Our moods are highly dependent on our sleep cycles. Fitbit data proves it. The pace of life continues to accelerate, with many sacrificing a good night’s sleep to cross out more things from their to-do lists. This comes with a price, as a lack of sleep is very much linked to our moods and overall happiness. The gadget that helped researchers reach such a conclusion was something that many of us wear daily – a Fitbit. They used data gathered from the Intern Health Study project, which works with hundreds of first-year training physicians. The interns wore fitness trackers that monitored their heart rate, activity, and sleeping habits. The central circadian clock, located in the brain’s suprachiasmatic nuclei, keeps time and coordinates other peripheral circadian clocks throughout the body. In their study, the team focused on the peripheral clock in the heart. central circadian clock and sleep exhibited the strongest negative association with mood and depressive symptoms, including poor sleep, appetite issues, and even suicidal thoughts sleep cycles are not aligned with the internal clock or circadian rhythms, they can have drastic effects on emotional health and mood. Previous research on the subject linked the quality of sleep with serious mental health concerns, including suicide But this is a key factor that we can actually control. We can’t control someone’s life events. We can’t control their relationships or their genetics. But what we can do is very carefully look at their individual sleep patterns and circadian rhythms to really see how that’s affecting their mood For most people, the heart’s peripheral clock ensures it’s prepared to be more active at 2 p.m. than at 2 a.m. The team also measured the interns’ sleep cycles, finding that when a sleep cycle was out of sync with the heart’s peripheral clock, it negatively impacted mood.
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Sunday, February 16, 2025