This paper discusses the Western human circadian rhythm and its relation to health.1. The circadian rhythm of a modern man
“In 1910, the average American slept nine hours a night, disturbed only by the occasional Model T backfiring. We now average 7.5 and declining.” – Robert Sapolsky (Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers)
The typical Western person’s circadian rhythm differs in at least three main ways of which the human species has adapted to in its history
First of all, the amount of light during night time. Before artificial lighting popularized, people spent the night in almost complete darkness . Today, most families live in almost constant light even if it is pitch black outside.
Second, the amount of light during the day is now lower than it has ever been in human history . The reason is that we do not spend much time outdoors. We spend the days indoors, where the amount of light can be over a hundred times less than the amount of light outside.
“Bright light can help shift even the most extreme body clocks,” says Professor Roenneberg. “But the amount of light in most offices is laughable. You would be lucky to get 400 lux [a unit of measurement of the intensity of light] at a bright vertical office window during the day, whereas outside on a cloudy day in summer you would experience more like 10,000 lux. If it’s a blue sky, you could get as much as 150,000 lux.” (Independent: Could you be suffering from ‘social jet lag’?)
The third current problem is sleep duration, which has been decreasing in recent decades.
In a study on connections between sleep and obesity published this year, it was found that in the 1960’s people slept about 8-9 hours a night. By 1995, the amount had shrunk to seven hours. In 2005, a third of the population slept for about six hours a night. Actigraphic and polysomnographic studies show that middle-aged people only get six hours of sleep on average. (Reiter et al. 2011)
Now we are going to speculate the effect of these on health by studying some research material on the subject.
2. The circadian rhythms? connection with health ? shift work and clinical sleep studies
People doing shift work is an interesting group when reflecting on the circadian rhythms’ effects on health. These people must for follow a very unnatural sleep rhythm because of their profession. Epidemiologic data shows that certain health problems are much more common among shift workers than in the average population.
- Obesity ? In a Swedish study 27485 people answered a survey and according to the results, shift work correlates to a 40% higher risk for obesity (BMI over 30) after adjusting for age and socioeconomic factors. (Karlsson et al. 2001)
- Breast cancer ? In Denmark the risk of breast cancer in nurses is 80% higher in those working day and night shifts. The longer the shift work had lasted, the larger the risk was. Those who had been working in shifts for over two years, the risk was 160% higher (after adjusting the results) than in those only working during the day. (Hansen&Stevens 2011)
- Cortisol and obesity ? In the Netherlands a small study (122 persons) showed, that in people doing shift work the amount of cortisol in a hair sample was larger (47 .32 vs 29.72 pg/mg). In young people doing shift work the BMI of these people was clearly higher compared to day workers (27.2 vs 23.7). (Manenschijn et al. 2011)
- Thyroid problems ? In an Italian study the thyroid levels of 220 shift workers and 442 day workers was measured. 3.8% of day workers the values showed subclinical hypothyroidism (TPO-antigens elevated and TSH over 2.51mU/l), when among shift workers the number was 7.7% – the problem is more than twice as common among shift workers than day workers. (Magrini et al. 2006 ; Perfect Health Diet – Intermittent Fasting as a Therapy for Hypothyroidism)
“If light were a drug, the government would not approve it,” says Professor Charles Czeisler of the Harvard Medical School. And Professor George Brainard of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, adds: “Humans evolved on a planet without electric light over thousands and thousands of generations. The body is designed to be alert and awake during daytime hours and to sleep at night. Now we have a 24-7 society that isn’t in harmony with our biological design.”
“In the new study, scientists grafted human breast cancer tumours on to rats and infused them with blood taken from women during the day, in the early hours of the morning, and after being exposed to light at night. The blood taken in darkness slowed the growth of the cancers by 80 per cent, but the blood taken after exposure to light accelerated it.” (Independent: Avoid breast cancer. Sleep in the dark…)
If even a few years of shift work can clearly be seen as an elevated risk for breast cancer, could a lifetime of sleep deprivation or other light related problems that affect most people have an effect on the risk of chronic disease? I would say it’s possible.
Some experimental studies have been done, in which for example the test subjects duration of sleep has been reduced.
- In a study conducted by the University of Chicago, eleven young men were sleep deprived (four hours of sleep per night) for six days. This caused the test subjects? cortisol levels to rise and sugar tolerance to temporarily decline. (Spiegel et al. 1999)
- The same university published a cross over study, in which 10 overweight people were calorie deprived for two different time periods. During the one period they were allowed to sleep for 8.5 hours and in the other only 5.5 hours. The actual amounts of sleep were 7h 25 min and 5h 14 min. In both groups the subjects weights declined 3 kilograms, but in the sleep deprived group 80% of this weight was muscle. Without sleep deprivation 52% of the dropped weight was muscle and the rest fat. (Nedeltcheva et al. 2010 ; Whole Health Source – The Big Sleep)
- In an American study conducted in 2009, ten test subjects followed a 28 hour day instead of the normal, 24 hour day. Half way in the study the test subjects spending night time as day time, the test subjects leptin levels were about 20% lower during the day than before the test but during sleep the difference was smaller. Also the insulin levels were on average 22% higher and after breakfast (2h) the blood sugar rose 32% higher than normally. (Scheer et al. 2009)
3. The environmental light and melatonin secretion
Next we’ll dive into the world of melatonin, but first the basics.
The ambient light contributes significantly to the body’s circadian rhythm. In particular, blue light (460-490nm) inhibits the pineal gland from secreting melatonin. Melatonin is often called the dark hormone, because it is secreted at night.
Only blue light affects the secretion of melatonin, so if a person is wearing blue blocker sunglasses, melatonin secretion will not be affected. Of course, removing the short wavelengths (blue light) from lamps will have the same effect. (Sasseville et al. 2006, Kayumov et al. 2007, Chellappa et al. 2011).
Even normal lighting before going to sleep can decrease melatonin secretion which can have effects on health. The melatonin blocking effects of blue light can be significant especially in winter time, when the small amount of daytime exposure to light can cause the body to react more significantly to bright artificial light used in the evening. (Gooley et al. 2011, Higuchi et al. 2007, Park&Tokura 1999).
Only blue wavelengths of light have effect on melatonin secretion, but for example cortisol levels can rise from other wavelengths as well. (Figueiro&Rea 2010, Leproult et al. 2001).
Below are empirical studies in which the amount or type of light has been altered and the results have been documented:
- In Japan it has been noted that quite bright artificial light (5000 lux) during the day benefits digestion after dinner and that being exposed to light late at night can reduce digestion (Sone et al. 2003, Hirota et al. 2003, check also??A Zinc-less Zinc Regimen for Adults: Draft 4? on Acne.org forum).
- In Ohio the effect of blue blocker glasses and their effect on a person’s quality of sleep and mood was studied. Orange colored blue blocking glasses improved quality of sleep, but grey control glasses didn’t. (Burkhart&Phelps 2009)
- Blue blocker lenses seem to be very effective for insomnia in ADHD subjects. The average PSQI score fell “from 11.15 to 4.54, dropping below the cut-off score of 5 for clinical insomnia“. (Fargason et al. 2013)
- Doctor James Phelps described a small experiment in his article, in which persons (n=21) suffering from bipolar disorder and sleep complications were given blue blocker glasses for evening usage. Nine test subjects felt their condition improve “very much” while eight people didn’t notice any effect. Also a few felt smaller improvement and also a few were somewhat bothered because of falling asleep too early. (Phelps 2008 ; see also Seth Roberts’ blog post Bipolar Disorder: Good Results with Blue-Blocker Glasses).
- In New York State a study was conducted in which school children wore blue blocker glasses (with orange lenses) during the day for one school week. This caused their melatonin secretion at evening to begin a half an hour later than normally. (Figueiro&Rea 2010)
- Bright light treatment seems to be beneficial in the treatment of specific mood disorders, including depression and seasonal affective disorder (Golden et al. 2005, Lieverse et al. 2011).
I believe that the effect seen in the bright light study mentioned before could be replicated and possibly surpassed with ordinary daylight. Expensive bright lights shine light at 10 000 lux at the best, but outside the amount of light can be ten times larger. Daylight might also have other benefits like vitamin D production caused by UV-radiation, the temporary lowering of blood pressure caused by nitric oxide metabolism, plus the stress-relieving effects of red and near-infrared light. The problem of course is, that in the winter time natural light isn’t available in large amounts in all parts of the world. (Holick et al. 2007, Opl?nder et al. 2009, Feelisch et al. 2010, Barrett&Gonzalez-Lima 2013).
Melatonin can also be used as medication and in clinical trials it has been portrayed as quite a useful drug:
- Melatonin is often used as treatment for insomnia and this has been effective in especially older patients. In those children who suffer from chronic difficulties falling asleep in addition to ADHD melatonin helps relieve problems sleeping as well as ADHD symptoms. (Wade et al. 2011, Rondanelli et al. 2011, Zhdanova et al. 2001, Lemoine et al. 2007, Hoebert et al. 2009)
- In one study, melatonin had quite a good effect on irritable bowel syndrome. (Lu et al. 2005)
- Melatonin also seems to work pretty well in the treatment of heartburn and illnesses associated with it. (Pereira 2006, Kandil et al. 2010)
- Melatonin supplements might be beneficial to patients suffering from CFS and/or fibromyalgia. The benefits are possibly caused at least in part, by the improvement of subjects? quality of sleep. Those who used melatonin showed significant improvement in sleep / sleep parameters. (Hussain et al. 2011, van Heukelom et al. 2006)
- According to a recent meta-analysis of melatonin, a slightly higher dose (20mg) seems to be have quite a large effect on conventional cancer treatments. It decreases the mortality rate and reduces treatment side effects significantly. (Wang et al. 2012, see also Mills et al. 2005)
Even though light is very important influence to human / animal circadian rhythm, apparently among light, food, other people and physical activity also have a notable effect. I’m not yet particularly familiar with that data, so it will not be discussed in this essay.
4. Tips for improving sleep and health
Get some light after waking up and during the day
The effect of light on the circadian rhythm seems to be the largest immediately after waking up, so walking outside for ten minutes after waking up can be beneficial.
If you want an adequate amount of blue light during the winter, there are roughly two types of light therapy lamps. Large ones and small ones. The larger lamps have a large lux amount (they are brighter), and the smaller ones compensate with the light spectrum and by a smaller distance between the user and lamp. The lights of small lamps are slightly bluer to compensate for the smaller intensity of light. (Meesters et al. 2011)
I have noticed that if I don’t get enough light during the first 1-2 hours after waking, I’ll stay more or less sleepy for the rest of the day.
Sufficient blue light during the day might be important for alertness, mood and sleep. (Viola et al. 2008)
A light box (left), blue blocker sunglasses (right).
Avoid unnecessary light during the late evening
Turning lamps off and dimming your computer’s display are some of the simplest non-pharmaceutical ways to increase melatonin levels at night. And to make it easier to fall asleep.
If I get a too much light into my eyes at bedtime, I will suddenly become very alert and that means that I need to wait another 1-2 hours until I’ll be able to fall asleep. When I was in high school, this was a significant problem for me. I had to wake up at 7am on almost every morning, yet I usually couldn’t fall asleep before midnight. The late evening, the time when I should have been already sleeping, was the most productive time of the day, because of the strong alerting effect of light at night.
F.lux is a popular computer program that changes the displays color to orangish automatically in the evening. Personally I prefer to use Gamma Panel (gapa.exe), a program that allows you to remove blue light completely from your computer screen.
The blue blocker sunglasses are another alternative. If you want to block out blue light, you can buy some nice lenses from ebay (use keyword “aviator blue blocker”) and wear them in the evenings.
Also red light bulbs (LED) can be used can be used as night reading lamps.
Poor curtains can leave the room too bright during the night or early morning. A sleep mask is an easy and cheap way to correct this problem.
In the evening, I usually use Gamma Panel software to redden my computer screen. This makes falling asleep much easier.
Nutrition and sleep
A combination of melatonin, magnesium and zinc has been shown to have great results in sleep quality studies. (Rondanelli et al. 2011)
In a few studies, glycine has been shown to improve quality of sleep. The primary source of glycine is collagen protein or gelatin. This means that head cheese and bone broth are a good source of glycine and can improve quality of sleep. I occasionally make jelly out of gelatin and concentrated juice. (Yamadera et al. 2007, Inagawa et al. 2006)
I personally agree with the basics of Matt’s “Eat for Heat” ideology. If I have trouble falling asleep, I try to eat some extra starch and fat calories (e.g. rye/wheat bread with butter and cheese) and avoid too large amounts of fluid.
Other ideas
Here’s a list of things that, according to Roberts’ experiments, could benefit those having problems related to their diurnal rhythm.
- Intake of vitamin D3 might affect one’s circadian rhythm if the doses are high enough. Because of this, Roberts has recommended taking 4000IU (100?g) of vitamin D shortly after waking up. (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15)
- Standing so much that your legs become fatigued might be useful. Roberts noticed consistently high quality of sleep when he stood at least 9 hours during a day. He also noticed that this time can be dramatically reduced by standing on one leg. (1 (p.13-15) ja 2)
- Morning Faces Therapy: According to Roberts, if one sees faces after waking up, he/she will be more sleepy and unmotivated in the evening, but more alert and motivated in the next morning. (1 ja 2 (p. 5-13)
A mirror, to see my own face during my piano improvisations. (Seth Roberts’ faces therapy)
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Laura Mikkonen for doing most of the translating work.
Appendix I: Extra references
1989:?Ford&Kamerow: Epidemiologic study of sleep disturbances and psychiatric disorders. An opportunity for prevention??“The risk of developing new major depression was much higher in those who had insomnia at both interviews compared with those without insomnia (odds ratio, 39.8; 95% confidence interval, 19.8 to 80.0).”
1999:?Blask et al. New actions of melatonin on tumor metabolism and growth.?“Melatonin is an important inhibitor of cancer growth promotion while the essential polyunsaturated fatty acid, linoleic acid is an important promoter of cancer progression. […]?While melatonin inhibits tumor linoleic acid uptake, metabolism and growth, pinealectomy or constant light exposure stimulates these processes.“
2000:?Pinchasov et al. Mood and energy regulation in seasonal and non-seasonal depression before and after midday treatment with physical exercise or bright light.?“One week of bright light treatment (2-h exposure to 2500 lux between 14.00 and 16.00 h) increased oxygen consumption in nine winter depressives and nine non-depressed subjects, while no significant change in oxygen consumption was found in nine subjects with non-seasonal depression. Weight loss was observed in the groups treated with physical exercise and in the group of light-treated winter depressives.”
2004:?Claustrat et al. Melatonin secretion is supersensitive to light in migraine.?“These findings show a clear hypersensitivity to light in young female migraineurs during the headache-free period.”
Mistlberger&Skene: Social influences on mammalian circadian rhythms: animal and human studies.
Barbini et al. Dark therapy for mania: a pilot study.
2006:?Rybak et al. An open trial of light therapy in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.?“Morning bright light therapy was associated with a significant decrease in both subjective and objective measures of core ADHD pathology, improved mood symptoms, and a significant phase advance in circadian preference. Multiple regression showed that the shift toward an earlier circadian preference with LT was the strongest predictor of improvement on both subjective and objective ADHD measures.”
2008:?Fuller et al. Differential rescue of light- and food-entrainable circadian rhythms.?“When food is plentiful, circadian rhythms of animals are powerfully entrained by the light-dark cycle. However, if animals have access to food only during their normal sleep cycle, they will shift most of their circadian rhythms to match the food availability.”
2009:?Kent et al. Effect of sunlight exposure on cognitive function among depressed and non-depressed participants: a REGARDS cross-sectional study.?“Among depressed participants, a dose-response relationship was found between sunlight exposure and cognitive function, with lower levels of sunlight associated with impaired cognitive status (odds ratio = 2.58; 95% CI 1.43-6.69).”
Bennett et al. Use of modified spectacles and light bulbs to block blue light at night may prevent postpartum depression.?“all new mothers may benefit from using glasses and light bulbs that block blue light when getting up at night to care for their babies.
Cohen et al. Sleep habits and susceptibility to the common cold.?“There was a graded association with average sleep duration: participants with less than 7 hours of sleep were 2.94 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.18-7.30) more likely to develop a cold than those with 8 hours or more of sleep. The association with sleep efficiency was also graded: participants with less than 92% efficiency were 5.50 times (95% CI, 2.08-14.48) more likely to develop a cold than those with 98% or more efficiency.”
2010: Fonken et al. Light at night increases body mass by shifting the time of food intake
2012:?Figueiro et al. Light modulates leptin and ghrelin in sleep-restricted adults.
2013:?Bedrosian et al. Nocturnal Light Exposure Impairs Affective Responses in a Wavelength-Dependent Manner (pdf)?“Our results demonstrate that exposure to LAN [light at night] influences behavior and neuronal plasticity and that this effect is likely mediated by ipRGCs. Modern sources of LAN that contain blue wavelengths may be particularly disruptive to the circadian system, potentially contributing to altered mood regulation.”
Appendix II: Articles, forum threads etc.
Wikipedia – Phase response curves in circadian rhythms
Perfect Health Diet – Intermittent Fasting as a Therapy for Hypothyroidism
CNN: Trouble sleeping? Maybe it’s your iPad
NY TIMES: In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light
NY TIMES: Sleeping (or Not) by the Wrong Clock
Lowcarber Forums – Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival by T.S. Wiley?(The thread is OK but I don’t recommend Wiley’s book to anyone. It’s a very poorly written book.)
Independent: Could you be suffering from ‘social jet lag’?
Slumber’s Unexplored Landscape – People in traditional societies sleep in eye-opening ways
Telegraph: This could be your dream diet
Chicago Tribune – Blue light has a dark side
Can lamps cause epileptic or other types of seizures?
Great Sleep! Reduced Cancer!: A Scientific Approach to Great Sleep and Reduced Cancer Risk (a somewhat interesting book)
LA Times: Exposure to light at night may contribute to depression, study says
Matt Metzgar: The Dark Sky Association
Last!
I’ve been using a Litebook Elite in the mornings for 30-60 minutes. I’ve also been using some Uvex safety glasses that’re amber tinted and block blue light at night when I’m using the computer or am around any artificial lighting. I’ve also installed f.lux on my computer, and they recently updated it so the warm setting at night is even warmer — it lowers the amount of blue light put out by your monitor even more.
Chris Kesser has an article where he mentions the Uvex glasses here:
http://chriskresser.com/how-artificial-light-is-wrecking-your-sleep-and-what-to-do-about-it
Hi Jib, and thanks for the reply!
I once ordered “Uvex safety glasses Skyline Blue frame/ espresso lens” from eBay to try them for evening usage.
They were somewhat good, but I liked the Aviator Blue Blocker glasses on the eBay more. They were significantly darker (with stronger blue block) and larger, plus a little bit cheaper.
Nowadays I don’t use blue blocker glasses at all. I use Gamma Panel only, and I think it’s a very helpful software. It makes falling asleep very easy to me!
Thanks for linking to Kresser’s essay. It’s good!
I love me some circadian rhythm talk but with all of the excessive color switching in the text for references it ended up fucking with my speed reading so i gave up after about 1/4. I might have to re-read when I can sit and read it slow mo old’ school style word for word.
I really hate references anyway as they do not present any value except to people who like to argue and eventually they’ll find a counter study somewhere and try to attack the study you present somehow just cuz they like to argue. the other end of the spectrum is it makes people blindly believe it all based on someone “did their home work”. References are just academic people way of preserving their ivory towers because back in the day some common rez dog like me wasn’t allowed in to see the reference materials. Now we got google!
I did catch three points and I agree with em
1.) artificial light at night is bad
2.) the amount of time spent in doors is ass backwards
3.) the time actually spent sleeping is greatly reduced ( this is kind of a symptom of first 2 combined with just shitty living period …thank you matrix)
In my experience working with people better than F lux just avoiding computer usage at night is a much better option.
kudos for tackling a massive subject matter though, its info people need to be considering to get their health in order.
Hi CHIEFROK!
There are already so many articles on this topic out there, with maybe 1-2 study references and a lot of words. I thought that it’d be a good idea to write an article that addresses this topic extensively. I also think my essay isn’t very well organized, sorry for that.
Few people, for example, had written about those blue blocker studies despite their nice results so I decided that I could do that…
Thanks for this article – very very useful. A good reminder for me to get out in the day light more, especially in the morning. I will also check out some blue blocker glasses, and work on keeping lights off at night, go to bed earlier, etc, etc!
I’m not able to sleep straight for 9 hours- I’m pregnant and my bladder can’t make it more than 6 hours, so I’m usually awake very early and unable to fall back asleep. I make up for this sleep loss by taking an afternoon nap. Is when the sleep happens as important as how much?
I don’t think so Stephanie. When my babies were babies I read a lot about co-sleeping and a great researcher on human sleep is… ahem, I can’t recall right now, but anyways, he studied less developed societies and concluded that normal human sleep pattern is bi-phasical, meaning we naturally sleep in two periods. From what I’ve read in anthropological material, it seems common to sleep within an hour or so of sunset, wake around 4, stay up an hour or so dancing, eating, chatting, then going back to bed.
Unless you feel sleep deprived when you wake in the morning, I don’t think it’s bad for you to allow several hours between sleep times.
This is quite an interesting article on this topic: http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/9_25_99/bob2.htm :)
Really great information, with more specifics than I have already read on the subject. Much appreciated! When I got pregnant with my youngest child, I was really sick in the first trimester with terrible constipation so in a sort of panic I resolved to go for a 20 min short walk after waking. I don’t think it did a whole lot to affect my regularity, but man, I’ve never felt so good. Knowing what I know now, that’s a practice I’ll be getting back to immediately!
And I have to add, sleeping nine hours (or ten) rather than eight, does wonders to how I feel and look in the morning. The kids have been sick with whooping cough for more than a month now and because their coughing fits occur in the earlier part of the night, we’ve been sleeping in very late, and it’s been really good for my health.
I have a genetic condition that causes fatigue and depression/ anxiety amongst other things. I used to get a lot more down and sluggish in the winter but now use a lightbox which has helped a lot. I also use dim lighting in the evening and don’t use the computer after 9pm most nights, and I have a Lumie Bodyclock which simulates sunset and sunrise, instead of an alarm. I also walk my kids to school on weekdays so that makes a good start to the day.
I’m still always tired and sometimes don’t sleep well due to the joint pain, digestive troubles and so on, but it has helped a lot. If nothing else, waking up with the light in winter feels much nicer than being jolted awake in the dark by an alarm!
Can’t get f.lux to do anything on my computer though!
Make sure your graphics drivers are updated for whatever operating system you have. I recently built a new computer and installed Windows 8 on it, and f.lux wasn’t working until I updated the drivers.
The Intel download center (I’m assuming you’re using a PC, hopefully you are!) is here:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Graphics&ProductLine=Laptop+graphics+drivers&ProductProduct=2nd+Generation+Intel%C2%AE+Core%E2%84%A2+Processors+with+Intel%C2%AE+HD+Graphics+3000%2f2000
If you need any more information, like you don’t know if you’re running a 32 or 64 bit OS, just open your master document folder (the main folder where all your pictures, music, videos, etc. subfolders are in), and on the left, right-click the “Computer” icon and go to properties, and it should come up with a list that’ll tell you the basics about your computer, and then you can select the appropriate OS on the Microsoft site from there.
This whole ancestral thinking that we are not adapted to artificial lighting doesn’t really makes sense to me when you think that we have lived all our lives in artificial lighting.
I agree, Henk. I won’t deny that sleep is extremely important for health, but I don’t think it’s useful to idolize what our ancestors did when we live a completely different lifestyle. I’ve been a night owl since I was a baby, and I can’t imagine forcing myself to go to sleep at 7:30 pm because its ‘natural.’
Timely article for me. I’ve been working on insomnia for years. I find it hard to help my body sleep more than 7.5 hours a night. Recently I’ve managed to change my sleep pattern at night to get to sleep at 10ish. (I used to sleep from around midnight to 7ish) Unfortunately, going to bed at 10 just causes me to wake up at about 5:30 so no change in the total overall sleep.
I’ve heard that the best sleep is between 10-2am. My ideal sleep is 10-7. I take GABA and Magnesium and calcium at night so maybe I should start taking my zinc at night too instead of in the daytime. Also when I remember to do it 20 grams of resistant starch in water or keifer is starting to show results in both dreaming and sleeping a little better. Takes time to change your sleep hygiene:)
Secondary thought: If we need to get more bright light during the day indoors, why not get it from the computer screen itself? Most are on computers for part of the day indoors at work anyway. It would be interesting to see how many lux of daylight light one could comfortably get from working on computer.
Hi Laura,
I think that computers are a OK source of blue light. However, I didn’t mention this in the article but I think that in the ideal situation, the source of bright light is behind one’s back (indirect lighting). I think it’s very much more relaxing to get the light indirectly (especially blue light).
“A combination of melatonin, magnesium and zinc has been shown to have great results in sleep quality studies”
“In a few studies, glycine has been shown to improve quality of sleep. The primary source of glycine is collagen protein or gelatin. ”
I used to take magnesium, zinc, melatonin and glycine before bed and I would sleep through the night without waking up.
But I stopped the melatonin because Ray Peat says that it is harmful. I don’t get the same restful sleep without melatonin, even when I eat carbs and fat before bed. I think I just really need the
melatonin. Modern life is what it is and most people just can’t spend most of their day outdoors and go to bed at sundown. We don’t live in caves and walk around bare feet the way our ancestors did, so why should we not use supplements just because our ancestors did no use them.
In spite of all the positive research about melatonin, Peat still thinks it’s harmful. Maybe Ray Peat really is a quack. Even if he is right, I am going to start taking my melatonin and other supplements again, starting tonight. Nothing is 100% safe and quality of life has to count for something. Poor sleep seriously diminishes a person’s quality of life. And evidently, it can shorten one’s life so maybe poor sleep is more harmful than melatonin supplements.
I am starting to see Ray Peat as a fearmonger.
Hi Ann,
I also have quite mixed feelings about Peat’s opinions. I have read every internet article he has published (also the reference lists) and have been trying to understand them. He clearly has some kind of study data to back up his claims, but still it seems somewhat contradictory.
Peat claims that blue light and melatonin are harmful, but blue light suppresses melatonin.
Peat claims that long days are healthy, but when I tried to get more light in the evening, I started get many stress symptoms. I prefer Wiley’s opinion of getting 9-10 hours of darkness during the night, but more light during the days.
Peat has mentioned that cytochrome oxidase absorbs red and near-infrared light. I think it’s very interesting. During this year (2013), dozens of clinical studies of near-infrared therapy (LLLT; low level laser therapy) have been published with quite positive results. One can find them by searching ‘LLLT’ in PubMed and using the “Clinical Trial” filter thing…
I think that Peat has also said (in NPR 1996 interview?) that thyroid protects from the harms of the melatonin, so it could be that melatonin is harmful only for those with significant thyroid or stress problems. I know that some people with health problems have found melatonin harmful to them.
“I think that Peat has also said (in NPR 1996 interview?) that thyroid protects from the harms of the melatonin, so it could be that melatonin is harmful only for those with significant thyroid or stress problems. I know that some people with health problems have found melatonin harmful to them.”
Many otherwise harmless and even essential substances can be a problem for a relatively small group of people. For example, phenylalanine can be toxic to people with a genetic disorder known as phenylketonuria. People with this condition have to avoid foods high in phenylalanine. But phenylalanine is an essential amino acid and it is not harmful to people who can metabolize it. It would be irresponsible of a scientist or doctor to label phenylalanine harmful because of the exceptions who are harmed by it.
I do not believe that melatonin is inherently toxic. But Peat claims that it is, that the body produces melatonin as a way to detoxify serotonin. Well where is the research that supports this?
Are you familiar with the work of Dr Walter Pierpaoli? He is an expert in melatonin research and he used melatonin to reverse menopause in women in one study. His other research shows that melatonin is necessary for the proper functioning of the thyroid and for production of T3 hormone, although he does say that a person with serious thyroid deficiency cannot use melatonin as a substitute for thyroid hormone. So maybe melatonin becomes harmful when something other than melatonin causes the thyroid gland to malfunction.
I didn’t know about Pierpaoli. His articles seem interesting, so thank you for mentioning him.
Dr Pierpaoli is also the author of a book that came out in the 90’s called “The Melatonin Miracle”. He does not advocate high doses of melatonin for long term use for people who are not treating a specific health condition.
The dosage for general use is age dependent. For example, people in their thirties through forties should be taking anywhere from 0.5mg to maybe 1.5mg of melatonin, not the 3mg that many people often take. If I
remember correctly, a seventy year old should take 3mg of melatonin every night. Higher doses are okay for a while to treat sleep problems, but a person needs to figure out the underlying cause of the sleep disturbance and not rely on high doses of melatonin forever.
He also talks about light therapy in the book. And he does not recommend time release melatonin because he says melatonin needs to peak then fall a few hours after falling asleep and the time release prevents the necessary peak and decline and results in sustained high levels of melatonin. Also, sublingual melatonin is not good because it is absorbed and released too quickly.
Here is an interview of Dr Pierpaoli from earlier this year by Kim Greenhouse of itsrainmaking time. It is long (about 2 hours) but I thought it was interesting. Some people may have trouble with his accent but I did not.
http://itsrainmakingtime.com/2013/walterpierpaoli/
Hi Ann, I wanted to thank you for your help. I tried vitex and it fixed pms immediately. No exaggeration! My energy has improved a ton. Many improvements. Just sleep and weight left!
That is great Sue.
Vitex has always helped me. I think women should at least try it before taking medications.
If only they knew about it! But i suppose it competes with some very profitable drugs eg HRT so they don’t.
I could write a book about my attempts to sleep. I’ve found it easy to fix the daytime rhythm with bright light and early exercise, but nothing I do helps me sleep at night. I’ve tried everything other than the glasses, I flux and bulbs but I do avoid screens at night. I try and avoid serotonin producing foods during the day too having linked them to daytime grogginess .Melatonin knocks me out briefly but is not a solution. I can try more standing. Lately I’ve noticed less light sensitivity ( I live in year round bright sunshine) which I think is linked to fewer migraines due to my attempts to lower estrogen prolactin and serotonin though not sure which is making the difference. Wif is great
. ..this is great though I dont know which one is helping. Also – no difference to sleep!
Melatonin usually knocks me for most of the night.
It is not a solution in the sense that we should not need it to fall asleep.
But if it helps me to get even a few extra hours of quality sleep, I am willing to take the risks. I never take more than 3mg, usually only 1mg.
I would have to take melatonin several times during the night so that was too often. On the other hand last night between 1am and 3 am I took, (with increasing desperation) : niacin, niacinamide, aspirin, jelly, sugar, salt, milk, magnesium, and still felt wide awake till 5 ish then overslept, waking groggy. Classic bad night.
I don’t know if it’s only me, but I prefer starch to sugar because I tend to get stress symptoms from high sugar consumption (sucrose or fruits). I don’t know the reason, but at least one study showed higher adrenaline on high sucrose diet: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2012/02/higher-carb-dieting-pros-and-cons/
thanks for the suggestion and link.the article looks thoughtful .the Peat approach has been helping a lot with my energy and wellbeing, and I do check that pulse doesn’t go too high, but maybe at night starch would be better. I’ll look into it.
@Vladimir and Sue,
I have been adding more starches to my Peat style diet for the past couple of weeks. I eat small amounts of starches in the evening. My pre-bedtime snack used to be milk with sugar and salt and now my snack is rice and cheese with salt. I sleep much better and wake up less often during the night than I did when I had milk and sugar or even ice cream. Starches have a calming effect on me and eating them in the evenings seem to be working very well, but eating them during the day makes me tired.
If sugar increases the metabolism as Peat says, and I believe it does, then why would we want to eat more of it in the evenings and especially right before bed? The body naturally lowers metabolism and body temperature in order to fall asleep so we may be causing more problems by eating lots of sugar before bed.
I tried potato and salt at bedtime and in the night and slept much better. but things usually work for a couple of nights then stop so I’ll have to see. I read the article and certainly I’m having high adrenaline signs at night at least – really hope not the day too or it would suggest that my energy improvements are not for real. :-( but seeing as low carb is what destroyed me in the first place I’m so not going anywhere near that again, leaving me at a total loss.
The adrenaline issues are hard to fix with just food and even nutritional supplements.
I have started taking NDT because at this point, I don’t think food alone can fix things. The adrenal glands will not stop putting out excess hormones until the thyroid can take over, because it is carrying out necessary functions of maintaining body temperature and keeping metabolism high enough to ensure survival. A healthy thyroid is supposed to do that, but I do not have a healthy thyroid. My thyroid has not been healthy since I was a girl and I think I have gotten all the benefits I am going to get from diet and vitamin supplements. I don’t want to take high dies of melatonin anymore because that won’t fix the problem even though it does allow me to sleep through the night. The starches and other supplements are just to help me to get a little more sleep until my thyroid function improves. I bought NDT over a year ago and I was afraid to try it, hoping that I would not need it, but is pointless to wait any longer.
” I don’t want to take high dies of melatonin anymore”
I meant: ” I don’t want to take high doses of melatonin anymore”.
I know what you mean and strongly suspect I am similar in this respect. The last time I was tested a few years ago thyroid was ‘normal ‘ but T3 was bottom of range and TSH above 2 if I recall. one is just tinkering with details like melatonin when something more fundamental is awry. I am feeling some benefit from pregnenolone I must say.
@Sue,
I feel more benefit from pregnenolone also. Maybe because pregnenolone is a precursor to all our steroidal hormones, so it helps to balance everything better than taking individual hormones or substances that affect a single hormone.
The Peat diet also tinkers with individual hormones and that is why it does not help a lot of people. Doing specific things to separately increase progesterone, lower estrogen, lower cortisol, serotonin, adrenaline etc does not balance the body’s hormonal system. That is why carbohydrates and sugar help for a few hours and then stress hormones go back up again. The carbs are just a band-aid approach, something to help while the body heals itself, but the carbs themselves are not healing. I think a healthy thyroid function is one of the keys to balancing most of our steroidal hormones.
I don’t take progesterone anymore. I think the reason Vitex works so well is because it works on the pituitary gland to balance estrogen, progesterone and prolactin. Progesterone by itself does not restore a proper balance between estrogen and itself. It works as long as you use it to suppress estrogen symptoms.
I think this study has been the best use for me in regards to regulating my circadian rhythm ? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23705838
This is very interesting. The study goes directly against Peat recommendations. Peat thinks we should not eat foods high in tryptophan because it is converted to serotonin and melatonin.
Thanks zow! I had seen this paper before, but only now I checked the full text. It was a quite interesting one.
It pretty much confirms the original 180D Circadian Reset? I would say. Perhaps there should be an update to reflect this posts new tips?
The potato worked again ,but the real test will be if I can still say this in a month’s time. Bright morning light and time outdoors helps with daytime alertness and I’m grateful because for a while there my body was attempting to flip day and night completely, and nearly succeeded. I don’t know about the study – young soccer players are in better health overall than me. But hey, that’s the breakfast I always used to swear by, so following what feels good still adds up.
@Sue,
Maybe Paul Jaminet is right. Maybe starches are an important carb source.
The high sugar Peat diet really helped me in the beginning but now it seems to be not so great. So is it possible that the Peat diet is good as a therapeutic, recovery diet? For example, if a person had been raw vegetarian or strict paleo and was not getting enough carbs and had a suppressed thyroid, a high-sugar Peat diet helps the body by providing easily digestible sources of carbs, like the sugars in milk and fruit. But then after a while, when the body has recovered and can easily handle carbs again, the high sugar diet starts to become too stressful and releases stress hormones instead of suppressing them.
I think that’s what’s happening to me now. I was carb deprived and had suppressed thyroid from too much soy and raw cruciferous vegetables. Then I tried paleo which was also low carb. When I first started Peat eating over a year ago, I could not eat enough sugar from fruit and I added processed sugar to everything. My health, mood and sleep improved dramatically. Eating lots of sugar right before bed helped me to sleep through the night even without melatonin. But now it seems like my body does not need as much sugar and I am starting to find starches more appealing.
I think the strict Peat style diet has served it’s purpose for me. It restored my body’s ability to use carbs and improved my liver’s ability to store glycogen. Now the easily digested sugars are causing stress responses instead of alleviating them. I still digest sugars better than starches but I can’t ignore the fact that adding starches to my diet is helping me and that I sleep better if I eat starches along with sugar in the evening.
A personal favorite way of doing this is to have dessert for dinner. I aim for protein-packed breakfasts and satiating lunches, so the amount I’d have for a dessert is fitting, aswell as the fact that most desserts are based on starches and sugars so it’s really enjoyable switching between rice puddings, cheesecakes, gateaus etc.
@zow,
Can you give an example of one of your protein packed breakfasts and satiating lunches?
I like the idea of having dessert for dinner. I also love rice pudding and cheesecake and if I make my own, they will be nutritious and inexpensive.
A breakfast of meat, eggs, legumes and dairy with some starch is my idea of a big breakfast. This can an end up as a full english or an arab meze. Lunch is meant to be satiating so I just turn towards dinner foods.
I think it’s very likely because I’m having similar effects. I’m also broadening my approach now after all that bad sleep. I’m pleased I went into peat ‘s approach- I ‘ve loved learning about glucose oxidation etc, also a big one was getting more calcium and protein. I think I’m responding to the pregnenolone for the first time because of those improvements. and with summer fruit about to arrive I’ll be going big on that. But I’m pulling back on the the table sugar (that I used because good ripe fruit was a bit scarce end of winter). I’m happy that I’ve added some great supplements and I’ll be staying with the dairy too. And the exercise. Very much better for all this! Now just Hoping for that thyroid to improve!