The circadian clock, or clocks really, is a timekeeping system within all your cells. It not only helps your cells tell time, it helps them better adapt your physiology to the external environment.
It helps create circadian rhythms, 24-hour changes in physiology that synchronize you to the day/night cycle. Every morning you wake up because of your circadian clock. Subsequently, at night, you fall asleep because of them as well.
It also coordinates your metabolism and immune system.
During certain parts of the day, it makes you more alert and enhances cognitive performance.
Physical performance also varies throughout the day.
Furthermore, digestion and your microbiome also follow circadian rhythms.
Essentially every hormone that’s important to your health and well-being follows a circadian rhythm. In addition, your sensitivity to these hormones also varies throughout the day.
Not surprisingly, most of the things that are likely to kill you are impacted by your circadian rhythms. In other words, circadian rhythms are really important for your health.
A lot of factors help set your clock to the day/night cycle. For example, light exposure, feeding, physical activity, social interaction, and stress all play a role in impacting how your inner clockwork.
Most importantly, you may be doing many things that disrupt your clock without even knowing it.
https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(16)34832-6/fulltext
Tick tock goes the circadian clock(s)
The circadian system plays an important role in how we look, feel, and perform. As a result, it impacts our mood, energy levels, ability to fight infection, resistance to inflammation, pulse and blood pressure, and basically everything that makes us tick.
Consistency in our everyday behaviors shapes our clock, and large changes to these behaviors disrupt it. That’s why when we suffer jet lag or work night shift, our physiology goes out of whack.
Firstly, our sleep gets funky. Secondly, we become more susceptible to infection and chronic disease. Subsequently, our digestion suffers.
Moreover, we feel off and sort of disconnected to the World. These are just some of the consequences of regularly disrupting our circadian clocks.
And, unfortunately, many aspects of civilization disrupt these clocks.
- Spending an inordinate amount of time inside
- Artificial light at night
- Late night eating
- Changing our sleep schedule on the weekend
- Chronic stress
- The Western Diet, aka poor nutrition
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Work schedules
- Social schedules
- and more…
In today’s video blog, we cover the basics of your circadian clock. We discuss what it is, why you have it, how it works, and why paying attention to it can make you healthier, happier and perform better.
(00:00) Intro/Overview
(5:09) What is a circadian rhythm?
(10:25) What is a diurnal rhythm?
(13:29) Examples of circadian rhythms
(24:51)The different circadian clocks in your body
(32:10 How to build strong circadian rhythms
If you need help building strong circadian rhythms, we have an excellent program to teach you all you need to know. In addition, we have a fun little system to help you implement these changes into your life successfully.
Check out The Healthy Lifestyle Program Phase 1: Circadian Rhythms to learn about the most important factors for building strong circadian rhythms. The magic is in the learn-while-doing system that helps you score your progress and find what works best for you! Check out the Youtube video page for a special $20 off coupon offer.
Other reading
We hope watching this video motivates you to start taking your circadian clock into consideration. Consequently, if you want more reading, we’ve covered this topic a lot.
Check out the blogs below for more information on how circadian rhythms impact your health.
The key to healthy aging: Make your clocks run on time
The keys to aging well: Circadian rhythms, diet, & exercise
Post traumatic stress disorder and the circadian system
Circadian rhythms: More than blocking blue light at night
Using physical activity to build strong circadian rhythms
Resistance training for optimizing circadian rhythms
Long COVID and chronic fatigue: Is circadian disruption the driving force
Circadian disruption as a cause of infertility
Cultivating happiness: How to use circadian rhythms to be happy
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