A circadian plan anyone can follow | Dr. Satchin Panda
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Many factors regulate the human circadian clock. Practicing healthy light exposure habits — seeking bright light in the morning and avoiding it in the evening — is crucial. When we eat also plays a role, and eating too close to bedtime disrupts sleep and shifts circadian timing over the next few days. Consuming caffeine and exercising too close to habitual bedtime can impact one's ability to sleep. Designing a sleeping environment with an optimal temperature that eliminates light, noise, and electronic devices may improve sleep quality. In this clip, Dr. Satchin Panda summarizes tips and strategies that anyone can follow to ensure a healthy circadian clock.
Rhonda: Could you discuss some of your circadian resolutions for 2021, things that maybe anyone could use, anyone could follow as well?
Satchin: Yeah, so we thought, "Okay, so how do we put all of this together?" because we talked about light, we talked about sleep, not having light exposure before sleep, having light exposure during the day. It can be all confusing. So with that, an ideal circadian day might be try to be in bed for eight hours consistently every night, when I say consistently, try to go to bed within an hour window, and be in bed for eight hours so that you can get seven hours, seven and a half hours of sleep if you're an adult. And then after waking up, try to avoid food for one to two hours because that's when your melatonin hormone is slowly going down and cortisol hormone is spiking. And then after waiting for an hour or two, have your first bite and then count 8, 10, 11, or maximum 12 hours, that's the window of time when you should be eating. And also make sure that the last bite or the last calorie is at least two hours before your bedtime. You don't want to have that last calorie too close to the bedtime so that you can avoid food and avoid bright light for two to three hours before bedtime. And then during the daytime, particularly in the first half of the day, if you can, try to go outside. Even if it's a cloudy day, there is enough light to uplift your mood because light is the best antidepressant. It's plentiful and free. You just have to step outside. And when you're stepping outside, you can also take a brisk walk for 30 minutes, and that way you can get both your exercise and light dose of the day. So that's the bottom line, 8 hours in bed, wait for 1 or 2 hours before fast calorie, eat everything within 8 to maximum 12 hours, no food and no bright light for two to three hours before bedtime, and 30 minutes outdoor, brisk walking during the day.
Rhonda: Great pointers. So thank you so much, Satchin, for having this Clubhouse chat. People can follow you obviously on Clubhouse, but you're also on Twitter, @satchinpanda. Your website is mycircadianclock.org. Your book, which is fantastic and I've read a couple of years ago, "My Circadian Code" has a lot of the information we talked about today and so much more. Also, your ongoing crowdsourced data using your My Circadian Clock app that's available on the App Store or Google Play. Is there anything else where people can find you or you want to direct them to?
Satchin: No. You had a very comprehensive list. We actually like when people...the My Circadian Clock app is an academic app. So it's not as fancy as some of the other apps. But I'm really grateful that thousands of people have shared their eating habits, sleep habits, and socio-economic demographic information. And that has been extremely useful for many ongoing and future studies. We have nearly now 10 different clinical studies going on in parallel on the My Circadian Clock app platform. And then the book has been very gratifying because the book has been now translated to 10 different languages. While writing the book, I also came to understand how to think of my experiments in the light of public health. And whether we do an experiment in Drosophila fly or mouse, we're always thinking is it going to have an impact? So that opened my eyes. And Rhonda, you were the first one who...I remember the first time I did a podcast, that was with you. That was the first time. I didn't know what is a podcast. When I got an email from Rhonda, I went back to the lab and I asked, "What is a podcast?" and a lot of people explained to me and here we are again. So, Rhonda, you're always ahead of all of us. And you are doing a fantastic job in communicating science to millions of people because we, scientists, we are not very good at that. And science has to be disseminated. And thank you for doing such a fantastic, fabulous job.
Rhonda: Oh, I appreciate that, Satchin. Thank you. And for those of you here on Clubhouse listening, this conversation was recorded and you can find that podcast on your favorite podcast player. Just search for "Found My Fitness." You can also sign up for our newsletter on foundmyfitness.com and keep up to date with all the things we're doing including podcasts like this one. So thanks again, Satchin, and I look forward to talking to you soon and keeping up with all your wonderful research.
Satchin: Yeah, thank you, and have a perfect circadian day.
Rhonda: All right, sounds good. You do the same. Bye-bye.
Satchin: Okay, bye-bye.
A gene encoding a transcription factor (CLOCK) that affects both the persistence and period of circadian rhythms. CLOCK functions as an essential activator of downstream elements in the pathway critical to the generation of circadian rhythms. In humans, polymorphisms in the CLOCK gene have been associated with increased insomnia, weight loss difficulty, and recurrence of major depressive episodes in patients with bipolar disorder.
A steroid hormone that participates in the body’s stress response. Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone produced in humans by the adrenal gland. It is released in response to stress and low blood glucose. Chronic elevated cortisol is associated with accelerated aging. It may damage the hippocampus and impair hippocampus-dependent learning and memory in humans.
A genus of flies, often called "fruit flies," that has been heavily used in research in genetics and is a common model organism in developmental biology. Fruit flies are popular experimental animals because they are easily cultured en masse out of the wild, have a short generation time, and mutants are readily obtainable.
Important for the endocrine enhancing properties of exercise. Exerkines are exercise-induced hormonal-like factors which mediate the systemic benefits of exercise through autocrine, paracrine, and/or endocrine properties.[1]
- ^ Helge, Jørn Wulff; Moritz, Thomas; Morville, Thomas; Clemmensen, Christoffer; Dela, Flemming (2020). Plasma Metabolome Profiling Of Resistance Exercise And Endurance Exercise In Humans Cell Reports 33, 13.
An essential mineral present in many foods. Iron participates in many physiological functions and is a critical component of hemoglobin. Iron deficiency can cause anemia, fatigue, shortness of breath, and heart arrhythmias.
A hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle in mammals. Melatonin is produced in the pineal gland of the brain and is involved in the expression of more than 500 genes. The greatest influence on melatonin secretion is light: Generally, melatonin levels are low during the day and high during the night. Interestingly, melatonin levels are elevated in blind people, potentially contributing to their decreased cancer risk.[1]
- ^ Feychting M; Osterlund B; Ahlbom A (1998). Reduced cancer incidence among the blind. Epidemiology 9, 5.
A chemical that causes Parkinson's disease-like symptoms. MPTP undergoes enzymatic modification in the brain to form MPP+, a neurotoxic compound that interrupts the electron transport system of dopaminergic neurons. MPTP is chemically related to rotenone and paraquat, pesticides that can produce parkinsonian features in animals.
The highest level of intake of a given nutrient likely to pose no adverse health effects for nearly all healthy people. As intake increases above the upper intake level, the risk of adverse effects increases.
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Circadian rhythm News
- High-intensity exercise in the evening may be associated with greater reductions of the hunger stimulating hormones
- Time-restricted eating prevented obesity and metabolic syndrome in mice with mutations in genes regulating the circadian clocks.
- Caffeine that was given to people 3 hours before normal bedtime caused a 40-minute shift in the body's internal clock.
- After exposure to daytime bright light (6.5 hours), evening use of a tablet for two hours did not affect sleep in healthy young students.
- Acid Suspends the Circadian Clock in Hypoxia through Inhibition of mTOR. - PubMed - NCBI
