Episode 334: Circadian Rhythm Support for Daylight Saving Time
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
Daylight Saving Time is a challenging transition for many of us. Circadian rhythm disruption is one of the major contributors to hormonal imbalance and is very common in our modern-day lifestyle, making recovery from Daylight Saving Time even more difficult. Learn more about the importance of supporting your circadian rhythm and how to do so through lifestyle changes and hacks.
While it’s normal to experience some level of fatigue after Daylight Saving Time or a time change, if you’re constantly exhausted, feeling burnt out, or generally depleted, this may indicate that something deeper is going on. We have spots open in our 1:1 membership and would love to see your application!
In this episode:
What is circadian rhythm? [3:06]
How modern day impacts circadian rhythm [10:10]
Strategies to support circadian rhythm in the morning [18:21]
Strategies to support circadian rhythm at nighttime [27:08]
Additional hacks for your toolkit [34:12]
How to tell the difference between seasonal and chronic symptoms [38:27]
Resources mentioned:
1:1 Functional Nutrition Membership
Qualia NAD+ (Get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
Organifi supplement powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
Ned Natural Remedies (get 20% off your order with code FUNK)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK get a free sample pack with any purchase!)
Learn more about Hormones & Metabolic Health
Related episodes:
204: Cortisol, Blood Sugar & Improving Your Sleep Hygiene
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Erin Holt [00:00:02]:
I'm Erin Holt and this is the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast where we lean into intuitive functional medicine. We look at how diet, our environment, our emotions and our beliefs all affect our physical health. This podcast is your full bodied, well rounded resource. I've got over a decade of clinical experience and because of that, I've got a major bone to pick with diet culture and the conventional healthcare model. They're both failing so many of us. But functional medicine isn't the panacea that it's made out to be either. We've got some work to do and that's why creating a new model is my life's work. I believe in the ripple effect, so I founded the Funk'tional Nutrition Academy, a school and mentorship for practitioners who want to do the same.
Erin Holt [00:00:45]:
This show is for you if you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health and you're ready to be an active participant in your own healing. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. I would love for you to follow the show, rate, review and share because you never know whose life you might change and of course, keep coming back for more.
Erin Holt [00:01:12]:
Hey, gang. We're back with another show. So today we're going to get into circadian biology. With daylight savings time coming in hot, this is a pretty hot topic the past few years because there's just been so much research that has come out about circadian biology, our circadian rhythm, circadian clocks within the body. And so we have a deeper understanding of this than we ever did before. We now know that pretty much every organ in the body has its own clock. And there are things that we can do that can influence these clocks for better or for worse. So we're going to talk about that today.
Erin Holt [00:01:45]:
We really want to discuss why circadian rhythm matters. Even if you don't think it does, trust me, when you hear us talk about it, you are going to be very interested and specifically what you can do to support the alignment of your internal clocks, your circadian clocks within your body. And Rachel is here with me, our lead practitioner. And Rachel was really the one to advocate for this topic. She's like, we have to cover this on the show because it's something that she is consistently seeing season after season, year after year with patients. So, Rachel, I'll let you cue it up since this was your idea.
Rachel Mistry [00:02:20]:
Yeah. So thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Daylight Savings is approaching at the end of November where we fall back and then in the spring is when we spring forwards. And I will say that in my work with one on one patients, these are the seasons, every Daylight Savings. People are like, I'm just struggling with the time change. I just tired. And don't get me wrong, it's normal if you're losing an hour of sleep to feel more fatigued.
Rachel Mistry [00:02:49]:
The goal is for us to chat about strategies and ways that you can support yourself during this season of change as well. And the reason this is so important is one of the biggest contributing factors to hormonal imbalance is disruption to your circadian rhythm. And so before we dive in too deep, I thought it would be good to start by chatting about what is your circadian rhythm. And it's essentially your internal clock. Like Erin mentioned, it kind of synchronizes your biological programs and processes and it basically measures out a 24 hour day. It helps you feel awake and alert during the day, restful, peaceful and sleep at night. And essentially it's regulated by our exposure. One of the biggest regulating factors is our exposure to natural light and sunlight as well.
Erin Holt [00:03:40]:
Satchin Panda has a lot of research on this and I like the way he describes circadian clocks. He says they help us or our bodies, I should say, anticipate things so it can get programmed and prepared for what's coming. So if we're waking up at the same time every day, your body is prepared. So it's going to release that cortisol awakening response that we need for immune support, for overall energy. If we're eating at the same time, which we're going to get into a lot more, your gut, your microbiome are prepared for food. It's like they know how to get ready and prepare for what's coming. Even if like sleep, going to bed at the same time every night, and kind of matching that with an eating pattern, your body learns how much glycogen it needs to store to keep you asleep. So you're not waking up at 3am every single day because you hit a low blood sugar patch.
Erin Holt [00:04:32]:
So I like that thought too. It's like it helps the body, like part of the reason that we have them because there's always a biological reason for everything the body does. The reason that we have these clocks in these systems is to help the body anticipate what's coming and get ready for it.
Rachel Mistry [00:04:48]:
Yes. Awesome.
Erin Holt [00:04:51]:
Okay, so I kind of interrupted you. We're talking about light. So speaking to light, because it's light that actually helps us to establish and set or disrupt these clocks.
Rachel Mistry [00:05:01]:
So we have these little light sensors at the back of our eyes, and these sensors essentially detect levels of blue light throughout the day. And blue light is naturally produced by the sun. And our eyes are always trying to capture this. It's essentially how we know what time of day it is. And so, for instance, at dawn, really before the sun rises, there's no blue light being produced. There's no blue light that you're getting exposed to. As the sun rises, blue light starts to appear. And as the day progresses, we're going to get exposed to more blue light.
Rachel Mistry [00:05:36]:
And the essentially the time of day when we have the most blue light exposure is when the sun is at its highest. And this could change depending on the season and where you're located, even geographically. And then as the day progresses into sunset, there is again, no blue light. And I want to make sure that I differentiate between artificial blue light and natural blue light, because artificial blue light that we might be getting exposed to from our computers or our phones is different because it's a consistent and steady amount throughout the day. And artificial blue light basically is telling our bodies, hey, it's the middle of the day. Like, the most amount of blue light is like, you're getting exposed to at this point in time when we use these artificial forms of light.
Erin Holt [00:06:25]:
Yeah. So when it comes to, like, our body and our biology, it's like artificial blue light bad, natural blue light good. I mean, that's like, overly simplistic, but that's a good way to think about it. So why. And we'll get into how to sync up your light exposure and all of that. We're going to get into, like, what to do, but we want you to have an understanding of, like, why it's important. So why is it important, Rachel?
Rachel Mistry [00:06:50]:
So your circadian rhythm pretty much influences everything. I know that we say that, oh, you can't balance your hormones without balancing your blood sugar. And I think the same thing does apply to your circadian rhythm. You can't balance your hormones without optimizing your circadian rhythm as well. So first and foremost, circadian rhythm really does impact your thyroid hormones because our circadian rhythm will influence when TSH or thyroid stimulating hormone is released. And there's this axis, the hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid access, HPT. HPT. It gets kick started as the sun is rising.
Rachel Mistry [00:07:31]:
And then when you're awake, usually we can see the highest levels of thyroid hormones earlier in the day as a result. So when we're thinking about how to optimize your thyroid health, we think about, let's get circadian rhythm in check. We also know that our sex hormones are influenced by your circadian rhythm. So pregnenolone is considered like the mother of all hormones. And we call it this hormone because it produces pretty much or it's converted into pretty much all of your other sex hormones. And morning light triggers the release of pregnenolone from your mitochondria. Cortisol, this is your stress hormone. It also influences your circadian rhythm.
Rachel Mistry [00:08:11]:
And we want to optimize this to just have a healthy stress response throughout the day. Blood sugar, you know, a wacky imbalanced circadian rhythm can influence or can contribute to like glucose mismanagement, high blood sugar. And then we love melatonin because it's an antioxidant. It has anti aging effects, anti cancer. And we want to make sure that this antioxidant is optimized too.
Erin Holt [00:08:35]:
Yeah, melatonin, we can. We all know about melatonin and it's like the sleep hormone, but it really does so much more in the body. So you just list it off. To summarize, it influences thyroid production, thyroid health, sex hormone production, cortisol, blood sugar, melatonin production. Are there any labs that you would see if you're working with a patient that would indicate, hey, like, your circadian rhythm is maybe off here. We need to work on that first and foremost.
Rachel Mistry [00:09:05]:
Specifically, the thing that comes to mind first would be the DUTCH test, the Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones. This looks at sex hormones and it looks at adrenal hormones, including your cortisol curve and your cortisol awakening response throughout the day. It's also great because it does look at waking melatonin status, which is also really important too. And there can be lots of clues. For instance, on other lab work, like if we see, see someone's thyroid is wonky. It's like, oh, you would probably benefit from circadian rhythm support. But specifically, the DUTCH is where we see most of the data.
Erin Holt [00:09:40]:
Yeah, I think about the. When we're looking at free cortisol, the graph that it maps out, if that's like, you know, really we should. Our cortisol should spike in the morning and then it should slowly taper off throughout the course of the day. And if that's kind of like ping ponging around a little bit, it's usually an indication that rhythms are off and we need to readjust. Why I would say modern day, all of those things that you just described are actually pretty common. Why do you think it's so common these days to have issues or disruptions with our circadian rhythm?
Rachel Mistry [00:10:11]:
I was laughing at myself when I was writing the notes for this podcast because I was like, oh, screen use and electronic use as I'm writing this on my computer. Electricity is so amazing, but probably the overuse of overhead lights. A lot of us are more sedentary. We're also just not spending much time outside. A lot of us work from home now, especially since the pandemic, too. So, like, we're just still. We're in front of our screens, we have the lights on, going back to back to meetings, maybe not getting outside as much as we should as well.
Rachel Mistry [00:10:45]:
And then also just like, probably the overuse of social media and smartphones doesn't help.
Erin Holt [00:10:51]:
Yeah, it's like, when do we not have a blue light device in our face? I mean, like, from the moment we wake up till the moment we go to bed, it's, like, pretty rare. Even when I go for a walk, I spend a fair amount of time outside. I'm like, I still have my freaking phone in my hand. I'm reading the book Frozen River right now, which strong recommends. Very good. And it's set in the 17th century, the 1700s in Maine. And so they're waking up with the sun. There's a lot of physical labor.
Erin Holt [00:11:17]:
They're outside. They're, you know, creating their food via farming, you know, like, raising animals, going to bed with candlelight. And that's really how our body is, like, set up and equipped to run. Our biology is very, very similar to it was thousands of years ago. Hundreds of years ago, but thousands of years ago. It's that our modern day has changed so dramatically. And so it just kind of creates a mismatch with our biology, and things can get a little bit wonky.
Erin Holt [00:11:52]:
I know I referenced Satchin Panda already, but he refers to this as the right to darkness. And we just don't have much darkness at all. When we go up to Maine in our lake house, I am, like, in awe of how dark it is because it's off the grid. And I live in the country, in New Hampshire, to be clear, I'm not like a city, you know, like a city mouse here. And it's just so much darker, and we're just exposed to things like lights in the house. But also our electronics emit lights. Even, like a alarm clock that you might have in your bedroom can have a little light that's blasting off. We have the Air Doctors in all of our bedrooms and those have lights.
Erin Holt [00:12:31]:
So it's like we just are constantly surrounded by lights outside, like street lights, but that also lights inside the house.
Rachel Mistry [00:12:39]:
Definitely. Oh, 100%.
Rachel Mistry [00:14:44]:
All of this light exposure in the house, especially in the evenings, can trick our bodies into thinking that it's still daytime. And then as a result, we're not producing as much of that melatonin. Um, kind of like I mentioned, this is an anti inflammatory compound. It's anti cancer. We, we love melatonin. And we even know that after one night of disrupted or poor sleep, we can feel more emotional. You can feel foggy, you can have poor focus. And also just like more hungry, less satiated throughout the day.
Erin Holt [00:15:16]:
Yeah. There is like, like a fair amount of research to back up that. Even one night of being underslept, we consume more calories the next day because our hunger and satiety hormones are just a little bit wonky. And so what I want, if somebody's talking about weight loss or weight loss resistance, literally one of the first things I think about is how are you sleeping? Like, what's your sleep like? Because sleep deprivation is not simpatico with weight loss efforts. So just something to keep in mind if that is a goal of yours.
Rachel Mistry [00:15:47]:
Definitely. And we know that if this persists for more than just a day or a week, ongoing disruptions to your sleep, whether it's not getting enough sleep or disrupted sleep or just crummy quality, this can lead to longer term health issues as well.
Erin Holt [00:16:02]:
And I want to shout out if somebody's like, well, I would love to get more sleep, but I'm waking up in the middle of the night. I've done a, I've talked about this a lot on the podcast, so we won't spend too much time here. But just in case you're unaware of this, oftentimes if we're waking up in the middle of the night, it is because of blood sugar dysregulation, not 100% of the time, but a good fair amount of the time. And what happens is that if we don't have enough glycogen stores to get us through the night, our blood sugar will drop and we don't have the ability to raise it back up. So what happens is we get this hormonal response, adrenaline pumps out and it's like, wakes us up. And that's like pretty common. It's a pretty common reason for waking up in the middle of the night. So working on your circadian rhythm can really, really help with that response.
Erin Holt [00:16:47]:
Like I said earlier, eventually your body will learn if you're eating and if everything is consistent, bedtime, eating time, even movement time, is pretty consistent, your body's going to learn how much stored glycogen it will need. If, however, that's a problem for you right now, and you're like, okay, I'm going to work on the circadian rhythm support long term project. What do I do right now to try to sleep? Something you can try is doing a teaspoon or two teaspoons of honey, raw honey, like not cooked honey. So like not honey and tea, for example, raw honey before bed can help to raise liver glyco. Excuse me? Liver glycogen levels and that might be something to try. Or sometimes Rachel and I will suggest doing like a higher carb snack before bed. Especially if we're helping with adrenal hormones and overall hormone production. It can be helpful to get some sleep, but ultimately that's not always going to be the long term plan.
Erin Holt [00:17:40]:
But it can be like a little band aid while we're working on the long term project.
Rachel Mistry [00:17:46]:
100%. And when we're thinking about optimizing your overall health, you know, there's lots of hacks and tricks and tools that we can bring in, but we want to make sure that we're like locking in the foundations too when we think about how can we support our circadian rhythm. We don't want to overlook these. These really can create a lot of symptom improvements when working one on one with clients or if you're listening to this podcast and you just want to integrate some better habits. So we're kind of going to chat about that too.
Erin Holt [00:18:20]:
Okay, so you're talking about the basics. What would be the biggest regulators, like the most bang for your buck? The biggest regulators of your internal clock in circadian rhythm?
Rachel Mistry [00:18:31]:
I would first start by thinking about what are your exposures to light and darkness. You had discussed like the right to darkness. I know that Deanna Minich, she's also shared that she feels like our society as a whole has a darkness deficiency. So thinking about how can we expose ourselves to more darkness in the evening, more natural light during the day, Evaluating your sleep schedule, looking at your eating habits, Are you eating enough frequently and consistently? It doesn't have to be perfect. Exactly at 8am I need to eat breakfast every single day. But is there roughly nourishment occurring at a similar time each day? How are you moving your body? And then those are the biggest ones. But then I also think about glucose control, blood sugar management and managing your stress.
Rachel Mistry [00:19:22]:
And so it sounds like, well, I mean I know that we can edit, alter, tweak, refine our habits, our daily habits. I mean it all comes back to your daily habits. I wish it was easier, I wish it was like a pill, but it comes back to your daily habits. And this is what essentially like creates the alignment of your internal clock systems. So light exposure, sleep calendar, eating calendar, movement calendar are like the four big ones. So specifically, what can people do?
Rachel Mistry [00:19:57]:
Like practical strategies, start by establishing a consistent wake up time. If you work full time Monday through Friday at the same time, this is probably the easiest. My alarm clock goes off at 6:25 every day, Monday through Friday. And what I've found even now on the weekends, even if I want to sleep in, I'm like, I'm awake before 7, unfortunately, sometimes. And in addition to that, getting natural sunlight exposure upon waking can be really, really helpful. Basically getting that sunshine exposure with a little bit of that blue light. The natural blue light can tell your body, hey, it's daytime, it's time to function, it's time to wake up. Let's kickstart some of those processes that are supposed to occur.
Rachel Mistry [00:20:46]:
Alternatively, if you're waking up and immediately reaching for your phone and immediately looking at this screen, keeping in mind, screens are that artificial blue light and they emit a similar amount of blue light that we see in the middle of the day. So if you're waking up 6am, 7am, looking immediately at your phone, you're telling your body, hey, it's the middle of the day with that blue light exposure.
Erin Holt [00:21:09]:
I would say that this is the one that we probably get the biggest, like, I don't want to say kickback, but like, practically speaking, it's not easy to just like, I'm going to wake up and I'm going to go right outside. And some people live in areas where there's no sunlight in the morning. That's the biggest. Whenever I talk about this on Instagram, that's the biggest thing. But what happens if there's no sunlight? So there are alternatives for sure.
Rachel Mistry [00:21:34]:
So you can use a full spectrum light box. The brand that I recommend is Verilux. You can get them on Amazon. They have different sizes for different prices. But the one that I recommend the most commonly is the one about the size of an iPad. And it can stand up. I can be propped up, basically. And you can set up, set it up on like your kitchen island, your coffee table.
Rachel Mistry [00:21:53]:
You can have breakfast in front of it or drink your tea or coffee in front of it. That's pretty easy peasy. I work with a lot of patients on the east coast or the Midwest, even like our Pacific Northwesterners and like Portland, you know, they can really benefit from this as well. And I will say that you do get benefits from being outside, even if it is a little overcast. Obviously you don't need to be outside if it's raining or if it's snowing or if it's just too frigid to get outside. But the full spectrum light box is kind of a nice, happy alternative.
Erin Holt [00:22:25]:
And I do, I won't say that I go outside first thing in the morning. That's just not part of my personal daily routine. In the wintertime, I'll like whip out my. What is she going to say? My light box. Seems like a weird pause. I'll whip out my light box. And I'll sit and like drink my coffee in front of that.
Erin Holt [00:22:44]:
Especially if I'm feeling blue, like emotionally or just kind of like tired or achy.
Erin Holt [00:22:51]:
I'm like, okay, it's time for the light box. But most of the seasons I will attempt to go for a walk, even if it's just like a 10 minute walk sometime before noon and get that sunlight again, like Rachel said, even if it's overcast and no sunglasses. That's the thing too. You don't want to block the light from entering your eyes. And this is another place that I get kickback. Like, how can I simply go outside without sunglasses? Like, I don't know, like, we are pampered poochies.
Rachel Mistry [00:23:20]:
Wear a hat. That's the happy medium.
Erin Holt [00:23:22]:
Okay, I like it.
Rachel Mistry [00:23:23]:
You get the sun. It's not perfect, but you're getting the sun like in and around your eyes.
Erin Holt [00:23:28]:
And around your eyes, the sun vibe. What else do we do? Like outside of sun. So that's one, one. One strategy is get sun in your eyes.
Rachel Mistry [00:23:43]:
And again, giving yourself a little wiggle room and grace with this, it doesn't. Not everything needs to be perfect and rigid because that can create its own issues. But eating a protein rich breakfast, ideally within two hours of waking, and similarly, it doesn't have to be first thing in the morning. You get sunshine on your eyes, first thing in the morning, you eat. It could be okay, hey, maybe within two hours of waking, can I eat something and can I get outside? And it could be as simple as that.
Erin Holt [00:24:08]:
Okay, so eating first thing in the morning to the best of your ability.
Rachel Mistry [00:24:12]:
In the morning, and then are you eating enough? Kind of like we've spoken about balancing your blood sugar, which I know we've spoken a lot about on other podcast episodes and you've spoken about this too. If your blood sugar is out of whack, your cortisol curve will be out of whack and everything else will be as a result. And then move your body in a way that feels good to you. So for one person, this might be going to a workout class. For another person it could be a walk, it could be strength training, whatever feels good to you. I say like, let's keep it simple.
Erin Holt [00:24:45]:
And for circadian rhythm support, ideally you are working out the same time every day. But this is where I think, okay, that's like the idealistic version of how we can do something. And then we also have to look practical practically at our lives. And don't let perfect be the enemy of good. So moving your body at some point during the day is better than saying, oh, I didn't hit my 10am workout, so I'm just gonna sit in this chair for the rest of the day too. So this is where we have to like, use some common sense and like use some critical thinking as well.
Erin Holt [00:27:08]:
What about evening? So that's kind of like the daytime, how you can support. What about nighttime?
Rachel Mistry [00:27:14]:
So in the evening, similar to the morning, eat breakfast or eat dinner. Eat breakfast. High protein fiber rich carbs balance your blood sugar. And then if this is realistic for your schedule from like an optimizing digestion standpoint, try to finish dinner 3ish hours before you go to bed if it's realistic. Similarly, like we're talking about setting a consistent wake up time, try to try to set a consistent bedtime routine. And then we really want to minimize blue light exposure before bed again, because that blue light can tell our bodies, hey, it's the middle of the day. This is really confusing if we're trying to unwind and fall asleep. So limiting screens and blue light can be a biggie too.
Erin Holt [00:27:58]:
One thing I'll say, because I just don't want people to freak out and it's a little bit contradictory to what I said earlier, which is like, hey, if you can't sleep at night, try eating a high carb snack before bed and then saying, okay, don't eat three hours before bed. So again, it's like, what is great in theory, what is what the research shows versus what is your physiology doing right now?
Erin Holt [00:28:21]:
And I will say that is the.
Erin Holt [00:28:23]:
Benefit of working with a practitioner like us, one on one, is that we can help you discern what's appropriate for you right now. Because it is true that restricting food two to three hours before bed can support your circadian rhythm and your sleep. And it is also true that some people need a little carby carb with a little protein before bed in order to sleep through the night. So we can help you discern that because when it comes to health and healing in the human body, it's all paradox, baby. It's multiple truths all at once. And we have to be okay with that. So if you're just getting all of your information from like TikTok or some influencer, it might not be the whole full spectrum. And you need to treat yourself on an individual basis.
Erin Holt [00:29:08]:
So again, from a circadian rhythm perspective, there's a lot of research behind time restricted eating, which is different than intermittent fasting. It can be the same, but not always. And time restricted eating is really more about eating, like Rachel said, when you wake up and then stop eating two to three hours before you go to sleep. So just kind of keep that in mind with context. And then sleep is always like, how much sleep do we get? I think that's also individual. What the research shows is that six and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep a night is great. Eight hours in bed.
Erin Holt [00:29:45]:
So I want to say that again, research shows eight hours in bed, six and a half hours of sleep because most people don't just put their head on a pillow and go to sleep and then wake up six and a half hours later. So what I like to do is I get in bed and I read. I do something relaxing. There is no phone in bed. If I bring my phone into my bed, that is a surefire recipe for not falling asleep. It just is. So don't be surprised if your sleep sucks and you're reading Kindles. I know, I know, I know.
Erin Holt [00:30:14]:
I know that the Kindles have the blue blockers. It's still a screen in your face right before you go to bed. If you struggle with sleep, don't do that. And so we just have to get, like, really honest with ourselves with our own evening routine and our own evening habits. So read a book by, like, a dim light and get yourself geared up. You also want to make sure that your room is dark, so can you speak into that a little bit? We were talking about the darkness deficiency.
Rachel Mistry [00:30:41]:
My husband will make fun of me because we have a fan that runs at night and I have a T shirt that goes over it to block off those little, like. Like the power lights kind of. And like you mentioned the Air Doctor There is a button you can push that turns it in the nighttime mode. I think so, so that it doesn't shine all those lights.
Erin Holt [00:30:56]:
But there's still one light, and I have to, like, put a sock on.
Rachel Mistry [00:30:58]:
Oh, maybe mine's in the other room. So, yeah, I have, like, clothes over different, like, devices and different machines in the bedroom. So make sure that your room is dark. And I always like to recommend dimming the lights as the night progresses. So using lamps instead of overhead lights, we will. We'll get into some specific, like, hacks and tools, too. We have these specific light bulbs in our bedroom that they're kind of more of an orange hue and they don't emit blue light.
Rachel Mistry [00:31:26]:
I got them off of Amazon. So dim the lights as the night progresses. And, yeah, limit your exposure to screens and kind of also thinking about what's going on in the evening, being really mindful about, you know, are you doing a really late night workout? Some people can handle that and they can do totally fine with it. But if you're engaging in exercise in a good way, exercise can spike cortisol. The problem is, for some people, you know, spiking cortisol before bed, it might disrupt your sleep. Cortisol and melatonin, they're like, opposite of one another. So that could be a Problem. If you have sleep issues, I would recommend not working out in the later half of the day.
Erin Holt [00:32:07]:
Yeah, some people can have a hard charging workout and then like, be like, I'm KO'd. I want to go right to sleep. But it's like, you should be eating after your workout. So, like that. How do you work out late, eat a full meal, and then go right to sleep? If you're doing it and it's working for you, keep doing it. But if you're doing it and it's not working for you, that might be why.
Rachel Mistry [00:32:27]:
And then along these same lines, being mindful about what are you allowing yourself to get exposed to in the evenings? Anything that creates stress can spike cortisol. This can disrupt your sleep again, because cortisol and melatonin are opposites of one another. Um, I recently watched that Netflix show, the Menendez Brothers. It's like monsters. The Menendez Brothers. And I think we watched like, we normally watch like one episode at a time. And one night we watched three episodes and I was like tossing and turning. I don't usually have problems with sleep.
Rachel Mistry [00:33:01]:
And Taylor and I were both like, I think we watched too much.
Erin Holt [00:33:04]:
That is. I feel like I said this on our recent show, but I can't remember. Hattie had. It was a rainy day and she doesn't really get much iPad time. And so she was like on the iPad for a way longer than she typically is. And then that night she's like, I can't fall asleep. And I'm like, totally. But you and I have pretty, like strict boundaries around not bringing work to bed or like not checking emails, not checking notifications, not checking client messages, things like that.
Erin Holt [00:33:37]:
And it's not like for sometimes, yes, it's stressful, but for me, sometimes I get excited or I'll get an idea. I'm like, eureka. Like, I want to do this. And then I'm in like full blown production mode right before I go to bed. So that's a.
Erin Holt [00:33:51]:
We're kind of sticklers for that one. I also don't watch any news before bed. Anything that would stress me out or agitate me. So nothing scary. No intense TV before bed. Nothing that's going to have like really graphic or violent scenes. Like, it's a hard no for me because it's going to impact my sleep, so I don't do that. All right, you mentioned some hacks.
Erin Holt [00:34:12]:
What are things that people can do to like, just assist knowing that we live in modern day. Can we lean on some modern day support?
Rachel Mistry [00:34:21]:
So I Have a lot of people who tell me that they unwind by watching tv and they're like, I know it's a screen. I know it's bad for me, but I just love it. Like, well, maybe you could consider getting some blue light blocking glasses. Blue light blocking or reducing glasses. So we have the RA Optics brand at home, and another really popular brand is Bon Charge. They're amber tinted. Like, they look orange, which is kind of different from some of those other blue light blockers that you'll see people wearing during the daytime that maybe have, like a really faint yellow hue.
Rachel Mistry [00:34:56]:
They just don't block out nearly as much blue light. And so that's one thing you can do.
Erin Holt [00:35:02]:
That's important. Like, my glasses that I wear for computer work and all of that, they have like the blue light blocker in it, but it's subtle. It's great for the computer. But in the nighttime, it's like a horse of a different color. We need, like a second set of glasses.
Rachel Mistry [00:35:15]:
Definitely. On your phones, there's a couple of different things you can do. There's like nighttime mode where it can just reduce blue light and it's more of a warm hue. I do that. And then I also make an effort to turn the actual brightness on my phone down. There's also. I haven't done this myself, but I've seen some people post about this on social media where if you go into your settings, you can turn your whole iPhone red, which just. I don't think I would want to use my phone at that point in time.
Erin Holt [00:35:44]:
I've done that accidentally, like, a few times when I'm, like, trying to, like, decline a call. I'll hit the side button a few times, and all of a sudden my whole phone goes red. It is creepy. It is scary, and it's like, just really hard to see. I'm like, I'm just gonna. How about I just don't use my phone? Like, maybe I just don't use my phone rather than making it all red. But, hey, that's like a pro tip. You mentioned light bulbs.
Erin Holt [00:36:06]:
Those are just orange light bulbs you get on Amazon.
Rachel Mistry [00:36:09]:
Amazon. It's like blue. There's no blue light in them. And so it's not that different from a normal lamp light, but it looks more orange. And yeah, it's. It's like a different hue. We like it. It's nice because we use lamps in our bedroom instead of the overhead lights.
Erin Holt [00:36:25]:
I use a salt lamp. Yeah. Because it's like, just dim. And so that's what I. I put beside my bed. And that's what I read. It's just kind of like vibey. Yeah, yeah.
Erin Holt [00:36:35]:
Dim light.
Rachel Mistry [00:36:37]:
And what some people. I have seen this. At my previous clinic, one of the practitioners had this big, like, screen protector that they would put over their computer if they were working late. That is an option. Alternatively, you could just wear the glasses because you can use it for so many other things too.
Erin Holt [00:36:53]:
What do you mean? The screen protector, it's like a cloth, almost like a.
Rachel Mistry [00:36:57]:
Like a plasticky thing.
Erin Holt [00:36:59]:
Oh, oh, like what?
Rachel Mistry [00:37:00]:
You would put an important piece of paper in that type of protector. They would just like set it over their computer screen to filter blue light.
Erin Holt [00:37:10]:
Oh, interesting. I've never seen that before.
Rachel Mistry [00:37:12]:
Yeah, I would say just do the glasses maybe instead, but up to you. And yeah, there was this really interesting article. Deanna Minich recently posted about this on Instagram. And it was a study that looked at. Or essentially the conclusion from the study was that wearing blue light blockers for two to three hours a night for one month improved glucose, insulin, and sleep quality in generally healthy men. So even if you don't have major health concerns, all the more reason to limit your blue light. We can just start to see some optimization happening.
Erin Holt [00:37:49]:
Yeah, I saw that and I thought that was so cool because, I mean, two to three hours, it's like, that's like when you're watching TV at the end of the day. And one month is like not that long of a time to see significant turnaround. Also, just to highlight because when we people are like hip to dip, they know metabolism and blood sugar regulation by this point in the game. It's important, but we're like, still fixated on the carb grams. You know, it's like, okay, my glucose is high or my insulin's high, I have to drop my carbs. And it's like, maybe, maybe that's part of it. But there's so many other factors that go into glucose and insulin regulation in the body, and this is one of them. Okay, so let's say somebody's going through the seasonal shift.
Erin Holt [00:38:32]:
They have fatigue and like, just kind of wonkiness, but it like, doesn't go away. What are you thinking? Like, how does somebody differentiate, okay, is this actually just a transitional thing because the seasons are changing and I just need circadian rhythm support? Or like, maybe there's something actually bigger going on that's contributing to my symptoms?
Rachel Mistry [00:38:51]:
I think it's. And to the differentiating factor would kind of be how long are your symptoms going on for. Right. It's not unusual to feel a little off for a day, a week, maybe two tops, especially if you're doing international travel and all that jazz. But if it's lasting more than you know, I'd say like 10, 12 days, then this is a sign something deeper might be going on. And you can always start with the foundations that we've outlined above. This is again where we can really see the needle move for some people. But if this, if these strategies aren't helping you, then, you know, we might want to consider doing some additional testing or thinking about some potential other root causes.
Rachel Mistry [00:39:33]:
Like in our practice, fatigue, low energy, brain fog. Some of the contributing factors that we can see for these symptoms are nutrient deficiencies. So like low B vitamins, vitamin D, zinc, issues with thyroid. So hypothyroidism or like cellular hypothyroidism, food sensitivities, mal digestion, malabsorption, not having enough minerals, and then sometimes toxicities as well like mold or heavy metals and things like that.
Erin Holt [00:40:01]:
Yeah. So if we wanted to release this right around the time that the daylight, daylight saving time was happening, so you can kind of reinforce yourself through those like that two week transition. But if you're dragging ass and you're feeling lousy beyond just the 2 week transition of the time change, then reach out to us and we can really help you figure out what the underlying cause is, what the heck is going on, and put you on a treatment plan to get you feeling better.
Rachel Mistry [00:40:32]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:40:33]:
Okay, cool. Well, thanks for joining us, you guys, and we'll catch you next week.
Erin Holt [00:40:44]:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast. If you got something from today's show, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend and keep coming back for more.
Erin Holt [00:40:55]:
Take care of you.
