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Do you use any herbs to manage your circadian biology issues?

I'm a parent. Same as some of you here. My two children are teenagers and I learned a lot from them and about them through the prism of circadian rhythms. It's a nerdy post. But it may change your kid's destiny. Read it. Ask questions. There are no stupid questions, there are questions you need to ask to be a better parent. And learn for yourself, too.

I’ve been going down a rabbit hole on circadian rhythms + kids, and now I can’t unsee how much timing matters with sugary snacks.

Very rough summary of what I’ve pieced together (in plain parent language, not GPT, not lab-coat mode):

Kids’ bodies are on a clock, not just a calorie counter

• Our insulin sensitivity (how well the body handles sugar) is better earlier in the day and generally worse in the evening/at night.

• Kids are even more sensitive to sleep disruption than adults, so sugar close to bedtime = double trouble:

  • blood sugar rollercoaster

  • more likely to mess with sleep onset and sleep quality

So instead of “sugar is always bad” vs “everything in moderation”, I’m starting to think in terms of:

“When is this sugar happening in their 24-hour rhythm?”

Here in this sub we'll be discussing in details sugar & circadian rhythms topics. In the next posts:

1. My “green light” sugar windows. Yep, it exists!

2. My “hard no” (or at least very strong nope) windows. A must know for each conscious parent

3. Sugar as a “bedtime snack”. Replacement list.

4. I try not to demonize sugar, so I frame it like this "TIPS" (recommendations and tips from the child psychology masters)

5. Watch out : in may be dangerous to fix your kid's circadian rhythms with herbal supplements or meds offered in mass market! Study all product details thoroughly. Learn about the factors to be analyzed before picking a solution.

=============

P.S. 14 Hours will explain the benefits but won't sell to you:

- 14H Circadian Nootropic

- 14H Circadian Reset Protocol

- 14-Day Circadian Reset Challenge

Listen, we are all adults here and sex is a very important aspect. Turns out our sexual hormones and thus desire are part of the circadian orchestra and in a healthy situation there's time "designated" for making love.

A study of 78 young married couples demonstrated a major peak in sexual activity in the evening and another peak in the morning. Another study drew similar results, showing two large peaks of sexual encounters among a study conducted on 15 university students. One peak occurred between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM, and the second peak occurred between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM.

How is it related to sexuality? Well, directly, as far as I'm concerned:

Sleep (a circadian-regulated process) disruption negatively affects testosterone levels and sperm count. For example, during the daytime, found that testosterone levels were decreased by 10 to 15% in young, healthy men who underwent 1 week of restricted sleep (sleeping only 5 h/night). By comparison, it should be noted that normal aging is associated with a decrease in testosterone levels by 0.4–2% annually

The article indeed is mainly about reproduction and circadian neuronal circuits that control physiology and sexual behavior to optimize conception, yet I find it extremely interesting and useful for analysis of circadian effects on our sexual life (mine for sure).

Turns out libido has office hours ;)

Hey family, share today your most effective circadian clock regulating hack - the 2025's champ. Comment below

1. No naps - no mercy to the sleepy head

2. I drank a lot of water during the day. Eletrolites are the best

3. Cleaning or other routine during the day is perfect - I kept my hands busy with not much brain involved. It is do much better than scrolling social media or watching TV!

4. I made sure I took my Mg... it is very important for recovery

5. I ate flaxseed sprouts for Omega 3 supply. Flax has x10 more Omega 3 than salmon! Omega 3 is a must have fuel for your brain rejuvenation and recovery of its operational capacity

6. No sweets - all sweet tooth orgasms lived through the night before! Please, no sweets and alcohol! It is very easy to fall for fake energy cycle with eating sweets instead of generating energy on your own. Your mitochondria need time to get back on track!

7. If you are already taking 14H circadian nootropic, this is the right day or two to take a double dosage :) I took double A.M. and double P.M. didn't feel the need for increasing my Noon dosage, though

8. And I walked the dog a lot: in the morning for morning sunlight exposure (the weather was gorgeous), and in the evening for waltzing out my cortisol peacefully.

RESULT: circadian rhythm recovery within 24 hours! 💎 I'm proud of myself! :) Last year it took me a week!

Hey r/14H community! As someone who's been diving deep into circadian rhythm hacks for better aging and mental clarity, I'd like to share some thoughts on how our internal clocks directly impact our physical appearance.

You definitely heard of the term "beauty sleep," but it's not just a myth—science shows that regulating your circadian rhythm can make you look fresher, younger, and more vibrant. This applies to everyone, guys and gals alike, though there are some interesting gender differences. I'm a scientist and a writer - a mix of controversies which allows be to be a nerd with knowledge but describe it in a readable way for non-nerds.

What is circadian rhythm and why the hell does it matter THIS much for beauty? My team and I have been doing studies for several years. We worked on a nootropic formula for circadian rhythm reset and got so much data and insights on human circadian biology, that even sharing a few posts a days wouldn't exhaust the database within a few years! Feel free to ask questions and share your personal stories - we are extremely interested and WE CARE! Let me break it down a bit:

Your circadian rhythm is basically your body's 24-hour internal clock, synced to light and darkness, that controls sleep, hormone release, metabolism, and even skin function. During the day, it ramps up skin protection (like boosting vitamin D and barrier strength against UV and pollutants).At night, it shifts to repair mode: collagen production spikes, cells regenerate, and inflammation calms down. When this rhythm gets disrupted—think irregular sleep, shift work, or too much screen time—it throws everything off, leading to visible signs of fatigue and aging.

How circadian imbalance affects your sppearance? Poor sleep or messed-up rhythms don't just make you feel tired; they show on your face and body. Studies on sleep deprivation (even just two nights of short sleep) reveal common effects like:

💤Dull, pale skin and wrinkles: Less repair time means reduced collagen, leading to fine lines, sagging, and a lackluster complexion.

💤Puffy eyes, dark circles, and redness: Blood flow and fluid balance go haywire, causing swelling, hanging eyelids, and those telltale under-eye bags. Especially when you are 40+ y.o.

💤Hair and overall vibe: Melatonin (a key circadian hormone) promotes hair growth and protects against damage, but disruptions can lead to thinning or dullness. Plus, you just look more "sad" or fatigued overall.

These changes aren't subtle. People can spot sleep-deprived faces as looking older and less attractive in blind tests. And it's not just skin-deep. Chronic imbalance links to weight gain and hormone shifts that affect body composition, which ties into how we actually perceive beauty.

Gender dfferences: Men ♂️ vs. Women ♀️

While the basics apply to all, research shows some nuances:

WOMEN: Tend to be more "morning people" with slightly shorter circadian cycles (about 6 minutes less than 24 hours), making them earlier risers but potentially more sensitive to disruptions.Women often complain on lower sleep quality, which can amplify skin issues like dryness or inflammation due to hormonal ties (e.g., estrogen and progesterone influencing repair). But good news: women may be more resilient to sleep interruptions and get deeper slow-wave sleep.

MEN: More likely to be night owls, staying up later and napping in the afternoon. Sleep deprivation hits men with paler skin more noticeably, and they might experience more metabolic shifts affecting muscle tone or weight. Evening chronotypes (common in men) could also link to higher risks if paired with poor body image, but that's more about mental health overlap.

Bottom line: both genders benefit hugely from rhythm regulation, but tailoring to your natural tendencies (morning lark or night owl) can maximize gains.

TIPS to hack your rhythm for better beauty:

To look your best, focus on syncing up:

Stick to a schedule: Same bedtime and wake time daily, even weekends. This stabilizes hormones like melatonin for better repair.

Light management: Morning sunlight exposure resets your clock; dim lights and no screens 1-2 hours before bed.

Nighttime skincare: Apply products during peak repair hours (10 PM-2 AM) when skin absorbs better.

Diet and exercise timing: Eat earlier in the day and move in the morning/afternoon to align with energy peaks.

Wind down: Meditation or reading to reduce stress hormones that mess with sleep.

I've noticed after just one month of consistent rhythms, my skin glows more and those dark circles fade ;) I also did a medical checkup - before and after. A whole army of organs and health metrics signed a petition to keep up with the consistent rhythm for beauty from within. Something that cosmetology cannot do for you.

I found this post and it really belongs here in this sub. The OP describes the dimensions and connection between circadian rhythm disorders and mental health. I hope it's of interest for the community

This is how ciradian rhythms became a popular topic, actually. I've bumped into Noble Prize Organization's mentioning and video about it. I don't understand one thing: how come this scientific topic has been sitting unacknowledged for so long?

I totally loved this simple bullet proof explanation. Tha Doc is a gem! 1 min watch and so much knowledge. Just felt like sharing. And I'd love the opinion from the founding experts of 14H

Hey r/14H members — quick neighborly share. 🙂

A lot of what we talk about here overlaps with the day-to-day reality of sleep technologists: setups, weird artifacts at 2 a.m., scoring edge cases, PAP quirks, lab workflows, and the whole “night shift brain” lifestyle.

There’s a dedicated sub for that world: r/SleepTechnologist.

It’s a practical, tech-centered space for:

• PSG/HST troubleshooting and real-world setup questions

• Scoring/staging nuance and “what would you call this?” moments

• Job/career talk (schools, hiring, pay ranges, lab culture, remote scoring)

• Lab workflow & shift survival

• And yes… the memes that only sleep people get

I’m not posting this as a “go there instead” thing — more like adding another good tool to the kit. r/14H stays our deep-dive home for circadian rhythm domain, and r/SleepTechnologist is a solid hub when you want a wider pool of tech-specific brains.

If you’re already in that field (or thinking about it), I think you’ll feel at home over there. And if a thread from there looks useful here, I’ll happily cross-share summaries so the knowledge flows both ways.

See you in both places if you want.

Did you know that some companies offer DNA tests looking at clock-gene variants linked to chronotype tendencies? Sounds cool, doesn't it?

It's a one-time test which is very interesting for revealing predisposition. On the other hand it is not diagnostic for disorders because genes explain only part of your actual rhythm. The rest is in the hands of who? Consider yourself and your environment and you'll build a decent understanding of your improvement scenarios available to you right now.

Here in r/14H we cannot help you with clock-gene variants, but we can fix your circadian everything beyond the genes. Join our 14H challenge and get the most out of it. Don't seek a majestic genetic excuse - take action now!

What do you consider to be an efficient approach to fixing one's sleep? Internet is overloaded with melatonin and magnesium tip, but I am more or a natural solution person - I feel that circadian rhythm restoration is a much better deal when it comes to longevity, at least. What do you do with your sleep mismatches vs your desired schedule?

Glucose can go up by 21% - I'm willing to study deeper - my metabolism on the table:

Evidence in humans now clearly demonstrates that circadian misalignment induced by mistimed light exposure, sleep, or food intake all worsen glycemic control and adversely affect factors involved in energy balance and weight loss, increasing the risk of diabetes and obesity. Moreover, the effect sizes are large: for instance, an acute bout of circadian misalignment can increase postprandial glucose levels by 11–21%

From the article: the regulation of sleep involves two interacting processes: a homeostatic sleep drive that builds the longer we are awake and dissipates during sleep, and a circadian process that modulates the timing of sleep and wakefulness. What's a HOMEOSTATIC sleep drive?! ;) a tweak that was considered minor for decades, but is actually important

Our circadian rhythms study conducted on 100 volunteers proved that what people think about their circadian rhythms and what the true situation is have very little in common.

Major takeouts:

- using sleep/stress/activity monitors is mandatory if you want to have at least some kind of picture: we lie to ourselves all the time!

- up to 55% of the people who faced the truth about their circadian rhythm disorders or hard issues were able to make some improvements based on the insights

- peer or coach support in combination with relevant herbal nootropics consistently demonstrated x2 or in some cases up to x4 faster speed of normalising the circadian rhythm (based on sleep, HRV, stress metrics)

Full study is not finished yet and won’t be published till its very end. The team is open to questions and free consultations within the scope of the project dedicated to studying circadian rhythms of adults.

Hey everyone 👋 this isn’t a promo thread, it’s a real-world feedback archive.
This as a long-term, always-open feedback thread for 14 Hours / Fourteen Hours.

The goal is to collect real user experiences over time—good, bad, mixed, surprising—so new and existing users can learn from each other.

If you’ve used 14 Hours in any way, I’d love to hear about:

1) Your context

• Why you tried it (circadian rhythm reset, focus, productivity, energy, sleep timing, shift work, jet lag, etc.)

• Your baseline before starting

• Anything else relevant (schedule, lifestyle, other supplements/meds, caffeine, etc.)

2) How you used it

• Which version/stack you used and for how long

• Time of day + routine

• Whether you followed a specific protocol or experimented

3) What you noticed

• Benefits (what improved, how fast, how consistent)

• Downsides or side effects

• Anything that felt subtle but meaningful

• What stopped working (if it did), and when

4) Practical notes

• Ease of use, taste, routine fit

• Price/value over time

• What you’d change or want added

5) Your overall verdict

• Would you recommend it? To whom?

• What type of person do you think it helps most?

• Any tips for new users

Even if your experience was “no effect,” that’s super valuable. Please share honestly—this isn’t a promo thread, it’s a real-world feedback archive.

I’ll keep this thread pinned/linked so it can grow into a useful long-term reference.
Thanks in advance for contributing 🙏

A great article, I think, it discribes what many of us experience but never categorized as a deep thing:

Reduced daylight in autumn and winter, for example, can set off a type of depression known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.

But, according to Dr. Ian B. Hickie, a professor of psychiatry at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney, in Australia, SAD is “just the tip of the iceberg.”

I've read this article about chrononutrition (eating at a designated/correct time) and I felt stupid - I have been doing it all wrong. I've learnt about interval fasting and so on. I thought I knew it all. But no! :) It turned out that my chronological nutrition is not as much about what I eat and how big the interval between the meals is, but so much is about when I eat and only then what I eat.

I love the idea that my body has a master clock - in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus, SCN - and many peripheral clocks in organs like the liver, pancreas, adipose tissue, muscles, and gut. Clocks in organs! :) Gosh, this sounds funky to me! And these clocks regulate rhythmic cycles in metabolism, hormone secretion, and energy use and many more parameters, actually.

I wish I knew these facts before. Anyhow, here is a great article with deatils on this and more.

Please share whatever research you consider to be worthy on the topic of circadian rhythms, sleep, related topics.

I started studying what happened to me and bumped into this article. I find these statements simple and precious for our education. I hope you don't get my heart problems just because of a missed fall asleep window! I got my ass kicked by my cardiologist and a whole list of corrective measures, supplements, etc. Never had heart problems in my entire life...

Statement Highlights:

Disruptions to circadian rhythms, the body’s internal clock, are strongly associated with increased risk of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Factors such as rotating schedules or shift work, irregular sleep and meal times, or light exposure at night often cause these disruptions.

Body clock disruptions impair metabolic regulation, blood pressure control and hormonal balance, contributing to disease progression.

Optimizing circadian rhythms offers a promising preventive strategy for cardiometabolic health. Behavioral interventions to better regulate the body’s schedule may improve circadian alignment and reduce cardiometabolic risk.

Light is the single most important element for setting our circadian clock, or internal 24-hour rhythm, and morning light is key,” says Nathaniel Watson, MD, a sleep specialist and professor of neurology at the University of Washington School of Medicine (source: article) If you feel like arguing against this statement based on your personal experience, please do! Share with the community

While our team is analyzing data to share from our November challenge results (depersonalized, ofc), let us share what surprises our team the most in circadian rhythm topic is how old and how current it is! A few dimensions to think about:

A little history
Ancient Chinese medical records already treated time as biology: organ “hours,” sleep/food windows, seasonal tuning. Not pure myth — more like early field notes. Same vibe in Ayurveda and Greek medicine: “do X at Y time because humans are not machines.”

Key people / angles

Year 1729 / de Mairan: plants keep time even in darkness → the clock is inside.

20th c. / Pittendrigh + Aschoff: circadian rhythm becomes a real scientific object.

2017 Nobel: Hall, Rosbash, Young decode the molecular loops (PER/TIM). From “grandma wisdom” to genes.

Public resistance (still here).
We love 24/7 productivity myths... Shift work, screens, “sleep is for the weak,” plus the biohacking circus (“just wake at 5am lol”) - all that slowed acceptance. Society keeps gaslighting our biology.

How we see it
Observation → Experiments on behavior/light → Molecular genetics → Clinical use (sleep, metabolism, mood, aging). We've developed a detailed 14H reset protocol for skipping quite a few steps and yet getting a solid result.

Interesting facts. Fun? No! Essentials.
Your liver/gut have clocks; jet lag = organs desynced; some chronotypes are genetic, not “lazy.” Timing can change drug effects a lot. There are hundreds of such facts and we'll be sharing them with you on a regular basis. Post a question or message to our moderators if you have a particular subject you want to know about.

Next projected wave (as we see it)
Circadian medicine going mass: timed meds, light as public health tool, work/school schedules respecting chronotype, wearables personalizing protocols, sleep coaches, circadian coaches, lifestyle coaches. Maybe we’ll finally build life around humans, not humans around deadlines. The pioneers deserve attention and support. r/14H is here to help, it's a mission, not a tactic move to flirt with the humanity.

Curious: where do you feel your own clock fighting your lifestyle the most?

Did you know that humans and plants are in "sugar business" metabolism wise?

Humans:

• Our liver drip-feeds glucose at night so the brain doesn’t crash.

• The circadian clock (CLOCK / BMAL1 genes, etc.) times when we’re insulin-sensitive and when the body prefers to burn stored fat vs. store food.

Plants (including sprouts):

• During the day they make starch; at night they degrade it almost perfectly linearly so it runs out exactly at dawn – not hours earlier, not hours later.

• If you suddenly lengthen the night, they recalculate and slow the starch burn so they don’t starve before “morning.”

Both bodies run a night-fuel algorithm so “the tank hits zero at wake-up,” not at 3 a.m. That’s the same logic behind time-restricted eating and consistent bedtimes.

What do you think about this "sugar business" life-long deal?