Could New Wearable Technology Reset Your Body Clock?

November 6, 2024 – Most Americans turned back the clock this past weekend. back hour, marking the end of daylight saving time and signaling the seasonal transition to shorter days and longer nights. Short days mean less exposure to light, which disrupts your circadian rhythm – the internal body clock that controls when you feel sleepy or alert, as well as your metabolism and hormone release.

As more and more research reveals the critical role of circadian rhythms in health and disease, interest in circadian medicine growing. Disturbances in the internal clock are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, dementiaand much more.

Medical technology companies are starting to gain traction.

Recently, there has been a rise in wearable technology, apps and sensors that claim to help realign the body’s circadian rhythm, improving sleep, alertness and mood. Most of them use effects exposure to light – a factor, according to researchers, has a strong influence on circadian rhythms.

But do these devices work? Here’s what you need to know.

How light and darkness affect your health

Our circadian rhythm is controlled by a master clock called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), located in the center brain about 2 centimeters behind eyesthe intersection of the optic nerves.

Exposure to light helps the SCN synchronize with solar fluctuations and produce the hormone. cortisolwhich promotes increased alertness and wakefulness throughout the day, said Mariana Figueiro, Ph.D., director of the Light and Health Research Center at Mount Sinai in New York City.

At night, the SCN sends the sleep signal by suppressing cortisol and releasing the sleep hormone melatonin. When it functions correctly, this system helps the body sleep until the morning. At the same time, “sleep pressure”—the body’s biological desire to stay awake—increases during the day and decreases at night.

Unfortunately, our brightly lit modern world—illuminated by street lamps, neon signs, and illuminated electronic devices—is not well suited to regulating this system. Add to this longer working hours, night shifts and the ability to easily move between time zones, and we have found many ways to challenge natural biology.

With any “deviation,” the body’s rhythms do not move at the same speed as the environment and begin to become separated from each other,” said Thomas Kantermann, Ph.D., professor of health psychology at the FOM University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany. Other examples include turning clocks back or forward and seasonal changes in light as the Earth tilts away from or toward the Sun.

The result is an increased risk of sleep disorders, as well as a variety of other health problems, including mood disorders, Cancerdiabetes, obesity and heart attacks.

Can technology help?

Bridget Pilloud, a writer based in Washington state and Arizona, struggled for years with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a low-grade seasonal depression.

“It will start as soon as the light starts to change, at the end of August,” she said. “Everyone thinks it’s still summer, but I feel the light changing and I slow down. It takes me longer to get ready in the morning and much more effort to get everything done.”

Pillud said her condition became progressively worse and systemic between October and December.

Having tried many procedures – antidepressantsvitamin D, light box therapyAnd exercise – Pillud finally turned to Ayo’s light therapy glasses. They work by emitting blue and red light at individual intensities.

“I started using it last September and immediately felt fine and didn’t feel depressed until mid-October,” she said. “So I did a little more research and started using them for a longer session, and after four to five days I felt normal again.”

Ayo isn’t the only device competing in the circadian health space. Others include sleep masks (Lumos Smart Sleep Mask and Bia Smart Mask), glasses (Luminette light therapy glasses), and wearable sensors that measure changes in light (such as the MiEye sensor, which is only available to researchers). Plus, apps like Timeshifter and myCircadianClock provide personalized tips to optimize your light and sleep.

While Pillud’s experience sounds promising, research shows mixed results regarding the effectiveness of these tools.

One small clinical trial studied Ayo glasses in patients with fatigue. “Our results show that some people do benefit from glasses,” said study author Mark Butler, Ph.D. psychologist and a researcher at the Health Systems Institute of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at Northwell Health in Manhasset, New York. “In general, the effect is small, but significant. It didn’t do anything for others.”

According to Figueiro, one of the important limitations of light therapy glasses is the design and placement. “If glasses are not worn in a certain position on the face, they will not provide the necessary amount of light,” she said.

The timing of light exposure also matters, as does its intensity: the more intense the light, the more likely a reaction is, said Kantermann, who advised AYO’s founders pro bono. The researchers also studied “light temperatureCooler shades like blue are thought to suppress melatonin production and increase alertness, while warmer shades like red, orange and yellow do the opposite.

Figueiro and her team are working with businesses to commercialize a light meter, a device that measures the amount of light in a given environment and provides feedback for a personalized “light recipe” (how light can be adjusted or best optimized for use in a specific space). according to the circadian rhythm). They have also worked on indoor lighting solutions – for example, using different light intensities or exposures in nursing homes for residents with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. She noted that these solutions led to improvements in sleep, mood, behavior and cognitive function.

Another consideration is behavior change. “The hardest part is that you have to go to therapy every day,” Kantermann said. “It needs to be a routine so that your system becomes stable and in sync.”

He believes that for an intervention to be effective, it must be done passively—that is, the system tracks progress and automatically adjusts “without the person having to do anything,” he said.

“We use a series of flashes of light that go off when someone is sleeping, in a specific sequence and at different times of the night, but they don’t disturb sleep or wake the user up,” he said. “Essentially, it synchronizes your circadian clock without requiring you to change your behavior.”

Then there’s the price. Ayo and Luminette glasses cost around $200, while sleep masks can cost $300 or more.

For now, the best option for most people is the simplest: “When the sun comes up, go outside (for) 20 minutes, half an hour or more, depending on your schedule,” Kantermann said.

“Our watches look for bright days and dark nights,” Figueiro said. “Take advantage of as many opportunities as possible during the day to get as much light as possible.”