Sleep disorders are increasingly common in elderly adults and on the rise affecting over 60 million Americans annually. If you suffer from daytime fatigue or nighttime insomnia, your circadian rhythm may be to blame.
What we call our circadian rhythm, or our internal clock, helps our body regulate the natural flow of energy that correlates with the phases of the sun. When our circadian rhythm fails to manage the normal flow of energy, it can exhaust us prematurely and disrupt our sleeping patterns. A disordered circadian rhythm has even been shown in various studies to negatively affect our health, quickening the rate our bodies age and making us more prone to disease.
A Disrupted Circadian Rhythm Can Lead to Signs of Early Aging
Modern medicine has done an incredible job of increasing the average life span, but death remains a fact of life. Instead, we grow older and our cells replicate and regenerate; our DNA doubling and splitting each time to ensure all the genetic information a new cell needs is nicely packaged and ready to go.
To make sure our DNA doesn’t get damaged in the process, little caps called telomeres protect the ends of each strand of DNA like the tip of a shoestring. However, with each replication cycle these caps break down risking the exposure of the fraying ends. With a telomere cap gone, the string of DNA begins to unravel, causing mutations that can lead to the cell’s death. This process acts like the cell’s personal biological clock, ticking down the time to its eventual death. The inevitable disappearance of telomeres means fewer cells are replicated as time goes on. With fewer cells, we begin to display changes in our health and appearance. Our skin loses its plasticity and becomes thin, causing wrinkles to form. Inside our bodies, our organs become less effective at their functions and our immune system weakens increasing our risk of disease. For many scientists, protecting our telomeres in DNA is the answer to defying how we age.
Thus, many efforts to protect our telomeres from degradation and recalibrate our natural circadian rhythm may reduce early signs of aging. Fortunately, therapies employing certain biological components that connect these two together are making successful efforts to not only extend life but improve quality of life.
NAD+: Where Energy Begins
One heady example is a chemical molecule called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+. This compound is an essential cofactor for energy production and metabolism, and exhibits profound neuro-restorative and protective effects. Created by healthy components found in our food, an improper diet can lead to low levels within our body and cause physical and mental exhaustion.
Many studies have linked NAD+ supplements like Nadovim with significantly improving cognitive function and symptoms associated with neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The primary function of NAD+ is to create our energy currency ATP. By stimulating ATP production and improving energy stores, NAD+ can combat disruptive radical oxygen species that contribute to brain cell death. This is well established, and many clinical studies have evidenced the beneficial effects of NAD+ therapy to promote brain health and restoration.
Although NAD+ supplementation can enhance cognitive focus and concentration, it can also improve DNA stability and protect cellular energy. As the body produces more energy with NAD+, it communicates an overall alertness that supports the expression of genes that regulate our circadian rhythm. For example, a special enzyme called Sirt1 promotes the health of telomeres in DNA. NAD+ directly activates Sirt1, making it directly responsible for extending the lifespan of a cell. Sirt1 has also been linked to a group of enzymes that regulate circadian rhythm, suggesting NAD+ can help get biological clocks back on time, too.
Our Circadian Rhythm Controls How We Live
As sunlight penetrates our skin and our eyes each morning, countless biochemical signals are sent throughout our bodies indicating when to wake, to expend energy, to thrive; as the sun’s rays fade away with the coming night, the signals cease alerting our genes it is time to recharge, to rebuild, and to rest. In many studies, NAD+ supplementation normalizes whole body circadian rhythm signaling. But it goes a lot further than just improving how we feel during the day and how well we sleep.
Scientists have determined that circadian rhythm may not only influence how we age, but control how we function. It may be responsible for the regulation of our sleep cycle, mental acuity, metabolism, and even reproductive cycle.
What we take for granted as the daily passing of time was once considered the foundation for our daily activities. In a time before the internet, computers, cars, and electricity, our survival depended on our bodily adaptation to the ebbing tides of the seasons. In spring and summer, we feasted on the bounty of our harvests. In fall and winter, we relied on the shelter we built and the stores we had prepared in warmer days. Although life may have been more difficult during this era, our bodies and minds adapted to our environment by invoking similar cycles of beneficial genes that worked to buffer the impact of seasonal shifts.
Nowadays, the setting of the sun corresponds with a time for rest for most life on earth, but for many Americans their evening has only just begun.
