What are your ultradian rhythms?
Last night I woke up in the middle of the night… Again.
It’s one of those periods where there is A LOT going on, so my brain likes to wake up at 4 AM (you have no idea how frequently I’ve seen 4:44 lately) and start mentally juggling all the parts of my life, trying to fit them all perfectly together like puzzle pieces.
While it is incredibly hard to slow our brains down when they’re over-functioning, especially in the wee hours of the morning, thankfully I have some fail proof techniques and I woke up again a few hours later feeling calmer and more physically at ease than usual.
As I laid there appreciating how I was feeling, I was reminded of two very important things.
1. As the great Anne Lamott says, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
2. Our bodies always have a desire to heal and move in the direction of healing if we give them the right environment.
There is actually a science behind Anne Lamott’s catchy quote.
No, we don’t have batteries like phones or a plug connecting us to a source of power (technically).
But we do have Ultradian Rhythms.
What are Ultradian Rhythms?
Any rhythmic cycle our body goes through that lasts more than an hour but less than 24 hours.
We have a specific ultradian rhythm lasting approximately every 90 minutes, that manages the cycles of our energy production, output and recovery.
How does this cycle work?
According to Somatic Coach, Rachel Fearnley, "every 70 or 80 minutes your nervous system is upregulating and you have an upsurge of energy, which is when you might notice you have more energy, focus, determination, creativity, clarity, etc."
For approximately 10-20 minutes at the end of the 90 minute cycle, the body is asking for a pause to give your system time to reset in order to start the next cycle. This is when we start to feel ungrounded, spacey, fatigued, anxious, distracted or hungry. These symptoms are the signs that your system is down-regulating
The down-regulation needs to happen because every process in our body produces byproducts- even mental and physical activity. During the 70-80 minute upsurge these byproducts are accumulating in our systems as metabolic waste and cellular debris, which the body experiences as stress.
The down-regulation acts as a reset time. This is when new fuel gets delivered to your cells, toxins are flushed out of the system and blood sugar, hormones and neurotransmitters are rebalanced, all of which helps the nervous system down-regulate successfully and have an optimal reset to begin the next cycle.
Here’s where we as humans go awry.
Often, instead of giving ourselves time to pause during this 10-20 minutes at the end of each 90 minute cycle to reset, we often misread our body’s cues through habits like ignoring them and pushing through or solving the fatigue with coffee or the anxiousness with a cigarette, by scrolling social media or the hunger snacking on sugar or other unhealthy food.
Like everything, doing this once in a while wouldn’t be a big deal. But when done every day, it takes its toll on our systems and the energy you start with at the beginning of each cycle will be lower and lower, increasing levels of fatigue.
So how do we support our ultradian rhythms?
Here are 4 tips on how to make the most of your ultradian rhythms to reduce stress and boost energy...
Avoid Task Switching: the pause is meant to give your brain time to rest and reset, while your body is detoxifying itself from your mental processes, so simply switching tasks to something that takes less brain power isn’t going to give your brain the rest it needs. Think of the pause as time for mental rest.
It’s NOT About Perfection: allow yourself to experiment with the 90 minute cycles. If you happen to miss the pause or continue to push beyond signals, just let yourself be aware of how your body feels and use as information to help you do better/differently next time.
Embrace Flow: if you’re doing an activity and realize you forgot about time or are still being productive beyond the 70 to 80 minutes, let yourself continue as long as you feel productive and energized. If you start to become fatigued, or slow down, that is your signal to pause.
Choose Your “Pause Activities” Wisely: use the time to look out the window, go for a walk, or take a quick exercise break, close your eyes and meditate or let yourself take a quick cat nap. If you like to be creative, pull out some paints, a coloring book or knitting materials.
What are some activities you can brainstorm to enjoy during your moments of pause?
