Sleep Alchemy has developed a system to stimulate the recovery of our natural sleep rhythm and to reset the 24 hour clock.
The Dance of Sleep
The Circadian Rhythm
Set more or less to the 24 hour day, sunrise/sunset, light/dark.
As far as dancing goes, that's surely an easy rhythm to get right , just 2 steps
Light/dark ( Sleep) & dark/light (Wake).
Unfortunately while this system is exquisitely designed to help us survive it is incredibly sensitive and ,,,,
of course what do we humans do?
We find every way possible to mess with it.
As far as we know every other animal on this planet follows their rhythm of sleep naturally adapted to their particular ecosystem, it is only human beings who consciously and voluntarily forgo sleep.
How do we get it so wrong?
With every step forward and every technological advancement, we managed to put another nail in the coffin of good sleep.
The first problem is we developed artificial light.
Artificial light while brilliant for many things and absolutely beautiful too, is absolutely poisonous for sleep. Light for 24 hours weakens the signal to Sleep, and interferes with our built in circadian rhythm causing untold physical and mental problems.
See studies on night shift workers*
We then compounded the problem by developing devices which we can take to bed.
These mostly emit an LED light that shines into the back of our eyes, suppressing the production and delivery of Melatonin into the system. The result is a weak sleep signal or no signal at all.
At the same time for every second of our waking life there is a release of Adenosine (in small increments ) which creates Sleep Pressure. This is called Process S, it makes us more and more sleepy as the day goes on.
SUMMARY
1.
Artificial light put the darkness detective out of business
So melatonin is not produced in enough quantity to signal a sleep alarm and sleep reaction.
2.
We stay awake well into the night and Adenosine wanes in the dark so we have less sleep pressure too (what we call a second wind)
3.
We live with a huge amount of stress and anxiety which means we sleep with one eye open so to speak.
Adrenaline and cortisol are produced in excessive amounts without being used. our bodies are then primed to fight or flee when we should be sleeping.
So we mess with all the steps and the rhythm goes out and the dance very quickly turns into a huge ugly uncoordinated mess.
How do we set it right.
We need to return the body and brain to natural rhythms
and practice a more natural way to sleep in order to reset the clock,
the rhythm and the release of the required hormones and chemicals into our body and brain in order to send a loud and clear signal to sleep.
This means:
1
breathing properly
2
managing the anxiety
3
Turning our gaze towards some of the good stuff
and 4
practicing good sleep habits for long enough to correct the substantial damage
The good news is if we can so easily mess the dance up by bad practices
we can set it right by developing and entrenching good habits.
* Shift Work Sleep Disorder Medically reviewed by Alana Biggers, M.D., MPH — Written by Ana Gotter — Updated on November 12, 2019
Sleep Alchemy has developed a system to stimulate the recovery
of our natural sleep rhythm and to reset the 24 hour clock.