Being more in tune with our natural rhythms aligns us to nature’s power and beauty. It’s easy to think of nature’s power in a dramatic flash of lightning or in the heat of the sun, but equal to this power is the strength of rejuvenation. We need to harness this power to retract and go inward in order to have the most effective, deep sleep that fuels our creative power and allows our natural beauty to fully shine through.
Radical Beauty is about living in harmony with nature’s inherent wisdom. From a sleep perspective, this means that the more in tune you are with natural light, the better. This shifts every season with the influence and timing of the sun and the larger bodies of energy beyond our planet. The sun coordinates the movement of the Earth around its axis, which influences the larger seasonal shifts as well as the daily shifts that create longer and shorter days. Even though these planetary bodies may seem unfathomably far away from the average person, they actually exert their influence on our bodies. Since we possess all of the main elements found in nature, Ayurveda believes we are miniature representations of the whole universe, the entire cosmos.
Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes in living beings (including not only animals but also plants and microbes) that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle. These are produced by natural factors in the body and respond to signals from the environment. The main external signal affecting circadian rhythms is light, which influences the turning on and off of an organism’s internal clock. Circadian rhythms influence sleep patterns, hormone release, body temperature, and other important bodily functions, while abnormal circadian rhythms have been associated with sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder.1
Circadian rhythms are important for us to consider in promoting Peak Beauty Sleep. If we live in tune with our natural body clocks and circadian rhythms, we will naturally be more active in the morning and wind down in the evening. An ideal time to work out, for instance, is in the morning, around the rising light and rising energy, or in the middle of the day, in the peak of sunlight, as opposed to late in the evening, when the sun is naturally descending, indicating a return inward toward relaxation. Late workouts can be overly stimulating and wake you up rather than bring you closer to sleep.
The brain’s electrical response to rhythmic sensory stimulation, such as pulses of sound or light,2 synchronizes with the natural, rhythmic changes in our environment. Our health, down to the minute cellular level, depends on the degree to which we are in harmony with the natural cycles of daytime and nighttime. Even basic functions in our body that we often take for granted, such as our blood pressure, immune system functions, and cellular growth, all depend on our rhythmic melatonin cycle. This in turn depends on syncing up properly with nature’s rhythms. We are, after all, inseparably one with nature.
When you consider the fact that Thomas Edison successfully tested the first electric lamp in 1879,3 you might be a little jolted (pun intended) to realize that artificial lights haven’t been around very long in the broad scope of human evolution. While the benefits of electricity are enormous and obvious, it has also introduced a set of health and beauty issues. This is due to the fact that artificial lighting allows us to experience daytime around the clock if we wish, making us completely out of tune with the natural rhythms of the planet.
The body’s master clock is made up of about 20,000 neurons, with sleep signals traveling from the pons, an area at the base of the brain, to the thalamus and then on to the thinking part of the brain, the cortex.4 The pineal gland produces melatonin, a hormone that communicates to the body information about light levels in the outside world. The light seen by your eyes influences how your brain interprets this information. When your body clock senses a decrease in light, ideally in the evenings, it signals your brain to produce more melatonin to induce drowsiness and sleep.
But now we are in an age where we are exposed to numerous new assailants on our inner sleep mechanism, including illuminated smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and laptops. We use these devices often right in our beds and directly before bedtime with increasing frequency. The eye is registering daytime levels of light later and later at night. A National Sleep Foundation survey found that nine out of ten Americans reported using a technological device in the hours before bed.5 With the increased light stimulation to our brains, hormones, and entire being, how can we expect the body to maintain normal sleep patterns?
The result is that we’ve lost the connection to our natural rhythms and the cycles of the environment around us. It’s important to refoster that connection. While your life might be extremely busy and hectic, shifting your schedule as much as possible toward going to bed closer to sunset and waking up closer to sunrise will help you align and synergize with the higher power of universal nature. Closer is the key word here, as it might seem impossible in modern life to go to bed at sunset and rise right at sunrise. But start with the baby step of going to bed half an hour earlier and waking up half an hour earlier. Also try at least eating dinner earlier, closer to sunset, which is also helpful for syncing closer to natural rhythms.
Exposure to natural light during the day is important as a contrast to the dark cycles of the night. This helps promote overall healthy sleep and waking cycles. If you want to have a peaceful nightly rhythm of sleeping, you have to also balance the opposite, the daylight. It’s important to have exposure to natural light on a regular basis. Just as our sleep rhythms have become corrupted by artificial light exposure long after daylight has naturally reduced, so our daily rhythms have been worn away by minimized exposure to natural light. Most of us spend the vast majority of our days indoors under artificial lights.
The neurotransmitter in our brain called serotonin increases with the light of each day. Serotonin influences daily and nightly rhythms, memory, appetite, and so on—in essence, all the factors that play a part in our internal rhythms. The amount of melatonin made available to the body in response to the darkness of the night actually depends on the concentration of serotonin secreted in response to the natural light we are exposed to during the day. Serotonin is broken down into melatonin, so there is a beautifully coordinated, natural rhythm present between the cycles of serotonin and melatonin, which depend on each other and are controlled by a changing environment.
Clearly, avoiding artificial light around bedtime is important for Peak Beauty Sleep, but interestingly, it turns out that not all light is created equal. In fact, using light color strategically might be helpful in smoothing out nervous-system activity.6 Research on the “color temperature” of light and its effects on the brain suggests that the “temperature” of the light is more important than its brightness. This means that on a color spectrum, yellow-white through red lights (which are considered low-color-temperature lights) have a far less detrimental effect on our systems than the blue lights on the other end of the spectrum.
Research has now pinpointed that electronics emanate blue light, which affects the brain more strongly than other colors and, in particular, disturbs our sleep. In other words, reducing light all around can be very helpful, but it’s critical to reduce blue light specifically. Unfortunately, blue light is emitted strongly and consistently from many different electronic devices. Using these devices near bedtime can have a detrimental effect on your sleep patterns and consequently your natural beauty expression.
A photoreceptor in the eye called melanopsin plays a role in establishing our day/night cycles and is particularly sensitive to a narrow band of blue light in the 460–480 nanometers (nm) range.7 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and School of Arts and Sciences studied the biological effects of blue light8 and found that melanopsin is very sensitive to blue light, which is emitted by digital devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers.9
This means that if you work on a tablet or laptop, or look at your smartphone before bed, you might find your sleep is delayed. This results in all of the adverse beauty and wellness implications we mentioned earlier, including accelerated aging, reduced performance in all your tasks,10 and suppression of natural human growth hormone, which you need to increase muscle mass and induce tissue repair.
An alarming 51 percent of people who text specifically in the hour before going to bed reported they were less likely to get a good night’s sleep, “every/almost every weeknight.”11 In a similar fashion, up to 77 percent use their computers or laptops in the hour before bed. Of those, 50 percent reported they were less likely to get a good night’s sleep, “every/almost every weeknight.”12
According to more than thirty years of studies conducted at the Division of Sleep Medicine at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the light from electronics has a significant effect on circadian (i.e., daily) rhythms of waking and sleeping. Throwing off your circadian rhythm affects how quickly you fall asleep as well as the quality of sleep you get.13 According to Dr. Charles A. Czeisler of Harvard Medical School, “Artificial light exposure between dusk and the time we go to bed at night suppresses release of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, enhances alertness and shifts circadian rhythms to a later hour—making it more difficult to fall asleep.”14
Answering work e-mails late at night, whether from your boss or regarding pending stressful deadlines, might also stir up anxiety that is not so conducive to sleep. You may be wondering, what about e-readers? These are one of the newest electronic phenomena to have an effect on our brains and biorhythms. A report from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that using such devices near bedtime caused users to take longer to fall asleep and led to disturbances in their circadian rhythm, suppression of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, delays in the timing of REM sleep, and decreased alertness the next morning.15
In short, the bright light from these devices stimulates your brain and, unfortunately, makes it think it’s daytime. This keeps your brain alert instead of allowing it to wind down when it senses that it is night. While there are some apps you can download onto devices to help reduce the emission of blue light, there is still some remaining stimulation from your electronic devices. You’d be better served turning them off earlier every evening.
Here are some of the most important steps you can take to cut down on sleep disturbances from artificial lights—especially electronic devices—to promote Peak Beauty Sleep.
It’s critical to put down your devices, including tablets, cell phones, and e-readers, at least an hour before bed if you want to get that profound beauty sleep that is critical to how you feel and look.
While you’re at it, be sure to fully turn off your cell phone when you go to bed—or at least put it in airplane mode. That way you won’t be disturbed by the sounds or lights from nighttime calls, texts, and e-mails. Plus, by cutting off the signal, you’ll have fewer electromagnetic frequencies, or invisible electric and magnetic fields radiating away from appliances that may have potentially harmful health effects, targeted at you during the night. You certainly don’t need that signal beaming at you all night long.
We all have to get up in the middle of the night for a bathroom break sometimes. If you turn on the bathroom light, however, the brightness can interrupt your circadian rhythms, making it difficult for you to go back to sleep. Instead, try using a night-light in the bathroom that isn’t visible from your bedroom, or keep a dim flashlight next to the bed. Avoid drinking large quantities of fluids before bedtime as well, in order to avoid this problem altogether.
Unfortunately, LED alarm clocks pose the same problems as other electronic devices: they introduce a source of light into your room that disrupts your circadian rhythm. Your alarm clock also gives off an electromagnetic frequency (EMF). Some studies link EMF exposure to melatonin interruption and depletion in rodents and humans,16 which is not good since melatonin is a hormone necessary for sound sleep. Switch to a battery-operated alarm clock or use your phone’s alarm, which should be in airplane mode at bedtime and throughout the night. Avoid placing other electronic devices such as radios or MP3 players on your bedside table as well.
While e-readers may be convenient for your commute or when traveling, opt for printed books at night. Reading from a printed book at night is actually relaxing and can help promote Peak Beauty Sleep.
To sleep better at night, get more natural light into your days. Wake up to the light by opening your curtains and letting it shine in. If you have to be indoors for much of your day because of your job, make an effort to go for a walk during the day, even if it’s just briefly to run errands or walk around your local park. Try to eat lunch outside when the weather permits. Even in the winter, get outside and into the light as much as possible. Bundle up when it’s cold. The more natural light exposure your eyes receive, the more in balance you will be, in rhythm between the alternating beauty sleeping and waking hours.