Circadian Optimization Made Simple

Light:

• Get as much bright light as possible during the day. This is more important than just getting morning red light or watching the sunset. Daytime bright light exposure keeps daytime melatonin levels low. You don’t want melatonin to be chronically high, as it then becomes a metabolically suppressive signal that can drive depression and fatigue. 

• Use orange-tinted lights in the evening (2-3 hours before sleep), ones that simulate a sunset, to signal that the day is ending and kick off melatonin production.

• Make your room completely dark at night to enter full “power down” mode.

Habits:

• Avoid excess mental strain in the evening. To wind down in the evening, do your most productive work in the morning. 

• Painting, sculpting, light reading > long conversations or straining mental work in the evening.

• Go for a walk at least twice a day, ideally after breakfast and again after lunch. 

• Limit working out very late in the day/close to bedtime. 

• Go to bed around the same time daily. 

Food: 

• Have most of your calories earlier in the day. Large breakfast and lunch, smaller dinner. Late in the day, rising melatonin levels lower insulin sensitivity.

• Don’t go to bed with a rumbling stomach. Running out of liver glycogen at night spikes adrenaline levels and wakes you up, ruining your sleep. Have a bedtime snack (like hot milk with honey + a piece of fruit).

• Eat breakfast within an hour of waking up.