Ground & Root Podcast

Reclaim Your Rhythm: Light, Hormones, and Cancer Resilience

• Dionne Detraz • Episode 4

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We invited our Ground & Root Integrative Dietitian, Kaslyn Hancock, to break down how two tiny shifts—stepping outside near sunrise and blocking blue light after sunset—can reset your circadian rhythm, deepen sleep, and boost daytime energy. This isn’t another “hack.” It’s a return to the simplest timing system your biology understands, translated for modern life with phones, laptops, and late dinners.

Kaslyn explains how changing light across the day programs hormones like melatonin, serotonin, and cortisol, and why constant indoor blue light confuses them. 

You’ll hear the most common signs of a scrambled clock—wired-but-tired nights, 2 p.m. crashes, cravings, restless sleep—and how quickly they can improve with consistent light cues. 

We also connect the dots to cancer resilience: stronger nighttime melatonin supports DNA repair, immune surveillance, and cellular housekeeping, making circadian rhythm a meaningful lever for prevention and recovery.

Some resources discussed during the episode (we are not an affiliate for any of these):

Ready to align your day with the light your body trusts? Press play, try the two practices for seven days, and tell us what changes first—sleep depth, morning energy, or evening calm. 

If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others find it.

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Meet Our Integrative Dietitian, Kaslyn

SPEAKER_01

Hello, and welcome back to the Ground and Root Podcast, where we explore the world of holistic strategies to enhance healing and help you stay cancer free. I am your host and holistic cancer dietitian Dion Detraz. And I am so excited to inform you that over the next three episodes, you are going to get to meet the coaches of Ground and Root. You're going to learn more about who they are and how they support Ground and Root in implementing the wellness pillars that we talked about in the last episode. I will refer back to those a little bit as we go. So in case you haven't listened to that episode, don't worry. You will get caught up, I promise. Today we are going to kick things off with our integrative dietitian Kaslyn Hancock. She supports our one-on-one clients as well as the members in our group program. And her monthly coaching calls inside the Healing Accelerator are focused around deep nourishment, building resilience, tried and true prevention strategies, including circadian rhythm support, which we're going to talk about more today. So without further ado, Kazlan, welcome so much to the podcast. Tell us a little bit about you and your background and what brought you to ground and root.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I'm excited to get started. And yeah, we are going to be talking about one of my favorite topics. But yeah, I'm so happy to be on the ground and root team. I have a background in integrative and functional nutrition and also with hormone health. I work with a lot of women and I absolutely love looking at all aspects. Of course, as dieticians, we know nutrition is really important, but there is so much more that affects our health, how we are living, the stresses on our body, our blood sugar balance. There's so much. So I love looking at the whole picture. And I think it's been over two years. I think in 2023, since they started working. It is, yes. We're over two and a half, I think. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's been a while. Time flies. And actually, when I found you and found Grande Route, I was also living abroad. So I don't know if you've mentioned that you're in France, of course. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And yeah. And it's funny because actually two of our three coaches, well, you look you're back in State Town, but like we're living abroad, which is funny. We're Americans living other places.

SPEAKER_00

I know. Yeah, I know. And I think we like we kind of bonded on that too. Cause I found you online and I was so just, yeah, deep, like right away, felt connected to your message and everything that you were doing. And I was like, I absolutely would love to be a part of that. It was so funny too. I think our first interview that we like had together, it was 3 a.m. in Australia. I was living in Australia at the time. My husband's Australian. And yeah, I want I was so excited about hopping on a call. You were like, this and this time works for me. And it was in the middle of my night. And I was like, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

You didn't even tell me too. Like I didn't even know. Of course, I would have been like, we're not meeting at 3 a.m. That's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00

Which is so funny, especially for our topic today, like that goes against everything about circuit rhythm. Um, but so happy I did. And yeah, I absolutely love being here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, me too. I'm so happy to have you on our team. I can't, it's it feels like two and two and a half years doesn't seem that long in the scheme of things. And yet I really don't remember what I was doing before you. So I feel like, yeah, like you've always been there. It's just so great. Yeah, makes me happy to have you. Okay, so here's what we're gonna dive into today.

The Four Wellness Pillars Recap

SPEAKER_01

Obviously, there's a lot of things that Kazlin could share with us, but I really want us to dive a little bit deeper into the wellness pillars because that is something I talked about in episode three. So in our last episode, I shared more about our philosophy, our convictions, the pieces that we believe are so important to help someone heal and stay healthy. And one of the, maybe actually first, what I should do, just in case you haven't listened to that episode, is I'll just review like what are the four pillars, and then I'll tell you what we're gonna focus on today. So we have four pillars. The first is really what I consider to be our foundation. If you're not, if we don't start there, none of the other things are gonna work as well. And that is really about earth-centered living, which includes nourishment, right? Building resilience, being in sync with the seasons. We're gonna talk a lot about that today, the sun, but just really taking our cues from the earth of how to be healthy, how to stay healthy. Then we move into enhancing energetic flow. And this was something I talked about too in the last episode, about really understanding that dis-ease, disharmony often begins in our energy, in our energetic field before it takes root into the body. And if we focus only on the physical rebalancing and we miss that energetic piece, then there's a likelihood that down the road that energy is gonna influence the body again. So we really have to think of it as one complete system. And this is why we bring in a lot of tools and support around enhancing energy, emotional wellness, nervous system support. And actually, in our next episode, we're gonna focus just on that with our energy coach. So we're gonna talk about that a lot more. Then our third pillar is around community support, that humans thrive in community and cancer can often feel really lonely, especially if nobody around you has gone through it themselves. It's hard to understand, everybody's scared, and how important it is to surround yourself with people who understand, but are also there rooting you on, right? That hold that hope and optimism and that can-do attitude and the role that plays in a healing journey. We will bring on our community coach too. So you're gonna learn more about the role community plays. And then, fourth and final, not they're not in any particular order, they're all four important, is really about finding your why. And I think that's what often sets us apart from other approaches, is that it's not just helping you heal now, but to really prevent the cancer from coming back. And in order to do that, we have to understand why it grew in the first place, right? We have to look deeper at the root causes and risks. So these are our four

Defining Earth‑Centered Nourishment

SPEAKER_01

pillars. And what we are going to focus on today is really the foundational pieces. Like, where do you start? Before you bring in any fancy testing and supplements and therapies, where do you start? And we start with the earth-centered living, which is about nourishing yourself in a really deep way, connecting with the rhythm of the earth and using the tools and medicines that we have available to us from the earth. So before we dive into circadian rhythm specifically, Kazlan, can you explain a little bit more? Because on your monthly call, you're covering all like this category of topics. So can you tell us like what falls into this category? What are all the things that influence our nourishment?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, of course. Yeah, nourishment. I think initially we think about nourishing ourselves, we think about food, and that's a huge factor. And of course, we talk about that. Are we getting enough protein? What are healing fats versus harmful fats? How can we bring in more foods that help detox our body, fermented foods, more fiber? What does a really well-rounded anti-cancer diet look like? So we definitely talk about nourishing ourselves, but there's so much more to nourishing than just food. And that is what we get into how we live our day. What do our daily rhythms look like? How much time are we spending outside? Are we grounding, of course, circadian rhythm, which we'll talk about today? But the stress on our body. And of course, the mental stresses are huge, but is the stress of always feeling like we are rushing or we are running from task to task without ever taking a time to just really move out of that fight or flight state and into a rest and digest stage. So it's looking at nourishing ourselves that way. And I'm constantly telling people to do less in their day, which I think in our culture is not the norm. And doing less is making sure too, we're getting restorative sleep. We talk about sleep so much and then movement on top of that. Are we doing too much movement? Are we doing movement that's going to actually promote our health too? Because there's always that sweet spot we want to find doing too little and doing too much. Yeah, there is so much packed into, I think, the nourishment pillar. But we dive into it, all the nuances of it. And then specifically too, how can we take simple steps? Like it is such, there's so much to discuss, but where can we take little things and put implement it in them into our day where it's going to make a big effect? It's all those little things that add up that we forget about.

SPEAKER_01

So I think that's a really good point. And I feel like I get that reflected back to us quite a bit from the people we work with too. Like that sometimes just one shift ended up having a really big impact. I'm thinking specifically of recently somebody shared with us they'd been struggling with, I think you were on that call too, if you remember, we're struggling with sleep for years and trying all the different supplements and strategies and things to improve their sleep. And it really wasn't until they actually embraced the doing less. Can you create a routine where you're not so tapped out? Where you're not just like checking off the to-do list one thing to the next, but you're actually taking down time, like you have a flow to your day, you're you're delegating where you can. And she started sleeping well without any supplementation, right? And so sometimes it's what seems so simple, which is why sometimes people forget that step. Like they just go straight to the what's the remedy or what's the biohack or yeah, exactly. What's the thing I need to do, as opposed to just this like simple shift. And that is a lot about what we're gonna talk about today, too, with circadian rhythm, because it doesn't take a dramatic practice for you to re-regulate your circadian rhythm and then actually have that impact a lot of different areas of your life. So we are all about that. Where my goal is really throughout, and you'll get this over and over again in the podcast, or if you decide to work with us, is that taking these sort of like complex ideas when there's hundreds of things you could be doing, how do we simplify it to the things that are gonna have the biggest impact with the least amount of work, right? So that we it becomes this easy, sustainable practice that we can continue. And ultimately that's what's gonna have the biggest impact on your health, right? If you can keep doing it. So I appreciate that you spoke to that. We're gonna dive into all this a lot more. So if you're brand new to a lot of these topics and you're like, what in the world? Just stick around. Subscribe.

SPEAKER_00

I just rattled off so many comments.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Follow along, hang out with us on the podcast. You're gonna learn about all these things. We'll take one at a time, I promise. We'll keep it not overwhelming. But for today, so out of this huge topic, I think we were going back and forth a little bit about like where would be the best place to start when we think about this topic. And to the example I just shared, sometimes simplifying or getting back to the basics is the best place to start. And I can't think of a more basic place than circadian rhythm support. So

Why Circadian Rhythm Matters

SPEAKER_01

why don't you dive in, Kazlan, and tell us a little bit more about like why is this important, maybe even just what it is, in case people, this is a brand new term for them, and then we we can go from there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, of course. So what is it? Every single person has a 24-hour body clock. This is our circadian rhythm. And there's especially a timekeeper, and blue light is specifically that timekeeper. And we have sensors in the back of our eyes. And when we get light, when we get those signals, those sensors tell our brain to do different functions, to make different hormones, set off different enzymes, different things in our body based on the time of day. So that's kind of what I mean when the blue light's the timekeeper. In the morning, there's a little blue light, in the middle of the day, there's a lot of blue light. And then of course, when we get closer to sunset, the blue light starts to decrease. And if you think about, okay, our circadian rhythm is based off sunlight and blue light, it's typically not what we're not spending all of our days outside. So I would say for the typical person, and I mean, if you relate or resonate to any of this as you're listening, I think this is you're not alone because this is, I think, in our culture, what a day looks like. But we use our phones for alarms. So, you know, our alarm goes off in the morning and we check our phone and we get that bright light into our eyes. We start our day, we typically turn on the overhead lights, maybe we'll turn on lamps, we start getting ready inside, we turn on our TV, watch the news. And especially right now, as we get into fall and winter, those days are definitely getting shorter. So it's probably dark out when we're doing all of this. And then typically we go to work or we start work at home, whatever we're doing, and we're on a computer. And if we take a break from our computer, it's typically to look at our phones. And then at night we unwind and we watch TV. And so what our body is getting is this constant, pretty much this like biggest shock of blue light because our phones, our TV, our overhead lights in our houses, those are the biggest form of blue light. It doesn't change how the sun does. And it's constantly telling our body essentially it's the middle of the afternoon.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I wanted to just clarify that. So if you were outside, the blue light you're getting when you're outside, is that coming from the sun? Yes. And the blue light. Okay. And then the blue light we're getting from our phones, our computer screens, our TVs, would that be equivalent to being outside at noon? What kind of sun are we talking about here? You know, what how why would it confuse our brains?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. So if say we go outside in the morning, there's only a small percentage of the UV lights that we're getting from the sun that are blue light. There's a whole ray of light waves. And then, yes, our phones are any other light that, like any artificial light that's not the sun, is essentially, yes, the strongest point. It's telling our body it's the strongest point of the day, which is around noon or just that midpoint of the day. It changes with the seasons, of course. But yes, we are constantly getting the strongest blue light, but we're getting that all day long. Where the sun, it would change as the sun moves, it rises and sets.

SPEAKER_01

And it and even I'm so what I'm hearing you say too is even the difference between, let's say, like a 10 a.m. sun, a noon sun, and a 2 p.m. sun is still going to be slightly different, right? Like it's it's it's shifting over the day.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

And we're just at a constant, it's like a the same wavelength, like all day long, more or less.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. And that shift in the in the natural light, in the sunlight, that shift is really important. It's what our bodies need in order to know exactly what to do, what processes it should be running that night versus during the day. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So our bodies are confused, right? So if you think about it, so if we if you go back to that typical day

Blue Light, Sunlight, and Body Clocks

SPEAKER_00

where we are getting no change in blue light, it is constant. We are just having a big stream of the most intense light. It just leads to chaotic signaling of our hormones, of our digestive juices, of our melatonin, serotonin, really important hormones for sleep and for waking us up during the day and keeping us active. And with all that to say, there's a lot of symptoms that come with this. And I think those symptoms might resonate a little bit more. So if you feel like that is what a day looks like for me, I don't get outside very much. I am constantly looking at my phone or you know, I work on a computer screen. A lot of symptoms that have that dysregulated circating rhythm, they include feeling exhausted at night but too wired to sleep. I think that's one of the most common ones I see. Like our eyes hurt, our eyes are heavy and tired, but we can't relax, we can't sleep. We're feeling wired. If you're waking up in the middle of the night, that is a big sign that our body's not sure. Oh, should I be sleeping for eight hours or is it a time to wake up? If we're feeling groggy or just like brain fog throughout the day, and specifically afternoon slumps, if you hit 2, 3 p.m. and you feel like I could go to bed right now, that it's a big sign that something's off. And then on the flip side too, we could be addicted to cortisol spikes. Cortisol is our stress hormone. And if we're feeling like I need to be productive, I need to be go, go, go all day long. And if I take a couple minutes to sit on the couch and just relax, I'll crash, I'll fall asleep. And it's just another kind of yeah, confusion in our body, essentially. If we have a sluggish metabolism or weight loss resistance is another common symptom of having this dysregular circadian rhythm, digestive issues, craving, especially late at night, poor stress tolerance. If you get sick often, I mean, sometimes that's another sign. So there's a lot of different symptoms that can all be helped by just trying to get this more regulated.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, it's tricky because I imagine that our listeners might actually be resonating with at least some of those symptoms. And it doesn't necessarily mean that circadian rhythm is the only cause of that symptom. But what I'm hearing you say too is that enhancing your circadian rhythm is only going to be helpful. So even if there's other layers to it, like sometimes that might be the most important layer to start with. So that then the body can start to reorganize and like rebalance itself, right? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

There's it's just, yeah, it's one piece to this puzzle, but it I think it is such an essential piece because exactly it's starting to get that organization of what processes should my body be doing to optimally function throughout the day and then you know, throughout the night as well.

SPEAKER_01

I would say too, like just as a motivational factor in case you're listening in and you're like, I don't know, is this relevant to me? I would say that, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Kazlan, but I feel like a lot of people report back when they really start to work on this and they bring in some of the strategies that you're gonna share with us a little bit later. Two, two of the most common things I hear, which I imagine everybody would appreciate, is better sleep, like deeper sleep and more energy during the day. Who doesn't want better sleep and more energy? And especially if it's just it's not a super complicated practice, like a fix. So keep listening. If you want those two things, keep listening.

SPEAKER_00

And I will say too, I have not met a single friend, client, person across the street that I have just shared this info with that it hasn't helped them. Everyone is, oh my gosh, it's for lack of a better term, it's a night and day difference for them. And yeah, I think that's why I'm so passionate about it because it is a quick fix, but it helps so much. I love that.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Tell us a little bit more about like circadian rhythm specifically when it comes to hormones, and then maybe also specifically as it relates to cancer.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, of course. So it affects so many hormones. I think the biggest ones that I like to focus in are melatonin, which of course is our sleep hormone, serotonin, which is our feel-good hormone. That's our good mood hormone.

Symptoms of a Disrupted Rhythm

SPEAKER_00

It keeps us functioning during the day. And then cortisol, like I mentioned, our stress hormone. And all of these, all of the hormones that are affected with circating rhythm, they're going to help our daily metabolism. So it's going to let your body know when I should be revving up my metabolism? When should I be processing the foods? When should I be turning on digestive juices? Because obviously we digest our food better during the day and specifically earlier in the day in the morning. And so it signals all of those things. Oh, it is, we're gonna have breakfast, we're gonna have lunch, I need to get my body ready to digest that. It's also, of course, with the melatonin, it's going to improve your sleep quality. So how we produce more melatonin at night is actually with darkness. So when our eyes, you know, if we were outside, say we're outside, the sun sets, our eyes see that, right? Once the sunset, there's no blue light. And that darkness signals, hey, it's almost time for sleep, or it is time for sleep. I need a reva of melatonin. I need to let my body get enough to keep me asleep. And then when we wake up during the day or in the morning, we actually need sunlight to switch melatonin into serotonin. There's a few steps, but that's the essential switch. Serotonin is our, like I said, our functioning, our daytime hormone that we need. And if we don't have that light in the morning, we don't get that conversion. And then it doesn't also, it kind of disrupts how much melatonin we have at night, if that makes sense. There's a lot going on for cancer specifically. And I know you know a lot about melatonin and cancer, but during the night is when our body kind of detoxes from the day and we have DNA repair, our gut rejuvenates over the night, and we need that really good sleep for this to happen. So melatonin plays a really big role in that. And these hormones, too, are key for our microbiome in general. Good gut health, which we know helps our immune system. So there's so much to unpack with hormones and our circadian rhythms, really the driver of those.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think that's really important to hear. And as you'll learn as we go through this more, but when we, you know, I kind of gave you the overview of some of the overarching causes of root cancer, of root cancer, sorry, root causes of cancer in our second episode. And we'll pick that apart more as we go. But if we think about some of the underlying pieces, sleep is such an important one because when we think about our systems of cancer prevention, a lot of those are activating at night when we're sleeping, right? So our detoxification, our immune system, like these are key, and even just like DNA repair, cellular repair, these things are happening while we're sleeping. And I can't tell you how many people that even just we've worked with anecdotally when leading up to their cancer diagnosis, most of them were not having good sleep, and some of them for many years, right? Like there was a chronic sleep deprivation or sleep issues. And I can't help but believe that's a big risk factor when it comes to something like cancer. So anything we can do to enhance our sleep is only going to be helpful at keeping cancer away, right? Keeping our immune system strong and preventing those cancer cells from forming from forming. I would say just to piggyback on your comment around melatonin, besides helping us get that deeper, more restorative sleep, is it is actually on its own an important immune hormone. And that there's ranges we can measure melatonin in the body, and there's ideal ranges. And even what's considered a normal range for sleep health, the immune range is actually a bit higher. So we do want night, a little bit like vitamin D, we do want high levels of this hormone to enhance our immune function, which is obviously going to be important when we're thinking about cancer. And there's been lots of research too, specifically around melatonin disruption, circadian rhythm disruption, um, and increased cancer risk, specifically or with colorectal cancer and night shift workers. So I think we can't ignore that there's all these little links that that come back to the reality that our circadian rhythm sort of balance is important in keeping us cancer free.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I totally, yeah, totally agree. Okay, how do we, how do we make the shift, thus? You know, how do I do start? What do we do is the biggest question.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So we can, yeah. Particularly if you can't just quit your

Hormones, Sleep, and Cancer Links

SPEAKER_01

job and stuff. You have to get up when it's dark outside. Some of those things you can't control. Yes. Tell us what do we do, Caslin?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So yeah, how do we fit this into like our modern life? Because we can't go live outside. That's not good. Maybe some of us can. Yeah, maybe you can. I love it. You're probably like, I'm sleeping great. I go camping all the time. But there's two big steps that I think, well, big, but little and little shifts that I have everyone, all of our clients make. And I want to note before I say them that being consistent, you don't need to be perfect by any means, but consistency is going to give you the best results. I remember I had someone say, I'm outside for five hours on Saturday and Sunday, I love being outside. Is that the same? Am I going to get the same benefits? And it's one of these things that we need to bring into our daily practice if we want the best results. So the first step is to get outside light. So go step outside first thing in the morning when the sun is up. And you don't need to be outside for 20 minutes, not even 10 minutes. It's two to three minutes getting your eyes to see the natural light after the sun has risen. And I'll talk about what do you mean I wake up before the sun? We'll get into that, but that is key. And we want to get that natural light. We want to send that signal to our brain, hey, it's morning. It's time to wake me up essentially. It's time to start all the processes that I need to optimally function throughout the day. So that's the first step. The second step is once the sun sets, there's no light anymore outside. We want to make sure that we are blocking all blue light. So that's from your house lights, that is from your phone, that's from your computer. And we can, of course, take steps to switch to reading instead of being on our TV. But what I think is the easiest way to do this, because I think we can't just sit in the dark either, especially in the winter months when the sun is going to be setting earlier in the 5 p.m.

SPEAKER_01

bedtime.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because there's no more sun and we don't want to turn on the light.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, there's practical ways. And so what do we do? I guess if we I can dive into what do we do if we are waking up before the sun and we're also staying up past the sunset? So the best way, and I should have brought them so I could show them on the video, but is to have blue light blocking glasses. I think this is key because, like I said, we can have dimmed lights, we can make sure we can reduce our screen time, but being realistic, and I think that's the key is okay, how can I be realistic? We need to check in the our messages in the morning. We need to make sure, especially if you have kids or whatever's going on, you need to maybe check your emails. And then at night too, a lot of us we have TV shows and we have things that we want to do that does help us unwind. So we don't want to just remove that. So if we can just implement bringing in blue-like blocking glasses, all we do when the alarm goes off, we pop those on in the morning, do whatever we need, get ready, start eating breakfast, whatever it is. And then once that sun goes up, we go outside for a few minutes, come back inside, we can take off our glasses and go about our day. And then the same thing at night. I wear mine religiously every night. I don't think it's something I don't think I will ever not do. But you can still watch TV, you can still cook dinner, you can still do a lot of other things with these glasses on. So that is the key, is probably what I would recommend.

SPEAKER_01

That's great. And then we can also, do you have even just examples to share? Because we can put those in the show notes too, so people could look below this episode and then actually get some ideas of where to find these glasses.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I we can definitely send some links because I think you can find some really great ones like on Amazon. They're really accessible. You can find some for 20 bucks, $25. They definitely you can get prescription ones, of course, if you need, they're gonna be a little bit more expensive. But if you are someone who's okay, I don't want to invest a lot, I'm just gonna, even though I know it's gonna help everyone that implements this, but yeah, you can find some for relatively cheap. And then the key though that you need is they need to make you need to make sure that they are blocking 400 nanometers of light. So it'll say that in the description. Some brands, if they don't say it, I probably would say, let's not buy those because we want to make sure that's quality. If you are purchasing and investing in something, you want to make sure that it's gonna be doing what you need it to do. And glasses that do block this wavelength, they will be orange toned. So they're not gonna look, they're not gonna have a clear lens. A lot of people wear blue light blocking glasses during the day, like the ones that I'm currently wearing, but they're really just for computers. Yeah, they're they're filtering the blue light, but they're not blocking it. That I'm still getting in some blue light. So this wouldn't be sufficient at night. They need to be those orange-toned glasses. And we can put a few links of some of my favorites too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's actually really good to know. Because if this is brand new to you, you might just look for blue light and think they're all the same, but actually know the coloring matters because it indicates what the nanometers that it's blocking.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, correct.

SPEAKER_00

That's true. And I will say too, even just some more tips with these. So say you're gonna get the glasses, great. You shouldn't be driving with

Two Core Fixes: Morning Light & Night Blocking

SPEAKER_00

them, of course. I think that's like the one thing that that it's probably not safe to drive with how orange they are. But then a lot of I get a lot of questions of, okay, I need to go to work and it's still dark, especially when we get into those winter months. And so they do have a little, they have yellow toned essentially, which is like the step down from orange toned. So you can wear those while you drive as well if the sun's not up and you still want those, that blocking sensation.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, that's good to know. Okay, what else do we do? Yeah, I know. I was like, okay, what more, what more tips? I mean, that that even just that one alone would be enough, maybe, right? Like that would be a really big one. So start there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, those are the two things. Get that. Outside morning light as soon as you can. If it is rainy, foggy, snowy, it is still beneficial. If you can't see the sun, it is still beneficial. Our eyes will still pick up that UV light. I have a lot of people who be like, well, isn't it sunny? So I didn't go outside. It is still really essential.

SPEAKER_01

Good to know.

SPEAKER_00

And I will say too, sometimes like I'll be driving or if you're going to work, even just rolling down the windows when that sun is up. You know, the moisture in our eyes will pick up those UV. Um, so it actually is still gonna be helpful. Any, anything little, like I said, is can you're consistent about it. It doesn't not need to be perfect.

SPEAKER_01

Actually, that's a good follow-up question just to clarify. How many minutes, like what like how much time do you really need to be out for that like shift or that that whatever, however, we want to define that, like for that to happen?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I think in the morning, it can be as little as two to three minutes, just to once again, you're just like telling your brain what time of day it is. And if you want to go a step further, like throughout the day, if you want to keep getting breaks, which I don't think you need to start here, but even going outside and tell like for 30 seconds, 30 second breaks, seeing the sunlight, getting that natural light can realign our brains essentially with what time of day it is. So that's something too you can add. But the biggest things are a few minutes in the morning and then blocking light at night.

SPEAKER_01

What about through a window? Does that like what happens? What happens through the glass? Are you still getting some benefit or you really need to be outside or through an open window?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, great question. It should be an open window. So once again, just like these glasses, the window, it's going to filter it. It's not going to be that like pure UV that we want. If you work next to a window, go ahead and open it up. That is going to give you some benefit. Because once again, that that moisture in your eyes will collect that, but it needs to be an open window. And if you can't get outside, say, say the sun's up and you live in the top floor of an apartment and going downstairs in your pajamas isn't something you want to do right in the morning. Even just opening your window and like staring outside for a few minutes is going to be beneficial, but it needs to be, there needs to be no nothing. Barrier. Yeah, no barrier. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

And I guess that would be true too if you wear glasses, like for your eyesight, right? Like just normal seeing that you should probably take your glasses off when you go outside. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Okay. Definitely. That's another barrier. Yeah, that we want to remove. So yeah, that's a very good point. And I will say too, if you don't need to look directly at the sun or anything, and I've gotten questions of I have a lot of trees. I still think getting outside, no matter where you are, it's gonna be it's gonna be beneficial.

SPEAKER_01

It's just when the sunlight is up, basically. When it's over the horizon, yeah, your eyes are gonna pick up on that wavelength. Exactly.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And we can talk about too how do you know when your sun, because sun, the sunrise and sunset change every single day. And we don't want to just be looking it up. Of course, you can look outside, but sometimes it's nice to get a little notification and a little reminder. So there is a circadian app. And it's actually, if you look it up in the app store, it's just type in circadian and it says your natural rhythm. It's a free app. I absolutely love it. It can send you notifications. So I have mine turned on for when the sun rises and when the sunset is essentially. And when I get that notification on my phone, I go grab my glasses. This is in the evening, I pop them on. And then in the morning, I'm wearing my glasses because I'm waking up before. And when I get, ooh, the sunrise, I'm like, oh, perfect. Time to go take a little break outside. So that is a super helpful app. And it has so much other info in there too that you can dive in.

SPEAKER_01

Fabulous. We will definitely link to that too in the show notes. That's great. Is there anything else you want to mention about? I think that's a good place to just for people to start. Yes. That alone might be enough. You may not need to do anything else for your circadian rhythm to come back into a good balance. But is there anything else you want to speak to on that topic?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, as long as you start implementing those,

Glasses That Work: What to Buy

SPEAKER_00

I think you'll see benefits within a week of being consistent and just getting outside light before looking at anything else and blocking blue light at night is gonna be it's gonna be key.

SPEAKER_01

Great. I was also thinking, just one follow-up question to this. We're recording this and it's just the beginning of October. And I know that towards the end of October is when we do our time change again. So I'm assuming the same, you just you follow the same practices, but is there anything else you would recommend to help with the seasonal, like with that time change? Because I know that can be such a disruptor for so many people that all of a sudden their sleep shifts and their energy shifts, and just that one hour difference seems to make such a big difference on our bodies. Do you have any other, I don't know, just tips to prepare for that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I think too that that disrupts us so much because I think it's another sign that circane rhythm is so important. And that hour shift, it disrupts everything. So the biggest tip I have is just okay, that you know, the sunrise is coming up an hour earlier, or is it later? What do we? It's fall back.

SPEAKER_01

It's fall back.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So it's it's gonna, we're gonna get an extra hour in the morning, but that means it's sunsetting earlier.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. So that extra hour in the morning, I would be super diligent getting up earlier if if you know you're not awake yet, but getting that sunlight and right around sunrise, telling your body, hey, yes, the time shift, but I'm gonna support my, you know, my functions. And that light is going to tell your body what to do. And so I do think sometimes when you know we lose that hour at night, so maybe we're out. I know kids have like activities. There's a lot going on where we're gonna be out past that sunset mark. And I think that's okay. If anything, you know, right when you get home or at least one to two hours before bed, I'd pop on those glasses. We want to get some. I wouldn't, if you miss sunset, you're not at home, you come back. It's definitely still gonna be beneficial to put them on. Don't think the whole night's over because you haven't blocked from that time point. So that's another note.

SPEAKER_01

That's really good to think. That's really good to know. Yeah, I think that's super helpful. And as you were speaking there too, I was thinking, so it based on what I heard you say, it is gonna have the biggest impact the closer we expose our eyes to sunrise, as opposed to just when we wake up. Like if we wake up past sunrise is what I'm saying. Is it tell me like, is it really important? What's the what's what are we aiming for?

SPEAKER_00

I think it's more important when the time changes. And you want to make sure you want to avoid that lag that we get and that lower tiredness. But going back to consistency is better than perfection, I think you're gonna get a huge benefit if whenever you wake up and that if that sun is up or not. So yeah, we don't really talk about it. You're waking up after sunrise, which in the summer especially we're going to, just getting out when you can, having, I think the key is just having that first light that gets into your eyes being that that natural light, the sunlight, artificial light. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, great. Thank you for clarifying that. Yeah. I'm assuming if I have those questions, then other people might be thinking them too. Yes, that was a really good question. All right. So you have a few things you guys can try. You can try out. If this is not already on your radar, maybe it is, and it was just an affirmation of like why it's important. And so keep doing it. Hopefully, you've already seen the benefit from doing this. And if this is brand new to you, two super simple practices you can bring in of just, I say super simple. Obviously, you have to go buy the glasses. So there is that step of like purchasing something to block the light, but it's worth it. And start with a least expensive one that might be all you need. Don't feel like you have to invest a large amount. But with the morning light and the blocking the light once there is no sunlight, I think those two things alone are gonna make a really big difference for you. And if you can get out during the rest

Practicalities: Weather, Windows, and Timing

SPEAKER_01

of the day, I know that is something we'll talk about this more because I'm such a believer in just getting in the sunshine. There's so much healing that happens from the sun. This is just one thing, right? This is one thing about how the sun helps us stay healthy is by setting our circadian rhythm and telling our body when to do things, which is magical if you think about that. It's just like a ball of light in the sky, is telling our bodies when to do things. Wild. But the sun also has so many other benefits in for our nervous system, for our immune system, for our mood. So obviously, the more you can get out during the day, even for just little breaks, the better. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's always getting outside is always gonna make you feel better.

SPEAKER_01

Always a good idea. Always good. And I know again, it gets complicated as we move into the colder months of the year, right? That is depending on where you live, of course. But yeah, as if it's cold where you live, if it's dark and cold and snowy and rainy, it's not as fun to be outside, right? So I get that. I totally understand. And I also think it's important to get at least a little bit. So you're gonna find what's gonna work best for you. But I promise that once you make these sort of little steps part of your routine, you're not gonna go back. You're gonna be like, Yep, I'm not going back to what I was doing before.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. When I started implementing this, it was the most I ever went outside in the winter, I think. Yeah. And I love it, I loved it. It's just a few minutes, so it's right. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01

You can bundle up, get out there for your three minutes, come back in, go out with your cup of coffee if you need to. Something warm.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much, Kazlan. This was such a great call, and I think such a good topic to start with when we think about the world of nourishment and like all the things we could be talking about. I'm just so happy we started with this one. So thank you for sharing your knowledge.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01

This was fun. I loved it. Great. All right. In I Can Mention, this is one of three episodes where you guys are going to get to meet our coaches and learn a little bit more about our wellness pillars and how we suggest you start implementing them. And just as you saw on today's episode, is we really try to make it as easy and practical as possible for you to get started with all of these things, nothing super fancy or complicated. That is always my goal. Simple is better. So, in our next episode, we're gonna have our energy coach, Vicki Landis, join us. You're gonna learn a lot more about why energy matters, our emotional wellness, our nervous system, how do we enhance our energetic flow? Again, what are some super simple ways that you can start to check in more with your energy during the day and learn how to shift it very quickly? Vicky has so many incredible tools that she can share, and she promised me she'd have at least a few ready to go. So you will definitely learn some really good strategies from her. Thank you so much for listening. I invite you to subscribe and follow along so you will be the first to know when our next episode is released. And I will see you in our next episode. Bye, everyone.