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Melatonin & Cortisol. The Critical reset of our Circadian Clock. Sleep series Part 2

Cortisol vs melatonin
The dance between the hormone of darkness, Melatonin and the hormone of light, Cortisol.

These are the 2 hormones responsible for creating our circadian rythym, a 24hr cycle of light and darkness our internal seesaw.

If cortisol is up, melatonin is down and vice versa, what we are supposed to be doing is taking advantage of the right time that melatonin or cortisol is meant to be up, and trying to protect ourselves from what is called circadian mismatches created by signals that are telling us its the wrong time of day.

Cortisol: – the hormone of light – also known as the stress hormone, it’s not a bad guy – around the hours of 5 and 7 am is when it’s making its way up usually around sunrise, we are creatures who are tethered to the sun when it’s at its highest/peak at sunrise it signals us to wake up, it’s at its high for 30 minutes upon waking then slowly makes it way down as the sun moves across the sky, it activates our metabolic rate, allows us to absorb nutrients from the food we eat, gives us get up and go, without this we would not want to get out of bed its a very useful hormone and very much required, however when these levels are chronically high, meaning high at the wrong time of day and for extended periods of time, it does have detrimental effects on our body.

Cortisol at high levels suppresses the Immune system, most of us are triggered in an environment that keeps our cortisol high and so what we are doing is suppressing our immune system.

We want to avoid this, we want to be mindful of our cortisol levels and want to mitigate against having high levels of cortisol at the wrong time and high levels at the right time

Common Cortisol Mismatch No:1

Before the invention of electric light, we would have candles, oil lamps, and fires.

During that time we tended to rise when the sun rose, be quite active when the sun was in the sky, cortisol spiked then made its way down after sunset, cortisol levels were dropping and we would sit around fires and candles and spend time with our tribe, family, eat a meal around 8.30-9 then there wasn’t much else to do except either sleep and/or have sex, our melatonin levels around this time were on the way up, peek around midnight then slowly make there way down as cortisol would start to rise again, this is the circadian rhythm that we are programmed with and lived according to for 100’s of thousands of years.

Around the 1880 the first elctric light bulb was created – what this did was change our environmental signals.

There are 6 colors of natural light, purple, blue green red, yellow orange.

An old school bulb would have a full spectrum of colors they were as close to fire as you can get with an electric light bulb, these didn’t so much cause serious mismatches with our rhythms.

Then came along Fluorescent light bulbs; allot more energy efficient , but have a allot of blue spectrum of light in them

Then LED: very/most energy efficient but the trade off is that they are 99.9 blue light.

Why does this matter?

In the eye, we have a photoreceptor protein called melanopsin, the purpose of melanopsin is to scan the environment for a particular frequency range.

Blue light on a particular concentration exists only from the sun and so our biology needs to know that the sun is in the sky so that it can keep our cortisol levels up so we can keep going through the day, when there is no blue light in the atmosphere or very little from what we evolved with, fire, a different signal is sent, melanopsin receives a signal that there is very blue light so it must be night time, I need to have my cortisol levels come down so that melatonin can be secreted into the bloodstream.

The first mismatch, that we have created is the use of electric light in our homes, think about your living room, bedroom and very specifically your bathroom, you walk in it 9-11 pm, your in a winding down process, getting ready for bed, you turn on the light in the bathroom, and it tends to be the brightest room in the house, the signal comes on through melanopsin, Oh its daytime, ramp up /secrete cortisol level, suppress/ takedown melatonin levels

Then we go to bed we toss and turn and we wonder why is it that I am tired but I can’t fall asleep? We want to be mindful of environmental signals sent from our environment, received by the eyes that either suppress or secrete cortisol/melatonin.

Electric light is here to stay, so how do we mitigate this?

IMPORTANT: AT NIGHT WE DO NOT WANT WHITE BRIGHT LIGHT, IT GIVES THE WRONG SIGNAL AND IS AFFECTING THIS DANCE BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS

1) Use lamps with warmer, so light is eye or below eye level. Salt lamps are very calming on the nervous system and release off ions that clean the air, Moon lamps also have a remote control so you can alter the shades of light.

2) Red light bulbs – as close to fire as we can get, least effect on melanopsin, in the bathroom if possible as well.

3) Use a simple analogue clock at night, a common mismatch is using our phone as a clock – this needs to be avoided not only because of the EMF issue which I will discuss in the next Article but when you look at your phone to check the time at night the blue light from phone hits the retina, game over for continued sleep, cortisol starts to spike and we start to wake up.

Addressing the Elephant in the room.

Our devices our screens of all kinds are heavy in the blue light spectrum this is because these devices need to be energy efficient, very specifically the phone.

If you could set yourself a little Kerfuw, no screens 2/3hrs before bed, and instead use that time to connect with family, read a book then, of course, this is the best, but if you are saying you just can’t do that, because I’m just addicted to my phone or watching TV is my wind-down routine, etc, then;

Here is how we mitigate;

Blue blocker glasses, in the evening after sunset, you can get yellow, orange, and red, the deeper the red the more effective.

They are so easily available now, and can also be got in prescription lenses for any of these tints also.

One step further; use a red filter on your screen, there are applications of software available online and many of them are free, we can install them to shift the frequency of blue into red.

These are the two I Highly recommend, F.lux which is free and Iris tech which has a small annual cost but it well worth it as it has biohacker mode, so if you need to programme or write into the evening, it does this thing where it removes all the white and blue and makes your background red.

I have added the links for both of these below;

iristech.co

https://justgetflux.com/

Blue light vs red light experiment:

2 groups were used;

The 1st grp were told to read for 1 hour on an IPad before bed

The 2nd grp were told to read a paperback book for 1 hour before bed

The ipad group showed, Melatonin release was delayed for 3hrs and the total deep sleep time was 50% less than than the grp who were told to read a book.

This is significant!

Psycho Active stimulants; Sorry Spoiler Alert coming up

This is my least favourite part of this blog but it’s a very important piece;

Coffee, Green tea/matcha Tea have high levels of caffeine in them, a single shot expresso taken at 8 am depending on the quality of the coffee still has a half-life of 8 hrs so at only 4 pm 50% has made its way through and out and you still have 50% left in the bloodstream, which means at midnight you still have 25 mg coffee still in your system, more caffeine = less deep sleep and more dream sleep.

Recommend decaffeinated – just as good – and your not robbed of the experience of coffee.

Alcohol – better at lunchtime – as it needs 3 hrs for the liver to detox the aldehydes – I’m not against drinking it really is just about timing, most of us can say we experience a poor night sleep after drinking into the evening, this is mostly because the Liver is working extra hard and this stops us from dropping into any kind of deep sleep.

MITIGATING OUR LIFE AND LIFESTYLE IS CREATING A GOOD ENVIRONEMENT FOR MELATONIN RELEASE

How do we Reset our Circadian Rhythm?

We are programmed to make melatonin first thing in the morning when natural light hits the retina, when this happens a signal is sent to the pituitary gland to release a cascade of metabolic hormones one of which is called serotonin, a happy hormone, its a precursor for melatonin, a big hit of this equals big hit of melatonin equalling more deep sleep time naturally

Remember that our focus here is to always set ourselves up for melatonin in the evening.

So what we would benefit from is getting light through the eyes first thing in the morning BEFORE checking our devices, natural before artificial light, it is very important to change this habit.

This is natural light not through glass not even glasses – exposing eyes to light naturally, releases lots of serotonin and dopamine, and releases high levels of cortisol to energise us.

This way of living has become lost for us and this is one of the reasons why we are seeing a lot more cases of depression, and lower melatonin levels, a mismatch in our circadian rhythms

What I am suggesting we do at least a few days a week is to go outside as soon as we get up in the morning even if for just a couple of minutes, maybe take a cup of coffee or tea with you and expose your eyes and as much of your skin to the light. don’t stare in sun, peripheral vision is best, light is designed to constantly enter the eyes through Peripheral vision, and if it’s cloudy, no worries it still works, you might be better to just add a few more minutes to it though.

How does this practice of exposing the eyes first thing in the morning set the circadian clock?

As I mentioned before Sunlight is made up of 6 colors, but in the morning there are only 5, it has no purple in it otherwise known as Ultraviolet light. In the morning a signal is sent through the retinas to something called The suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is also known as the circadian clock or master clock, it is a tiny region of the brain in the hypothalamus, situated directly above the optic chiasm. It is responsible for controlling circadian rhythms. The neuronal and hormonal activities it generates regulate many different body functions in a 24-hour cycle.

So exposing the eyes to natural light specifically in the morning tells our brain that it is morning time which means it can release a cascade of serotonin which is the precursor to Melatonin, later in the day around midday the sun now has ultraviolet added to it, it is higher, warmer, and brighter signaling to the brain that it’s now afternoon which also, by the way, is the only time that we can synthesize Vitamin D naturally.

By Sunset time – purple has gone, and the ratio of red is higher, which then signals to the brain that evening is here, which means? Yes, Melatonin time!.

How will I know when my Circadian clock has been reset?

Once the circadian clock is set we will know because we will naturally wake up around sunrise at the top of one of our cycles and will naturally start to feel sleepy around 9 – 9.30 /10 this is how we are designed our biology craves this. When the clock is set our biology functions according to how we have evolved, being consistent with this we will naturally fall asleep at the above times, have good quality sleep, Melatonin will be released when meant to and Cortisol will spike when meant to.

I do hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped to bring more awareness of your environment and inspired you to make some fundamental changes that will align your body back into finding its own natural rhythm again.

If you missed sleep series part one here is the link for that https://bowentechniqueindevon.com/blog/ and also on my site you can sign up to receive my Free bedtime sleep hypnosis.

In service to helping you find your way back to delicious restorative sleep and more importantly you believing again that it is possible.

With love

Melanie

https://bowentechniqueindevon.com/intuitive-tarot-coaching/

The Imperatives of a Good Nights Sleep

Sleep, Calm and Restoration Series Part 1

Good Sleep,create the perfect environemtn inside and outside for perfect sleep Calm and restoration

I am writing this essential sleep series to those out there that may be struggling with what I now see has become a sleep epidemic, I am speaking to you from a place of truly having been there in a truly miserable way. From this place I have learned what I consider to be a dance that we must learn for us to be able to understand and cooperate with this very fine and delicate waking and sleep line that we move in and out of every day.

There are several critical components to this dance that I will certainly cover in this sleep series and which I am confident will enlighten, inspire and prompt you to make some simple changes in your day and the precious time leading up to bedtime.

I am going to offer some prescriptions to adopt and let go of whatever you you don’t like , I understand we all have different lines that we draw in the sand.

So for today we will start at the beginning and ask ourselves;

What is sleep and what does good quality sleep look like?

When we go to bed we seem to spend a little bit of time in light sleep from around 2 -15 minutes and then we drop down into deep sleep – known as NON REM sleep, this is a large amount of deep sleep, we then make our way up into dream sleep state and then drop down into the next phase/cycle of deep sleep

Most of our deep sleep is in the first cycle then a little bit less in the 2nd, 3rd ,4th and on the 5th cycle onwards we don’t really get much deep sleep .

And conversely from the 1st cycle to the next we get a little bit more dream sleep.

A bit about Brainwaves:

In the 1st deep sleep we are in a delta wave sleep, its a very slow brain wave state, there is still quite allot happening in the brain but the way they are occuring is causing this very slow frequency which is less than 4Htz

Dream sleep state: known as theta wave sleep – more active – 4-7.5 Htz , we are dreaming so allot more is happening.

Most people who have good quality sleep tend to have anywhere between 4 to 6 dreams a night, we may not remember them because we are going back up and down too deep and to dream sleep however we do tend to have at least this amount.

Cycles of Sleep explained:

Sleep tends to be in cycles of 90 minutes and this is where I will offer you 2 prescriptions which you can take or leave:

Don’t sleep for 8hrs and don’t set your alarm if you can help it, please let me explain why I say this?

Going through 4 cycles, 4 lots of 90 minutes equals 6 hours, this is quite a lot of sleep and for quite a lot of people, 6 hrs is enough – completing these cycles efficiently can be enough, however, for others completing 5 cycles is enough or needed and that brings us to 7 ½ hrs sleep.

There is a misconception that we need 8 hours of sleep, Why???

There is a misconception that we need 8 hours of sleep, Why???

It is quite trivial really, it is thought that we need 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work and 8 hours of play, but do we really?

Why we don’t want to be sleeping for 8hrs is because if you set an alarm for 8 hrs and you wake up around the 6-hour mark or 6 1/2 hour mark you wake at the top of your cycle, your body here is telling you that its had enough sleep and your rested but because you set an alarm our natural inclination when an alarm is set and we may wake up before it goes off, is to look at the clock and think, ooh’ we have time for a bit more sneaky sleep to get for ourselves but the reason we do ourselves a disservice, is if we jump into the next sleep cycle and the alarm goes off, we have interrupted that next sleep cycle and what happens is that we feel even more exhausted and groggy than if we had woken up naturally when our body told us it was good, we have all been there with that one!.

If you set an alarm try to set it for either 6 or 7/12 sleep cycles, if you wake up naturally then this is your body telling you it’s had enough sleep, and your good to get out of bed.

40% of people do wake up sometime in the night usually between 2/3 am, it’s normal and if you do then you should try to go back to sleep but for those who can’t get back to sleep you could try a protocol by neuroscientist Andrew Huberman called non sleep deep rest, which involves practicing mindfulness, meditation or slow breathing to perhaps reset the hormones and go back to sleep again, and if not you can still certainly reap some of the benefits from doing this practice.

If you would like to learn more about that I have added here a video with Richard Huberman that you may be interested to watch.

I am committed to writing easy bite-size articles particularly when we talk about a subject like this as I am Imagining that you are probably already feeling very tired generally and I’d like for you to be able to take in easily what I am wanting to convey so that you can begin to understand what is sleep is and what are the most conducive ways you can align yourself to this most natural rhythm that are bodies are designed to have.

In the next article, I am going to discuss a crucial biological process that goes on inside each of us that is imperative to sleep happening.

The dance between the hormone of darkness, Melatonin, and the hormone of light, Cortisol.

These are the 2 hormones responsible for creating our Circadian Rhythm, a 24hr cycle of light and darkness.

To continue reading the sleep series please visit bowentechniqueindevon.com, they will be added soon, you will also be able to download for free my bedtime sleep hypnosis recording when you visit this site.

In service to helping you find your way back to delicious restorative sleep and more importantly you believing again that it is possible.

With love

Melanie

https://bowentechniqueindevon.com/intuitive-tarot-coaching/

The most insidious self-created energy drain of all.

Tarot coaching consultations

Suffering is an important aspect of life for us Humans, it has to be experienced in its depth to somehow open something in our soul as well as to motivate us to seek true peace, freedom, independence, and self-love.

Self-love is the foundation of our souls and the foundation of our evolution and we are growing into self-love as we grow into ourselves.

It is quite strange how poor the relationship is that we have with ourselves, we live and we define ourselves through all the many interactions we have with the external world and with what kind of input the external world gives back to us.

This never-ending merging with and away from something is certainly a natural ebb and flow of life but if not done cleanly, consciously, and healthily it begins to create energetic threads and forged pathways that go back and forth over and over again making it harder and harder for us to choose other paths or different ways of being and/or ways to communicate.

Cutting the ties that bind
Gathering in the Tendrils

Over time these energetic threads become like Tendrils that upon waking every day become reinforced, rebuilt, and once again almost hypnotically placed back into the external, be that a person, place, an event, a feeling or memory until all those pathways have been created again for another day all before we have even got out of bed because all of these things are, how we know we exist and how we define who we are in each day, its what makes us familiar to ourselves and to others.

The problem with this is that for every tendril we release into the past something or other, the more of our precious energy becomes dispersed and is in a very strange way almost committed to reestablishing that for the whole day, week, month, and often years ahead, the inevitable outcome apart from being completely miserable and stagnant with this rinse and repeat way of life is that our life force seriously becomes compromised and diminished.

There are many repercussions of this which we can see play out in the common themes of Mental and Physical health in society but today for this article, my focus is on one particular area where we lose so much of our energy which is equal to power and that is within relationships, all kinds of encounters romantic or unromantic, however, what I see in my Tarot coaching practice often impacting a person and really holding them back in life is a lot of the time known and unknown to themselves that they are still feeling energetically bound to a past intimate relationship that created entanglement be that a long or short term one. Either way, this can leave devastating effects on our energy system as well as our hearts because of these Tendrils that I already mentioned, and also I feel it’s important to emphasize here that this other person who we feel keeps us stuck and perplexed may not even be alive anymore.

When I am doing a Tarot reading for someone this particular subject we are discussing here can show up in the many meanings and messages of the cards, I can see when the energy is stuck, stagnant, or is hitting a wall and where and when these blockages and barriers are arising. There are Tarot card spreads that can show me where you have been and where you are right now and where the energy REALLY wants to go, there really is no hiding:) and if you are here with me I’m guessing you are serious about not wanting to do that anymore or begin to identify how it is you are doing that.

Bringing all of these things into the light, affirming what’s true, and feeling into what needs to happen for you to give your life meaning and direction again not only creates Impact and Transformation but is also incredibly Healing in a gentle and loving way and the ultimate outcome of this is that you begin to restore and claim back your radiant energy again and can now with direction continue back on your path to living the vibrant life you are destined for but have along the way strayed away from because your energy has become fractured.

In a Tarot consultation as well as using the cards I also may offer ways to help you strengthen what I call your sacred container and today here I wanted to offer something practical for you to do right now to support this process of becoming lighter, centered, and confidently able to release valuable energy that is bound up with another from the past, this can feel massively relieving and create space within us to breathe again.

I have recorded below for you a relaxing cord cutting exercise that you can do laying down or sitting in a meditation posture either one is fine as long as you can feel relaxed and remain alert to follow the practice.

Cord cutting Exercise

If you would like to take your inner work further and go deeper into what is going on and how you can participate with what is calling and changing the trajectory of your life through the use of Tarot then I would be honored to help facilitate that journey with you.

Please visit https://bowentechniqueindevon.com/intuitive-tarot-coaching/for further information or Email Melanie at [email protected]

https://bowentechniqueindevon.com/intuitive-tarot-coaching/
With love, Melanie