Thread by @AmegoAlter

The overlooked chemistry between your devices, your sleep and your circadian cycle...🧵

Can't really get enough of this quote by William Penn

"True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment."

So, what's really linking our devices, our sleep and circadian cycle?

Let's find out... 👇

01 - Importance of light

The history as we know it,

we can be fairly sure that our ancestors relied mainly on the Sun’s light to plan their day. Of course we are talking about the pre-electricity era.

Sounds logical right?

You sleep once it’s dark and you wake up once the light starts reflecting on your closed eyelids.

The real (now ignored) alarm you actually have with you is the light.

It's a nod to your body to wake up.

But, the question is - “Is there more to this?”

02 - Baby you got a clock, inbuilt!

The more you know about it, the more you believe that your body is of course a piece of marvelous creation.

The feeling of hunger, the onset of sleep - all of this is not that random as you think.

A lot of these are maintained by

"circadian rhythms."

nigms.nih.gov says

"Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle."

"These natural processes respond primarily to light and dark and affect most living things, including animals, plants, and.."

"microbes. Chronobiology is the study of circadian rhythms.

"One example of a light-related circadian rhythm is sleeping at night and being awake during the day."

It goes ahead to say that:

"natural factors in your body produce circadian rhythms."

"For humans, some of the most important genes in this process are the Period and Cryptochrome genes."

"These genes code for proteins that build up in the cell’s nucleus at night and lessen during the day."

Read that again.

03 - That sweet word called 'science'

I know, we don’t believe in things unless this word is used -"science"

Per humankinetics.me,

"Light and darkness have a huge impact on melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methyoxytriptamine).."

"If it’s light you have very little melatonin."

"This tells the body its day time and helps you wake up and increase alertness."

"If it is dark, melatonin levels rise and this tells your body it's time to sleep."

Summary of this simple science is - Your ally in sleep is melatonin, and it’s levels are inversely proportional to the exposure to light.

04 - "What's basically the point here?"

Going by the fact that now you understand that exposure to light and darkness has a direct impact on melatonin formation.

And melatonin plays an important role in defining your sleep.

So - if you can correlate these facts....

you can understand that why it is not in the best of your interests to be exposed to the

sources of light emitting from the devices that you own - mobile, tablet, TV - until at least a few hours from sleep.

It WILL impact your sleep as well as your circadian cycle.

05 - Road to a good sleep

Goes through a simple summary:

Circadian cycle is your⏰
Your sleep's ally is melatonin
Light exposure impacts both
Avoid devices before sleepin'

As Francesca Annis says it “The minute anyone’s getting anxious I say, you must eat and you must sleep. They’re the two vital elements for a healthy life.”

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Connect here @AmegoAlter; IG @ instagram.com/amegoalter

Thanks for reading!