The first thing that comes to my mind is not working, turning on (or off) light switches, no television, avoiding cooking, etc.

Chores should be finished before sundown on Friday night and paused until Saturday’s sun has set.

A practitioner’s time is focused on family, catching up on sleep, and perhaps a stroll in the neighborhood.

The World Seems to be Always “On.”

I sometimes feel that I live in a world that is always “on.”

You probably do, too.

The relentless hum of notifications, scrolling through reams of information, and the constant stream of notifications can sometimes leave me feeling frazzled and disconnected.

Pausing, reflecting, and renewing help me immensely.

Welcome to my piece on embracing the Shabbat spirit.

And no, I am not just talking to those who observe religiously, but to anyone, regardless of their religious background, seeking a deeper connection to themselves, loved ones, or the world around them.

Exiting the High-Speed Race With No Finish Line

I recently learned about Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.

Followers observe 25 hours of rest and rejuvenation from Friday sundown to Saturday nightfall.

I am not Jewish, but take this lesson away: I need time to disconnect from the world’s demands.

I want to focus on relationships and simply be.

But Michael, you ask, what are you turning to Torah teachings when you are not Jewish?

Shabbat has no deep religious significance for you, right?

But here’s the thing: Its core principles resonate with me, given my desire to lead a more balanced and meaningful life.

I want to build a pause in my life’s rhythm, reclaiming time for what is truly important to me.

You may or may not be religious, but a designated period of reflection may give you a much-needed respite from your always-on world.

Creating a Pause to Uplug and Reconnect

I constantly engage with technology at work and home.

I read a book every week or two on my Kindle. I blog most Fridays and Saturdays. I subscribe to the Seattle Times, New York Times, and Washington Post. I use my computer to study Japanese and Italian languages. You get the picture.

One of the most striking things about Shabbat is unplugging from technology.

Will I put away my phone, laptop, and other devices for 25 hours?

Frankly, no.

But can I do it in the morning or the evening on a weekend? Sure.

Disconnecting has made me realize how constant streams of information and notifications can leave me a little overwhelmed and anxious.

There is always one more blog to read or one more cancer management article to read.

Without digital distractions, I create space for deeper inner connections and better connections to my loved ones and the world around me.

No devices means sharing a meal with my family or walking in nature. It can also be a moment for quiet reflection.

Without digital distractions, we create space for deeper connections with ourselves, our loved ones, and the world around us.

Whether it’s sharing a meal with family, spending time in nature, or simply enjoying a quiet moment of reflection, Shabbat encourages us to cultivate meaningful experiences that nourish our souls.

Embrace the Beauty of Simple Being Present

Shabbat invites us to embrace the beauty of slowing down and simply being present.

It’s a time to release the pressure to be productive and to allow ourselves to rest and recharge.

“To gain control of the world of space is certainly one of our tasks. The danger begins when in gaining power in the realm of space we forfeit all aspirations in the realm of time. There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath

I have written about how a leisurely walk helps me find stillness. Quiet contemplation promises greater perspective, clarity, creativity, and a renewed sense of purpose.

Let’s examine some practical ways to pause your life’s rhythm. I guarantee you will cultivate a deeper sense of peace, joy, and connection.

Creating A Pause (How I Embrace the Shabbat Spirit)

Here are a few simple ways to incorporate its principles into your own life:

• Designate a rest day. Choose one day a week to unplug from technology, slow down, and focus on what truly matters. I am not there yet, but trying to carve out a morning or afternoon.
• Create rituals. Whether lighting candles, sharing a meal with loved ones, or spending time in nature, establish meaningful rituals that mark your day of rest.
• Practice mindfulness. Take time each day to be present and fully engage in whatever you’re doing, whether eating, walking, or simply breathing. Yes, mindfulness eating!
• Connect with others. Make time for meaningful interactions with loved ones, friends, and community.

In a world that often feels chaotic and overwhelming, the spirit of Shabbat offers an oasis of stillness.

By embracing the wisdom of this ancient practice, regardless of our religious orientation, we can reclaim our time, nourish our souls, and cultivate a more balanced and meaningful life.

Thank you for reading “Pause, Reflect, Renew: Embracing the Shabbat Spirit.” I hope you have a joy-filled day.

The post More Than Just Matzah Balls: Finding Meaning in the Modern Shabbat appeared first on Medika Life.

This increased risk is because the circadian rhythm can be thrown off, leading to fatigue and stress. And because they work at night, they don’t get to see their friends and families as often or spend time with them, which might amplify the sense of loneliness and despair they already feel.

Researchers discovered that night shift employees were more likely to experience depression than their daytime counterparts. This is in line with the findings of other studies, which indicated that night-shift employees have a higher chance of acquiring anxiety disorders.

Chronic insomnia, sleep disorders, gastrointestinal problems, and infertility are all linked to disruptions in the circadian cycle. In response to changes in light and dark, the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) regulates the body’s natural 24-hour circadian rhythm.

The circadian rhythm controls not only the generation of hormones but also the maintenance of a steady core temperature and the rate at which nutrients are burned.

People who work night shifts have trouble falling asleep during the day because the regular light-dark cycle is disturbed. This makes the hormone melatonin, which helps you sleep, less effective.

Working the night shift is linked to a greater chance of gaining weight and developing type 2 diabetes. Another research study came to the conclusion that working the night shift makes you more likely to get colorectal cancer. Such an association might be a result of stress on our immune system.

This is because your body’s internal clock isn’t in sync with your social life. This is called “social jetlag,” and working night shifts makes it worse.

Night shift workers must frequently remain awake and productive when their bodies beg for rest and sleep. This can cause workers to feel run down, anxious, and unwell. According to research, night shift work has been linked to an increased risk of menstruation problems. Employers must consider the issues associated with working the night shift.

An employer with a productive workforce needs to know about the risks of night work and do everything they can to help employees who work night shifts, so that night work has less of an effect on their mental health.

Employers can provide training, education, and therapy to help their employees deal with the emotional and psychological effects of working the night shift. Regarding scheduling, employers can be more flexible if they let night-shift workers switch to day shifts often and ensure employees have enough time off between shifts.

Workers on the night shift should also be aware of the risks to their health and take their own steps to reduce them, such as keeping a regular sleep schedule, making sure they have a dark, quiet place to sleep, getting regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, limiting their intake of caffeine and alcohol, using light therapy, and taking frequent breaks.

Because of their irregular work schedules, those who work the night shift may find it difficult to keep in touch with their loved ones and form meaningful relationships. However, night-shift employees can keep up with friends and family in several ways. Suggestions for working these hours are readily available.

Social media, instant messaging, and video conferencing technology can help those who work the night shift maintain social relationships with others despite physical distance and time zone differences.

It’s vital to remember that keeping in touch with friends and family takes work and sometimes compromise, but the benefits to your health are well worth it. Workers on the night shift should be aware of the difficulties that come with their schedules and try to find new ways to get to know their coworkers.

Night shift workers who want to keep their minds healthy should also get some exercise. Running, cycling, and swimming are all examples of aerobic exercises that have been shown to improve sleep quality and lower stress and anxiety levels.

When thinking “exercise,” it’s not all outdoors or requiring expensive equipment or gym memberships because many exercises can be done at home with inexpensive equipment. Not all of these are possible, but some activity must be included to counter the effect of shiftwork.

Yoga is a practice that incorporates breathing exercises, bodily postures, and meditation. It can help you relax and calm down, leading to a more restful night’s sleep.

Building muscle and increasing one’s general well-being are two of the many benefits of strength training methods like weightlifting and resistance band exercises. Stretching is a quick and easy way to help you feel better and calm down.

HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is a way to work out that involves short bursts of hard work followed by short breaks. Walking, hiking and swimming are all ways to exercise and enjoy the outdoors. And being outdoors (forest bathing) has its benefits even if you are walking.

Keep in mind that the optimum exercise plan for a night shift worker will vary from person to person based on factors including preferences, fitness level, and availability. Before beginning an exercise program, people who work the night shift should see a doctor. Workers on the night shift would do well to pay attention to their bodies and modify their workouts accordingly if they were feeling too exhausted.

Consequences for one’s mental health are real, and night work is a major contributor. Evidence suggests that night shift workers are likelier to have mental health issues like sadness and anxiety.

If a person who works the night shift is having trouble getting used to the new schedule or has mental or physical health problems, they should consider getting help from a professional.

The post Tackling Night Shift Worker Health Perils; Failure to Act Is Unhealthy appeared first on Medika Life.

Even though you feel healthy now, it turns out that this habit of staying up late has a negative impact on your health latter.

Get to know early birds and night owls

In general, there are two types of groups regarding sleep time. The first group is the night owl, which is when you have full energy until the night and have a tendency to sleep late. While others are early birds, that is, you who have a tendency to wake up early and go to bed early at night. If you are a night owl, you are not alone. Keck Medicine of USC said about 20 percent of the world’s population are night owls.

Scientists use the term chronotype to describe an individual’s tendency toward daily activity and rest times. Both night owls and early birds are shaped by biological and genetic forces, lifestyles, moods, and ways of thinking and sleeping.

A study published in the journal Nature Communications, took a sample of 700,000 individuals. The result, obtained 351 genetic factors that influence a person to become an early bird or night owl.

According to research, genetic factors also affect when a person sleeps and wakes up. But it should be noted, although it affects sleep time, genes do not affect the quality or duration of sleep.

The identification of 351 genetic factors includes genes that involve circadian rhythms, namely the human sleep and wake cycle. This gene is associated with the brain, as well as the retinal tissue of the eye. Allegedly, the presence of this gene in the eye helps early birds detect light to wake up in the morning.

Night Owls Healthy Risks

Based on Harvard Edu, various studies investigating sleep habits and health risks show a pattern in which certain sleep patterns or body clocks and health conditions go hand in hand. Here are some health risks that haunt you and other night owls:

1. Poor sleep quality
Night owls tend to have low sleep duration and quality. Especially for night owls who stay up late and still have to get up in the morning to work even harder.

They tend to make up for some of the loss of sleep on the weekends when they have time. But research shows that the practice of this sleep debt can actually change the sleep schedule in the future.

2. High blood pressure
Based on Health, a 2013 study showed that 30 percent of night owls had higher blood pressure than those of early birds.

Andrew Varga, MD, a sleep medicine expert at the Icahn School of Medicine, says that lifestyle patterns such as unhealthy eating or lack of exercise can contribute to a high likelihood of developing hypertension.

3. Diabetes risk
Night owls also have a risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If you already have it, this habit of staying up late can also complicate its treatment.

A 2013 study in Diabetes Care found that, for people with type 2 diabetes, having longer sleep was associated with poorer glycemic control, even after researchers controlled for total sleep duration.

4. Weight gain
When you stay up late, you must have felt hungry and ended up eating a snack or even a heavy meal in the middle of the night.

Eating late at night can cause problems with how your body handles and metabolizes food. Some experts believe that eating after dark interferes with the body’s natural overnight fast, which can impair its ability to burn fat.

In addition, another study found that night owls also consumed more calories per day than early birds. This may be because willpower is lower when you are tired and we tend to crave unhealthy food late at night.

5. Depression
A study published in Depression and Anxiety found that night owls were more likely to experience depression and anxiety disorders, compared to early birds. People who stayed up late were more likely to report significant mood variations throughout the day, with worse moods occurring in the morning.

Researchers said that night owls may have more difficulty regulating their emotions. Night owls are more likely to suppress their feelings and less likely to practice cognitive reassessment.

In a study at the University of Aachen, Germany, researchers used brain scans to identify night owls and early birds in groups of men and women. Scans found that night owls had less white matter, a type of fatty tissue in the brain. This network increases the risk of depression and impairs cognitive function.

6. Asthma and allergies
Teenagers who are night owls are more likely to have asthma and allergies than others who are early birds. Based on Prevalence and Risk Factors of Asthma and Allergy-Related Diseases among Adolescents Study, compared with teenagers who were early birds, night owls were almost twice as likely to report having wheeze in the past 12 months.

What can a night owl do?

According to the federal government, more than one-third of adults routinely fail to get a healthy amount of sleep, defined as a minimum of seven hours a night.

Transforming yourself from a night owl to an early bird requires changing your body’s circadian rhythm, it may be hard but it’s not impossible.

“Resetting your circadian rhythm really means resetting the timing of when you sleep and when you wake up,” says Dr. Roth, a behavioral sleep medicine psychologist. “It has to do more with the schedule of your sleep, rather than how well you fall asleep.”

The following tips from Dr. Roth can help reset your circadian rhythm.

1. Sleep early, get up early
One of the reasons why night owls stay up late is because they are not tired. You need to make sure that you feel sleepy earlier in the night. To do that, you have to wake up earlier than usual.

It’s going to be tough for a few days as you make these adjustments, but stay consistent: After a few days of setting your alarm at 6am, there’s a good chance you’ll be tired by 10pm.

Exercise also helps with melatonin production, which can help you sleep. IT makes you tired and lead you to sleep earlier.

2. No need to rush
If getting up at 6am is too much to do, start by moving your alarm forward in 15-minute chunks every morning for a week until you get to your new wake-up time.

If you currently go to sleep at 1 a.m. and wake up at 9 a.m., focus on going to bed at 12:30 p.m. and waking up at 8:30 a.m. for a week, and then shift those times back another half-hour the following week.

3. Set your evening schedule
If your schedule is flexible, change the time to do your usual activities whether it’s going to the gym, having dinner, watching TV, or socializing with friends finished an hour early.

If it’s impossible to finish early, consider which activities can be shortened or done on alternate days to help you advance your bedtime by the same number of minutes to your new wake-up time.

4. Limit screen time
If you have a habit of surfing on internet and using social media before bed, stop it. Blue light from phones and tablets inhibits melatonin production and disrupts your circadian rhythm.

Avoid screens 30 minutes before bed.

5. Avoid naps
While you may love taking an afternoon nap, that hourlong (or more) snooze can harm your circadian rhythm by making it harder to fall asleep at night.

If you do need to take a nap, limit it to 30 minutes or less and aim to nap before 3 p.m.

6. Avoid caffeine in the evening
Note the time of the last cup of coffee. Caffeine, a stimulant, keeps you awake when you want to relax late at night.

7. Be consistent!
The quickest way to put your sleep on a new schedule is to stick to it on the weekends.

So try to consistently go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.

Let me know if you have your own powerful tips to be an early bird. Good luck trying!

The post Sorry Night Owl, Early Bird are Healthier appeared first on Medika Life.

A bit of digression here. During WWI, the songwriter Irving Berlin was famous for a song that resonates with we morning sleepy folks. It went, “Oh, how I hate to get up in the morning, Oh, how I’d love to remain in bed.” Berlin knew, and the song was a big hit for him on the Broadway stage.

Yes, we’d all love to remain in bed, but our version of the bugler’s call summons us, and it won’t stop. Work, school, or appointments are on the agenda, and each requires our physical presence. What is going on? Much of this bed-induced reiteration of what the next day will bring is one of the impediments to restful sleep. But there’s more, and it has to do with your body’s biorhythms.

Sleep researchers know that the morning can be difficult because of this overnight biological activity. “It is well known that cortisol has a circadian rhythm, with levels peaking in the morning between 08.00 and 09.00, and smaller secondary peaks after meals. This diurnal rhythm can be affected by sleep and working night shifts.” Cortisol is the stress hormone that can cause inflammation, and we know that it can cause mood changes, possible depression, anxiety, and sleep disruption.

And these higher levels of cortisol in the morning that respond to our body’s circadian rhythm don’t immediately decrease. “In humans, under normal circumstances, cortisol will begin to increase during the latter half of sleep, continuing into the early awake phase, sometimes until about noon….” How could you expect to shake off these increased stress hormone levels immediately upon awakening? Well, you can’t.

In fact, “Approximately half the day’s cortisol production is achieved in the early morning hours during sleep….” So, that rise-and-shine mandate is struggling against the cortisol highs you’ve got going.

You can’t fight it, but you can help yourself level out normal cortisol levels (yes, you will probably have that morning wish to stay in bed) by changes under your control. What to do?

Cortisol should not be painted in unflattering colors because it is a helpful hormone in many ways, but stress is its adversary. Managing stress can also keep that hormone level in check in normally healthy bodies.

Healthy eating is one way to help yourself, and yogurt, in addition to green tea and dark chocolate, are three items to consider. Research points to maintaining a healthy microbiome, and fermented foods like yogurt are high on the list.

What’s this microbiome thing? Scientific explorers are now discovering aspects of the gut that replace considerations of the brain as being involved in all facets of our emotional and physical lives.

As one researcher indicated, the gut is a therapeutic target for mental health research. “Patients with various psychiatric disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and autism spectrum disorder have been shown to have significant differences in the composition of their gut microbiome.” We know sleep is vital for maintaining mental health, and now we see it’s also diet.

Besides diet and learning simple muscle relaxation techniques, sleep and morning mood may be aided by engaging in hobbies, exercise (no equipment=isometric exercises). Exercise has also been receiving increased attention because the activity and the work of exercise and muscles have previously unknown effects on mental health.

Muscle activity increases the abundance of “good” hormones such as serotonin and dopamine that enable us to maintain mental health and reduce pain. Guidelines have been provided for various groups and how to manage exercise for health best.

Now, make your mental checklist enumerating why you want to remain in bed. It’s up to you to do some detective work here because there’s no one-size-fits-all technique.

Each of us is unique. A supervisor once told this psychology intern that a sample size of one is all you need. So, be the one and go over why you might be reluctant to get up. You know what they are. Write them down. See where you might be able to make some changes to help yourself. Empower yourself and stop looking for “experts” or “gurus” to get you going. Be your own guru.

The post Why You Hate Getting Up in the Morning and How to Crush It appeared first on Medika Life.