You Have a Rolex in Your Brain

And it's what keeps you alive - so take care of it!

Humans are as dependent on SUNLIGHT as plants are.

It sounds like an obvious statement. But the truth is most of us don't live as if we know this. And this is at the root of most of the stuff that ails us.

ALL of us have systems in our biology that are fine-tuned to receive inputs from the environment we're in. These inputs guide ALL physiological processes in us (metabolism, heart rate, digestion, sleep-wake cycles, menstrual cycles in women, hormone regulation, production of brain chemicals, breathing, etc. ). These physiological responses, or Outputs, are all results of the inputs our bodies receive. Some outputs happen together, others at different times, and most are dependent on something happening before, and which leads to the next thing (for instance, we can’t eliminate waste if digestion and assimilation of the food we eat is also compromised).  

All physiological processes in us are interconnected and interdependent! They happen in a cyclic, rhythmic manner, at specific times of day or night

This regular adaptation throughout a 24 hr. period is referred to as the circadian rhythm, originating from the Latin words circa meaning “around” and dies meaning “day”. In healthy humans, where proper inputs haven't been tampered with, different processes happen when they're supposed to, as illustrated by the clock graph -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

Did you ever stop to wonder how it is that these processes are all coordinated so that everything happens when it's supposed to?

We are, each and every one of us, the proud owners of the most  expensive (priceless) time-keeping mechanism on this planet!

Each and every one of us has a clock in our brains that runs on light that comes in through the eye. This quantum brain clock resides in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN for short), a region in the hypothalamus. The genes that comprise this quantum clock are synched exclusively to the light signals they receive at every moment of the day or night. In an ideal situation, these would be from natural sunlight!

The 2017 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine went to the 3 researchers that worked out the genes involved in how the SCN processes light. You can go here for more information.

Much like the control tower at a busy airport, the SCN coordinates all the 100,000s of tasks that are happening in each cell at any given moment. And it uses light signals to do so.

What Happens If This Central Brain Clock Is Out of Sync?

Think about what goes on when you travel by air over several time zones. Say you go from Oregon, United States to Milan, Italy. This 8-hour difference is why you feel off for a few days. Sure, travel stresses don’t help matters: improper hydration while on the move, you miss your flight, the food is sub-par while on the plane, you’re immersed in a sea of man-made electromagnetic frequencies that further dehydrate your cells, to the point that, if you’re old enough to have wrinkles, “your wrinkles have wrinkles!” (like my mom’s been known to say), and so forth. In any event, once in Milan your sleep is upside down and inside out and backwards all at once. Maybe your bowel movements are off kilter. And you’re hungry at the “wrong” times (i.e. you want to eat at at midnight Milan-time (cause that’s morning back in Oregon). You feel irritable, in spite of all the cool things to see and the amazing food to sample. And so on.

Well, the same thing happens at a subcellular and subatomic particle level within our bodies when our brain clock doesn’t get the right light inputs to tell it what time it is. This “modern-day jet lag” sets in completely and without us even getting on a plane! And the presentations indicative of modern-day jet lag are identical to those that come with bonafide jet lag:

Modern-Day Jet Lag Sleep Issues

Ideal Scenario - we wake up as the sun comes up and go outside to get sunlight signals from early morning exposure through our eyes and skin. The amount of blue light present at sunrise signals our adrenal glands to strengthen production of cortisol (a hormone essential for life). This adequately-timed exposure to blue light sets a timer for cortisol to wind down later in the day so that melatonin (the hormone we most commonly associate with sleep) can begin to be made in time for night time slumber.

Being outside within the first 2-3 hours after sunrise exposes our eyes and skin to ultraviolet A (UVA) frequencies from the sun. UVA is a key signal needed for production of serotonin that morning (more on this below), which will become pineal melatonin that evening!

Then, later that evening, as the sun sets, we don’t turn on all the bright, blue-rich lights around our home, we read a book and rest, we go to bed by 10pm in a dark room. We don’t watch TV or endlessly scroll on the cellphone. Why? Because we know this set-up supports melatonin production for adequate sleep. Adequate sleep is essential because it is when we sleep adequately that we “clean house” - our bodies can run special detoxification and cleansing mechanisms to ensure our cells are healthy and our mitochondria are able to make enough energy (ATP and metabolic water) to power all the hormonal and enzymatic processes that need to take place to ensure survival and optimal health.

Modern Jet Lag Scenario - we wake up mid-to-late-morning because we went to bed past midnight the night before, and we go straight for the cellphone on our bedside table to check e-mail/etc. Or alternatively, we wake up sleep-deprived early in the morning to go to work and grab that phone first thing and then make a b-line for the coffee and muffin. Or alternatively again, if we’re old enough to not sleep through the night, we get up to pee in the wee hours and turn on a light, and then we are wide awake by 4am and go for that cellphone on our bedside table to scroll and whatnot. And then, to boot, in the evenings, ALL the lights are on, we’re “winding down” in front of a show or movie, and we’re multitasking by also doom-scrolling on the tablet/cellphone. Incidentally, this artificial light at night (ALaN for short)-induced “second wind” (no winding down over here!) is what got me through graduate school… 20 years later and I’m still reversing the damage.

In all cases (sleeping into the late morning hours, going to bed late or waking up before dawn) the first light our eyes see is that not-so-sweet hue of tech-blue light that is synthetic and highly processed so that the reds and infrareds and ultraviolets present in natural morning sunlight are completely eradicated (similar to what happens to an apple when it’s turned into apple juice - the fiber, the minerals, trace minerals and other important nutrients present in the whole, “full-spectrum” fruit have been processed out, leaving behind the sugar). The amount of blue light in artificial LED light bulbs, TVs and other screens like our cellphone screen is identical to the amount of blue light present in sunlight at noon. Why does this matter? Well, when our eyes see that artificial blue light in the early morning, or at night, at a time when much less blue light is naturally present, our Rolex thinks its mid-day. And so, the brain tells the adrenals to churn out cortisol in massive amounts at a time when the body is not ready for those amounts. The timing for melatonin production is thrown off kilter, and our sleep cycle is discombobulated. The rest is history.

In addition, when we miss that morning UVA window, we totally miss out on making serotonin, when then would’ve become melatonin. A few days of this and one can really appreciate that “jet lag” scenario really setting in.

Modern-Day Jet Lag Constipation & Confused Hunger Cues

One needs to look no further than Traditional Chinese Medicine to see that different body functions are priority at different times of day - case in point: the bowels and digestive tract as a whole.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Organ Body Clock

Our bowels are designed, when given the proper cues, to “wake up” in the early morning (best time for a bowel movement!) and slow down by around 8-9pm each day. This is so that the body can allocate all it’s resources to cleaning and detoxing. If we have food in our gut when we go to bed (i.e. what happens when we eat late at night) we can’t adequately process that food AND our bodies can’t run other cleansing and detoxing functions while we sleep. The vicious cycles proceeds right on track: we wake up groggy, we can’t poop, we take stuff to help us “go” (cue the massive amounts of coffee - which, incidentally mess up cortisol), we maybe have breakfast, but most of the time we’re not hungry, cause the body is busy catching up from the night before. We eat later on, so now our insulin and leptin hormone levels get wonky. And so on and so forth.

That morning light I talked about up in the sleep section is key for signaling our gut microbiome and telling it the time of day and the season. Our gut bacteria change with the changing light in our environment. This applies not only to changing sunlight throughout the day and year, but also to our indoor light environment. Complex, full-spectrum light yields a complex, varied and diverse microbiome composition, essential for good health. Conversely, synthetic, highly-processed blue-only light yields a simple, non-diverse gut microbiome. We all know what happens when our gut microbiome becomes less diverse: dis-ease (assorted gut issues, leaky gut, IBS, food intolerances, etc. etc. and all of the above).

"We have finally learned that light is a nutrient much like food, and like food, the wrong kind can make us ill and the right kind can help keep us well."

— Dr. John Ott

Modern-Day Jet Lag Irritability (and other nervous system issues)

UVA light exposure on a daily basis ensures we make the proper brain chemicals necessary for optimal mental health.

When UVA frequencies interact with the benzene rings in the amino acids phenylalanine, tryptophan and histidine, for instance, a process for making downstream amino acids and eventually hormones and neurotransmitters is kick-started. Notice how dopamine and serotonin are important products of this cascade!

Dopamine is involved in motivation and reward pathways in our brains. Levels increase when we accomplish a goal or challenge, for instance. Serotonin is our “feel-good”, happiness and calmness neurotransmitter. It is also a key player in social/community settings. Like one of my mentors always says: “Graduation ceremonies are amazing serotonin fests!” (especially for the parents of the graduate). This is a hard-core oversimplification! Especially coming from me, the neuroscientist. But for now, you get the point.

And so what do we do about this? In the face of a dis-ease situation one must do something! Yes, there is a time to intervene and a time to sit back and wait. However, no amount of "intervention" or "waiting" will suffice until our internal, quantum clocks are properly re-aligned with the earth's time-keeping inputs: LIGHT (the light-dark 24hr cycle) and MAGNETISM (the Schuman frequency). When an individual's timing is out of sync with the earth's clock, all molecular processes required for proper functioning of cells and organs are off kilter. Inflammation and dis-ease ensue.

How Can We Re-Sync Our Rolex?

The good news? Re-synching your Rolex is not complicated! Well, let me rephrase: it’s simple, but it may be hard, depending on how engrained certain daily habits are. In fact, the most common response I get when I lay out the simple plan for resynching your body clock is “nah! it can’t be that easy!”, or, “seriously!?”

In any event, in the interest of time and space, I won’t go into the 5 steps for re-synching that brain clock here. I will just link to the FREE mini-course I’ve created for this exact purpose. It’s called Get Your Light Right - 30 Day Challenge. You can access it over here:

Get Your Light Right ~ FREE Mini-Course

And just think of this: every time you’re out there for sunrise: so am I! We’re already quantum entangled.

To “sunrising” together!

Amanda