Rhythm : Circadian

The good news: ALL my hormones are in normal working order. Every single one of them. Also, after two years of dairy being a very rare indulgence in my diet, my calcium and vitamin D levels are perfect. I've changed up my routine this month and have not been rising before the sun more than twice per week. I've also ceased taking several performance enhancing supplements. My workouts for the last two weeks have been 5 out of 7 days. Guess what? I'm awake. No more of the skull crushing fatigue.

I've been reading up a lot on Circadian rhythm. Sounds pretty sexy right? I've always been a dork for biology, and not in the "hey baby, it's just biology" way, but the "worlds within worlds" way. Cells and their insides have piqued my interest since I was a young thing. When I was in 10th grade I made a 20" tall replica of a DNA helix with sculpey and wire. I had base pairs and chemical bonds, the whole she-bang. It was beautiful. Anyway. Back to our sexy-sounding biological rhythm.

A circadian rhythm is a roughly 24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological, or behavioral processes of living entities.

The rhythm is affected by environmental and internal factors. Jet lag is a common circadian rhythm disorder, for example. It controls everything, right down to your bowels and lots of things can throw it off which creates a domino effect of unhappy things. Bipolor disorder, weight gain, fatigue, all this stuff can be traced back to an upset in the rhythm. With this recent development of...

Holy shit I'm actually awake....

I've looked at the way I've rearranged my food, my schedule, and my supplements. Whatever I'm doing right now, it's working like a champion.

I'll save you from the details of my self diagnosis. The point is that sometimes, you don't need more help, more tests, more searching. All that needs to be done is shifting your routine around a bit, allowing for extra time here and there, and you may find yourself smack in the middle of the solution you so wanted to find.