Stabilize, then strengthen

There are two main metrics for circadian rhythmicity and here’s how they apply to real life + invitation to my new reproductive health coaching program

Circadian and quantum biology impact health at every stage of life, but the earlier in life, the more profound the impact thanks to the way these factors program our epigenetics for either health or disease.

In circadian literature, there are two similar terms used to describe the rhythm. One is stability, as in Melatonin and stable circadian rhythms optimize maternal, placental and fetal physiology¹.

The other is strength, as in Diurnal Cortisol Slopes and Mental and Physical Health Outcomes:A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis².

What we are talking about is the regularity and the amplitude of the rhythms. This points to 2 distinct ways the circadian rhythm can be disturbed. It can be either irregular/regular and either weak/strong.

1. Irregular circadian rhythm (unstable, entropic). This happens from odd schedules of all kinds, including time-zone traveling, weekend adventures, or occasional night shifts.

2. Regular circadian rhythm (stable). This happens from keeping the same kind of schedule consistently.

3. It can be weak. This happens from lack of variation in environment—essentially indoor living without unfiltered sunlight and artificial light at night.

4. It can be strong. This happens from abundant natural sunlight alternating with sufficient time in darkness.

Thus, 4 circadian “types”

• night shift archetype - irregular and weak

• adventurous, outdoorsy, party animal with day job archetype - irregular and strong

• homebody with sedentary day job archetype - regular and weak

• the Paul Bunyan “ready for every challenge” archetype - regular and strong

Of these, for optimal wellbeing, we want to seek out both regularity and strength!

Here are more ways I think about and differentiate between these two aspects of circadian rhythmicity:

Regularity is a way of saying the rhythm is in sync with the natural light/dark cycle and the season. This is what circadian scientists are talking about when they say “phase advance” or “phase delay.” If you get artificial light before sunrise, that advances your circadian rhythm, or moves it ahead. If you get artificial light after sunset, that delays your circadian rhythm, or moves it behind.

Strength is a way of saying force, or to describe the height of the peaks and the depths of the valleys in the rhythms if you were to plot them on a graph. This relates to the power of the signals. If you start your day with artificial light, it is not as bright as natural light. So, you don’t get as strong of a bodily response, and you don’t get as high of a circadian peak in the morning. Similarly, if you sleep with a night light on or have multiple bathroom breaks where you turn a bright light on in the night, you suppress your nighttime melatonin peaks. This decreases the amplitude of your circadian melatonin rhythm.

These qualities of our circadian rhythm have downstream consequences for every aspect of wellness! What has fascinated me is how directly these daily circadian rhythms impact our ability to have healthy babies.

A new learning offering for you

To do a more thorough job at communicating how circadian and quantum biology impact reproductive health, I am offering a new coaching program. It will start at the beginning and systematically go through everything anyone would need to know to create a pro-circadian framework for their life and work.

NOT a one-off group coaching program but a learning community

Group programs are lovely, but this information is so nuanced in terms of how it is applied that I think working 1-1 and in a long-term community is better for getting at the real mechanics of change. Therefore, I have NOT designed this as a one-off group program, but instead, it will consist of educational materials for self-study and feedback with a 1-1 coaching call to help you integrate the information.

NOT a crash course

I have also decided NOT to design this as a 6 or 8 week crash course. This circadian and quantum biologic work takes time to sink in, and even more time to get a handle on the mechanics of change in the day-to-day. For working or busy families, the realities of pace are even more real!

And as a whole, circadian and quantum living is a long thought process kind of thing. It takes time to implement and experiment with to find out what pieces will work best.

The program lives inside of this publication here, and all the lessons are labeled PRACTITIONERS. See them here (new ones approximately monthly):

Methodical, Personal, and Flexible

As I designed this program, I found myself thinking back to my years working as a marketing consultant and how there were two types of people I most often worked with:

1. The ones who just needed a nudge and then DIY’d the rest of the way (this is who I write Brighter Days, Darker Nights for)

2. The ones who worked best in partnership and with a long-term sounding board to help refine and accelerate their ideas and experiments over time

This new learning program is for the second type of person, and that is why I’m creating this as an ongoing learning community. I’ve broken the information down into ~13 topics for the first year and then you have the opportunity to request topics for topics in year 2 and beyond. Each topic has 2 lessons, each at least 20 minutes long plus recommended reading and activities to fascilitate integration of the knowledge. At this gentle pace, you will have plenty of time to ruminate and feel out how the information sits with you.

As I know many are interested in this information not only for themselves, but also to teach and pay it forward, all members of my new program get a free 1-1 coaching call to chat about your personal life -AND/OR- to your existing wellness practice and how you find innovative ways to incorporate this wisdom for your clients. I did marketing coaching for nearly 10 years before following my passion into birth work, and I still enjoy strategizing about the business side of things, too.

Thus, while this program is meant to be steady and methodical through the educational component, through the 1-1 coaching component and Q&As available in the chat and through DMs, it can flexibly support the different transformations you may be exploring around this circadian and quantum biologic perspective.

I’m offering this at an amazing price right now, with early bird pricing you can take advantage.

Learn more and claim your spot in the program here:

1. Reiter, R. J., Tan, D. X., Korkmaz, A., & Rosales-Corral, S. A. (2014). Melatonin and stable circadian rhythms optimize maternal, placental and fetal physiology. Human reproduction update, 20(2), 293–307. https://doi.org/10.1093/humupd/dmt054

2. Adam, E. K., Quinn, M. E., Tavernier, R., McQuillan, M. T., Dahlke, K. A., & Gilbert, K. E. (2017). Diurnal cortisol slopes and mental and physical health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 83, 25–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.05.018