For the natural athlete this type of physical abuse is a formula for disaster. Periods of illness, injury and regress instead of progress are assured.

 The human being is hardwired to sleep when it gets dark and awake when it gets light. Our ancestors, before electric light, lived this way. Modern technology eats into this valuable sleep time by allowing us to stay up late, watching TV or working on the computer. Regardless of your reason for doing it – your body wants to go to sleep when darkness occurs.

 Years of pushing these natural urges back so you can stay up later creates an unsynchronized SCN. Based upon my research and personal experience, you can resynchronize the SCN – but it takes between 2 and 6 months depending upon your level of disruption. The health and performance benefits are astounding. Here’s an experiments that you can try at home.

 Look on the Internet for the sunrise / sunset schedule for your city. I use sunsetsunrise.com. Plug in your city and look for the Civil Twilight sunrise and sunset times. Now prepare to get into bed within an hour of when the sun sets which should be precisely the Civil Twilight time depending upon your geographic location. You can use some melatonin if you can’t fall asleep quickly. If you use melatonin take it around 30 to 45 minutes prior to planned bedtime.

 Leave the blinds in your bedroom opened so the daylight can come in as the sun rises in the morning. This will allow you to awake very peacefully. If this is not practical and you need to set an alarm to synchronize waking up with the sunrise, then do so. Once you get out of bed immediately go to the window or outside and let the daylight hit your face – eyes open. This is key as this causes the retina to release GABA, which shuts down melatonin production and establishes the period of activity for the SCN, which primes systems responsible for locomotion like the thyroid and adrenals for the ensuing tasks. Indoor light will not accomplish this phenomenon, as the required wavelengths are present only in outdoor daylight.

 After doing this for a couple weeks you should start to feel different. More alert during the day, a sense of wellbeing, fewer mood swings, greater energy, less difficulty controlling hunger and stabilization of the diurnal rhythm of blood pressure are but a few benefits. After doing it for a couple months these changes will become more permanently encoded. You will also notice that you automatically feel tired when the sun goes down – the way you did when you were a child.

 Reestablishing this rhythm is good for overall health and age-management. It will also aid you in making better gains and recover faster from training. It will not, however, make you very popular with your friends.

References

Borghi C, Costa FV, Boschi S, Mussi A & Ambrosioni E 1986 Predictors of stable hypertension in young borderline subjects: a five-year follow-up study. Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology 8 S138–S141.

 Balsalobre A, Brown SA, Marcacci L, Tronche F, Kellendonk C, Reichardt HM, Schutz G & Schibler U 2000 Resetting of circadian time in peripheral tissues by glucocorticoid signaling. Science 289 2344–2347.

 Buijs RM,Wortel J & Hou YX 1995 Colocalization of gammaaminobutyric acid with vasopressin, vasoactive intestinal peptide, and somatostatin in the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus. Journal of Comparative Neurology 358 343–352.

 Buijs RM, Wortel J, Van Heerikhuize JJ, Feenstra MG, Ter Horst GJ, Romijn HJ & Kalsbeek A 1999 Anatomical and functional demonstration of a multisynaptic suprachiasmatic nucleus adrenal (cortex) pathway. European Journal of Neuroscience 11 1535–1544.

 Buijs RM, Chun SJ, Niijima A, Romijn HJ & Nagai K 2001 Parasympathetic and sympathetic control of the pancreas: a role for the suprachiasmatic nucleus and other hypothalamic centers that are involved in the regulation of food intake. Journal of Comparative Neurology 431 405–423.

 Dai JP, Vandervliet J, Swaab DF & Buijs RM 1998a Postmortem anterograde tracing of intrahypothalamic projections of the human dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus. Journal of Comparative Neurology 401 16–33.

 Dai JP, Vandervliet J, Swaab DF & Buijs RM 1998b Postmortem tracing reveals the organization of hypothalamic projections of the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the human brain. Journal of Comparative Neurology 400 87–102.

Delaiglesia HO, Blaustein JD & Bittman EL 1995 The suprachiasmatic area in the female hamster projects to neurons containing estrogen receptors and GnRH. Neuroreport 6 1715–1722.

Eilam R, Malach R, Bergmann F & Segal M 1991 Hypertension induced by hypothalamic transplantation from genetically hypertensive to normotensive rats. Journal of Neuroscience 11 401–411.

 Goncharuk VD, Van Heerikhuize J, Dai JP, Swaab DF & Buijs RM 2001 Neuropeptide changes in the suprachiasmatic nucleus in primary hypertension indicate functional impairment of the biological clock. Journal of Comparative Neurology 431 320–330.

 Goncharuk VD, Van Heerikhuize J, Swaab DF & Buijs RM 2002Paraventricular nucleus of the human hypothalamus in primary hypertension: activation of corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons. Journal of Comparative Neurology 443 321–331.

 Kalsbeek A & Strubbe JH 1998 Circadian control of insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis is independent of the temporal distribution of feeding. Physiology and Behaviour 63 553–560.

 Kalsbeek A, Garidou ML, Palm IF, Van der Vliet J, Simonneaux V, Pevet P & Buijs RM 2000 Melatonin sees the light: blocking GABA-ergic transmission in the paraventricular nucleus induces daytime secretion of melatonin. European Journal of Neuroscience 12 3146–3154.

 La Fleur SE, Kalsbeek A, Wortel J, Fekkes ML & Buijs RM 2001 A daily rhythm in glucose tolerance: a role for the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Diabetes 50 1237–1243.

 Van der Beek EM, Horvath TL, Wiegant VM, Van Den Hurk R & Buijs RM 1997 Evidence for a direct neuronal pathway from the suprachiasmatic nucleus to the gonadotropin-releasing hormone system: combined tracing and light and electron microscopic immunocytochemical studies. Journal of Comparative Neurology 384 569–579.