January 2025

Cycles

• Cycles Of Life
• The Sun Cycle – Circadian Rhythm
• Metabolic Cycles
• The Moon Cycle – Reproductive Rhythm

I imagine our nomadic ancestors wandering naked and barefoot on the Earth, the sun browning their skin and shining into their eyes. For them, following the sun’s movement in the sky was essential for their survival.

From sunrise to sunset, they would venture out in search of food. But once the sun was setting, they needed to hunker down in a shelter. Being exposed to the darkness of night made them vulnerable to other much larger predators.

I wonder if this is how our circadian cycle was formed.

Sun Cycle – Circadian Rhytem

hypothalamus, it sends a series of projections in an oscillatory rhythm. This leads to a peak cortisol level early in the morning, immediately after waking, causing alertness in readiness for the activity of the wake cycle.

Cortisol, most known as the stress hormone, increases alertness in the morning and when you feel threatened. The hormonal pathway that initiates cortisol release is called the HPA (Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal) and is responsible for alertness either due to stress or waking you up in the morning.

In her book The Inner Clock, author Lynne Peeples describes her experiences staying in an underground bunker without access to light or a clock for ten days. Forty-eight hours after she began her stay in the bunker, she lost sense of day and night. To pass the time, she practiced playing the harmonica and juggling. Her friends and family watched her on video while in the bunker and reported that her performances were significantly better in the morning than in the evening.

Cortisol keeps you alive and alert by:

• Managing blood glucose
• Overseeing blood pressure
• Modulating inflammation.

You want to find a silver lining between chronic low and chronic high cortisol. Chronic low cortisol levels lead to fatigue and depression. Chronic high cortisol levels, AKA chronic stress, lead to high blood pressure, high blood glucose, insulin resistance and diabetes, and increased inflammation.

In the evening, as light decreases, cortisol levels are reduced. Cortisol and melatonin work in a seesaw pattern, meaning that when one is reduced, the other increases. When cortisol level decreases and melatonin increases, you start to feel sleepy, which inhibits the HPA axis, allowing you to let go of stressors and get a good night’s sleep.

Around midnight, when cortisol levels are down, your cells clean and heal. This is a high time for immune cell production, tissue repair, and rebuild, and when the glymphatic system cleans the brain,

Cortisol & Stress

Allostasis is the process through which the body maintains stable cortisol levels. Chronically high cortisol increases blood glucose and blood pressure and decreases immune function.

100% of the clients that I meet struggle with stress. Stress is either one of the root causes of their condition or a result of their illness.

When chronic stress becomes your default, it can lead to:

The HPA axis is overactive, which basically means you have trained your brain to see threats everywhere. It is like “the cried wolf” story.

Cortisol production can become dysregulated with peeks and dips that are inappropriate to the time of day or the situation. That might look like insomnia or anxiety.

When cortisol receptors are exposed to constant high cortisol levels, they may reduce the number of cortisol receptors on their surfaces as a protective mechanism. Cortisol resistance is similar to insulin resistance and may lead to inflammation.

The best way to manage your cortisol levels is to establish a daily morning routine of light exposure. You should spend fifteen minutes to half an hour outdoors in the sun.

Other strategies for regulating your stress and cortisol levels are to:

• Eat a nutrient dense diet
• Move
• Rest and sleep
• Reduce your exposure to toxins
• Laugh
• Share hugs
• Engage in community
• Spend time in nature
• Make love
• Find meaning

The circadian cycle changes with the seasons, with more hours of light during summer and longer nights in winter. The annual clock changes cortisol levels and other hormones, such as the metabolic and reproductive hormones.

The circadian cycle connects the body to the sun cycle, keeping you alert, energized, and engaged.