One of the most cunning questions about health is whether doing activities like sport, eating and sleeping at a certain time good for health? It is impossible for us to live standardized lives but knowing some principles and observing them may provide us big advantages.

The Setting: Day Light

There is really something called the internal clock. All of our hormonal and living activities works in accordance with a regulation called Circadian Rhythm. So all of our systems tend to work orderly and it tends to repeat that. Living a life accordingly may provide longer and healthier life.

The most important setting for our internal clock is daylight. Mankind tends to sleep at the sunset and wake up at the sunrise. The hormone that regulates our sleep and ensures relaxation is called “Melatonin”. It is secreted from a section of the brain called pineal gland.

But, do we really want that hormone? Of course, because it is known that melatonin delays aging and prevents cancer. So how can we increase melatonin amount in our body? Its secretion increase in the dark, so do not use night lights. Also, make the most of your evening and do not stay up late. Now you know why your parents always insist on going to bed early.

Ordinary people sleep 7-8 hours a day but it can vary 5 hours to 10 hours due to characteristic, habits, working conditions and seasons. For instance, the need for sleep increases during puberty and decreases in old ages.

Morning

In the morning, the body of healthy people starts pulling itself together. Our body have rested during the night and it starts to prepare itself for the upcoming day. Hormones like cortisol, thyroid, adrenaline which power up immune system increase in the morning.

Low blood pressure and pulse start to return normal values. This time may vary but it is generally completed around 08:00 AM – 10:00 AM. The people living in rural areas usually start working early and they can pull themselves together at early times because the time you sleep and wake up is important. Many people mention about difficulties of regular exercise, however, the actual reason is they tire themselves before they gather strength. Contrary to popular myth, the best time to exercise is late afternoon for most of the people. Breakfast and hydration ensure more energetic day.

Noon

Based on your work and tempo, people usually feel tired and need rest. After lunch, people need about 1 hour to refresh themselves and be ready for the remainder. The afternoon is actually good and efficient time for work.

Evening

In the evening, blood pressure and muscle power increase. Generally, our body prepare itself for rest and sleep between 20:00 – 21:00. But in this modern era, people generally spend these hours for eating and entertainment. Even if it isn’t suitable for our physiology, we adopt this kind of lifestyle and we don’t have much difficulties. However staying up late and eating before bed will upset the balance of the body because our stomach and urinary system slow down, pulse and blood pressure decrease during sleep. In other words, the body goes into resting and energy saving mode. Thus, all stress and trauma that pile up during the day decrease during sleep.

In the night, growth hormone secretion increase along with the hormone that balance salt and water amount of the body. Children who take enough sleep develop healthier and quicker.

Diseases Make Changes

Diseases usually make changes in this rhythm. The people with high blood pressure generally have higher blood pressure in the evening because secretion of certain hormones will decrease at night. Due to the same reason, people with fever generally have higher body temperature at night. Heart attacks also generally occur towards morning.

Key Points

• We have to organize our lives based on our habits.
• We have to sleep exact amount that we need. More or less amount of sleep influence the whole day. We have to avoid staying up late.
• The room that we sleep must be warm, quiet, airy and dark. So there will be no external stimulus since every single stimulus make our sleep worse.
• If we don’t feel well in the morning and couldn’t tolerate exercise, we can change our exercise hours to afternoon.
• Eat breakfast, don’t skip meals and don’t eat late.
• Eating heavy meals, avoiding activities and insufficient sleep amounts increase the risk of heart attack. Also knowing that your fever will be worse during the night will give you enough time to take measures.