Sleep And Circadian Rhythms: Why Insomnia Occurs

Circadian rhythms are said to play a major role in getting some sleep. There are different factors which influences sleep through circadian rhythms. Find out the vital facts to know why insomnia occurs

Circadian rhythm has been discussed several times in some sections of this site. To reiterate, it has something to do with any person’s biological clock. The biological clock dictates when the body should wake up and sleep. It is responsible for helping condition the body to do its regular activities. When the circadian rhythm is not controlled, insomnia occurs.

Circadian rhythm affects sleep in a lot of ways. There are a variety of these things which lead to one’s ability to get enough sleep. In some ways, it may also affect a person’s capacity to stay awake. Learn more about how circadian rhythm influences sleep in totality.

Sleep, circadian rhythms and insomnia

Circadian rhythms play a vital role to all activities of the body. It acts as a stimulator in regulating which tasks should be done during the day and what things are needed to be done in the evening. Most often than not, it is primarily concerned with the sleep and waking patterns. In line with this, the following factors are deemed to be essential in stimulating sleep:

• Light. This is one circadian rhythm which stimulates the body in doing its task. In German terms, it is known as zeitgeber which means time giver. Notice that our mind seems to know when it is time to sleep and when it is time to wake-up. When light of the daytime is evident, we are ignited to do our usual tasks whereas when it is dark already, we have to put our minds to rest and get some sleep.

• Body temperature. Observe that during daytime, the body temperature increases drastically while it decreases during nighttime. Sometimes the climate has something to do with these changes. As the body temperature lowers down, the muscles and other system begins to become more relaxed. This then leads to sleep stimulation.

• Melatonin and other hormones. Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland which dictates the brain to sleep at night. Other hormones in the body also do their work by increasing their activities thus allowing the person to give-in to the invitation of sleep.

• External stimulus. There are other outside factors which are critical to circadian rhythms. The most common culprits are jet lag and shift or work schedule changes. Jet lag is sometimes causing sleep difficulty for individuals because of the change in two time zones. Virtually, it may take time for one person to adapt to the differences. For shift changes, it is obvious that when one takes the graveyard shift, adjustments as to sleeping hours must be made as well. These changes may lead to some confusion thus disallowing proper sleep hours.

Circadian rhythms speak so much about a person’s ability to get some sleep. If a person fails to respond positively to light, body temperature, melatonin and external stimuli, there is failure to invite sleep to the system as well. At the very worst, insomnia becomes the sleeping disorder one person needs to beat in this case.

Tags: body temperature, circadian rhythms, hormones, insomnia, light, melatonin, sleep, stimulus

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