18 Oct 15 Effects of Disrupted Circadian Rhythm: What Happens in Your Body?
A disrupted circadian rhythm heightens the risk of heart stroke, stubborn fat deposits, and early aging.
Circadian rhythm disruption—a problem especially reserved for the habitants of modern society!
For those who don’t know, circadian rhythm is a 24-hour biological clock that runs in the background. It basically helps coordinate the body’s internal clock with environmental timing in the 24-hour cycle.
Being controlled by the hypothalamus, your circadian rhythm is responsible for regulating nearly all physiological functions including the sleep-wake cycle.
But it has become quite common to experience some disruption in circadian rhythm every now and then. Most often circadian rhythm misalignment is due to lifestyle changes or internal health issues like a sleep disorder or chronic stress.
But did you ever wonder what happens when the body’s circadian clock goes out of order. Well, you’re in for some familiar but jaw-dropping revelations.
What Happens If Your Circadian Rhythm is Disrupted – 15 Health Effects
A disrupted circadian rhythm meaning a rise in several health issues. The persisting shift in the internal clock of your body can cause psychiatric illness to metabolic disorders.
Not to mention, any drastic or frequent circadian rhythm disruption causes physical and mental fatigue and a wide range of health problems. In both the short and long term, these issues can affect your everyday life.
Expect to notice the following effects and health consequences if your circadian rhythm is out of sync:
- Degenerative brain conditions
- Mood disorders
- Increased risk of type 2 diabetes
- Stubborn fat deposits
- Higher risk of stroke
- High blood pressure/hypertension
- Accelerated aging
- Poor gut health
- Cluster headaches
- Allergic reactions
- Bad for asthma patients
- Hunger and cravings
- Fertility issues
- Increase in the risk of getting cancer
- Increased chances of premature death
Here’s a detailed discussion of what does this disruption of circadian rhythm do to your health biologically.
#1. Increased Risk of Degenerative Brain Conditions
Circadian rhythm disruption increases the risk of neurological disorders. This includes both neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.
Essentially, a disrupted circadian rhythm affects melatonin synthesis. This, in turn, gives rise to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) and other rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorders.
Further, frequent misalignment of the circadian rhythm can also result in:
- Traumatic brain injury
- Parkinson’s disease
- Huntington’s disease
It also has a connection with age-related memory impairment leading to dementia.
#2. Contributes to Mood Disorders and Winter Depression
Disrupted circadian rhythm effects on the mood can be witnessed daily. A simple night out with an inadequate amount of sleep can leave you with mood swings you never knew existed.
There’s a well-established link between circadian rhythm and mood disorders. Some evidence published in the Journal of Neuroscience demonstrates the relationship between mood disorders and the circadian system.
The research done on mice shows that any manipulation of serotonin receptors induces mood disorders.
With this, circadian rhythm disruption and mental health are also related. Any disturbance in the internal body clock can worsen the symptoms of depression. Depression during fall or winter is a great example of how the misalignment of circadian rhythm affects you mentally.
As the daily exposure to daylight decreases, there is a change in melatonin production and a rise in patients with symptomatic winter depression or seasonal affective disorder.
#3. Increases the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
If your circadian rhythm is disrupted, you’re more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Circadian dysregulation affects your metabolism at different levels. This includes genetic, systematic, and cellular levels. It results in glucose intolerance and impaired insulin resistance which ultimately leads to diabetes.
In an interesting research from The Physiological Society, it’s evident that night owls have a greater risk of diabetes as compared to early birds. There’s a link found between metabolic differences and how well the body uses insulin for fat storage and energy.
For this, researchers divided the people into 2 groups, early birds and night owls. Monitoring them for a week shows that early birds use more fat for energy during both rest and exercise.
They were more sensitive to insulin as well. Whereas, night owls were insulin resistant and also opted for carbohydrates over fat for energy.
This inability of the night owls to respond to insulin to generate fuel indicates the increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
#4. Affects Fat Deposits
Clock genes and obesity are closely related.
To explain, circadian rhythm disruption accompanied by a high-fat diet can cause real damage to the human body processes. It affects how your body utilizes and stores the fat to an extent that no diet can undo it.
What happens is, if your circadian rhythm is disrupted, it hampers the cellular processes. This process involves the conversion of adipocyte progenitor cells into healthy fat cells. As a result, there is difficulty in the storage of fat deposits.
When the process continues, the stored fat and lipids spill due to lack of storage and sit around the muscles and organs.
As a result, a disrupted circadian rhythm is a huge threat leading to weight gain and obesity.
#5. Increases the Risk of Stroke
Adverse cardiovascular incidents, including stroke and myocardial infarction, show time-of-day variation.
Studies show misalignment of behavioral/environmental timings and circadian disruption can adversely impact cardiovascular function.
To explain, frequent changes in the day/night work shifts or simply crossing multiple time zones in a short period of time badly affects the sleep-wake cycle. This puts pressure on cardiovascular health and increases the lifetime risk of stroke.
Well, this explains why people with hectic or unplanned work schedules are mostly affected by stroke.
#6. Affects Your Blood Pressure
The effects of circadian rhythm disruption are also evident in your blood pressure. You might have seen that people with a misaligned circadian system are always angry.
This is because of the heightened blood pressure causing hypertension.
A review of a study on shift workers confirms the same. The study (published in the International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health) reviews nearly 34 articles which mainly concludes that the night shift work could increase the sympathetic influences on the heartbeat rate.
Clearly, the experimental induction of circadian misalignment in humans increases blood pressure and results in hypertension.
#7. Accelerates the Aging Process
An undefined pressure on the body is bound to increase the aging process. If your body isn’t getting enough rest, it degrades the quality of the cells and wrinkles start to appear.
The increase in the aging process is not only in terms of your looks. That is to say, your body physically as well experiences the early aging symptoms. It may be due to hormonal fluctuations due to a disrupted circadian rhythm.
Circadian misalignment affects your sleep which consequently affects testosterone production. In men decline in t-levels can affect their sexual mental and physical health. It also affects andropause (male menopause) which is a sign of aging.
#8. Impacts Gut-Microbiome Health
Circadian rhythm disruption health consequences also include your gut health. The composition of your gut microbiome is directly linked to disrupted circadian rhythm. Interestingly, your gut affects around 75% of your immunity, and a disbalance in your body clock is bound to affect your overall health.
An alteration to the structure and functions of intestinal microbiota affects metabolism and induces inflammation. This can possibly give rise to metabolic syndrome.
According to observations published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology, lifestyle factors that promote metabolic syndrome generally cause pro-inflammatory alterations in the intestinal microbiota community.
Therefore, indeed a disrupted circadian rhythm effect is quite clear in human health.
#9. Triggers Cluster Headaches
Cluster headaches affect 1in 1000 people and the ratio between males and females is 3:1. It starts between the ages 20-40 and is one of the most painful human experiences. Around 50% of the patients have committed suicide while experiencing it. Hence, it’s named suicide headaches.
Cluster headaches occur at the same time every day and have the same cycle every other year.
As per evidence, an altercation in the circadian properties is among the key components of cluster headaches. Changes in melatonin rhythms and desynchronization between melatonin and cortisol are also noted in the cluster patients.
Cluster headaches appear to integrate with the circadian system at multiple levels.
#10. Might Increase the Risk of Allergic Reactions
Numerous studies support the hypothesis that misaligned circadian rhythm due to multiple mechanisms might increase the risk of allergies.
This includes some of the common allergic diseases like anaphylaxis, atopic dermatitis, and allergic rhinitis.
Notably, allergic diseases have night-time predominance; therefore, circadian especially nocturnal disruption defines the severity of the disease.
#11. Not Good for Asthma Patients
What happens if your circadian rhythm is disrupted is, it affects the epithelial barrier of the airways.
Clock gene and cellular misalignment lead to a decrease in antiviral responses and an increase in allergen responsiveness. This increases asthma risk.
As per a study, shift work causes misalignment in internal circadian time and environmental day and night changes. The study investigates the association between shift work and asthma.
As compared to day workers, permanent night shift workers have higher risks of moderate-severe asthma and all asthma.
#12. Promotes Hunger and Sugar Cravings
Changes in your day and night sleep-wake cycle can affect your hunger and sweet cravings. There is a prevalence of night-time food and alcohol consumption among night owls.
As per observations of the International Journal of Obesity, it was found that active ghrelin levels are highly impacted by the endogenous circadian phase.
The levels were higher in biological morning and evening. Circadian misalignment increased the appetite for energy-dense foods.
Night owls feel more night-time cravings in comparison to early birds. This contributes to weight gain and could be one of the reasons for insulin resistance as well.
#13. May Disrupt Fertility
If you are trying to conceive, you better look after your circadian rhythm. A disrupted circadian system of your body is also responsible for your infertility.
A notable study suggests that women along with the biological clock should also consider the circadian clock when trying to conceive.
Female shift workers like nurses or flight attendants with constant jet lags have shown fertility and menstrual issues. This automatically affects the reproductive function of the body.
And just like female shift workers, male shift workers were also studied.
As a result, high urinary 5-HIIA levels and high serotonin may impair the quality of the sperm and cause infertility in male night shift workers. This research article is available in the journal PLOS ONE.
#14. Detrimental for Cancer Patients
Effects of circadian rhythm disruption can be commonly witnessed among those with shift work, frequent jet lags, or irregular sleep patterns.
Since the misalignment in the internal body clock with environmental factors leads to so many changes, it’s not restricted to only non-severe issues.
Circadian rhythm health consequences can be as serious as cancer. What happens is, that if your internal body clock is not aligned, it increases inflammation and also damages the immune function.
According to a report, circadian rhythm disruption increases inflammation in the brain and body in the presence of cancer. Thus, it also poses a higher risk for cancer patients.
#15. Increases Risk of Premature Death
This is not to scare you!
However, research took place on half a million people and was published in the journal, Chronobiology International.
In comparison to a self-described morning person, evening people are 10 percent more likely to die due to a variation of psychological, physiological, and behavioral factors.
Evening people were more prone to health risks like diabetes, psychological disorders, cardiovascular disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, and respiratory issues. With so many health issues, the body will automatically give up early.
The study concluded that night owl has a slightly higher risk of dying during the study as compared to morning people.
The consequences of circadian rhythm disruption on health are quite concerning.
If you’ve persistent or severe sleep-wake cycle disruption you are most likely to experience one or more of these health issues. It’s better you take the necessary steps to regulate the alignment of the internal body with external factors.
Turn Off Your Lights before It’s Late!
If you have been taking pride in being a night owl till now, you might want to change your misaligned circadian rhythm now!
For this, you can:
- Start increasing your sun exposure
- Follow a proper sleep schedule
- Avoid stimulants like caffeine after noon
- Engage in more physical activity
- Limit the artificial light exposure before bedtime
A thrown-off circadian rhythm restricts your body to function properly giving rise to a myriad of health concerns. And a persisting disturbance of the same can be life-threatening as well.
Send this blog to your friends and colleagues who brag about being a night owl and make them aware of the health risks.
No Comments