TL;DR: When it comes to sleep, there exists a debate among biohackers regarding which method is the best to adhere to and follow. One should take the time to both understand and experiment with methods on the pursuit of optimal sleep.
Welcome back UpRiver, biohacker.
Today we will be looking at a discussion between two perspectives on how to sleep better, and even best.
Disclaimer:
Before we start, it is worth mentioning that this article will focus primarily on exposing you to sleep chronographs. If you’re interested in learning more specifically about circadian rhythms, you can check out our article dedicated specifically to them HERE.
Introduction
Some biohackers believe that all human beings roughly run on the same evolutionarily regulated clock, and should therefore schedule wake and sleep times accordingly. This biological clock is largely impacted by and attributed to factors such as, human hormones, food resources, and last but not least – sunlight. This is known as one’s circadian rhythm. “Circadian” meaning “of a 24-hour period”; and rhythm meaning “regular recurrence, OR repeating pattern”
On the other side of the fence, we have a group of biohackers that fundamentally prioritize the differences between individual human biology to a point that they divide the sleeping habits of individuals into 4 distinct “chronotypes.” While we will get into what those specific chronotypes are in the upcoming paragraphs, suffice to say for now that they cover all things from early risers, to night owls, and everything in between.
Now, with the CR proponents as well as the SC proponents introduced, let’s now do what we do on UpRiver, and delve more into the ideas and information behind both camps respectively.
Circadian Rhythm (CR)
As mentioned above, circadian rhythms refer to the sleep-wake cycle an individual experiences in a 24-hour period. While the term refers pretty strictly to one’s sleep, that is not to say that the only factor to consider is one’s sleep. On the contrary, when evaluating circadian rhythm and how one ought to optimize it, we often need to adopt a systems-based approach and outlook. Namely, we need to look at how the whole individual conducts his day-to-day operations:
- What have they been eating?
- Do they take any supplements or drugs?
- If they exercise, what time of day? How strenuously? How often?
- What characterizes their light exposure? What color? How often?
- What does their mental health and stress indicate about them?
As you can probably tell by now, the circadian rhythm camp takes an approach that is quite holistic and evaluative. However, this is not to say that circadian rhythms are to differ tremendously between subjects. For example, even though many factors may differ slightly from one person to the next, ultimately a circadian rhythm proponent would look to generalize a subject’s approach to sleep on the grounds that all healthy human beings share the same core biological functions and ancestry.
With a brief (although certainly non-exhaustive) overview of the circadian rhythm proponent’s perspective on the appropriate approach to sleep optimization out of the way, we will now move onto the Sleep Chronotype’s view.
Sleep Chronotypes (SC)
The first and immediate difference we recognize between the CR and the SC is that while the CR looks primarily to how things should be for instruction, the SC on the face of it, appears to take how things are primarily into account when prescribing how one ought orient one’s sleep. Namely, to figure out one’s sleep chronotype, of which there are four, one usually begins by taking some sort of test or survey. This will tell how you, personally, are at this point in time, place you into one of the four groups, and from there make sleeping and working recommendations based on the results of your answers.
By now, you’re probably wondering what these 4 sleep chronotypes are. It is worth first mentioning that these chronotypes draw their inspiration from the sleeping patterns observed by other wild species in the animal kingdom. With that in mind, the four chronotypes are as follows and are characterized by the following descriptions respectively:
1) Bear → It is said that this chronotype is the most popular. This chronotype looks most like the one that a proponent of “circadian rhythm influenced sleep” would espouse. The bear’s energy, although peaks in the mid-morning, enjoys fairly consistent energy throughout the day. Bears do, however, require a time to recharge their batteries, and so they value their routine naps.
2) Lion → The lion’s energy is highest in the morning and begins to waver in the afternoon. From there, the lion’s energy and cognitive capacity continues to decline, to a point of sleeping quite happily and effortlessly in the early evening. Lions are by far the most productive first thing in the morning, directly after rising.
3) Wolf → If you wake up later in the day and require a few hours and some time to really get going, you’re probably a wolf according to the SC’s. Wolves are nocturnal and thus stay up later than the rest of the chronotypes. Additionally, evening to early-morning is by and large where wolves get most of their daily, nay nightly, activities and chores accomplished.
4) Dolphin → The dolphin is a bit of an unusual one. Dolphins do not have regular sleep schedules and therefore are often called to rest simply when they’re tired. This can be as short as every few hours, all the way to going 24 hours completely awake. Typically though, dolphins have issues falling asleep as they are both light-sleepers as well as chatter-brained. Notwithstanding though, dolphins as a general rule, seem to be the most efficient and productive in the mid-morning to late-afternoon while pulling the occasional all-nighter with relative ease.
Okay, with both sides now laid out, let’s take a look at what each camp argues and why each respective proponent chooses to defend the side they do.
The Argument From The Circadian Rhythm Proponent
The argument of this camp roughly states that the combination of factors it takes into account ultimately indicates when we ought to sleep and therefore, for the highest quality of sleep, one must follow this trail for ideal resting instructions. While, even though we differ from person to person, our basal physiologies and psychologies are similar enough to generally prescribe when and how to sleep based on factors relating all the way back to our paleolithic ancestors. In this sense, the circadian rhythm approach offers an ideal model, at which to aim when optimizing sleep.
The Argument From The Sleep Chronotype Proponent
Despite the similarities human beings share in their foundational make-up, they differ significantly enough that to prescribe a “one-size-fits-all” model to their sleeping patterns is overly simplistic. The sleep chronotype model offers circadian rhythm influence while adding a level of sophistication as a result of looking at how people really do sleep, as opposed to how they should. In this sense, the sleep chronotype approach offers a pragmatic model with which to inform ourselves regarding when and how we undertake day-to-day tasks.
Closing Remarks
The first thing about this discussion that we think warrants mentioning, is that the CR and SC models respectfully, are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they can be both taken into account when designing how you, yourself, want to sleep at night.
The second thing we would like to mention is that while the CR model looks to serve someone more from an overall health perspective, the SC model appears to focus mostly on productivity. For this reason, we at UpRiver think that one must navigate diligently through this area when constructing one’s own sleep regiment.
In other words, figure out what goal you are looking to achieve and then experiment with models to determine what gets you closest to said goal’s accomplishment. After all, we are biohackers here.
Finally, just to mention once more: Even though on the face of them they appear to be opposites – one more individualized, and the other more generally prescriptive – both can be helpful when evaluating how you ought to practice good sleep.
Author’s Motivation
There is a lot of cognitive dissonance out there surrounding biohacking in general. The information out there seems to become more and more noisy as you try to hone in on one specific topic (sleep in this case). People offer different perspectives and approaches. The reason why I wanted to write this article in particular was because even though we all accept that sleep is an essential component of a happy and healthy life, how one ought to sleep is quite highly contested. Despite only bringing you two approaches in this article, this list truly is much longer than the examples provided herein. Hopefully this article exposed you to some information you have not until now to come across, and by the same token exposed you to an approach that makes a change in your life for the better.
Note: Sleep has huge effects on the body and one’s health. If you’re interested in learning more about how to optimize your body for health or aesthetics, click HERE.
Until next time biohacker, and keep moving UpRiver.
