Trouble Sleeping? Here Are 5 Ways to Reset Your Circadian Rhythm
Getting the proper amount of sleep can be a challenge, especially for those who travel often. Our circadian rhythms are a very complex balance between our internal clocks and the rotation of the Earth. The exact function of this hypersensitive, natural mechanism hasn’t been fully understood until recently and hopefully it can help shed some light on the issues that plague the sleep-deprived.
What is a Circadian Rhythm?
Last year, a team of scientists was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for their work discovering the precise behavior of the proteins and genetic functions that regulate our sleep and waking patterns. The research of Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael Young uncovered a protein that accumulates at night and degrades throughout the day, signaling the secretion of certain hormones, such as melatonin which helps us fall asleep, and cortisol that helps us wake up. They made this discovery by studying fruit flies and found that every multicellular organism shares this same function to regulate a cyclical sleep/wake cycle.
Our circadian rhythms vary from person to person, meaning those who claim to be night owls and like to sleep in aren’t lazy, but are actually subject to a different circadian rhythm than those who rise early. Some scientists are calling the grogginess these people face, when forced to submit to society’s business hours, “social jet lag.”
The majority of us ascribe to a similar rhythm, based on the rising and setting of the sun, but even if you have an average rhythm, that cycle gets easily thrown off by a number of factors. In fact, most of us have an internal rhythm that is longer than the 24-hour cycle our society runs on, meaning our bodies must regulate our circadian rhythm on a daily basis to maintain that schedule.
There is a grouping of nerves in the hypothalamus gland, directly behind our eyes, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN, that is hypersensitive to light. These nerves are responsible for sending signals to the pineal gland, where melatonin, amongst other hormones, is produced. This is the master clock, so to speak, which regulates the other internal clocks throughout our bodies.
Regulating Circadian Rhythm
When our circadian rhythm is interrupted or mismatched due to an external factor, we become more susceptible to illness. Doctors now associate certain diseases with what they call, chronic misalignment, a longterm imbalance between our circadian rhythm and daily routine.
This means that if we are constantly messing with our sleep cycle due to changes in time zones, drugs and alcohol, or other sleep disturbances, we could be doing damage in the long run. The importance of maintaining a regular sleep cycle is paramount to our health and can undoubtedly lead to a longer, healthier life.
Despite the common misconception that a night cap might help you sleep better, alcohol consumption has been shown to reduce the amount of time spent in REM sleep, which is essential to brain function and memory. When we sleep, our bodies carry out a number of regenerative functions from rebuilding muscle tissue, to compartmentalizing and processing the day’s events.
When that REM sleep is interrupted, memory loss can ensue. Maybe this is why things might seem a little blurry the next day or the previous night’s events aren’t as easily recalled. This disturbance in the circadian rhythm might also be the cause behind hangover symptoms. As it turns out, after a night of drinking you’re probably just tired.
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Another impediment to maintaining a consistent circadian rhythm is adjusting to different time zones. For those who travel often for work, even only a few hours’ time change can mess with your sleeping patterns, a.k.a. jet lag. Generally speaking, it takes about a day for every hour of change for your body to adjust its circadian rhythm.
Researchers have found that the change in time zones can provide a significant advantage to sports teams traveling west to east when playing games after 8 p.m. EST. Because in the U.S., the internal clocks of a team on the west coast are 3 hours behind those on the east coast, so a game being played after 8 p.m. is tantamount to west coast players playing in the late afternoon or early evening — a time when circadian performance is at its peak.
Our circadian rhythms are so sensitive that daylight savings time changes of just an hour have been linked with increased rates of heart attack and vehicular accidents. Aside from mere drowsiness, this is partially attributed to a hindrance of certain chemicals that are crucial to immune functions. When we sleep, the body heals itself and inflammatory responses go up. This is likely due to the fact that it focuses energy toward fighting bacteria and infection rather than other bodily functions, so when we don’t allow for that restorative process there is a greater likelihood of getting sick.
How to Reset Your Circadian Rhythm
Part of the reason it can be difficult to fall asleep at night is because of our extreme photosensitivity. Even average room light can trick our brain into suppressing the release of melatonin, not to mention our constant exposure to artificial light from the screens of electronics.
But even if you make an effort the following night to go to bed early and limit exposure to light in the hour before bed, the SCN can remember the time it triggered melatonin secretion from the past few days. So, it really takes an effort of developing a strict routine in order to sustain a rhythm.
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How to Reset Circadian Rhythm
Here are some methods to readjust your circadian rhythm, or shift it toward a more desirable schedule that fits your lifestyle.
- Expose yourself to sunlight or blue light. During the time you want to be awake, get as much sunlight as possible, and if sunlight isn’t available, expose yourself to short-wavelength blue light.
- Going without food for an extended period of time can reset the circadian rhythm because it tailors itself to your metabolism. A Harvard study found that for animals, if food was only available during a sleep cycle, their circadian rhythms adjusted to be awake then, and sleep when it wasn’t available. This is likely the case for humans as well, so if we adjust our dietary habits to align with the time we sleep, we might be able to hack the system.
- Try not to sleep in on the weekends or vary your sleep/wake pattern significantly. A drastic change one night might not have an effect, but consecutive nights of variance in your sleep schedule might lead to that social jet lag on Monday.
- Limit your exposure to electronics and the bright light produced by screens. If you must use your phone or computer before bed, there are apps that block or reduce melatonin-inhibiting blue light.
- Eat properly. This seems to be a no-brainer, but eating well and at the right hours is essential to attaining a regular circadian rhythm. It’s debatable whether eating just before bed is actually bad for you, but if you fluctuate your dinner schedule it can mess with your rhythm. Also consuming foods with high levels of sugar or caffeine before bed isn’t ideal.
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As we learn more about how this bodily function works, it should lead to better science that helps us get the rest we need. Whether through methods of sleep hacking or just conscious discipline, we can fight back against lethargy.
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What Are Precognitive Dreams and How to Identify Them
Premonitory dreams, also known as precognitive dreams, are experiences in which information is accessed about events that have not yet occurred. Throughout history, many people have reported detailed dreams that later manifested with surprising accuracy in real life. In this article, we explore what these dreams are, their main characteristics, and how to recognize them when they appear.
Table of Contents
- What Are Precognitive Dreams?
- How to Know If You Had a Precognitive Dreams
- Well-Known Examples of Precognitive Dreams
- Why Do Precognitive Dreams Occur?
- Dreaming as a Spiritual Tool
- What to Do If You Feel a Dream Is a Premonition
- Is It Possible to Develop the Ability to Have Precognitive Dreams?
What Are Precognitive Dreams?
Premonitory dreams are dream experiences in which the dreamer accesses real information about future events. They are not symbolic interpretations of the unconscious but direct perceptions of situations that have not yet happened in the physical plane but are later confirmed.
These dreams can appear spontaneously or during key moments in the dreamer’s life. Although it is not always easy to distinguish them from other types of dreams, they possess specific characteristics that make them recognizable.
Below are the most common traits of precognitive dreams:
- Connection with the future: They reveal events that have not yet happened. The person receives this information while sleeping, without any prior signs in daily life.
- Precise details: They can include names, places, colors, objects, or dates. These details appear clearly and are verified later.
- Emotional intensity: They are experienced with a higher emotional charge than other dreams. Upon waking, it is common to feel impact, unease, or urgency.
- High recall: They are not easily forgotten. They remain vivid in memory for days, months, or even years.
- Subsequent confirmation: The events dreamed of come true with accuracy or with strong symbolic correlation, reinforcing the dream’s credibility.
How to Know If You Had a Precognitive Dreams
One of the clearest indicators of a premonitory dream is its persistence over time. While most dreams are quickly forgotten upon waking, precognitive dreams remain imprinted with remarkable clarity. Memory retains not only images but also dialogue, sounds, and sensations, with a vividness that stands out.
It is also common that these dreams are experienced with a particular emotional intensity. The dreamer often wakes up with a sense of unease, wonder, or urgency, as if the content carries a meaning that cannot be ignored. This emotional charge is not always tied to the content itself but to the feeling that the dream conveys a real and direct message.
Another feature that helps recognize a premonitory dream is the sensation of lucidity during the dream. Although the person may not be aware of dreaming, they perceive what happens with unusual clarity: colors are more vivid, sounds sharper, and scenes more coherent than in ordinary dreams. This intense sensory quality is often accompanied by the feeling of witnessing something real—as if the dream were a direct experience rather than a mental construction.
Well-Known Examples of Precognitive Dreams
Throughout history, there have been numerous documented cases of dreams that clearly anticipated important events. These accounts come not only from anonymous individuals but also from public figures whose experiences have been widely recorded. Below are five significant examples that illustrate how dreams can accurately foresee reality:
- The assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln himself reported having dreamed of his death days before he was killed. In the dream, he saw a funeral at the White House and a soldier saying that the president had died.
- The Titanic tragedy: Several people dreamed of the sinking before boarding and decided not to travel. Their testimonies were collected after the disaster, strengthening the idea of a dreamlike warning.
- The September 11 attacks: Some individuals reported dreaming of airplanes crashing into buildings in the days leading up to the attack. These accounts were later investigated by psychologists and parapsychologists.
- Mark Twain’s dream about his brother: Twain dreamed that his brother Henry lay in a metal coffin with a bouquet of white flowers on his chest. Days later, Henry died in an accident and was buried exactly as in the dream; Twain himself recounted this in detail in his autobiography.
- The Aberfan disaster: A ten-year-old girl dreamed of a mudslide covering her school in Wales. The next day, the disaster occurred, killing more than 100 children, including her.
Why Do Precognitive Dreams Occur?
Premonitory dreams occur because consciousness is not limited to the linear time we experience in the waking state. While we sleep, the brain enters a state in which it can access information beyond the rational or immediate. In that realm, time functions differently, allowing some future events to manifest symbolically or literally during the dream.
From a spiritual perspective, these dreams are a form of communication between different levels of consciousness. The higher self, intuition, or even external sources of guidance can send important messages during sleep. This information is not always clear at first but becomes understandable over time or once it comes to pass.
It is also believed that premonitory dreams are activated during moments of high psychic or emotional sensitivity. When a person goes through a stage of spiritual openness or a critical life situation, their perception tends to expand. In that state, the mind becomes receptive to impressions of the future that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Dreaming as a Spiritual Tool
From a spiritual perspective, dreaming is not just a passive mental activity but a way to access deeper levels of consciousness. During sleep, the rational mind quiets, creating a space where insights, revelations, and messages can emerge—ones that don’t appear in the waking state. This dream realm functions as a bridge between the physical world and subtler dimensions of being.
Lucid dreams, in particular, allow conscious interaction with that inner space. This practice can be used to connect with inner wisdom, explore unresolved issues, or receive guidance from higher planes. By learning to navigate these dreams actively, it’s possible to transform the dream into an experience of growth, healing, and self-discovery.
In the series Mystery Teachings, available on Gaia, Theresa Bullard delves into how dreams can become a powerful spiritual practice. In its third season, she teaches concrete methods to increase dream lucidity, establish contact with the higher self, and use dreaming as a space for inner transformation.
What to Do If You Feel a Dream Is a Premonition
When a dream feels too vivid, intense, or significant to be a coincidence, it’s important to pay attention to it. The first recommended action is to write it down in detail as soon as you wake up. Recording names, emotions, colors, places, and any symbols can help you interpret it more clearly and recognize patterns if you experience something similar again.
After writing it down, taking a moment to reflect on the content is also key. Ask yourself if the dream carries a message for you or if it relates to something you might need to know. In many cases, the simple act of observing it with intention already opens the possibility of understanding it beyond the rational mind.
Additionally, it can be helpful to share the dream with someone you trust or with experience in the dream world. Speaking it aloud may help clarify sensations or ideas you hadn’t noticed before. Taking your dreams seriously is a way to sharpen your sensitivity and strengthen your connection with the intuitive realm.
Is It Possible to Develop the Ability to Have Precognitive Dreams?
Yes, it is. Just as dream recall or lucid dreaming can be trained through practice, the sensitivity to perceive future information in dreams can also be developed. To do this, it’s essential to cultivate a receptive attitude, keep a consistent dream journal, and strengthen the connection with your intuition.
Keeping a dream diary helps not only to remember what we dream but also to detect recurring signs or symbols that hold personal meaning. This daily practice reinforces the bond with the dream world and can make certain premonitory dreams stand out due to their clarity or emotional charge.
It’s also useful to incorporate practices such as meditation, introspection, and working with intention before sleeping. By setting a clear purpose—such as receiving guidance or relevant information—you create a mental framework that facilitates the emergence of these types of dreams. With time and consistency, this ability can develop and become an active part of a conscious spiritual life.
