In her quest to better understand how factors like when we eat and how much sunlight we get affect our ability to feel rested, happy and balanced, Lynne Peeples went 50 feet underground for 10 days.
Peeples, science journalist and author of the book “Internal clock: Living in harmony with our circadian rhythms,” he found Airbnb in Arkansas which was once a bunker during the cold war.
“This guy bought an old nuclear missile silo from the government and filled it up,” she said in the episode “Every day better with Leah Smart” podcast.
There was “no daylight” in the bunker, she said. Peeples also got permission from the Airbnb host to cover all the clocks on the digital devices with black tape so she would have no idea what time it was down there.
The lights in the bunker were dim and red. “We know that red is the wavelength of light that it has the least effect on our circadian rhythms“, she said.
For her book, Peeples wanted to explore what would happen to her internal clocks “if I cut myself off from those cues that they need to tell time.”
During her stay, Peeples documented her experience with voice recordings with the plan to use timestamps to see how consistent she was with her typical schedule — such as when she ate breakfast or went to bed.
“The first few days were amazing because later I could look at the timestamps from the voice recordings I made and I was pretty accurate about living a 24-hour day,” she said. “Our clocks inside us show pretty good time.”
But about halfway through the experience, Peeples started to feel “really out of it” which she compared to severe jet lag.
“In the ‘worst case’ I was completely freaked out. I was living my day while everyone else above ground was sleeping. So I was free for almost 12 hours,” she said. – I felt the consequences of that.
Peeples began experiencing moodiness, “feeling hot and cold,” and hunger after her internal clock was out of sync with her usual schedule. She also noticed that her thinking was cloudier and she was more clumsy than usual.
“Not that it wasn’t expected, but to actually feel it, it was pretty profound.”
‘Getting the right amount of light’ is essential to your circadian rhythm
When your circadian rhythm is out of sync, you can experience fatigue, insomnia, headaches or even depression, according to Cleveland Clinic. The results of the Peeples experiment further prove what research has shown about how certain factors like exposure to sunlight can affect your circadian rhythm.
“To keep that calibration, it’s approx get enough bright light, especially in the morningPeeples said.
“Within the first hour or two of waking up, if you can expose your eyes to bright daylight,” you’re in good shape.
Go for a 15-minute walk in the morning and “stay as close to the window as possible throughout the day,” she suggested. At night, dim the lights in your home as bedtime approaches prepare your body for bed.
Aligning your lifestyle with the 24-hour cycle is essential for your body’s functions, including processing food properly and “stimulating our immune system” to fight off certain pathogens. It’s the best way to “make all those body systems work better by doing the right things at the right time,” she he said.
Peeples also provided a list of things that can disrupt your circadian rhythm and affect not only the quality and quantity of sleep:
- Darkness during the day
- Too much light at night
- Eating at the wrong time of day (snack whenever)
- Changing the time on the clocks twice a year, when we “go back” and “spring forward“
- Traveling through time zones
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