Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth, and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years, helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version of themselves. And now I want to help you do the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths,
and let's begin today's journey. Just before the coronavirus lockdown happened in March, I took a night flight from Los Angeles to New York City. The seat didn't recline and I couldn't really sleep. I meditated and that helped, but basically I pulled an all nighter. It took me a few days to recover. It reminded me of the old days when I was in college and I would pull an all night or studying for an exam. In both cases,
I messed with my circadian rhythm, throwing off my biological clock. Now, during the coronavirus pandemic, millions of us are throwing off her circadian rhythms. But it's not because of all night travels or cramming for an exam. It's because of the irregularity of our lives. Because there's so little structure, the days all seem to blend together, and the line between work and leisure time is obscured when your living room
doubles as your home office. Well, now I'd like to introduce you to my very good friend, doctor Norman Rosenthal, psychiatrist, medical researcher, and best selling author. He was also the first to describe something called seasonal effective disorder effect of light on moods. With so much frustration and so many concerns about sleeplessness and other problems coming during the quarantine, I asked him to explain circadian rhythms and why they're
so out of whack these days. Doctor Rosenthal said Circadian rhythms are changes in your mind, your body, and your behavior that follow a daily cycle. These changes respond mainly to light and darkness in your environment when you sleep at night and are awake during the day. That's an example of a circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms also regulate your body temperature, the release of hormones, how you digest your food, how hungry you are, and whether or not you're sleepy
during the day. These rhythms are controlled and synchronized by a master clock in the middle part of your brain. Light sends a signal to the master clock when you're asleep, and the light from the morning sun hits the retina of your eye and travels through the optic nerve to the master clock. This basically signals your brain it's time to wake up. The master clock then alerts other parts of your brain that control body temperature, hormones, and other functions.
The response is just the opposite when the sun goes down and it it's dark in the evening. Then your brain releases the sleep hormone melatonin, and you feel sleepy and you want to go to bed. The big problem here is with the city lights that some of us live with and the blue lights from the TV screen and computer screen that we all live with. All this light suppresses the release of melatonin, and now you can't go to sleep, even though it's late and your body
is exhausted over time. Disrupted circadian rhythms can lead to sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder, seasonal effective disorder. The list goes on. What can we do to bring our circadian rhythms online so we feel healthy, resilient, clear, energetic, happy. Amazingly simple things, even if your schedule is crazy. As much as possible. Go to sleep on time, wake up one time, exercise if possible when the sun is up,
rest when it's dark, Meditate, eat regular meals. Also, maintain a regular structure to your day. Make your bed in the morning. We're nice clothes around the house, not fancy ones, but not a robe either. Maintain a normal routine and a normal feeling about your life. And since getting enough sleep is one of the single most important things we can do to restore balance to our circadian rhythms, Dr Rosenthal recommends minimizing the impact of that dreaded blue light
from your computer screen. Blue light will just suppress your melotonin, which means odds are you're not going to get a good night's sleep. And here's my tip of the day. If you're determined to watch TV or work on your computer late into the night, Dr Rosenthal recommends you get a pair of orange goggles. Orange goggles will block the blue light. They help Dr Rosenthal get a good night's sleep.
Maybe they'll help you too, all right, let's end this time together doing something that I think should be a feature of our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break, just take a moment. It turns out when we do that, it's good for our health as well. I'll be right back all right. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you heard something that in spires that uplifts you and that you can incorporate into your
own life. This is Bob Roth. Stay calm, hey, all of you out there, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your stories, your questions, or anything else on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com. I look forward to hearing from you.