Your body has various natural rhythms, including mental rhythms, emotional rhythms, hormonal and sleep rhythms. Many of your body’s rhythms are called “circadian rhythms”, which means they occur in approximately a 24-hour cycle. Your eating rhythms and sleeping rhythms are examples of circadian rhythms. Within the circadian (24-hour) cycle, people naturally sleep 7-8 hours and are awake 14-16 hours. During the awake hours, your mental and physical rhythms are most active. During deep sleep your breathing and heart rhythms are quieter, your metabolic rate slows, and your hormonal rhythms change. The stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine (adrenaline) slow and then increase to maximal amounts about two hours before awakening so that your body is ready for activity. |
If you break your circadian rhythm pattern, it can throw off your sleep cycle, and if you don’t sleep for a number of days it can affect your mental, emotional and hormonal rhythms. Stress throws the natural sleep cycle out of sync. When you allow feelings of overwhelm or stress to accumulate in your system during the day, it throws off your body’s natural rhythms. If you don’t know how to manage these feelings during the day, they can disrupt your sleep patterns at night; and when sleep isn’t restful, you wake up tired. One study, for example, indicated that on average 41 percent of sleeplessness cases were related to stress or other emotional factors. |
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