Hello and welcome to this video on resetting your circadian rhythms for better sleep and energy.
Our bodies' circadian rhythms and their alignment with the cycles of the earth impact every level of our experience,
More than we sometimes may realize.
If there's an imbalance in our circadian rhythms,
It can result in poor sleep.
Digestive issues,
Intolerance to stress,
Cravings,
And nervous system dysregulation.
I found this out the hard way.
Several years ago,
I had started feeling burnt out,
Exhausted,
And depleted much of the time.
Even doing something like going to a community gathering,
Or going to a birthday party,
Or going to a dance.
I felt like I really had to manage my energy because otherwise I would just be exhausted.
I went to the naturopath and I got my cortisol levels tested.
And what I learned was if you've been burning the candle at both ends for an extended period of time,
Or if you've been through a phase of chronic adversity,
Stress,
Or trauma,
Often the body starts to increase its cortisol levels and the cortisol levels will get quite high.
But if you've been running on empty and pushing past your body signals for an extended period of time,
Then eventually the cortisol levels end up getting quite low.
And that's what happened to me.
And that's why I was so tired all the time.
But the good news is that I went to the naturopath again recently and I got my cortisol levels tested again.
And now my cortisol levels are well within a healthy range.
And I used the six practices that I'll share in this video to rebalance my circadian rhythms and my cortisol levels.
And I also took a lot of time to learn how to self-regulate my nervous system.
Here are six ways to begin balancing your circadian rhythms and giving your body the resources it needs to regulate stress and restore balance in the nervous system.
Number one,
Having a consistent time of when you wake up and when you go to bed,
And gradually moving to an earlier bedtime.
I can vulnerably tell you that I had a lot of resistance to this one,
But it has helped a lot.
Planning meals at regular times and eating during daylight hours in alignment with the daily waxing and waning of various hormones like cortisol and insulin.
Eating larger meals earlier in the day and less towards the end of the day.
Number three,
Minimizing caffeine intake from things like chocolate,
Coffee,
And sugar,
Especially later in the day.
And I know this one can sometimes be hard.
Number four,
Turning off the Wi-Fi at night to promote deeper sleep.
Number five,
Getting daily exercise and movement,
Preferably outdoors.
And number six,
Having more natural light exposure in the morning as close to when you wake up as possible.
One rule of thumb is within 20 minutes of when you wake up to go outside and view the sun for about two to 10 minutes.
I found this super helpful.
And also limiting screen time,
Which is a source of unnatural light.
I hope that you find these tools as helpful as I have.
And if you'd like to go deeper on the journey of learning to become an active operator of your nervous system,
I'd love to invite you to join me on my 10-day course here on Insight Timer,
Vagus Nerve and Nervous System Self-Regulation.
You can find the course by tapping on my name,
Prema Gaya,
Underneath this video.
That will take you to my teacher profile,
And under the Courses tab,
You'll find the course.
Thank you so much for being here with me today,
And I'm sending many blessings from my heart to yours.
