This is what happens when you don’t listen to your body’s inner clock

We have a small challenge for you. For the next five days, become more aware about your body, and make an attempt to notice that singular moment in the day when you feel most drowsy, almost as if your mind is subtly coercing you to sleep. Just log that time in your mental journal. Over the next few days, you’ll notice that there is a pattern to this—every day, you’ll feel drowsy at a particular time, and similarly, super energised and active at another.

These are signals sent to you by your circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is your body’s internal 24-hour clock that is constantly ticking at the back of your brain. According to Dr Raghubansh Mani Singh, senior Ayurvedic physician at Ananda in the Himalayas, it is a cycle that tells our bodies when to sleep, rise, eat, and so on, regulating many physiological processes. The problem arises when we stop listening to it. While your brain certainly controls it, external factors do play a part too. And so, with the lifestyles led today, the body clock is disrupted, often ignored, leading to more than the feeling of being tired. Here, Dr Singh explains just how important it is to work with your inner clock and divulges details on how to make it work in your favour.

Why you need to listen to your inner alarm

Your body clock does more than just tell you when to sleep. “Natural factors within the body produce circadian rhythms. However, signals from the environment also affect them. Circadian rhythms influence sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, eating habits and digestion, body temperature and other important bodily functions,” explains Dr Singh. If not followed, irregular rhythms have been linked to various chronic health conditions, such as sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes, depression etc.

What disrupts a healthy body clock

“In our modern industrialised society, disruption of individual circadian rhythms has become commonplace, with everything from shift work and jet lag to the constant presence of electric lighting affecting them directly. These disruptions are not just a nuisance—they can also lead to serious health and safety problems. Shift work is the best example of how we can get ourselves off-cycle, and can develop into a circadian rhythm disorder over the long term. People who work the night shift not only have a hard time with their sleep patterns (feeling sleepy at work or experiencing insomnia at night), other systems in their bodies can also feel the effects—and they can be chronic,” says Dr Singh.

Your body clock’s effects on your health

According to Dr Singh, heart patients are at greater risk for myocardial infarction in the week following the daylight savings time shift. “The most basic daily rhythm we live by is the sleep-wake cycle, which (for most) is related to the cycle of the sun. It makes us feel sleepy as the evening hours wear on, and wakeful as the day begins. Chronic disruption of one of the most basic circadian (daily) rhythms—the day/night cycle—leads to weight gain, impulsivity, slower thinking, and other physiological and behavioural changes in mice, similar to those observed in people who experience shift work or jet lag,” explains Dr Singh.

4 ways to balance your inner clock for good health

Dr Singh explains, that in Ayurveda, everything is constituted of five elements namely Air, Space, Water, Fire and Earth. The human body is a combination of these elements that constitutes three doshas: Vata (Air and Space), Pitta (Fire and little Water) and Kapha (Earth and Water).

Each time of the day has energy. In Ayurveda, we use the qualities of the elements to describe different times of the day.

10 pm-2 am and 10 am-2 pm are considered Pitta times of the day
2 am-6 am and 2 pm-6 pm are considered Vata times of the day
6 am-10 am and 6 pm-10 pm are considered Kapha times of the day

Start by eating, exercising and sleeping based on your dosha time.

1. When to eat what: Your main meal should take place at lunch (Pitta time 10am to 2pm), a light breakfast at Kapha time (6am to 10am) and a light dinner at Kapha time (6pm to 10pm) too. According to Ayurveda, the fire in Pitta corresponds directly with our ability to digest food. Imbalance of Pitta means your digestion is probably weak. During Pitta times of the day, your digestive power is at its highest. This is why Ayurveda suggests that the largest meal of the day is eaten at mid-day between 10am-2pm, as we’re best able to digest heavy meals during this time frame.

2. Exercise in the am: Exercise at Kapha time between 6am to 10am. This is usually when we’re getting ready, and it’s a great time to work out and get the stimulation that your body needs to move throughout the rest of the day with ease and energy.

3. Sleep at Pitta: Start your sleep at the start of Pitta time—10pm. Ayurveda says that all the thoughts and conversations that a person has throughout the day get converted to mental energy, which can either be negative or positive. The body processes this mental energy and switches on its repair mechanisms in the evening during Pitta time, as we sleep. Thus, it’s best to be in bed and resting from 10pm-2am, so that the body can have the time it needs to do all this transforming and metabolising on the inside.

4. Relax your mind: Vata corresponds with creativity and cognitive ability. The afternoon period between 2pm-6pm is considered to be a great time for brainstorming and creative projects. It’s also the best time to meditate, because we’re better able to access and control our mental abilities. If you get up before 6am and meditate, which is what Ayurveda recommends, you’ve set yourself up for a really successful day. Meditate at the start of your day before 6am, and repeat once again before 6pm.

Now that you know how important it is to listen to your internal clock, the next time it tells you to sleep, skip that next episode on Netflix and shut your eyes instead.