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Sign UpCircadian disruption is a real challenge, but small daily shifts can help. Logan Pendergrast, Ph.D., shares actionable tips on light, sleep, meals, and movement to better align your rhythm with your life.
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so as a final takeaway here we'll just
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move into a summary of what we've
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learned today our circadian rhythms are
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an integral part of our general
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functioning in our body and they are
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sensitive to light so the perception of
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light in our environment coordinates
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information to our eyes which then
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coordinates to our brain which
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coordinates to the rest of our body so
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that our body knows what time it is and
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what this does is it oscillates our
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release of various hormones that help us
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manage our energy levels now there are
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tips to help maintain our circadian
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function whether we're night owls or
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early birds one of these tips is to just
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maintain a consistent sleep schedule and
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this can be done by just coordinating
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what time we go to bed and what time we
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wake up every day even on days when
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we're not working and this helps our
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brain to know when to release hormones
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like melatonin so that we can more
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effectively prepare for sleep
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the next tip here is just coordinating
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and making sure that we're eating our
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meals at consistent times every day so
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that our digestive hormones can know
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when to be released to help us more
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effectively deposit the food that we're
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eating into our cells and utilize them
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for energy the next tip here is to get
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natural light exposure as early as
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possible upon waking so that we can get
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the release of those helpful hormones
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such as cortisol to help us feel more
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alert and to have an improvement in our
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memory and cognitive function and then
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our last tip here is to avoid uh
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exposure to artificial light as we reach
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our time to sleep and the reason for
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this is because as we prepare for our
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time to sleep we see the release of
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melatonin and if our eyes are perceiving
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light then our brain thinks that it is
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daytime and that will impair the release
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of melatonin which can impair our
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ability to sleep and so if we can
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remember these tips we can more tightly
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coordinate our circadian rhythms and
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function better and be more energetic as
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we move throughout our day and so that
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is all I have for today i will see you
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at our next lesson thank you for
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listening to Night
