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    • Can new wearable technology reset your internal clock?
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    Can new wearable technology reset your internal clock?

    Pabio Posted on

    November 6, 2024 – Last weekend, most Americans turned their clocks back an hour, marking the end of daylight saving time and signaling the seasonal transition to shorter days and longer nights. Shorter days mean less exposure to light, which disrupts your circadian rhythm – the internal body clock that controls when you feel sleepy or alert, as well as your metabolism and hormone release.

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

    Health tech companies are starting to take their place.

    Recently, there has been a rise in the number of gadgets, apps, and wearable sensors claiming to help realign the body’s circadian rhythm, thereby improving sleep, alertness, and mood. Most exploit the effects of exposure to light – the factor that, according to researchers, has the strongest influence on circadian rhythms.

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

    How Light and Darkness Affect Your Health

    Our circadian rhythm is controlled by a master clock called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), located in the center of the body. brain about 2 centimeters behind the eyeswhere the optic nerves cross.

    Exposure to light helps the SCN synchronize with the oscillations of the sun and release the hormone cortisolwhich promotes alertness and wakefulness during the day, said Mariana Figueiro, PhD, director of the Light and Health Research Center at Mount Sinai in New York.

    At night, the SCN sends a signal to sleep, suppressing cortisol and releasing melatonin, the sleep hormone. When functioning properly, this system helps the body stay asleep until morning. At the same time, “sleep pressure” – the body’s biological need to stay awake – builds up during the day and decreases at night.

    Unfortunately, our brightly lit modern world – illuminated by streetlights, neon signs, and backlit electronic devices – is not ideal for regulating this system. Add in longer work hours, night shifts, and the ability to easily travel across time zones, and we’ve found plenty of ways to challenge natural biology.

    When there is a “deviation, the body’s rhythms do not move at the same pace as the environment and begin to dissociate from each other,” said Thomas Kantermann, PhD, professor of health psychology at the University of the Sciences applied FOM in Bochum, Germany. Other examples include the turning back or forward of clocks and seasonal changes in light as the earth tilts toward or away from the sun.

    This results in an increased risk of sleep disorders as well as a host of other health problems, including mood disorders, cancerdiabetes, obesity and heart attacks.

    Can technology help?

    Bridget Pilloud, a writer based in Washington state and Arizona, has struggled for years with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a mild seasonal depression.

    “It starts as soon as the light starts to change, at the end of August,” she said. “Everyone feels like it’s still summer, but I feel the light changing and I slow down. It takes me longer to get ready in the morning and 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 multitude of treatments – antidepressantsvitamin D, light box therapyAnd exercise – Pilloud finally turned to Ayo light therapy glasses. They work by providing blue and red light at custom intensities.

    “I started using it last September, and right away I felt normal and didn’t suffer from depression again until mid-October,” she said. “So I did a little more research and started using them for a longer session, and I felt normal again after four to five days.”

    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 (like the MiEye sensor, available only to researchers). Additionally, apps like Timeshifter and myCircadianClock provide personalized prompts to optimize light exposure and sleep.

    Although Pilloud’s experiment seems promising, research shows mixed results on the effectiveness of these tools.

    A little clinical trial examined Ayo glasses in fatigued patients. “Our results showed that for some people, glasses work,” said study author Mark Butler, PhD, psychologist and an investigator in the Institute of Health System Science at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health in Manhasset, New York. “And in general, there is a small but significant effect. For others, it did nothing.

    A significant limitation of light therapy glasses, Figueiro said, is design and positioning. “If glasses are not worn in a certain position on the face, they will not provide the necessary amount of light,” she said.

    The timing of light exposure is also important, as is the intensity: The more intense the light, the more likely the response will be, said Kantermann, who has advised AYO’s founders pro bono. The researchers also looked at “light temperature“, or hues. Cooler hues like blue are thought to suppress melatonin and improve alertness, while warmer hues—reds, oranges, and yellows—do the opposite.

    Figueiro and his team are working with a company to commercialize a light meter – a device that measures the amount of light in a given environment and produces feedback for a personalized “light recipe” (how the light can be adjusted or best optimized to be used). in accordance with its circadian rhythm). They have also worked on indoor lighting solutions, for example using different lighting intensities or exposures in nursing homes for residents with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. She noted that these solutions led to improvements in sleep, mood, behavior and cognitive function.

    Another consideration is behavior change. “The tricky thing is you have to do (the therapy) every day,” Kantermann said, “It has to be a routine so that your system becomes stable and gets in sync.”

    He believes that to be effective, the intervention must be administered passively, meaning the system monitors progress and automatically adjusts “without the person having to do anything,” he said. -he declared.

    “We use a series of light flashes that are administered when a person is sleeping in a specific sequence and at different times of the night, but they do not interfere with sleep or wake the user,” he said. declared. “Basically, it synchronizes your circadian clock without forcing you to change your behavior.”

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

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

    “Our clocks look for clear days and dark nights,” Figueiro said. “Take advantage of every opportunity you have during the day to get as much light as possible. »

    Pabio
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