Peats views on "circadian rhythm"?

[Curt :-)]

Hello
I remember back in the Paul Chek days that it was supposedly paramount to hormonal balance that we get to bed by around 10pm. The idea was that you should have the lights low or use candles in the evening to lower cortisol before going to bed, and that during the night is when the restorative hormones were produced, then the sun comes up and signals the body to start producing cortisol so we can "get things done" lol. This seems incongruous with Peats idea that darkness increases the stress hormones.
I've been going to bed later and later lately (around 2am) and I'm wondering if this has any effect on my hormones if I'm still going outside for natural light everyday.

What's been your experience with this, and has Peat commented on sleep schedules as such?

Curt xx

 

[max219]

Since late May I've been doing something similar, with it getting worse the past 2 weeks. I've been sleeping around 3 AM and waking up around 11:30-12:00, so I still am getting around 8-9 hours of sleep.

I do think that sleeping earlier around 10-11 PM and waking up around 7 would be better for hormonal balance, but then again I also heard that from Paul Chek haha. I am going to try to sleep slightly earlier each night starting soon.

 

[haidut]

Stress hormones are highest in the early morning - 6am-8am. Peat wrote about that in one of his articles. That's why he says martial arts practitioners were smart to wake up early (~5am) and practice stress reducing techniques to control the stress and transition smoothly into their active day.
The best sleep is one without much dreaming. I am not sure there is much correlation with timing of going to bed, but less dreaming is associated with lower serotonin and that's what counts.

 

[Curt :-)]

Thanks Haidut. Do you think it's possible that stress hormones are higher in the morning simply because you've been fasting through the night and the blood sugar has lowered, and the time of day is irrelevant?

 

[haidut]

Thanks Haidut. Do you think it's possible that stress hormones are higher in the morning simply because you've been fasting through the night and the blood sugar has lowered, and the time of day is irrelevant?

That's certainly the explanation I am understanding Peat favors. However, night also has darkness and without light the cytochrome c oxidase will be even more impaired. So, at night you have both low sugar and less metabolism and that I think makes it worse than low sugar during the day.

 

[freal]

The number is not 10PM but 2 hours before the sun is the lowest. Daylight saving time, mapping of time zones come into play.