by mental health issues, then getting some physical activity will help you hit two birds with one stone. Furthermore, exercise tires you out, which naturally makes your body eager to recover at the end of each day.
This doesn’t mean that you have to push your body to the limit. In fact, just getting 30 minutes of walking or jogging each day is enough to cause similar effects. So if you’re not really looking to lift some weights, 15-minute walks after finishing your meals should suffice.
Hold the naps.
If you have a messed up body clock, you will likely feel the urge to sleep throughout the day so that your body can make up for the rest that it lacked from the night before. However, long naps can worsen your circadian rhythm.
It is best that you limit yourself to 15-minute naps if you really need them. But if you can, just hold them off entirely. This way, your body will be so tired at the end of the day that you will fall asleep once you hit the hay.
Maintain your other rhythms.
Sure, your sleep cycle is off, but that doesn’t mean that your other bodily rhythms should be affected. Make sure to eat when you usually would, set a specific time daily for exercise, and maintain the other patterns your body has already set for itself. This could help get your internal clock to realign itself as it ticks along with your body’s other schedules.
To ensure that you follow this, you may want to set strict daily schedules for a week or two to help your body adjust. You can set alarms for when it’s time to eat, shower, workout, and sleep so that you can inculcate this pattern into your body. You can simply have repeating alerts set on your phone, or you can download apps like TimeBloc so that you can properly plan your routine.
Stop eating 3 hours before your bedtime.
Nutritionists would tell you to keep a gap of 3 hours between your last meal and your bedtime, as this would allow for digestion to occur properly before you go to sleep. But there is more to this than just digestive juices. The intake of food also releases insulin into your system, which will then signal wakefulness to your brain. This inhibits your ability to fall asleep.
On a practical note, eating before sleeping can make you feel bloated and uncomfortable. This can prompt you to stay up until the discomfort subsides, thereby messing up your body clock even more. And so in any case, it is best to limit food before bedtime. If you really must have something, you could try drinking a warm glass of milk.
Avoid stressors when you’re preparing to go to bed.
There are many things that are out of our control, but if you could, limit your exposure to them before you go to sleep, as this could cause your brain to go on overdrive. This, in turn, would hinder sleep from coming to you.
One way to do this is to finish all your responsibilities an hour or two before your bedtime. At that point, you will no longer open work emails and stop talking about the latest news regarding politics and world events. Just allow your mind to relax and ease into sleep.
Have a bedtime routine.
Slowing down at least an hour before you go to bed will cause your body to follow your pace instinctively. Here’s an example of a bedtime routine that you could follow:
- 8:00 pm - Switch off all devices and run a nice, warm bath
- 8:30 pm - Read a good book
- 9:00 pm - Reflect on your day and write in a journal
- 9:30 pm - Drink a glass of warm milk and turn off the lights
- 10:00 pm - Bedtime
Ask for melatonin aids.
Consider this a last resort for when you are really unable to fix your sleep cycle. The Journal of Sleep Research released a study showing that taking melatonin aids can cause users to sleep faster, earlier, and deeper.
However, make sure that you don’t take them on your own accord. There are potential side effects and contraindications with other medications, so consult your doctor before going this route and get a prescription for a set number of days.
Sleep allows the body to rest and recharge, so it is crucial to maintain a steady cycle. Although necessary circumstances like red-eye flights and changes in time zones can render you no other choice but to deal with a messed up body clock, there is always an opportunity to turn things around and reset.
