What is the circadian rhythm?

Have you ever wondered how people used to wake up in the morning before alarm clocks were invented? Aside from the guy who used to walk around with a big stick and tap on everyone’s window (a taddy tapper), the other reason is that it all depends on your circadian rhythm. This is your body’s natural biological alarm clock that tells you when it’s time to get up and when it’s time to go to bed.

So what is the circadian rhythm?

In essence, it is our body’s internal system that responds to external stimuli or (Zeitburgers) such as natural sunlight, food, exercise, and social interaction.

Early studies have found that if all external stimuli are removed, your circadian rhythm follows a 25-hour cycle. If it then returns external signals like sunlight, it automatically resets itself to run on time without a 24-hour clock, so your body knows what time of day it is. This is a real problem for shift workers because when you’re ready to go to work, your circadian rhythm tells you to go to bed and vice versa in the morning. So it’s a constant fight against your body.

To fully maximize your sleep, you need to schedule it in a very specific window within your circadian rhythm (the low point). This is basically the time when your body decides it’s time to sleep. If you can do this, your body will be in tune with your sleep pattern and you will indeed find that you will have the best sleep of your life.

If you’re trying to do this, it’s very important to establish a sleep routine, by this I mean going to bed and getting up at the same time every morning, even on weekends. If you sleep in on the weekends, your internal clock is always catching up. An important point to remember is that for every hour you sleep on the weekends, you need an extra day. So that your internal biological clock catches up. So if you can keep your wake up times consistent, then your sleep quality will be much better.

As you can see, your circadian rhythm is very important to your well-being and can make the difference between a good night’s sleep and a terrible night’s sleep. If you can work with it and not fight it then it could be really beneficial.