Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that regulate many physiological and behavioral processes, perhaps most famously including the wake-sleep cycle. They’re driven by an internal biological clock known as the circadian clock, which helps coordinate and synchronize different bodily functions with the natural day-night cycle.
This “clock” is primarily located in a small region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), found in the hypothalamus. The SCN receives input from specialized cells in the retina that detect light, allowing it to sync with external environmental cues, particularly the daily cycle of light and darkness.
From a bioenergetics perspective, this is an obvious nod to the role of physics in physiology – electromagnetic frequencies of light are central to the rhythms of the body. But visible light is not the only factor here.
Circadian rhythms are also affected by temperature as well as our own choices around meal timing, social and work schedules, and physical activity. Note that temperature is again a component of electromagnetic radiation, this time in the infrared spectrum, which gives us heat from the sun.
Bioenergetics expands on this with the view that the human body-field has bits of information in three planes at any one time, and they vary according to the time of day, season, and year.
Body Systems Affected by Circadian Rhythms
If circadian rhythms only managed sleep, they would already play a critical role in health. But they affect so much more as well. Here’s a quick review of how our bodies respond to these rhythms:
- Sleep-Wake Cycle: Circadian rhythms play a fundamental role in regulating the sleep-wake cycle. The release of melatonin at night helps promote sleep, while cortisol production in the morning promotes wakefulness.
- Hormonal Regulation: Many hormones, including cortisol, growth hormone, and insulin, follow circadian patterns. Disruptions can affect metabolism, stress response, and overall health.
- Body Temperature: Core body temperature peaks during the day and drops at night. This affects alertness, energy levels, and the quality of sleep.
- Digestive System: The digestive process follows circadian rhythms, with the stomach and intestines being more active during the day. Eating late at night can disrupt this rhythm.
- Cardiovascular System: Blood pressure and heart rate exhibit daily variations, with higher levels during the day. This can influence the risk of cardiovascular events.
- Cognitive Function: Cognitive performance and alertness tend to be highest during the daytime, corresponding to the body’s circadian rhythms.
This idea of rhythm has long been recognized by healing modalities like traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which observes the way in which chi (life force energy) moves through various organs and strengthens them for enhanced activity throughout the day. For instance, the large intestine is stimulated between 5 and 7 am when we wake and the body should be ready to empty the bowels. The stomach is stimulated between 7 and 9 am so we can break our nightline fast and begin eating.
Importantly within this Chinese organ clock, we can observe the body’s efforts to rebuild and detox as we sleep, between 11 pm and 5 am; the last portion of this period, focused on the lungs, is meant to support memory, which is a critical factor in bioenergetics – the body needs to remember how it’s meant to be, if it’s to rebuild itself properly.
The Bioenergetic Clock
Professor Peter Fraser, who developed the modern idea of the human body-field, found a similar idea to the Chinese clock in his research. While TCM speaks of “chi” activating the organs, he used the term “source” energy, and found that this energy changes its energetic characteristics abruptly every two hours, creating 12 periods to the day in which it interacts with different organs, just as in the Chinese clock.
What’s more, he found a connection between the body’s 12 wireless communication channels known as energetic integrators. He said the source energy connection to each integrator field remained steady throughout the two hours before making a sort of “quantum leap” of its energy to the next channel. That is, it didn’t move linearly like the hands of a true clock. Nor did it move as a wave, increasing and then decreasing in power over the two hours. Rather, it disconnected from one channel and was instantly in another.
As he explored this, he took a new look at the energetic driver fields, which power the activity of the body-field. He determined that the nerve, lung, and kidney drivers had especially strong connections to source energy. The tubules in these organs appear to store or attract it. “I was taught that source energy became deficient after a long-standing illness,” said Fraser. “But bioenergetically, my theory says that this is completely back to front from what really happens: if you don’t get enough source energy, you get failure of information transfer in the body-field, which in turn can lead to chronic disease.”
In bioenergetics, source energy accumulates within cavities, and the three primary cavities are the cranial, thoracic, and abdominal; the nerve, lung, and kidney drivers respectively help to store source energy in these cavities. Energetic integrator field 9 (triple cavity) links to all of these. Organs and glands within these cavities further concentrate this energy.
Linking the integrator fields more completely to the cavities and their energy levels, Fraser associated them in this way:
- Cranial cavity: Integrators 5, 7, 11
- Thoracic cavity: Integrators 2, 4, 9 (which also connects to all 3 cavities)
- Abdominal cavity: Integrators 1, 3, 10
- Heart cavity: Integrators 6, 8, 12
While the heart is not one of the “big three” cavities, the heart is considered the foundation of so much in bioenergetics, producing the strongest field in the body and representing the centerpoint of three main fields (the matrix field, morphic field, and heart field). So its role as a cavity shouldn’t be overlooked.
Fraser thus noted the importance of the body’s cycles, and suggested paying attention to symptoms that flared up at the same time each day. As a theory only – not yet clinically validated – he suggested that one could attempt to support the following pairs of integrator fields for symptoms arising at the related time on a regular basis:
How Important is Circadian Rhythm Health?
It’s clear that circadian rhythms are recognized in both conventional and bioenergetic medicine. And disruptions to these rhythms, such as those caused by shift work, jet lag, or irregular sleep patterns, can have such serious effects on health that some experts believe proper circadian rhythm management is as important as healthy eating.
Just how serious an effect can these rhythms have?
Chronic circadian misalignment has been linked to many health problems, including sleep disorders, metabolic disorders, mood disorders, immune disorders, cancer, and an increased risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases.
What’s more, they don’t only affect us at the human scale, but at the cellular scale as well. These rhythms are key to the timing of cell cycles, organelle function, and even transcription and port-translational modifications.
Supporting Healthy Circadian Rhythms
Given their importance in our health, supporting healthy circadian rhythms is key to healing and maintaining vitality. There are a number of ways to do this.
- Light: Since light exposure is one of the most potent environmental factors affecting circadian rhythms, it helps reset the internal clock daily. Natural light during the day and darkness at night signal the body to release or suppress hormones like melatonin, which play a crucial role in sleep-wake patterns.
This includes special consideration of “screen time” in the evening, where many of us are exposed to blue light (associated with daytime light) from our cell phones, TVs and computers; consider orange filters (built into many devices) at night, or blue blocking glasses, if using these devices after sunset to allow the brain to produce the proper hormones for sleeping. - Temperature: Core body temperature also follows a circadian rhythm. It tends to be lower during the night and higher during the day, affecting alertness and sleep. It’s also used to warmer temperatures in the day, so consider keeping your home warmer during the day and cooler at night to reflect a more natural environmental cycle.
- Meal Timing: Eating patterns can influence circadian rhythms, as the body’s metabolic processes follow a daily schedule. Irregular meal timing, especially late-night eating, can disrupt these rhythms.
- Social and Work Schedules: Shift work and irregular sleep schedules can disrupt circadian rhythms, leading to health issues like sleep disorders and increased risk of chronic diseases. Within reason, try aligning your sleep cycle more closely with the sun, sleeping by 10 or 11 at night and rising between 5 and 7 am.
- Physical Activity: Exercise can help regulate circadian rhythms, but the timing of exercise may have different effects. Morning exercise can promote wakefulness, while evening exercise can interfere with sleep.
While further research is needed, one pilot study on bioelectric technology showed improvements in five subjects working night shifts. Most notable improvements involved sleep and weight management, followed by energy. This is early evidence about the value of bioenergetics in circadian rhythm management, alongside lifestyle choices discussed above.
What’s more, we can look to support the sleep process by correcting specific aspects of the body-field. This not only considers how the body-field relates to day and night cycles, but also to the nervous system in particular. Thus, the nerve driver field – associated with brainwave activity – is of particular interest, as are integrators and other fields associated with nerves and the brain.
Stress, shock, and trauma create tension of the nervous system as well, so we may seek to relieve emotional stress and even address what we call the “Chill” field – that which holds long-term stress especially associated with worry that so often loops through the mind in those who struggle with sleep.
We’ve also discussed alignment with Earth’s big fields elsewhere, and as this aligns us with our environment beyond just our exposure to light, it plays an additional role in sleeping well.
Conclusion
Circadian rhythms connect us to our environment and support our natural state of health and vitality. They go far beyond just feeling rested from a good night’s sleep, playing a role in a far more holistic system that helps to keep us from slipping into disease. They are recognized not only by conventional medicine, but by modern bioenergetic medicine as well, which offers a number of ways to support these rhythms alongside wise lifestyle choices that keep us in harmony with our world.
