Jade Wu

And if you have other medical conditions already, like chronic pain or diabetes or high blood pressure, all those things are going to be more exacerbated or your symptoms are going to be worse when your circadian rhythm is misaligned from the outside world.

So humans, most of us have 24.1 to 24.3 hour circadian rhythms. So that means that left to our own devices, if we didn't have any work, school, lights, schedules, any cues for when we should be doing what, if we just lived in perpetual twilight in a dark cave, then we will naturally feel sleepy, go to sleep and wake up later every day. Wow. That's for most of us.

So humans, most of us have 24.1 to 24.3 hour circadian rhythms. So that means that left to our own devices, if we didn't have any work, school, lights, schedules, any cues for when we should be doing what, if we just lived in perpetual twilight in a dark cave, then we will naturally feel sleepy, go to sleep and wake up later every day. Wow. That's for most of us.

So humans, most of us have 24.1 to 24.3 hour circadian rhythms. So that means that left to our own devices, if we didn't have any work, school, lights, schedules, any cues for when we should be doing what, if we just lived in perpetual twilight in a dark cave, then we will naturally feel sleepy, go to sleep and wake up later every day. Wow. That's for most of us.

Some of us have 24.5 or even 25-hour rhythms.

Some of us have 24.5 or even 25-hour rhythms.

Some of us have 24.5 or even 25-hour rhythms.

Yeah, yeah. And these folks have a really hard time functioning in our 24-hour world because every day they're having to fight upstream basically to live in a 24-hour world when their body wants to live in a 25-hour world. And then occasionally someone's clock might be 23.8, for example. They're getting sleepy at 7 p.m. They're waking up at 3, you know, ready to go.

Yeah, yeah. And these folks have a really hard time functioning in our 24-hour world because every day they're having to fight upstream basically to live in a 24-hour world when their body wants to live in a 25-hour world. And then occasionally someone's clock might be 23.8, for example. They're getting sleepy at 7 p.m. They're waking up at 3, you know, ready to go.

Yeah, yeah. And these folks have a really hard time functioning in our 24-hour world because every day they're having to fight upstream basically to live in a 24-hour world when their body wants to live in a 25-hour world. And then occasionally someone's clock might be 23.8, for example. They're getting sleepy at 7 p.m. They're waking up at 3, you know, ready to go.

So it's not really helpful to be at either end of the spectrum of having too short of a circadian day or too long of a circadian day because our society runs on 24 hours.

So it's not really helpful to be at either end of the spectrum of having too short of a circadian day or too long of a circadian day because our society runs on 24 hours.

So it's not really helpful to be at either end of the spectrum of having too short of a circadian day or too long of a circadian day because our society runs on 24 hours.

Great question. So light is by far the strongest cue that we can have. Because if you think about it, your brain lives in a dark cave, right? It's inside your skull. It doesn't know what's going on in the outside world. Really the only way that it knows whether it's daytime or nighttime is is by how much light is coming in to your eyes.

Great question. So light is by far the strongest cue that we can have. Because if you think about it, your brain lives in a dark cave, right? It's inside your skull. It doesn't know what's going on in the outside world. Really the only way that it knows whether it's daytime or nighttime is is by how much light is coming in to your eyes.

Great question. So light is by far the strongest cue that we can have. Because if you think about it, your brain lives in a dark cave, right? It's inside your skull. It doesn't know what's going on in the outside world. Really the only way that it knows whether it's daytime or nighttime is is by how much light is coming in to your eyes.

So yeah, your eyes are not only the windows to your soul, but also the windows to your circadian rhythm. So ideally, you have lots of light coming into your eyes during the daytime, and that tells the brain, oh, hey, it's daytime. Let's send out signals to the rest of the body to get your metabolism running, get your body temperature up, and get everything up and running.

So yeah, your eyes are not only the windows to your soul, but also the windows to your circadian rhythm. So ideally, you have lots of light coming into your eyes during the daytime, and that tells the brain, oh, hey, it's daytime. Let's send out signals to the rest of the body to get your metabolism running, get your body temperature up, and get everything up and running.

So yeah, your eyes are not only the windows to your soul, but also the windows to your circadian rhythm. So ideally, you have lots of light coming into your eyes during the daytime, and that tells the brain, oh, hey, it's daytime. Let's send out signals to the rest of the body to get your metabolism running, get your body temperature up, and get everything up and running.

And then if there's not a lot of light coming into the eyes, then that's where the brain says, oh, okay, it's nighttime, so it's time to send out some melatonin, which is the messenger that will tell the rest of the body to close down the factory, to shut down the machines, and to start resting for the night.