Emerging research reveals the importance of living in sync with our circadian rhythm
There’s so much noise out there about how to sleep better. As more and more of us have woken up to the performance power of sleep in recent years, the more advice is dished out on how to do it right.
Great in principle, but all the dos and don’ts, the shoulds and shouldn’ts can simply add to the anxiety and pressure around sleep. And as we all know, sleep and anxiety are terrible bed-fellows.
Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at Oxford University, refers to all these directives as ‘the sleep police’; a force that is growing in numbers.
“Sleep isn’t a shoe size,” he likes to say. In other words, we’re all different, and we need to experiment to find out which advice might work for us.
So what if we could simplify the science, the studies and the advice and take just one sleep habit on board? What do sleep experts consider to be the change that can have the biggest impact?
Well, there is some consensus on this. And it’s probably not what most people would guess.
It’s not quantity, it’s not bedroom temperature and it doesn’t involve how often you wake up in the night. It’s what sleep scientists call sleep regularity.
What is Sleep Regularity?
Simply put, sleep regularity is the consistency of your daily sleep and wake times.
How well you can keep to the same sleep/wake pattern each day, within a 30 minute window, and including weekends, represents positive sleep regularity. And finding this consistency is emerging as a recommendation not just for better sleep, but better overall health.
A 2023 National Sleep Foundation review of existing research on the subject, led a group of scientists, including Russell Foster, to conclude that “Consistency of sleep onset and offset timing is important for health, safety, and performance.”
On the flipside, several studies indicate that this works both ways – the greater your sleep irregularity and the more inconsistent those sleep/wake times, the greater the association to multiple health and performance issues.
"Your body clock provides a time structure for optimising your biology and your health. Without it, everything suffers."
Why It Matters
The explanation for why sleep consistency is emerging as such a fundamental principle lies with our circadian system.
Each day, in anticipation of waking, your body ramps up cortisol levels, raises your heart rate and your metabolism shifts gears.
At night, your core temperature drops and your system moves into repair and consolidation mode – processing information, clearing toxins, and storing memories.
All of this is coordinated by a “master clock” in the brain, which communicates with cells throughout your body to keep everything running on schedule.
“Your body clock provides a time structure for optimising your biology and your health. Without it, everything suffers,” says Russell Foster.
Whilst circadian research is still relatively new, it’s understood that the more we can live in sync with our internal clock, the more efficiently and effectively our mind and body function and perform.
How to Improve Your Sleep Regularity
The reality, of course, is that modern life has thrown us off the pattern of consistent sleep/wake times. Working late, nights out, weekend lie-ins, all tend to play havoc with our sleep consistency.
If we want to achieve greater consistency in our sleep patterns, there are ways to redress the balance:
1 Do the Numbers
Set a target sleep/wake schedule that best fits your chronotype and lifestyle, and ensures you are also getting the quantity – normally somewhere between 7 and 9 hours – that you need.
2 Start Slow
It takes several nights to shift your sleep patterns. Try using your alarm clock to begin shifting your wake time in small increments, no more than 30 minutes at a time.
3 Seek Out Sunlight
Some early natural sunlight, ideally for a 10-15 minute spell as soon after waking as possible sets the clock for your melatonin levels to rise and bring on sleepiness 14-16 hours later.
4 Watch For Disruptors
What we do when we’re awake directly influences our ability to hit a consistent sleep time – caffeine, blue light at night, what we eat and when.
5 Create a Wind-down Routine
Finding a repeatable bedtime routine has been shown to reduce stress, regulate hormones and prepare the mind and body to fall asleep quicker.
Ultimately, if we try this change for ourselves, the goal should be for greater consistency not perfection. The closer we are trending towards regular sleep/wake cycles, the more our sleep – and corresponding performance – will benefit.
NIGHT + DAY POWDER are formulated to provide round-the-clock support for rest, recovery, energy and immunity.
