ARTICLE Using Your Bodys Internal Clock

What do you do all day? This is the first question I ask people who come to my clinic. Many people dont know what they do in a typical dayand this may be true for you, too. You know when the alarm goes off in the morning, and you know how many hours you spend at work, but you might not know when you eat from day to day. You dont know when you typically fall asleep, even if you do know which television shows you watch at night. Its easy to assume that your work schedule dictates when you eat, how much you rest, and when you exercise. When you do that, you stop giving the body the predictable signals it needs to function efficiently. If you eat lunch at eleven thirty on some days and at one thirty on other days, your body is confused already. If you stay up late on some nights to do work or to work out, then your body doesnt know how or when to prepare for sleep. In order to understand how your schedule already affects your health, you first need to know what that schedule is. Second, you need to ask two basic questions: 1) Am I getting seven hours of uninterrupted sleep when its dark outside? 2) Am I doing almost all of my eating when its light outside? Most people cannot answer yes to either of those questions. And thats a problem. One of my patients, Rory, is a good example of the impact that schedule has on your overall well-being. A Silicon Valley software developer with

small children at home, Rory managed to do all the right things: he worked out daily, ate a protein-dense, low-calorie diet with plenty of vegetables, and even made time for family. But despite what he thought were healthy choices in the context of a demanding job, his stomachaches were getting more disruptive and he was having trouble falling asleep before two or two thirty. On those nights he was able to get to sleep, he was waking up around four, feeling anxious and in pain. When we started talking about not just what he was doing but when he was doing it, the rest of the puzzle fell into place. Rory described a typical day of getting up to leave for work by seven a.m. Not usually hungry in the morning, he would often have coffee to get him through and tide him over to his postworkout protein smoothie at one p.m. He would head home in the late afternoon to spend time with his wife and kids, and they would eat dinner as a family at about eight p.m. Once the kids were in bed, he would make a pot of coffee and stay up until at least midnightand sometimes much laterto work on a special project in coordination with other developers working in India. Like most people, Rory had no idea that his schedule was the cause of his health problems. If you think food is merely fuel, then you can eat at any time of day. Skipping meals is just saving calories for later. A healthy choice, such as a protein shake, is healthy no matter when you drink it. If exercise is good for you, it must be good no matter when you do it. For many busy and ambitious professionals, sleep is just that thing you do when you havent scheduled anything else. This is backward. Your lifestyle is not the sum total of how many calories you consumed in a single day, how many minutes you logged on a treadmill last week, and how many hours of sleep you typically get. Instead, its the coordination of these things with the bodys scheduled needs. Rory was skipping some meals and replacing others with light fare. He was exercising when his body couldnt benefit from that strenuous activity. And he was eating and working late at night, robbing himself of restful sleep. In the previous chapter, I outlined a chronobiologists view of the bodys circadian rhythm. Now Ill describe Ayurvedas view on this same body clock. You may find them oddly similar.

The Ayurvedic Day

In Ayurveda, the day is separated into six segments that outline the bodys needs. The actual texts are quite detailed, but even this generalized overview will give you an understanding of how the body follows circular, diurnal patterns. The descriptions may feel overly poetic or even simplistic at times, but its important to see that these teachings put the body at the center of a daily cycle, something that chronobiologists confirm with every new study they publish, and something that Rory had never considered. Six to ten a.m. is predominated by kapha energy, which has the qualities we associate with water. This means that the body may be a little bit dull and heavy, prone to retaining water or generating congestion. The mind and body are still waking up with the emergence of daylight, and it needs a jolt of exercise, meditation, and food to synchronize itself with the new day. When balanced with a little bit of exercise and food at this time of the day, the kapha energy stops being dull and instead becomes a steady, calming influence on your morning work. Ten a.m. to two p.m. is predominated by pitta energy, which has qualities we associate with fire. During this time of day both the mind and the digestion are going full steam. Its a good time for your largest meal of the day, and to do your most intense work. Your body doesnt need exercise at this time of the day because you are already wide awake. Moreover, the body needs to keep the blood flow concentrated around your digestive tract so your body can do the work of converting food into energy. This pitta energy also makes people a little more passionate and short-tempered. You might say that your noontime crankiness is all about low blood sugar, but something else is at work here, too. Two to six p.m. is predominated by vata energy, which has qualities we associate with air. Its a time for quick reflexes and quick thinking. This is also a time of day that leads some people to get distracted or dehydrated. If you havent eaten enough in the morning and at noon, this light and quick energy can become shakiness and anxiety, which is why people reach for snacks and

coffee at this point in the day. You want to have grounded yourself with food and exercise earlier in the day, or this lightness will carry you away, making it impossible to concentrate. The bodys natural energy comes in fits and starts in the late afternoon, and you may find that you need more rest between tasks. You want to stay hydrated and minimize distractions. Six to ten p.m. is the time for the energy to switch back to kapha, when the body gets to be a little bit dull and heavy again, preparing for sleep as the sun goes down. As soon as you get to six p.m., the digestion is already slowing down, so this is the wrong time to overload your body with calories. Your mind is moving from a quick and distractible thinking style into something more steady, and some people say they prefer to stay at their desks after six p.m. because they love that feeling of steady energy. But its easy to overwork the mind, making sleep impossible later, when you need it. Instead, its best to eat a very light meal early in this period and spend the rest of the time doing only light work. By the end of this period, you want to be ready for bed. Ten p.m. to two a.m. is predominated by pitta energy again. The body is certainly on fire, but in a very different way than it was during the day. Now the brain wants to generate ever deeper sleep cycles in an effort to rest and cleanse itself. While daytime pitta energy focuses on digestion, the nighttime pitta slows the digestive process. Instead, your liver and your adrenal glands go to work. Your body is turning that raw nutrition into the hormones and enzymes it needs to function the next day. If you go to sleep early in this cycle, you can get that pitta energy working for your body. But many people stay awake working until midnight or later. They say they get a second wind, and feel suddenly more alert after ten thirty. They dont know why, but I know its that they like to ride that pitta wave. Staying awake late at night doesnt mean you are a natural night owl. It just means that the urge to sleep is a little bit like a train. It pulls in and then leaves the station at a predictable tme. Many so-called night owls would cure themselves of their insomnia (as well as many other health problems) if they would just

get on the train by ten thirty. If you do this, your body will thank you in countless ways. Two to six a.m. is another vata period. Here your sleep becomes lighter and dreams become more vivid. The body is preparing for the active day cycle. If youve ever been awakened in these early hours, you know that you wake up instantly, feeling light-headed instead of groggy. Its the time of quick reflexes and quick thinking again, and some people have the kind of insomnia where they wake up during this period with racing thoughts. Ill talk about combating insomnia in a later chapter. But the thing to remember is that its easier to wake up in the morning before six a.m. than it is after six a.m., when the kapha energy takes over again. You can see how the bodys needs change profoundly throughout the day and night. Your own schedule is probably at odds with what your body requires to function efficiently. And its not just eating and sleeping that can be done at optimal times. You can schedule your workload to take advantage of the bodys natural energy. I had one patient who told me that she had been in a staff meeting every day at eleven a.m., the pitta time of day. People were cranky and critical of one another every day, a situation exacerbated by the meetings proximity to lunch. When she learned about the Ayurvedic schedule, my patient moved this daily meeting to two p.m. She told me later that everyone was so calm and creative. It was the same staff discussing the same issues, but at a different time of day they were better able to come up with solutions without arguing. From an Ayurvedic perspective (and a physiological one), Rory had a couple of major problems. First, he was working out at noon, pushing the blood flow away from his digestive tract and out into his muscles and extremities. You want to think of the noon hour as your biggest opportunity to get dense nutrients into your system. This is when your digestive tract is or should beon fire. Replacing that noon meal with a little protein shake is going to cheat your body of all of the nutrients it needs for the rest of the day and night and leave you depleted tomorrow. Better to work out earlier in the day and eat a substantial lunch at noon. His second problem was eating dinner at eight p.m. This is after dark, when the bodys digestive system should be powering down. When you overload it with food, that

food wont be digested efficiently and will probably sit in your stomach, causing congestion and keeping you awake. His third problem was working late at the computer until midnight. From Rorys perspective, this was an ideal time to work because he had great energy late at night, and few distractions. But your brain needs rest and the best time to settle into that rest cycle is long before midnight. When you look at your own schedule, you want to be thinking of these segments of the day so you can best balance your workflow with your bodys needs.

The Benefits of a Healthy Schedule Most of my patients are used to putting work at the heart of their daily schedule. They keep trying to perfect the workday so that they can get more done. Few people think about how to arrange their day so that their bodies needs come first. We think of health habits in isolation. You want to lose weight, so you change your diet. Or you want to get fit, so you change your exercise routine. Im asking you to think of putting all of your health habits into one schedule and make that the center of your day, because these habits all work together. Your sleep affects your weight and your fitness level. Your diet affects your sleep and your mental clarity. Your daily exercise improves your sleep, your energy level, and your food choices. Still, there are two major benefits for arranging your schedule around the circadian rhythm. Most of my patients want to lose weight. And even if they dont think they need to lose weight, when we change their schedule, they do anyway. The second problem many people have is with general fatigue. It can present as malaise, or low energy, or even mild depression. I think of generalized fatigue as the other national epidemic. But working with your bodys clock and correcting problems with the circadian rhythm will also let you tap into new reserves of energy.

Using the Bodys Clock to Lose Weight Adam came to me because, like so many people, he wanted to lose some weight. He told me that hed gained about thirty pounds over the course of

the past ten years, while he was building his construction business. His days were naturally busy, with meetings and phone calls and he drove around for much of every day to different construction sites. Still, the weight gain had troubled him, and he couldnt figure out what was causing it. He was active all day, often doing physical labor, and had cut down on his calories. Nothing was working for him. His wife, who was a patient of mine, had sent him to see me, and he had reluctantly agreed. When I asked Adam about his day, he told me a familiar story: He had added up the calories for all the food he eats in a typical day, and he often skipped breakfast. He even skipped lunch on some busy days and made up the difference with a midafternoon sandwich from a vendors truck or a bag of chips. What was most revealing for me was to hear Adam talk about his favorite time of day, which was the late evening. This is true of many hardworking people. He told me that he worked hard all day, supervising people, checking on details, and sometimes pitching in to get a job done on time. He would get home at night exhausted, sometimes as late as eight thirty, take a shower, check in with his family briefly, and then wait for them to go to bed. This was his favorite time of day, because he had the house to himself. He would heat up a frozen dinner at about ten and stay up watching television until twelve thirty or one in the morning, only going up to bed when he began to feel drowsy or bored. As a result, Adam was getting about five hours of sleep a night, but he would sleep later whenever he could, thinking that he was catching up on sleep on weekends and days off. He thought he was doing everything he could to lose weight, aside from the corn chips and pretzels. But he needed to stop thinking solely in terms of how many calories he consumed and burned during the day. This wasnt helping him at all. When you want to lose weight, you have to work with your bodys clock by taking in energy when your body can best process it and avoid food when your body is powering down for the day. Stop counting calories. So many of my patients count calories informally all day long. Most people do. If someone offers you a candy bar, you look on the package to see how many calories it contains. If you want to go out to dinner, you might skip lunch, thinking to save those calories for later.

We even think of exercise in terms of calories burned. Many people have memorized the number of calories you can burn by running or walking a mile, or doing a yoga class. If you get on a treadmill and punch in your weight, the treadmill will provide a real-time estimate of the number of calories burned during your workout. Popular fitness trackers offer the same information about calories burned. Many smartphone apps also help people track calories, grams of fat, and grams of carbohydrates. However, by focusing on calories, you are treating the body like a simple machine and forgetting that its cells and systems are interacting in complex ways. Focus instead on the timing of your meals and the nutritional content of your food. Ill talk more about this in chapter seven, where Ill teach you how to crave the right kinds of foods for your body. Become an early eater. Most people following the standard American diet eat their largest meal of the day at night, sometimes late at night, like Adam. Its an easy mistake to make if you think that the body processes all calories the same regardless of when ou eat. Obesity researchers are beginning to say that meal timing is the missing link in maintaining a healthy weight. One recent, dramatic study demonstrated how this might work. Researchers tracked the eating habits of 420 overweight men and women in Spain, who were going to try to lose weight. They were divided into two groups, early eaters and late eaters. In Spain, the main meal of the day is the midday meal, when people consume about 40 percent of their daily food intake. Early eaters were defined as those who ate their largest meal before three p.m., while late eaters consumed their largest meal after three p.m. At first, both groups lost a little bit of weight, but as the study wore on, those eating their largest meal after three p.m. stopped losing weight, despite their healthy diets. Those who ate their largest meal of the day closer to noon continued to lose weight and in the end had lost 22 percent more weight than the late eaters. This was true despite the fact that both groups were eating about the same number of calories overall.1

This was the first large- scale study to suggest that meal timing affects weight loss. Eating later in

the day means that your body experiences a large spike in blood glucose at a time when it is more likely to be stored as fat. But if you eat your largest meal at midday, your body has more time to burn this energy rather than store it as fat.

Give up late-night TV. You may know that brain activity changes dramatically during the sleep cycle, alternating between deep restorative sleep and lighter REM sleep (or dreaming). What you may not know is that the deepest and most restorative sleep cycles occur between ten p.m. and two a.m. This is when the brain is cleansing itself, when the cells of different systems are repairing themselves, and when memory and learning consolidate. Being awake during this time interferes with these important tasks and will leave you foggy the next day. It can also contribute to weight gain. Lots of studies show the connection between sleep loss and weight gain, but one in particular showed that curtailing sleep by even a couple of hours caused participants to increase their daily food intake by more than five hundred calories after just a few days in the experiment.2 A late bedtime interferes with hormones such as leptin and ghrelin, which signal hunger and satiety in the body, and will lead to overeating.

Exercise before breakfast. Can early morning exercise make up for a less- than-stellar diet? Yes, it can. One study asked men to increase their daily

intake of fat by 50 percent and their daily intake of calories by 30 percent for six weeks. One-third of them did this with no additional exercise. Another group was asked to work out in the midmorning, after breakfast. The final group was asked to work out early in the morning, before they had eaten anything. At the end of the six-week study, the nonexercisers had gained an average of six pounds on the high-fat diet. The midmorning exercisers had gained an average of three pounds, while the early morning exercisers had gained almost no weight. Their glucose tolerance levels remained strong and they maintained healthy insulin levels despite their high-fat diets.3

Exercising early in the day primes the body to receive energy and to process that energy efficiently, whereas intense exercise later in the day offers far less benefit to your metabolism. Adam needed to eat dinner much earlier and move his largest meal to the middle of the day if he wanted to have any hope of losing weight. He also needed to go to bed earlier. At first he balked. No doctor or nutritionist had ever asked him what time he went to bed or when he ate dinner. While it was true that his blood glucose levels and blood pressure were inching up, he had never gotten any advice about how his daily habitsother than caloric intake and basic food choiceswould affect these variables. But by

scheduling a longer block of nightly sleep, he could jump-start his weight loss. By eating earlier in the day, he could eat when his body would better digest his food. I also asked him to do a short workout in the morning before breakfast, a brisk walk or some calisthenics to give his metabolism a boost first thing. Its true that he needed to make better food choices, but this is far easier to do after youve seen some results, after you start feeling more alive. He started losing weight right away, and by the end of three months, he had completely erased the weight gain that a decade of bad habits had given him. Adams wife reported that hed stopped snoring at night, and Adam told me that he didnt have any more morning congestion. He felt less bloated even by the end of the first week. He also had a new kind of energy, and he felt more connected to his family. Although he attributed this to the weight loss, I know that one of the major benefits of following the bodys clock is an abundance of energy and focus.

Using the Bodys Clock to Increase Energy People often find that when they shortchange themselves on sleep, they are less productive in their work, which makes them feel even more busy. When they feel overwhelmed, they are more likely to stay up late again. Getting your sleep routine down is the first step toward getting more energy. Martha came to see me because she was suffering from insomnia and a general malaise. An artist who took a day job at a local nonprofit, some nights she was awake half the night doing her creative work, while other nights she was trying to get to sleep early so that she could get up on time for work the next day. To compensate for her lack of energy, she snacked on sugary, carb-heavy treats, particularly on those nights when she stayed up late. She didnt realize that her sleep and eating schedules were so deeply intertwined with her level of fatigue. By paying attention to your schedule, you can make simple changes that will drastically improve your focus at work and give you more energy during the day. You wont need coffee or sweets to push you through your day if you:

Set a consistent bedtime. Staying up late on some nights but not others sets you up for insomnia. Your body is trying to figure out what time of day it is based on when you get up and when you normally go to sleep. If you dont have a set routine for bedtime, your body doesnt know when to release hormones to make you feel tired and it doesnt know when to start the rest and rejuvenation period in your cells. The result of this is low energy, blunted moods, and poor diet choices. Martha needed to cut off the internet at night and pick a couple of relaxing activities to do every evening. Exercise every day. Its easy to think about exercise as a means to get fit or trim a few pounds, but it is also a key means of insomnia prevention. The body uses your behavior to help decide what time of day it is. By moving your body in the first half of the day, you reinforce the bodys internal cues that its daytime. Exercise also increases energy if you do it every day. One study looked at sedentary people who suffered from consistent fatigue and found that consistent, low-intensity workouts reduced their feelings of fatigue by more than 60 percent and made them feel more energized throughout the day. 4

Give up late-night snacks. You might not think that snacking can rob you of energy, but it can. Choosing nutritionally dense foods at mealtimes helps curb snacking between meals. Martha needed to move away from breads and pastas that gave her a short-term rush but ultimately made her more tired. She needed a plant-based diet that would feed her bodys systems. Remember that its what you eat in the first half of the day that fuels your body for the next day. Everything you eat after dark is more likely to be a drain on your system. Martha liked the idea of having a set bedtime, even though it made her a little anxious about when she would do her creative work. She hated the idea of joining a gym but found some exercises she could do in the morning. Just a twenty-minute workout was plenty for her body type. She wasnt looking t become ultra fit and therefore didnt need to exhaust her muscles or finish her workout drenched in sweat. She just wanted the jolt of energy that would help wake her up and give her some clarity for the day. Once her sleep cycle settled into a natural rhythm, she found it easier to set priorities at work and she had more ability to focus on her art in the early evening. With a new diet and sleep routine in place, she got excited about looking for a new job and setting new long-term goals.

What Do You Do All Day?

Now, its your turn. If you want to create a better schedule, you first have to keep track of what you do during a typical day.

Sleep 1. When do you wake up naturally? 2. What time do you turn off your computer and put your phone away? 3. When do you naturally fall asleep? 4. Do you have a different sleep schedule on weekends?

Diet

1. When do you eat your first meal of the day? 2. When do you eat your largest meal? 3. How many calories do you take in after six p.m.? 4. At what time do you eat your final meal of the day?

Exercise 1. How many times a week do you exercise? 2. At what time of day do you typically exercise?

Mindfulness

1. How do you feel before and after you eat each meal? 2. How quickly do you reach for your smartphone when you feel bored or stressed?

3. Is there a time of day when you sit quietly and check in with your body? 4. How often do you move your bowels?

If You Do Nothing Else

Timing is everything when it comes to healthy digestion, restful sleep, and good fitness. The good news is, theres not a lot of guesswork: there is an optimal schedule for health. In the coming chapters, you will learn strategies to tap into the wellness potential of your own body type. However, if you only do three things, they should be: 1. Get to sleep at a set time every night, ideally by ten thirty p.m. When you do this, you start to feel the effects of greater focus during the day, often within the first few days. You have a better handle on daily stress. You will also start to lose weight. 2. Eat your largest meal of the day at noon. People who eat a hearty lunch have a much easier time maintaining their weight, and many of the digestive issues they have including acid reflux, upset stomach, and constipation go away when they eat at the right time. Most people are used to enjoying their largest meal at night, but this wreaks havoc with the digestive tract. The evening meal should be about half of what you are used to eating. Dont worry about being too hungry. The larger noon meal will fuel you through the afternoon and make those late afternoon snacks and cups of coffee unnecessary. 3. Exercise first thing in the morning. Most people dont have to do as much exercise as they think. Spending an hour on the treadmill late in the day

isnt going to do as much for you as twenty to thirty minutes of activity as soon as you wake up. Early morning exercise affects your sleep cycle, your weight, and your blood pressure. It discharges stress also. You can get even more out of your morning exercise if you do at least some of it outside, where your brain can bathe in natural light and strengthen your bodys natural rhythms. Do just these three things for seven consecutive days and your health will be transformed.*

In the following chapters, Ill explain how to fine-tune these habits to give you the perfect eating, sleeping, and exercise schedule for your body, because every body is slightly different. Ill also offer some tips for getting to sleep on time and setting up the right exercise and diet for you, in case some of these habits seem impossible.

QUESTION: YOU HAVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION 1>The first question the author asks his patients is what do you do all day? How do his patients often answer this question? One of his patients, Rory, had a near-perfect schedule but often complained about the stomachaches. Where did the problem lie? In your opinion, what habits should one opt for in order to get rid of the physical complaints one might have? (270-320 words)

2>How can the Bodys clock be used to: (Explain in your own words) a. Increase energy b. Lose weight Do we need willpower to achieve the above-mentioned results?