Is Circadian Rhythm A Real Thing?

I do not know why, but I woke up one morning last week and had a strong urge that I needed to rebalance my body somehow.  I eat fairly healthy, practice yoga and mediation, so what else was there?  Then the words circadian rhythm began to echo somewhere deep within the reserves of my brain.

Huh, circadian rhythm. I remember vaguely learning about circadian rhythm and reading articles about how it affects your sleep in the past, but what exactly is circadian rhythm, and how would it help me to feel the overall rebalance that I was looking for?

A little scientific refresher was in order.  Thanks to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, I was quickly reminded about the perfectly planned connections between the exquisite human body and our amazing natural world.  Beyond regulating sleep, I was surprised to find out how our circadian rhythm can affect us in other areas as well..."Abnormal circadian rhythms have also been associated with obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder -NIH".  This last part was interesting because I have experienced seasonal affective disorder before, particularly in the winter, so this was nice to learn.    

Now that I had my refresher, and knew how crucial circadian rhythm is to my health, I needed to conduct a personal experience.  When I say personal, I mean family (they are so lucky to have me ;)).  How would I go about this experiment in a way that made sense for our life today?  We don't live on a deserted island far from civilization, so becoming hermits was not an option.  We needed to continue interacting with the world, and I needed to continue running our family business.  

Talking with the kids, we decided this experiment would last four days, Monday through Thursday.  There would be limited electronics in the morning to allow for our experiment check in, social media check in, and business updates.  This would be on the computer, should last no more than about an hour, and there would be no phone use.  The remainder of the day there would be no electronics, and all day/night there would be no lights, only candlelight.  

Watching the girls interact with each other and nature during those four days was beautiful.  We had sincere interest in each other's words, played more games with each other, went outside more, read, colored, got some much needed cleaning accomplished, practiced yoga outside, meditated more, and the quality of sleep was incredible.  Every evening we would go outside and watch the brilliant show the fireflies put on.   While we may have enjoyed fireflies before, this experiment gave us a greater appreciation for their beauty.  We can't stand human created fireworks because of the environmental and health damage they cause (cue eye rolling from many of you, but that's how we feel).  Realizing fireflies truly are natures fireworks was amazing, there were 100's of them, and Gracie would name them as they landed on her (she is the cutest!).  

For us our circadian rhythm rebalance was fun, but more importantly it allowed us to reconnect with each other by taking our faces out of mind numbing technology, honoring the person in front of us instead of half listening. It provided time for self reflection, tuning in through silence and gratitude.  It allowed us to realize that circadian rhythm can help with other disorders beyond sleep, which is an important piece that can offer hope and healing to many.  

We decided we liked how this felt, and we will practice being more mindful to our interactions with each other, and use electronics less.  Sometimes pictures or videos just cannot do justice to the beauty that is the people and nature we are surrounded by, you have to go out, turn off the television, put down the phones, close the computers, and immerse yourself in it.