The sleep-wake cycle: Why it’s linked to mood disorders

Not everyone needs antidepressants or emotional counselling sessions. Yes, they are helpful and one must take them if they really need it but not without trying to fix the basic fundamentals of living. One such fundamental is circadian rhythm and aligning our lifestyle to that.

Messing up with your circadian rhythm can disturb every single aspect of human health and function, including your emotional and mental health. This also means aligning yourself to the biological clock or circadian rhythm, which is perhaps the only lifestyle change that you could make, for your health to fall in place.

But why the sleep-wake cycle?

Humans are products of nature, and we thrive when we live according to the cycles of nature. An important aspect of how nature and human bodies have been designed to work is our circadian rhythm, sleep-wake, or the day-night cycle. It is an intelligence that generates feelings of wakefulness and sleepiness, hunger, and satiety during an entire 24-hour cycle.

In the field of Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine, we deal with the end-of-life patients, cancers, rare syndromes, metabolic diseases, diabetes, kidney and organ disease, cardiovascular and endocrine issues, hormonal disorders, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cognitive disease, obesity, skin and hair problems. When we spend time studying their lifestyle history, we identify that almost 80-90 per cent of these cases have their roots deep in poor emotional health. It could be a relationship issue, stress from work, loss of a loved one, sickness, fear, worry, feelings of unworthiness, and so on.

The one thing that has worked powerfully for all of our patients to improve their emotional health, mood, and sense of well-being, over and above other tools like affirmations, gratitude practice, laughter, music, and in some cases, medications and treatments is our ability to coach them into aligning their lives and lifestyles with the laws of nature — the circadian rhythm, because when we put the patient into the circadian rhythm cycle, the body’s intelligence begins to kick in, it is harnessed to work, repair, identify and fix. In fact, a good diet, exercise plan, yoga, pranayama, chanting, and other such practices are all superficial, if they are not put into a system.

An irregular circadian rhythm is likely to affect an individual’s sleep patterns, which can have a rippling effect on several other aspects of health, including eating habits, emotional capacity to handle stress the next day, motivation levels, will-power, energy levels, exercise habits, and so on. If not managed the right way, this could lead to stress, anxiety, and even depression. Science, today, shows that a messed-up biological clock can lead to depressive symptoms because the very fundamentals of well-being are broken. Anyone who has dealt with or is dealing with jetlag will understand what disrupting the circadian rhythm is. Meal timings change, cravings change, energy levels dip, sleep patterns change, moods change, and everything seems off. Imagine living with this disruption every day!

So, does the answer to a bad mood, stress, or anxiety lie in a pill or living in alignment with nature?

9 simple rules of circadian rhythm:

It takes 9 simple steps to live in alignment with the circadian rhythm.

1. Waking up with the rising sun.

2. Avoid looking at gadgets right after waking up, and use this time to connect within, with nature, soak up natural sunlight and expose yourself to nature in any way possible. Also, try to clean your bowels within an hour of waking up.

3. Avoid eating until the sun rises.

4. Consume coffee or tea only after three hours of waking up.

5. Eat, work out, sleep, and wake up around the same times every day to build a rhythm.

6. Consume maximum calories for breakfast and lunch and minimum for dinner. Let dinner be the leanest meal of the day.

7. Eat the last meal of the day before or during sunset and fast through the night (dry or intermittent, based on whatever is comfortable), and only break it the next day after sunset. This automatically results in a 12-hour effortless fast in the most natural way.

8. Keep a 2- or 3-hour gap between dinner and bedtime.

9. Disconnect from blue/artificial light close to bedtime. Such kinds of lights suppress melatonin secretion. This should be done at least 1-2 hours before bedtime, the earlier the better. Plan your day if you want to fit in television or other modes of recreation.

That is all one needs to follow to align their routine to nature’s. Does that sound too simple? Yes, it does and that is why people do not follow it because so many of us are stuck to a belief that simple doesn’t work. And we chase complications, sign up for one stress management workshop after another, jump on a laundry list of medications, visit counsellors after counsellors and yet find no solution.

How does aligning with circadian rhythm help elevate your mood?

wknd@khaleejtimes.com