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    • Can New Wearable Technology Reset Your Internal Clock?
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    Can New Wearable Technology Reset Your Internal Clock?

    Harry Posted on

    November 6, 2024 – Most Americans changed their clocks this past weekend back The one hour marks the end of daylight saving time and signals the seasonal shift to shorter days and longer nights. Shorter days mean less light exposure, which negatively impacts your life. circadian rhythm – internal body clock that controls when you feel sleepy or awake, as well as your metabolism and hormone release.

    As more and more research reveals the critical role of circadian rhythms in health and disease, circadian medicine is growing. Disruptions in the internal clock have been linked to a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and depression. dementiaand more.

    Healthtech companies are starting to catch on.

    There has been a recent surge in wearable devices, apps, and sensors that claim to help re-regulate the body’s circadian rhythm, improving sleep, alertness, and mood. Many benefit from its effects exposure to light – factor that researchers say has the strongest effect on circadian rhythms.

    So do these devices work? Here’s what you need to know.

    How Light and Dark Affect Your Health

    Our circadian rhythm is controlled by a master clock located in our center called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). brain about 2 centimeters behind eyesWhere the optic nerves intersect.

    Exposure to light helps the SCN synchronize with the sun’s oscillations and secrete hormones. cortisolThis promotes alertness and alertness during the day, says Mariana Figueiro, PhD, director of the Light and Health Research Center at Mount Sinai in New York City.

    At night, the SCN suppresses cortisol by sending a sleep signal and secretes the sleep hormone melatonin. When this system works properly, it helps the body stay asleep until the morning. At the same time, “sleep pressure”, the body’s biological drive to stay awake, increases during the day and decreases at night.

    Unfortunately, our brightly lit modern world, illuminated by street lamps, neon signs and backlit electronic devices, is not very good for regulating this system. Add in longer working hours, night shifts, and the ability to easily travel between time zones, and we have found many ways to challenge natural biology.

    “In case of any deviation, the body’s rhythms do not move at the same speed as the environment and begin to diverge from each other,” said Thomas Kantermann, professor of health psychology at the FOM University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany. Other examples include turning clocks forward or backward and seasonal changes in light as the earth moves away from or tilts towards the sun.

    The result is an increased risk of sleep disorders as well as a host of other health problems, including mood disorders. cancerdiabetes, obesity and heart attack.

    Can Technology Help?

    Bridget Pilloud, a writer living in Washington State and Arizona, has been struggling with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a low-grade seasonal depression, for years.

    “It starts as soon as the light starts to change in late August,” he said. “Everyone still feels like they’re writing, but I feel the light changing and I’m slowing down. “It takes me longer to get ready in the morning and it takes a lot more effort to get things done.”

    Pilloud said that between October and December, his condition gradually worsened and became systemic.

    After trying a number of treatments – antidepressantsVitamin D, light box therapyAnd exercise – Pilloud eventually turned to Ayo light therapy glasses. They work by delivering blue and red light in customized intensities.

    “I started using it last September and immediately felt normal and didn’t get depressed again until mid-October,” she said. “So I did some more research and started using them for a longer period of time and within four to five days I felt normal again.”

    Ayo isn’t the only device competing in the circadian health space. Others include sleep masks (Lumos Smart Sleep Mask and Bia Smart Mask), glasses (Luminette light therapy glasses), and wearable sensors that measure changes in light (such as the MiEye sensor, which is available only to researchers). Additionally, apps like Timeshifter and myCircadianClock provide personalized prompts to optimize light exposure and sleep.

    While Pilloud’s experience seems promising, research shows mixed results on how effective these tools are.

    a little clinical trial He examined Ayo glasses in patients suffering from fatigue. “Our findings showed that glasses work for some people,” said study author Mark Butler, PhD. psychologist and an investigator at the Institute for Health System Science at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health in Manhasset, New York. “Overall there is a small but significant impact. It did nothing for the others.”

    Figueiro said a major limitation of light therapy glasses is design and positioning. “If glasses are not worn in a certain position on the face, they cannot provide the required amount of light,” he said.

    Timing and intensity of light exposure are also important, says Kantermann, who gave pro bono advice to AYO’s founders; The more intense the light, the more likely the response will be, he said. Researchers also “light temperatureCooler hues, such as blue, are believed to suppress melatonin and increase alertness, while warmer hues (red, orange, and yellow) are believed to do the opposite.

    Figueiro and his team are working with a business to commercialize a light meter, a device that measures the amount of light in a given environment and generates feedback for a personalized “light recipe” (how the light can be adjusted or best optimized). appropriate to the person’s circadian rhythm). They also work on indoor lighting solutions; for example, using different lighting intensities or exposures in nursing homes for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients. He noted that these solutions led to improvements in sleep, mood, behavior and cognitive functions.

    Another issue is behavioral change. “The hardest thing is that you have to do (therapy) every day,” Kantermann said. “This needs to be a routine so that your system can be stable and synchronized.”

    He believes that to be effective, the intervention must be implemented passively; that is, the system monitors progress and adjusts automatically “without the person having to do anything.”

    “We use a series of light flashes that are applied while someone sleeps in a specific order and at different times of the night, but they do not interfere with or wake the user from sleep,” he said. “What it does is basically synchronizes your circadian clock without you having to change your behavior.”

    Then there is the price. Ayo and Luminette glasses can cost around $200, while sleep masks can cost $300 or more.

    For now, the best option for most people is the simplest one: “When the sun comes up, go outside for 20 minutes, half an hour or more, depending on your schedule,” Kantermann said.

    “Our watches look for bright days and dark nights,” Figueiro said. “Take advantage of the many opportunities you have throughout the day to get as much light as possible.”

    Harry
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