Community Question: Do you have any blogs on the weaning hormonal fluctuations and how circadian health can help? I keep seeing so much scary stuff about how women feel when they start weaning! We aren't yet but I think when my girl is fully walking she's going to do much less!

My answer: Yes! I once wrote that my least favorite part of parenting is weaning, followed by morning sickness. I was in the midst of weaning a tandem nursing toddler at the time. Here are some breastfeeding posts and resources that may be helpful:

• Do you have to wean to conceive?

• Weaning, circadian style

• Support for tandem nursing

• Quantum breastfeeding class

• Circadian babyhood class

• Morning matters for baby

I hope these help! You are also welcome to post breastfeeding/weaning questions in the community chat to hear from other moms and perinatal practitioners in the community.

Join the chat

My food philosophy includes cultural heritage, nutrition, timing, ingredient sourcing and storage, skill and creativity.

But above all, food is probably one of my very favorite things to talk about.

You all asked for my food philosophy, so I set up today’s call. Here’s the link to join us at 1 PM Pacific: Nikko’s Food Philosophy (Group Doula Care Session for Brighter Days, Darker Nights community members and guests).

RSVP

Before the call, I thought it would be fun to share one of the strangest recipes in my cabinet: Vital Garlic Chutney from Mama’s Menu by Ameya Duprey.

For those who have oxalate sensitivity1, I am very sorry you will not be able to enjoy this recipe with us. The photo from my cookbook tells you everything you need to know about how well loved this recipe is (and that I often cook one-handed with a baby or toddler in the other):

And my other favorite topping that makes ordinary meals spectacular:

One of my recent doula clients specifically mentioned the recipes I shared in her testimonial, which is also inspiration for this post and for today’s class.

Doula in pocket review/testimony!

My husband stumbled upon Nikko a few days before my induction. I was a bit anxious because we didn’t have much time to bond with her before the baby arrived. However, in just a few days, she effectively prepared me for a natural, unmedicated hospital birth. This was my fourth hospital birth, but my first unmedicated one!

Nikko’s suggestions about lighting from before, during, and after the birth made a significant difference. Her sharing of her own experience and describing what an unmedicated birth entails gave me mental preparation. With all this support and having her on video during the birth, I was able to have a beautiful, unmedicated hospital birth!

The postpartum support she provided me was invaluable. She helped us establish the baby’s circadian rhythm, offered great tips and support for nursing, and shared some amazing recipes.

When we have another baby, Nikko will undoubtedly be our doula again. I’m really anticipating having her throughout the entire pregnancy and witnessing how much more incredible it will be when it was so amazing for such a short time!

~Caitlin Lindgren

If you are due this Summer, I may have availability for Doula in your pocket. Learn more and apply here.

“lucky” “privileged” “elitist”

Yes, I have had all these names thrown at me for shring my reasons for avoiding daycare.

Online anyways, and especially on mom-Substack.

In real life, people don’t tend to be so quick to call names and throw labels.

But what does daycare have to do with my mission here?

Daycare, even high quality daycare, seems to disrupt the circadian flow of cortisol for the majority of youngsters1.

And unnatural cortisol patterns and circadian disruption in early life are correlated with lifelong outcomes, especially mental health outcomes.

Inside my circadian pregnancy & babyhood workshops I teach how the first 2-3 years of life are foundational for circadian rhythmicity across the lifespan.

The patterns set at this time tend to be carried forward for the rest of life.

I wouldn’t ever take daycare away from those who want to use it.

But to say daycare is always a good and necessary thing is absolutely a slap in the face to the intelligence and resourcefulness of mothers.

Mothers, regardless of income status, are capable.

Mothers today are doing what mothers have always done, which is finding the way that feels right in spite of the challenges of the era.

Personally, I believe creating systems and solutions that keep mothers and babies together and with healthy hormonal patterns is preferable to those designed to keep them apart to known detriment of these foundational hormonal rhythms.

If you are dropping your child off, from a cortisol standpoint the afternoon seems to be the real danger zone where cortisol starts moving in the opposite direction it should. Shortening the daycare hours and bringing babies and toddlers home after the morning could help protect their circadian rhythms from this aspect of daycare stress.

Resources:

• How to support healthy cortisol patterns

• Circadian disruption vs mental health

• Circadian babyhood workshop

Inspired by:

I Mean Honestly

Let's Reconnect This Year. Our Future Is Calling.

hello, i hope the first few weeks of 2025 are unfolding well for you. i do have a lot i want to bring to this corner of the internet, but my eye keeps getting caught by stories that want to be told or thoughts that want to be heard so today, i have to share with you some thoughts I had on an article I’d read…

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a year ago · 8 likes · 7 comments · Giana Vasoncellos

You may have been recommended intravenous iron if you are low ferritin in pregnancy, postpartum, or preconception or if you have anemia that doesn’t respond to other interventions.

Before you decide yes or no—or which formulation to choose—here’s what the current research shows about a real but often-overlooked side effect and how to reduce your likelihood of having it. This directly relates to what I share about circadian and quantum biology.

Start Here: Why IV Iron?

The first question isn’t which IV iron formulation (we’ll get to that). But it’s really whether IV iron is necessary.

I started this Quantum Anemia series because so many people have reached out to me who don’t want to supplement with iron, who can’t tolerate it (nausea, constipation and other side effects), or, they have taken iron and it didn’t work to correct their energy levels or anemia.

Before considering an infusion, most providers first work with oral supplementation.

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Intake

Absorption

Recycling

Toxicity reduction

These each play a role in optimizing iron levels for healthy blood.

This video recording is from a guest expert presentation I created for the Sol Circle membership by Carrie B. Wellness.

She has guest lectures every month (I’ll definitely be back to teach again in the future), plus she herself is of course a fountain of wisdom!

Here’s where you can learn more and see if you might like to become a member of Sol Circle by Carrie B. Wellness.

Questions about anything in the presentation? Leave a comment or head over to the subscriber chat.

Founding members can also send me a DM:

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In pregnancy, blood volume expands by 50%

But red blood cells (RBCs) only expand by 30%

This is why some people say you probably aren’t anemic even if you test that way while you are pregnant.

I’ll start this post by saying I agree the test —> infusion pipeline has serious problems.

Here’s where the narrative that you can’t be anemic in pregnancy concerns me: inadequate blood volume expansion is one of the most dangerous situations for baby.

Baby is fed by the placenta.

The placenta is fed by the mother’s blood.

When the mother doesn’t have enough blood volume expansion, her body responds as though she is hemorrhaging. This means her body has to pull resources back to her own core body functions to preserve her own life.

Thus, not enough blood for the mother = not enough support of the placenta.

Think of the placenta like a plant that needs its roots to be well watered.

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Here’s an easy strategy to help your baby understand the difference between waking up from a nap and waking up in the middle of the night:

• if it is daytime, bring them outside right away for a minute (or more) of natural light

• if it is nighttime, keep the lights dim (under 1 lux, and definitely no more than 5 lux)

Fine tune or amplify the strategy:

You can reinforce the daytime signal in many ways.

You can speak up joyfully when they wake.

Tell your baby how happy you are to see them awake, and even sing them a bouncy wake up song.

If you are brave enough to do elimination communication (EC) and have a private yard, this is an opportune “pottytunity.”

This is because for most of humanity we voided outside and babies are still primed that way.

When they wake up, if you take their diaper off outside, the light and air will very likely help cue them to void in their potty.

When they wake up in the dark, there are also multiple ways to amplify the signal to go back to sleep.

Keep your voice low …

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Class Resources:

• Anemia series on Substack: Quantum Anemia Theories Series

• Folate series on Substack: Circadian Folate Series

• Daylighting post on Substack: How far would you go to cure depression?

• The 2018 review paper on EMFs and the blood system: Jbireal, J., Elsayed Azab, A., & Ibrahim Elsayed, A. S. (2018). Disturbance in haematological parameters induced by exposure to electromagnetic fields. Hematology & Transfusion International Journal, 6(6). https://doi.org/10.15406/htij.2018.06.00193

• The 1919 article framing light as “modern hygienic propaganda”: THE COMPOSITION OF THE BLOOD IN SUNLIGHT AND DARKNESS. (1919). Journal of the American Medical Association, 73(19), 1446. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1919.02610450042017

• The iron recycling paper: Slusarczyk, P., & Mleczko-Sanecka, K. (2021). The Multiple Facets of Iron Recycling. Genes, 12(9), 1364. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12091364

• The ferritin/electron tunneling paper: Perez, I. D., Lim, S., Nijhuis, C. A., Pluchery, O., & Rourk, C. J. (n.d.). Electron tunneling in ferritin and associated biosystems.

• The history of ferritin discoveries paper: Arosio, P., Cairo, G., & Bou-Abdallah, F. (2024). A Brief History of Ferritin, an Ancient and Versatile Protein. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 26(1), 206. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26010206

• My Zotero research library login if you are a member here, or purchase access here

• The polyphasic sleep/darkness class login here if you have access, or purchase access here

• The Brighter Days, Darker Nights community chat for more Q&A here

• Email me for info on my practitioner training options: nikko@brighterdaysdarkernights.com

Thank you to everyone who attended live and for watching the replay! It’s wonderful to know such amazing and thoughtful people.

Slides and complete video for paid subscribers.

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When I started the Quantum Anemia Theories series last year, I wanted to offer new perspectives that would help people feel better and navigate anemia diagnosis.

Conventional treatments often rely on an overly simple model—if anemic or low iron, supplement with iron. The problem that got me looking deeper on this: many people don’t tolerate iron, and iron supplements can have terrible side effects.

It turns out, having healthy blood depends not only on iron intake, but also iron absorption, iron recycling and preventing iron toxicity.

Thus, the test-iron/prescribe-supplement model is leaving out major and important aspects of iron metabolism.

If the problem isn’t intake (and in many cases, it isn’t) adding iron isn’t necessarily going to help you have healthy blood cycle as a whole.

Today’s post is about the roles light plays in these processes, some syncs a…

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Children don’t think in clock time.

This is a big cause of bedtime battles.

They are fully in tune with their body clock.

So instead of speaking to their mind, speak to their body in the language that controls their sleepiness: darkness.

Clock time doesn’t dictate bedtime—the light outside does.

The sun is going behind the horizon… time to light the candles and turn off the lights.

Bye bye, sun!

If the light is low, it’s so much easier to guide children to bedtime than if the overhead white light is on telling their bodies it is still noon!

How can your voice chanting a random number convince them their body is lying!? It can’t.

Speak to their body with dimness instead and you will have a much easier time.

This bedtime ease is all the more likely if you have brought them outside first thing this morning already to replenish their melatonin stores after the p…

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A nervous system constantly experiencing danger signals will present with anxiety it can’t be talked out of.

This is why gave up her therapy license.

She now practices with 5 interchangeable pillars:

• Light

• Water

• Earth

• Food

• Breath

These signals are all interconnected, so she teaches people how to start and move through them in the order that works best individually as not everyone will start in the same place.

But when these safety signals stack up, the danger signals being sent at the cellular and quantum scale in chronic anxiety are no longer needed.

And thus, the chronic anxiety can safely go away.

Dr. Kelli Ritter has been teaching families how to recover from anxiety for decades, and is now turning to coaches to help even more practitioners use her framework to help their clients who are also struggling with chronic anxiety.

With more people being diagnosed every day, it’s high time to focus on the signals that actually address the danger signaling happening under the surface.

Listen to the episode above where I hosted Dr. Kelli, and then tune in below for the episode where Dr. Kelli hosted me!

Kelli Ritter, PhD

E46 Motherhood, Mental Health & Circadian Safety with Nikko Kennedy

Motherhood doesn’t begin at birth — and it doesn’t end when children grow up…

Listen now

3 months ago · Kelli Ritter, PhD

What I find, over and over, are comparison studies between monitoring vs more monitoring.

But comparison of monitoring vs no monitoring in the modern era is rare.

With Doppler vs no Doppler it’s slightly better because they can do Doppler vs fetoscope, but still difficult to find monitoring heart tones vs not monitoring them.

When I can find research about either technology be no technology, it’s often confounded by socioeconomic factors and other issues of low resource settings or are in reference to old ultrasound technologies that are not the same as the ones in use today.

Additionally, use of ultrasound results in many more abortions of babies with developmental abnormalities, and this even further skews the outcome data.

Well-accepted concerns about diagnostic ultrasound include radiation risks for providers (and observed very stati…

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Young babies and children require care around the clock.

Mothers need to sleep.

Mismatch?

I would argue no.

If you are feeling like a zombie (or “mombie”, a term I learned from ), you are not alone and there are things you can do in mindset and sleep biology that can help you feel better even though your sleep is interrupted.

A new/old perspective on sleep in motherhood:

If you are in optimal circadian health, you have the ability to smoothly transition from monophasic to polyphasic sleep through a scientifically validated (but ancient) alternate sleep architecture pattern.

The problem is, most of us are starving for both daylight and darkness and absolutely pummeled by artificial light and unfettered access to globally supplied food products, day or night.

A few adjustments to your circadian timing cues and, like magic, your sleep will transform.

Not in a way that means yo…

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Watch of Evolve Lactation and I chat about her strategies for improving the field of lactation through both of these methods. I invited her to have this conversation to learn what opportunities she saw for getting circadian rhythmicity integrated into lactation support.

After all, we know breastmilk is one of the strongest cues for entraining a baby’s circadian rhythm—thus, good lactation support could reach the next generation when they are most vulnerable and help set them up for better circadian rhythms for life!

Even if you don’t care about the field of lactation, there were translatable insights for other fields that suffer similarly from having grown cumbersome over years of additions, and yet still lack integrated knowledge of circadian rhythmicity where it is needed.

If you resonate with Christine’s work, please subscribe to her publication (link below) to learn more and join her community for those who love moms and babies. She is a wealth of information about breastfeeding, breast health, and the field of lactation consulting.

Thank you , , , and many others for tuning into this live video with ! RSVP for my next live video through the community calendar here.

If you enjoyed this interview, here are few posts I’ve shared about breastfeeding and babyhood:

• Your mother gave you your circadian rhythm

• Quantum Breastfeeding class (video)

• Circadian Babyhood class (video)

• Weaning, circadian style

• Support for tandem breastfeeding

• Lactational amenorrhea and circadian prolactin

I used to believe being tired was just a part of it, but then I learned about the circadian rhythm.

By making a few changes to my habits, I gained the ability to actually feel happy about being awake no matter what time day or night.

Furthermore, I figured out to thrive on interrupted sleep, and how to nap in such a way as to wake up feeling refreshed rather than groggy or disoriented.

I learned that there are many sources of energy, and many healthy patterns of sleep—not just the 8 hours per night I was taught.

Join me in this masterclass to learn all about circadian polyphasic sleep and how to make your motherhood schedule leave you feeling rested no matter how many times your baby wakes up at night.

You’ll understand what drives each of the possible sleep patterns, and how to set yourself up for success so that your body actually understands it needs to be in a polyphasic pattern (if you don’t know what I’m teaching here, most likely your body is compensating for living with a broken monophasic pattern, not actually thriving in a polyphasic one).

• Monophasic = one period of sleep

• Biphasic = two periods of sleep

• Polyphasic = many periods of sleep

TLDR: Your baby isn’t ruining your sleep—you just need to help your body understand what it is supposed to be doing through this stage of life. You can do thit by communicating in the language of the circadian rhythm: light, temperature, meal timing, social and safety cues. When those are right, you can wake up after a few minutes, 20 minutes, 2 hours, or longer—and feel alright—because your body is not primed to always expect 8 hours anymore.

Questions welcome in the comments or the subscriber chat:

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The first time I ever heard of the thyroid was when one of my grandfathers told me he always eats a half-sheet of nori with his breakfast because thyroid issues run in our family.

It wasn’t until years later that I could even point to where in the body the thyroid was (on the front of your neck), or describe what it did (epigenetic timekeeper via the release of thyroid hormones).

Lately, I’ve found myself passing my grandfather’s advice along, because these days, it seems more and more common to hear of thyroid issues.

Why is the thyroid such a problem these days?

The thyroid is an endocrine sensor positioned vulnerably at your throat, constantly absorbing temperature, light, and vocal vibrations.

My recent appearance on the Compromized to Alchemized podcast with Dr. began by tracing how this single gland acts as timekeeper for your entire system, translating circadian rhythms into an epigenetic fingerprint that should be optimiz…

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I’m so excited for the upcoming year, for many reasons.

Today, rather than start something new, however, I thought it would be fun to share the most loved Brighter Days, Darker Nights posts of 2025.

Let me know in the comments which was your favorite!

Leave a comment

This is also to welcome all new readers—I know there are many of you here who are new here this month based on the recommendation of , , , , or many of the other wonderful Substack authors in our community (thank you all), so I wanted to send a special hello and welcome to all new readers here at the New Year. Thank you for coming to check out the community and resources I curate!

Now, for the top ten posts I shared last year:

#10

This Substack Live interview was so insightful about how memory and patterns are stored in our body, and how reflexes can just “fade into the night” when they are no longer needed! is a wealth of knowledge and such a generous teacher. I’m very grateful to call her a friend and colleague.…

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It’s been over a year since Sarah and I had a long conversation (catch up on Melatonin as the overlooked reproductive hormone if you missed that one on The Evolving Wellness Podcast). And since that time, Sarah has launched both an amazing app that has become a standard for light-based health tracking, and her own Substack. As part of her Substack launch, Sarah is running a huge contest—make sure to sign up for an entry!

MyCircadianApp ← Get the app

Sarah Kleiner Wellness on Substack ← 1 contest entry for free, 2 entries for paid, and additional entries for sharing

Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning in! I appreciate you being part of the community here.

Upcoming:

In my next Live video we will be learning from about what it would take to get circadian rhythm education properly addressed in the field of lactation support. Save the date! January 6th at 12:30 PM Pacific. RSVP here. (also, if you are interested in this, you may also be interested in my Quantum Breastfeeding class, included with your paid subscription here or a la carte here).

We also have 2 new classes coming up inside Brighter Days, Darker Nights, which are also free for paid subscribers (or you can purchase a guest ticket on the event page if you are not yet ready to commit to a paid subscription):

1. Circadian Polyphasic Sleep Training - 90 minute parent class on January 8th at 10:00 AM Pacific, in which you’ll learn the practicalities of how to create the circadian rhythm conditions to thrive in spite of interrupted sleep

2. Circadian Polyphasic Sleep Training - 3 hour practitioner-level workshop on January 15th at 1:00 PM Pacific, in which you’ll learn the science of deliberately consolidating or unconsolidating sleep using light, the circadian rhythm, and sleep pressure, including when each pattern might be most appropriate such as for extreme latitudes and climates, an acute healing crisis, night shift/swing shift, and of course, postpartum

It’s always a joy to share the amazing power of light and darkness with you! Feel free to reply or leave a comment if you have any questions.

“I wouldn’t wish PMDD on anybody, but I’m profoundly thankful for my journey.” ~Rachel den Otter, founder of 5th Vital Nutrition

In Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), disruptions of circadian rhythms are known in recent literature1.

But most practitioners don’t make the connection between the menstrual symptoms their clients report and the circadian disruption in their lives from artificial light at night, mistimed eating, and lack of daylight and darkness.

Thankfully, we have a growing field of new practitioners, like , who are integrating circadian rhythm wisdom into the powerful work they do.

Rachel is a certified health coach, Board Certified Holistic Nutrition (candidate), with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, who also understands the science of circadian biology and how it plays out in disrupted menstrual cycles.

Not only does she have a strong health and wellness background, but direct personal experience with how horrible life can be with a dysfunctional menstrual cycle.

By making a few changes to her routine, she reversed her PMDD!

This was after a) her progesterone treatment had backfired in a shocking way, and b) she had done intensive nutritional healing that was helpful, but didn’t fully resolve her symptoms.

Living with PMS or PMDD is a huge challenge, and one she hopes other women will likewise discover a way out of.

Since healing, Rachel actually enjoys being a woman—a gift we hope this story imparts to women of any age who are still navigating complicated menstrual cycle problems, whether PMS, PMDD, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)2, endometriosis3, or infertility4.

All of these conditions are correlated with poor circadian health.

Here’s a quick description of how it works:

1. The circadian rhythm is programed by light/dark cycles, feed/fast cycles, and connection to the earth via grounding and regulates the endocrine system

2. The endocrine system controls the hormonal surges that lead to the full completion of the menstrual rhythm each cycle

3. Flattened or weak circadian rhythms, which often result from lack of amplitude in the day/night cycle (ie, dim days and bright nights), makes it so the endocrine system doesn’t know when to surge which hormones

4. Disrupted circadian rhythms = disrupted endocrine rhythms = metabolic and reproductive challenges

5. Restoring circadian health is a quick way to stabilize and strengthen these rhythms, especially for women who are doing everything else “right” with regard to nutrition and exercise but who still suffer from painful or irregular periods

But there’s much more to be said about this topic (and especially for what the specific day-to-day changes are that help balance infradian and circadian rhythms for women).

In this episode of the Brighter Days, Darker Nights live podcast you’ll hear about:

• how morning light and grounding was the key that put Rachel on a healing path

• the devastating side effects of the progesterone treatment she was prescribed for her PMDD

• the nutrition and exercise decisions that eased her symptoms (though not fully healing them)

• the mistakes made along the way—and importantly, how she corrected course

• Rachel’s mission to help other women also have easy periods like she now enjoys

Connect with Rachel on her website for her 6 week program, and on IG for occasional free information about how she regulates her cycle and the changes you can make to improve your nutrition and daily rhythms.

Thank you to everyone who tuned in live with us!

Upcoming events with Nikko:

1. Join my next live video with on December 29th, 2025 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET to learn even more about circadian rhythms, hormones and metabolism.

2. If you are exploring the possibility of becoming a circadian- and quantum-informed practitioner or in conducting circadian/quantum research and case studies under my mentorship (alongside other expert faculty, including , , and ) at the Institute of Applied Quantum Biology, we are hosting an info session on December 17th, 2025 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. RSVP for the free AQB community event here.

Related → You may also be interested on these past articles about circadian health for women:

If you’d like to support my work beyond your subscription, you are welcome to make a donation here. Thank you!

Mamas, please don’t watch the clock postpartum.

The clock helps us meet other humans.

It’s a communication tool.

When it comes to sleep and motherhood—especially in the early days (like the first 6 weeks)—the clock doesn’t really have a strong place imo.

The manmade clock is definitely not going to help you communicate more effectively with your baby in this stage.

Many women instantly understand this when I talk about circadian polyphasic sleep through the early postpartum.

You are naturally going to drift in and out of “clock time”, and if you are intuitive and have a natural light environment, your body clock will naturally take over and give you all the rest you need when caring for your baby around the clock.

However, if you resist your body clock and try to keep your sleep consolidated to the manmade clock, sure—your sleep may look more “perfect” and consolidated like you are used to.

But.

If you continue to live by clock time instead of body clock …

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