A Little More You Should Know About Body Temperature

As you've learned, your body temperature is really an internal clock that keeps us awake and sleeping at certain times.

It's also extremely important to understand that the rise and drop of body temperature is a hint for our body to produce the feelings of being awake or being tired.

Whenever your body temperature begins to fall, you will feel tired, lethargic, and drowsier. Whenever your body temperature rises, you will feel more energetic, alert, and be able to focus better.

Don't mistake the fall of body temperature at certain times during the day as the need to sleep. Your body temperature may rise and drop several times in the day as a response to the activities you're doing at the time.

Whenever you put big physical demands on your body your body temperature will rise above the norm. As a response to any intensive physical activity, the body temperature drops for a while as soon as you stop the activity.

For example, if you work an 8 hour shift at a job that requires intense activity, one might feel totally drained and ready to fall asleep when you come home at around 4 PM. What you'll actually find is that this feeling of tiredness is not a sincere desire to sleep, but rather a response from your body due to the drop of body temperature.

If you resist sleeping at this moment and provide a “wind-down” period for your body after this period, body temperature will return to a normal and you will feel alert again.

In the Powerful Sleep plan I would suggest that you nap for 10-45 minutes during your day to physically recharge yourself, it's ideal to take this nap when you experience this body temperature drop as it will help you sleep. Always limit your naps to 45 minutes to avoid entering deep sleep.

After you wake up from your power nap it's normal to feel lethargic or drowsy, this is because your melatonin levels are higher. Get as much high intensity light as possible the moment you wake up, and make sure to MOVE your body to get your body temperature up and running again.

If you currently live a very sedentary lifestyle, your body temperature will drop very often when you're sitting around on your butt or watching TV, so if you feel tired during the day understand it’s not because you need more sleep. It's because you need LESS SLEEP and MORE MOVEMENT!

Body Temperature Update..!

We already know that your body temperature works and ticks like an internal clock controlling our sleeping cycles. Body temperature also controls the metabolism, circulation and other involuntary activities our body undertakes.

Variation in body temperature also indicates and induces the feeling of being awake or being tired.

Reduction in body temperature induces the feeling of lethargy, tiredness and drowsiness. Conversely, a rise in body temperature induces the feeling of alertness, feeling of being energetic resulting in better concentration levels.

The rise and fall of body temperature during the day should not be misinterpreted as the need to rest or sleep. This happens many a times during the day depending upon the body’s activity level at a given time.

When a human body is pushed for heavy physical activity, the body temperature automatically rises and drops slowly once the activity is stopped. This reduction of body temperature induces a feeling of tiredness or drowsiness.

When your body does intensive physical work during the day, you feel tired when you come back home and just want to sleep. This does not happen due to desire of sleep, but due to drop in body temperature, and the reaction of your body due to the drop in temperature.

If you let this phase pass and wait till your body temperature returns to normal, you will start feeling awake and alert again.

In order to recharge your physical energies, I would suggest, as a part of my Powerful Sleep Plan, to take a nap of 10 – 45 minutes during the day.

 This nap should be taken when you feel sleepy, that is when your body temperature has dropped as it will help in falling asleep. The nap should not be more than 45 minutes and should not enter deep sleep. Deep sleep will only induce further fall in body temperature.

When you wake from your Power Nap, you may feel drowsy and lethargic due to high melatonin levels. It is important to get your body back to normal temperature with the help of light physical movement and exposure to light.

It is understandable if you feel tired even when you lead a sedentary lifestyle. This does not mean you need more sleep, but means that you need more movement and less sleep. This happens due to frequent dropping of body temperature.

The Importance Of Getting Enough Sunshine

I cannot over emphasize how important this is! As explained earlier, the amount of natural sunlight that enters your eyes has a drastic effect on your temperature body rhythm.

·  When we're exposed to high intensity light, our body temperature increases, and melatonin levels rapidly decrease.

·    Exposure to natural sunlight also delays the temperature drop. This allows you to stay awake and alert for longer periods of time.

·  Lack of sunlight results in higher melatonin levels, this leads to lower body temperature levels, feeling very sleepy, and tired through out the day.

Lack of sunlight will create a flat-line effect in your body temperature, because it will not get a chance to rise high enough, your body temperature won't fall low enough during the night either. 

If your body temperature is flat-lined, this could cause major sleeping problems, and it will be very difficult for you to sleep deeply for long periods of time. A lot of people who complain about “poor sleep” usually don't get enough sunlight.

Consider how for the most part of our evolution we were always outside during the day, it seemed that nature intended us to be this way, then suddenly over the past 100 years we drastically changed our exposure to natural sunlight. 

Most of us hardly get any sun today at all! We drive to work in a car, we wear sunglasses, we work in offices, what kind of effect do you think this has on our sleep clock?

How much Sunshine is Enough?

This is probably the most important factor discussed in this whole book and the concept of sleep therapy. The amount of sunlight that enters your eyes has a great impact on your sleep rhythm.

v  Exposure to high intensity light increases our body temperature. Rise in our body temperature decreases out melatonin levels.

v  When exposed to natural sunlight, our body delays the temperature drop, thus allowing us to be awake and aware for longer times.

v  Lack of enough natural sunlight results in more melatonin level leading to lower temperature levels, sleepiness and tiredness.

Not going out in the sun creates a flat line effect on our body temperature rhythms. Our body temperature will not rise high enough during the day and as a result will not fall enough during the night. 

This will result in sleep problems and you will be deprived of deep sleep most of the time. Most of us who complain of lack of sleep simply do not get enough sunlight.

Going back in time, man has always been an outdoor animal, out in the sunlight all through the day and sheltered at night only because of the cold. 

This continued for so many million years and suddenly we are looking at changing sleeping habits and avoiding sunlight by cars, sunglasses, sheltered offices in the past 100 years.

 Is it so easy to change a million year legacy in 100 years. Your sleep clock will not change so fast.

How Exercise Affects Your Body Temperature Rhythm

If you want to instantly increase the quality of your sleep, then start an exercise program if you don't exercise already. Exercise helps you sleep better in a number of ways.

·             Exercise will raise your body temperature rhythm, and make your body temperature “peak” at a higher level. This will increase your energy levels throughout the day, you'll feel more awake, alive, and motivated.

·             As your body temperature levels will max out at a higher level, your body temperature will also drop more easily and deeper. This will allow you to sleep deeply, without interruptions.

·             Regular exercise will prevent your body temperature rhythm from “flat-lining”, which will allow you to sleep deeply even if you've had a stressful day, or couldn't exercise on one particular day.

·             Exercise delays the body temperature “drop” in the evening, allowing you to stay awake and alert longer without feeling tired and drowsy.

·             Exercise is also a great relief of tension and stress, which as you'll later find out, is a major cause of sleeping disorders.

If you don't exercise yet, GET A MOVE ON IT! and start now. The best time to exercise is in the morning, as this will promote a quick temperature rise. 

However, avoid exercise 3 hours prior to going to sleep, as your body temperature will probably still be on the rise, and you may find falling asleep / sleeping deeply more difficult.

If you don't exercise, I'm not suggesting you get up off your butt right now, get a membership at your local gym and begin a full scale work out program. You can do that only if you really want to. 

However, recent study shows that just moderate exercise during the day has many health benefits. If you can't motivate yourself to start exercising regularly, you could find a less intensive physical activity that you still enjoy, like walking briskly, biking, rollerblading, these will still have a substantial effect at raising your body temperature.

My point about this would be: What's the Point of Trying to Rejuvenate your Body, and Increasing the Quality of Your Sleep, if You're Not Going to USE YOUR BODY?