Chronobiology

Are Your Holiday or Christmas Lights Causing You to Lose Sleep?

Tis the season for holiday decorations including stockings, sleighs and lots of lights. If your neighborhood is like most in the Western world, there is a good chance that your own home, as well as those around you, is trimmed with holiday or Christmas lights. These twinkling lights may have a positive effect on your holiday spirit, but a very negative effect on your physical health.

Light Pollution and Sleep

Do you have trouble sleeping when lights are on? If so, you are not alone. We all may feel a bit better in well-lit areas but science suggests that just the opposite should be true. When your neighborhood is bathed in light, your eyes sense this and send messages to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of your brain. From here, hormones such as melatonin and cortisol are released to let your body know what time of day it is and coordinate important activities such as cell repair. The problem is that so many people are trying to sleep in the winter even as Christmas lights are blazing in our neighborhoods. As a result, they are suffering from a disturbed circadian rhythm.

The light pollution from these lights can cause problems that we do not even realize. We may feel tired but be unable to sleep simply because we are bathed in light. Studies have linked Christmas lights to insomnia in children, but there is a good chance that we all suffer the biological consequences of sleeping in a world bathed in light, even if we don’t even realize it. Our brains perceive this light pollution as a legitimate reason to stay awake even while we are desperate for sleep and release hormones that promote wakefulness and productivity.

Christmas Lights: Bad for Your Health?

While a disrupted sleep-wake cycle can lead to health problems, this is not the only way that Christmas lights can harm your health. Three percent of people with epilepsy have a type of epilepsy called photosensitive epilepsy, in which bright or flashing lights can induce seizures. For these people, the holiday season can be a real challenge requiring stronger prescription medication or even abstaining from holiday events. Light perceived by the eyes can have a larger effect on the brain than most people realize.

Melatonin Deficiency: More Than Sleep

The melatonin deficiency caused by constant light can have a variety of health effects. Difficulty sleeping is the most obvious and noticeable effect but you also may see more nonspecific issues. Immediate effects include hypertension, decreased memory and depression. If you are chronically deprived of melatonin over a long period, you may have a higher risk of serious life-threatening diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. This is especially true if you use white or blue holiday lights, which have been proven to depress melatonin production more than other colors. Even worse, children and the elderly, two groups that need their sleep badly, are more likely to have their sleep disrupted by low melatonin production.

Not only are holiday lights bad for your health, but they are bad for the environment as well. The electricity used to keep Christmas lights aglow is often made from fossil fuels. In addition, the light pollution from these lights can have negative effects on the small animals and wildlife that live in your neighborhood. This is a choice that enlarges your carbon footprint measurably while directly affecting the creatures around you.

Dealing With the Season of Lights

The holiday season may be too well-lit, but this does not mean you have to go without sleep until Santa has come and gone. Experts suggest that you turn off Christmas lights as well as other lights a half-hour before you go to bed to allow your body to produce enough melatonin to support good sleep. If your neighbors and community have lights near your home that may interfere with sleep, consider using blackout curtains or other means of blocking light. Last, if you still struggle to get the sleep you need, consider taking a melatonin supplement before bed.

Holiday decorations are a great way to brighten up the cold winter nights. While these can cause negative health effects, there are ways to protect yourself. It’s important to take care of your health so you can enjoy many holiday seasons to come with your family and friends.

Discovered: A Direct Link Between Circadian Clock and the Immune System

Nov 11 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

You may have noticed that you are more likely to get sick when tired or otherwise feeling out-of-sync. Many people who travel have noted that they are most likely to become ill just after a large trip, especially one that takes them across time zones and causes the dreaded jet lag. Is this a coincidence? Studies have long suggested a link between the circadian clock and the immune system, but were unable to find a direct cause for the connection. However, new research now suggests that T cells, an important part of the immune system, are the missing link.

The Circadian Rhythm of the Immune System

Like all cells in the human body, the cells of your immune system run on a distinct circadian, or 24-hour, rhythm. There are daily rhythms in the release of immune proteins such as cytokines as well as in the migration of immune cells to inflamed tissues and the production of T cells and other cells involved in immunity.

How is this circadian rhythm maintained? Like many cells, immune cells appear to express circadian rhythm genes as well as to responding to melatonin and other hormones governing our sleep-wake cycle. According to new research, circadian genes may be more important to our immune system than we previously realized.

T Cells: The Link Between the Circadian Clock and the Immune System

If you have a loved one with a disease that affects their immune system, you have probably heard of T cells. T cells are tested to measure the strength of an immune system, and are in fact one of the most important parts of your immune system. T cells scout your body looking for microbes. When they see them, they attack. In addition, T cells have an amazing ability to remember the microbes that they have encountered, which is why you can only get some diseases once. Because T cells are so important, their numbers are tightly regulated.

However, T cells appear to be regulated in a different way than most cells in the body. Most cells can divide a set number of times, while T cells appear to have a time limit for division instead. They can divide as often as needed within their allotted lifetime and then they self-destruct. This appears to be controlled by a gene called Bcl-2, which also is involved in the circadian rhythm.

Circadian Rhythm-Governed Expression of Immune Cells

There are yet other ways that the circadian clock and the immune system are linked. The immune system revs up production of immune cells at certain times of day in response to melatonin levels. In addition, the expression of certain cell receptors that are crucial in the function of immune cells also appears to be governed in part by the time of day. These receptors are crucial in helping T cells to detect an antigen and then set off the immune cascade that will prevent or lessen the symptoms of an illness. The result is that you are far less likely to catch a cold that you are exposed to in the late morning, and far more likely to die from a serious infection such as sepsis in the late night and the hours just before dawn.

These new studies add to a growing body of research on the link between infections, immunity and the circadian rhythm. It explains a phenomenon that researchers have already repeatedly observed: Animals exposed to an illness just before or during their resting phase get more serious infections and become sicker. Your circadian rhythm appears to have an immense effect on whether you get sick from the many pathogens we are exposed to on a daily basis.

You may not be able to choose the time of day at which you are exposed to an illness, but there are a few things you can do to improve your odds of making it through the fall and winter with as few sick days as possible. Be especially vigilant about hand-washing and other common-sense disease-control measures in the evening and late at night when your immune system is most susceptible. Maintain a healthy circadian rhythm with set bedtimes and wake up times. Keeping a healthy body, including a healthy sleep-wake cycle, is one of the best disease prevention measures you can use to reduce your chances of catching the next office cold.

Researchers Reveal the Best Time of Day for Decision Making

Nov 09 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

We make a plethora of decisions every day of our lives, from which shoes to wear to which politician to vote for in elections. Although we do not consciously realize it, a great deal of neurological activity goes into making even minor choices. During the decision-making process, neurons in three different areas of the brain communicate with each in a series of rapid firings that can take less than a second. Our brains balance risk, the likelihood of reward and emotions with our own life experiences, memories and knowledge. This intense brain activity results (ideally) in a clear decision that suits our values and needs.

However, there are differences in the way we make decisions at different times of day. You may be surprised to find out that the decision you make in the morning is very different from the decision you might have made late at night. Even more surprisingly, researchers can predict how your decision making varies throughout your day.

Time of Day and Decision Making

How can researchers study the way you make decisions? There are a variety of approaches; some use logic-based games such as chess while others look at the choices made by professional decision makers, such as judges, throughout their day. Regardless of the approach, research has found that there is a clear pattern. People are more likely to make decisions with higher risk and higher potential for reward early in the morning. As the day wears on, we become more likely to make the safe choice even if we stand to gain a great deal less.

Why do humans make different decisions at different times of day in such a predictable manner? There appear to be multiple factors at play, including levels of neurotransmitters, a phenomenon known as decision fatigue and even the chronotype of the decision maker.

Serotonin: How the Happy Hormone Influences Your Choices

Serotonin is a brain chemical usually associated with happiness. A shortage of serotonin can cause depression and other mental illnesses, but it’s also important for relaying messages between different areas of the brain. According to new research, serotonin levels may be a factor in why you make varying decisions at different times of the day. High serotonin levels calm us and make us more likely to take risks. As the day wears on, we begin to make decisions that involve less risk (and often less reward) due to a decreasing amount of this vital neurotransmitter.

The results of lower serotonin levels can have serious consequences. Judges who hear parole cases all day are far more likely to grant parole early in the morning as well as after breaks. People who have parole hearings later are much more likely to see them denied. The truth is, we all engage in a different reasoning process as the day wears on. This is due to mental fatigue resulting from using up stores of serotonin and other neurotransmitters needed to effectively weigh risks and rewards.

Decision Fatigue: When You’re Just Tired of Making Choices

Have you ever gotten tired of making decisions? This is a universal phenomenon known as decision fatigue. Unfortunately, we all must make a variety of significant and less significant decisions throughout our day, leaving the areas of our brains that are involved in these processes less energetic. Should you get up early to prepare a healthier breakfast or sleep in and grab a cup of coffee instead? Even these little decisions quickly add up to a tired brain.

Decision fatigue is becoming more of an issue in the modern world. While people in days gone by might make a handful of decisions every day, we have more choices, and thus are more likely to become fatigued. We have several pairs of shoes, many options for breakfast, and a variety of decisions to be made before we even walk out the door. This adds up to minds that are simply tired and lacking the ability to weigh risks and rewards in a way that leads to good decision making. The degree of decision fatigue also may be affected by our unique chronotypes. While we all suffer from the effects of depleted neurotransmitters, “morning larks” tend to think best earlier in the day while so-called “night owls” appear to make their best decisions at night.

Improving Your Decision Making

If you would like to improve your decision making at times of the day when it is a problem for you, consider these helpful tips. First, make big decisions early in the day, when your brain is fresh. Eat and take a short break before agreeing to any potential plan or solution. If you speak a foreign language, try thinking about your decision in it. Research has found that people often think more rationally when using a foreign language because they lack the idiomatic knowledge to fall prey to emotional arguments. Last, get some air. High oxygen and low carbon dioxide both help your brain to react as calmly and rationally possible.

Researchers are still studying how the time of day for making the best decisions coincides with our circadian rhythms. Until we have performed more study in this area, it’s best to get quality sleep, care for your internal clocks, and keep as close to your inborn sleep-wake pattern as possible. Sleep is essential to living a long and healthy life.

Timing is Everything: Using Chronotherapy in Cancer Treatment

Nov 03 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Cancer is one of the most deadly diseases in the world, killing an estimated 7.6 million people every year. While there is a constant flow of new treatments, the number of deaths nonetheless demands more research and, hopefully, an eventual cure. Many people use all available treatments but still die of this disease. For many, the treatment itself is part of the problem, as chemotherapy side effects can be quite serious. Until there are ways of stopping cancer in its tracks, we may be able to improve outcomes and reduce the tide of deaths by using chronotherapy in cancer treatment.

What Is Chronotherapy?

Every cell in our bodies runs on an internal clock called a circadian rhythm. Chronotherapy is the practice of timing treatments so they are taken at the most effective time of day. Giving medications at the right time can increase efficacy while reducing the actual amount of medication that patients need. For example, if a person who has high blood pressure primarily at night takes their medication before bed, not only will it be more effective, they will also need less medication than if they took it in the morning or another random time of day. This, in turn, reduces side effects, medication interactions and the chances of developing toxicity from high levels of medication.

We do not currently know all of the diseases that respond best to chronotherapy. However, research suggests that allergies, heart disease and a wide range of illnesses may be treated more effectively when treatments are given at specific times. According to new research on chronotherapy in cancer treatment, chemotherapy may be among the growing number of medications where timing is everything.

Using Chronotherapy in Cancer Treatment

Chemotherapy aims to kill cancer cells, but unfortunately kills many of the patient’s healthy cells as well. Balancing side effects and toxicity is a major challenge for both doctors and patients. What if there were a way to increase the efficacy of chemotherapy while decreasing side effects and toxicity? It appears that chronotherapy may be the answer.

A recent study found that chemotherapy and other cancer treatments are more effective when timed to coincide with the most active times of the circadian rhythm of cancer cells. In other words, timing the medications to stop growth exactly when the tumor is actively trying to grow. This study did not discover only a small difference in efficacy; the chemotherapy administered at the right time of day was actually twice as effective in treating cancer. The perfect time to give a drug depends on the type of cancer and the type of medication, but there appears to be a perfect time for most cancer drugs. Giving medications at carefully-determined times also reduces side effects and toxicity, which are two major reasons that patients often cannot continue with an otherwise successful treatment.

The Circadian Rhythm of Cancer Cells

How can timing the administration of a drug make such a difference? Cancer cells tend to have a circadian rhythm that is different from that of healthy cells. They have often lost many of the checkpoints to growth that are present in healthy cells, which means that they can grow almost continuously. While they may grow faster at certain times of day, they are growing or preparing to do so almost constantly. On the other hand, human cells grow only for very small periods of time during the day.

With many types of cancer, it is possible to identify a time when cancer cells are extremely active while normal cells are not. When a drug attacking that part of the cell cycle is administered at these times, it is likely to have a huge impact on cancer while affecting normal cells very little, which means fewer side effects.

Your Circadian Rhythm and Your Health

While most people are not aware of their circadian rhythm, your internal clock plays a huge role in your health. The amount you sleep—or don’t—can affect whether you feel rested but also your risk of developing serious diseases. Because a poorly-regulated circadian rhythm is essential to health, it makes sense that working with your own innate timing would play a role in recovery from serious diseases such as cancer.

If you or a loved one are facing a battle with cancer, chronotherapy may give you an advantage. It’s important to talk to your doctors about the best time to take your medications to maximize treatment and reduce adverse effects.

Turning the Clocks Back This Weekend Could Be Detrimental to Your Health

Oct 31 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Couldn’t most of us use an extra hour of sleep? Many people look forward to the fall time change, which occurs on November 6 this year. Unlike the spring changing of the clocks, which equates to lost sleep, turning the clocks back in the fall, or “falling back,” gives us a much-needed extra hour of slumber. It also means waking up to a little more sunshine, even if we pay for that sunshine with an earlier sunset. However, the fall time change can impact your health in a variety of negative ways.

The History of Daylight Saving Time

The tradition of turning the clocks back in the fall and forward in the spring began in World War II. Seasonally adjusting the clock in this way allowed people to enjoy maximum sunlight during the day, thus lowering the amount of resources used in lighting homes and businesses. Fuel was at a premium during the war, so this tactic had a measurable impact on how much fuel citizens used. When the war ended, the United States and Europe made Daylight Saving Time (DST) a local option.

Some communities continued the twice-yearly change in clocks while others did not. As the country became more mobile and well-connected, this inconsistency led to a great deal of confusion. This spurred the creation of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which made changing clocks mandatory for the entire nation (except in the case of special exemptions). Since then, most Americans and a great deal of Europe as well changed clocks one hour forward in spring and one hour backward in the autumn.

The Effects of Time Change on Your Circadian Rhythm

Our bodies run according to a series of internal clocks known as our circadian rhythm. When our sleep-wake cycle changes suddenly, we suffer from the mixture of fatigue and clouded thinking that we call jet lag. Our bodies are suddenly out of sync with our environments and must adjust to the new time, a process that happens slowly.

In the spring, a switch to Daylight Saving Time means that many people lose an hour of sleep and must adjust to waking up significantly earlier. The effects of this change in time have been well-documented, including an increase in strokes, heart attacks and even car accidents. Until recently, much of the research on the effects of time change has centered on the spring change in clocks, as this involves losing sleep. However, it has become increasingly evident that the fall time change may also have a variety of negative effects on your health.

How Is Turning the Clocks Back Bad for Your Health?

While getting an extra hour of sleep is better than losing one, it still has an effect on the circadian rhythm. Many scientists believe that any change in the circadian rhythm can have long-term effects on health, including an increase in cancer risk. The decrease in light during the day also can have an effect on health. Children are less likely to play outside during the long dark hours of winter evenings, increasing the risk of obesity and the many other health risks associated with it. Adults are similarly less likely to go for a jog or otherwise get exercise when it’s dark out.

In addition, the decrease in light during waking hours can affect mental health, worsening mood disorders and increasing depression. Many people are affected mentally by a change in light, even among those who haven’t been diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). We rely on light to regulate our circadian rhythms. A lack of light can throw metabolism into disarray and disrupt the internal clocks.

Healthy Ways to Deal With a Time Change

If you are concerned about how turning back the clocks affects your health, there are a few things you can do to soften the blow. Begin by slowly changing your schedule in the week before the time change, so it has a less-abrupt effect on your sleep-wake cycle. Maximize outdoor time and access to sunlight, even adding light therapy if you feel you can’t get enough sunshine. Take a melatonin supplement before bedtime if you aren’t feeling sleepy. Last, be sure to get enough exercise even if this means switching to indoor activities. Caring for your health and replacing the light stolen from your day can mitigate many of the effects of turning the clocks back.

Our circadian rhythms are essential to our health and well-being. There are many ill effects, both short-term and long-term, when we disrupt our internal clocks. However, there are ways to make Daylight Saving Time easier on our bodies and minds. Caring for your circadian rhythm is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle.

Health Dangers of Smartphones Include Insomnia and Male Infertility

Oct 27 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Unless you live under that proverbial rock, you are likely familiar with the purported health dangers of smartphones. Although these devices make it easier to manage our busy lives and stay in contact with loved ones, more and more studies indicate that they may also pose health risks, even when not in use.

The Effects of Electromagnetic Radiation

Even when your phone is not in use, it’s still in contact with cellphone towers. It maintains this contact using a frequency known as electromagnetic radiation, allowing your phone to make its distinctive chime as soon as you receive a text or email. Electromagnetic radiation is very similar to microwaves. There have been conflicting studies regarding whether this type of radiation affects your health, but more recent research shows that the suspected health dangers of smartphones are likely a reality.

Exactly what are these health effects? Rats exposed to constant levels of this frequency of radiation develop brain tumors. There are also specific dangers for men who keep cellphones on their person or in a pocket, including infertility and potential testicular cancer. While our brains are partially protected by a skull, male reproductive organs have few defenses against the electromagnetic radiation, which can mutate sperm and make them unable to fertilize an egg. This is particularly unfortunate when you consider how many men keep their cellphone in their pants pocket.

Smart Phones and Sleep

Smartphones can affect not just our long-term health, but our daily lives. They emit a blue-tinted light that is easy to read in almost any setting, much like computers and tablets. However, this light can affect our circadian rhythms and make it more difficult to get the sleep we need. Blue light has a huge effect on melatonin production, and can even shut it down completely. When you read on your smartphone or another device before bed, you are stopping your brain from making the hormone it needs to induce sleep. This is especially true for adolescents.

However, blue light is not the only way that a smartphone may interfere with your sleep. Electromagnetic radiation also may interfere with sleep. Children appear to be more affected, as their growing brain tissues absorb four times as much of this radiation as adults. In addition, children often lack the self-discipline needed to turn off these devices and go to sleep. It is important for children to go to sleep in a room free of televisions, tablets and other devices that could have long-term effects on both their circadian rhythm and whole-body health.

Mitigating the Health Dangers of Smartphones

This news may be shocking to people who always have their phone in hand. However, most of us either cannot or will not eschew our electronic devices completely. We need them not just for work and time management, but for much-needed recreation and fun. If you plan on keeping your smartphone in your pocket despite these health dangers, there are a few ways that you can lessen the potential damage to your body.

Use a headset or speakerphone. Moving a source of radiation away from your body significantly reduces its effect on your cells.
Keep your phone out of your pants pocket. Stash it instead in a bag, on your desk, or in a shirt pocket.
Don’t sleep with devices in your bedroom. Smart phones are not the only sources of radiation; wireless modems and other devices also emit it. By keeping these in another room, you can reduce your exposure immensely.
Avoid using your phone when it has a low signal. It has to send out more radiation to continue making contact.
Limit your children’s usage of devices. Children are especially prone to negative effects from radiation because their bodies are still growing and their cells multiplying quickly.

It may be difficult to break the smartphone habit, but it will likely have a beneficial effect on your health. There are many ways to reduce the health dangers of smartphones, but simply putting it away may be the most effective.