As you might guess, their cortisol-melatonin schedule is delayed, compared to the average: The wakefulness-promoting hormone is released later into the day, and the wakefulness-canceling hormone arrives later into the night, as well.Īccording to Dr. This is just the opposite of the above: People who fall into this camp are frequent pressers of the snooze button and tend to struggle with grogginess in the morning come nighttime, they usually feel more alert and stay that way for several hours after it gets dark. This means your cortisol-melatonin schedule happens earlier than average in the day: The wakefulness-promoting hormone is released sooner in the day, and the wakefulness-canceling hormone comes sooner at night, too. If you tend to open your eyes naturally before the buzz of your alarm, wake up early on weekends, or find it easy to transition into work mode early in the morning, you’re most likely a morning type. And while that stems largely from genetics, it also varies with age and environmental factors, making an understanding of all four chronotypes that much more important. Exactly when they do their thing is what drives a person's dominant sleep chronotype. While the presence of more natural light during the day typically drives the former and darkness at night drives the latter, both hormones may still fluctuate at different times among different people. Specifically, a release of the wakefulness-promoting hormone cortisol makes you feel alert, while a spike in the wakefulness-cancelling hormone melatonin makes you feel less alert (and, in turn, more sleepy). “The word ‘circadian’ comes from the Latin ‘circa diem’ or ‘about a day.’ And the rhythm affects when you feel awake or sleepy over the course of 24 hours, as the result of hormones released in the body,” says clinical psychologist and sleep specialist Joshua Tal, PhD. In general, differentiations between sleep chronotypes come down to when you naturally feel alert or sleepy throughout a day during which you aren’t sleep-deprived. Shelby Harris, PsyD, clinical psychologist, sleep specialist, and author of The Women’s Guide To Overcoming Insomnia.Joshua Tal, PhD, New York City-based sleep psychologist.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |