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Writer's pictureFrom the desk of Dr E!

Our Eyes are not just for Seeing- The Real Reason You’re Not Sleeping Well

Wait, what?? Our eyes are not just for seeing? It’s true- did you know that there are special receptors in  the eyes that respond to light and partly influence our circadian rhythm?

I listened to an amazing interview with Professor Russell Grant Foster who found these specialized cells in the eyes and in a nutshell, we need the input of daylight to help with the biological rhythm of our internal clocks. We have natural surges and dips in hormones and organ function that are precisely tuned. We need the exposure to daylight to set our internal body clocks to optimize sleep, growth, repair and organ function. This is why exposure to blue light keeps us awake. Blue light from our tech devices mimics daylight and confuses our internal biorhythms. When we doom-scroll through social media at night, not only are we stressing ourselves out, we are not priming our brains for sleep.


“Internal Time” written by Till Roenneberg, a Professor at the Institute of Medical Psychology in Munich, teaches about chronotypes, social jet lag and why we’re so tired! This book , which recently won the BMA Best Science Book of the Year, is a great read! Sleep patterns may be the most obvious thing to think about when we talk about biological clocks but this book goes beyond that. It talks about how our internal biological clocks monitor and regulate bodily functions such as digestion, hormone levels, cognition etc. It demonstrates how our way of life, which at times seem at odds with our internal clocks, makes us chronically sleep deprived, and more likely to smoke, gain weight, feel depressed, fall ill and fail math classes!

We see many examples of this; teen’s body clocks are wired to need more sleep and yet teens are more sleep-deprived than ever. Research has shown important cognitive and physical developments occur between the ages of 11 and 18, and teens need to sleep the number of hours normally associated with young infants which is between 9 and 10 hours.

Asthmatics are monitored by peak flow meters, and the frequency and timing of attacks. An important question asked to monitor if asthma is well-controlled is ‘Do you experience more asthma attacks at night?’ If you look at the Chinese clock, “Lung Time” is between the hours of 3-5 am. Research has shown that histamine levels in the body rise at night which increases the susceptibility of having an asthma attack in the early hours of the morning.

“Liver Time” is between 1-3 am, which is when liver enzymes are most active, cleansing the blood.

Studying shift workers (those who work erratic hours and night shift hours), have been shown to have reduced alertness and poorer health outcomes just because their internal clocks are out of synch with their ‘active times’- a similar effect of jet- lag. It’s not just the lack of sleep that makes you crazy- your internal rhythm is disrupted and the lack of sleep exaggerates the cognitive dissonance.

Why do we feel sluggish after lunch? Most Mediterranean cultures have a siesta ( I grew up with that!!) in recognition that after a good lunch you need to “rest and digest”. This is demonstrated by “Small Intestine” time, which in TCM is the organ which sorts the clear from the turbid. This includes thoughts too - when you are rested you can make clearer decisions. This also supports the theory that most of us are neither early birds or night owls. In fact, we have bursts of activity at the beginning and end of the day, and we should keep the less demanding activities in the middle.

Sometimes it’s difficult to make connections between Western medical theory and Traditional Chinese medicine- the two philosophies are so very different! However, I love seeing the links between what the Ancient Chinese observed in the Natural world and what Western science and research confirms.

If you have trouble sleeping or you struggle with your daily rhythms, reach out to speak with Dr Elisa at Cranford Acupuncture.



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