Your alarm goes off and instead of turning over to stretch and getting out of bed, you turn over and hit the snooze button for the 3rd time this morning. Or if you are like me, you hit the snooze button at least 3 times, but you also reset your alarm at least once; thinking to yourself that you can just skip blow drying your hair today because you would rather have the 10 minutes more of sleep. My new years resolution for 2011 was to become a morning person; that resolution didn't even make it a day. So what gives? Why does my body feel like it needs those 10 extra minutes every morning instead of just getting up like it should be doing? Instead of snoozing in the morning I could have taken my dog for a run or to the park, I could have wrote my blog, I could have made my lunch, I could have read the paper, I could have gone to work on time, there are many other productive things that I could have done, but none seem more important than resetting my alarm. Not only do many people struggle like I do with the alarm clock, but they also rely on caffeine to get themselves going and to be able to function in the morning.
Then we have the opposite side of the spectrum; the morning people. The people that set their alarm the night before and jump out of bed as soon as their alarm goes off for the first time in the morning, and certainly don't need caffeine in the morning to function.
So what makes someone a morning person and someone a snoozer?
The body has a natural clock built into it; letting you know when it's time to go to sleep and when it's time to wake up, this is called the circadian rhythm. The normal pattern of the circadian rhythm can be see with cortisol being high in the morning and low in the evening; this rhythm is controlled by the hypothalamus in the brain. The opposite is happening with the hormone Melatonin, which is high at night and low in the morning. Melatonin is controlled by the retina in the eye which can sense light and dark; light inhibits the pineal gland to release melatonin, while dark permits the pineal gland to release melatonin.
Cortisol levels should be the highest in the morning because during sleep the body is going through a natural fasting state. During this fasting state the body requires the adrenal glands to release cortisol in order to break down the storage form of glucose in the body. On average the body will use up 2/3 of its glycogen (which is the stored form of glucose) levels after a typical nights sleep. Even though you are sleeping it doesn't mean that your body doesn't need a constant supply of glucose. As you wake up there is less of a demand for cortisol release since the body doesn't demand as much glucose from gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis.
The symptoms related to abnormal sleep patterns such as, trouble falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, and having a difficult time getting out of bed can be due to an abnormal release of cortisol by the adrenals in the circadian rhythm. Usually the issues are adrenal hyperfunction, which is when cortisol peaks in the evening when it should be low, or adrenal hypofunction, which is when cortisol levels are low in the morning when they should be high.
Lifestyle choices such as, night shifts or early morning commutes can affect the natural circadian rhythm of the body. The people that had these two different lifestyle choices where found to have different body clocks that controlled sleep-wake patterns by adjusting the body temperature and the hormones melatonin and cortisol. Researchers have named morning people "larks" and night people "night owls," and think that these preferences could actually be a genetic trait; although the theory has not yet been proven.
There are several causes for adrenal dysfunction such as blood sugar imbalances, medications, and stress. There are also many other things that adrenal dysfunction can effect such as, thyroid defects, GI issues, liver detoxification dysfunction, brain function, weight gain, and cardiovascular issues; to name a few.
So how can you make sure that your adrenals are working properly?
- Avoid adrenal stimulators- caffeine, allergic foods, highly processed foods, sugar, chemicals, alcohol, nicotine, etc
- Manage blood sugar- eating a protein breakfast soon after waking, eating more small meals throughout the day instead of just 3 large meals, not skipping meals, and including a quality protein source at each meal
- Exercise- make sure you are not overtraining. Aerobic exercises are crucial for maintaining proper adrenal function.
- Relax- take time for yourself to de-stress; however works best for you.
- Sleep- get at least 7 hours of good, uninterrupted sleep each night
Let's see if fixing the underlying physiological issues in our body can help us to retire our snooze button.
Goodnight, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz
Pura Vida!
Alica Ryan, NTP
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