Reboot Your Body Clock

A regular sleep cycle is vital in ensuring a healthy, happy life. Your circadian rhythm, or ‘body clock’, regulates when you feel drowsy or wide awake, triggering your brain to release different chemicals in response today to night cycles. Here’s how to make sure your body clock doesn’t go out of whack.

Finding Your Rhythm

Follow these tips to stay in tune with your natural body alarm clock, and give your mind and body the health kick it needs this busy festive period

TO SYNC YOUR NATURAL DAY-NIGHT CYCLE

GET UP AFTER DAWN

If you wake up before the sun rises, you’ll start the day with substantially higher-than-usual levels of the stress hormone cortisol, an effect that lasts for at least 45 minutes after you get out of bed. Over time, elevated cortisol levels can significantly increase your risk of heart disease-related death.

TACKLE TASKS THAT REQUIRE BRAIN POWER BEFORE LUNCH

Your circadian rhythm is in what’s known as its rising phase between 9 am and midday, where body temperature increases and levels of melatonin, the hormone that encourages sleep, hits its lowest levels. It’s a combination that produces your brain’s most alert, focused state.

HAVE A NAP OR PROBLEM SOLVE BETWEEN 2 PM AND 4 PM