Living Off-Beat: The Cost of Ignoring Your Inner Clock

Hey Brain Warriors,

Welcome to this new edition of GBA Cognitive Mastery. Today, we're diving into one of your body’s most powerful (and most ignored) systems: your circadian rhythm.

Your body runs on a clock. Not the one on your wall or your phone. An internal timekeeper that controls when you sleep, think, focus, digest, and repair.

This is your circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle primarily governed by a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The SCN is a tiny cluster of cells in your hypothalamus, the most ancient part of your brain, and it acts like your body’s master conductor

And most of us are completely out of tune.

From Life Time by Russell Foster to The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchin Panda, researchers have been shouting it from the rooftops: modern life is wrecking our internal clocks.

Why?

For hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived in sync with nature. We rose with the sun. We ate when food was available. We moved, hunted, rested, all in rhythm with the light-dark cycle.

Our biology still expects that rhythm. Sunlight tells the brain to wake up. Darkness triggers melatonin for sleep. Our hormones, digestion, and even social engagement followed a predictable pattern.

Then came electricity. Then screens. Then 24/7 work culture, shift work, and Uber Eats at midnight.

In just a few generations, a blink in evolutionary time, we’ve gone from sun-led nomads to fluorescent-lit desk dwellers. And our DNA hasn’t had time to play catch up.

As Foster and Panda explain, our internal clocks are still calibrated for a world that no longer exists. That mismatch is quietly damaging our health and brain performance.

👉 Waking up before sunrise to work out?

👉 Reaching for coffee before getting morning light?

👉 Answering emails after 9pm?

👉 Eating dinner at 10pm?

These habits may seem harmless, but together they create chronic circadian misalignment.

And it matters.... A LOT.

Disrupted circadian rhythms are strongly linked to the skyrocketing rise in

• Heart disease

• Type 2 diabetes

• Depression and anxiety

• Burnout

• Cognitive decline

And these trends have exploded in just a few decades.

Your brain relies on timing. From cortisol release to neurotransmitter activity. When the rhythm is off, everything is off.

Even shorter daily cycles, called ultradian rhythms, play an important role. Your brain works best in 90-minute waves, with dips and recovery in between.

But what do we do? We caffeinate through the crashes. We skip breaks. We treat our brains like machines and end up wondering why they’re not working.

So if you’ve been asking yourself:

Why can’t I focus anymore? Why am I tired all the time? Why does my brain feel… flat?

It’s not just stress. It’s not just age. It’s most probably your rhythm.

👉 My Health Foundation Program is designed to help you get back in sync, restoring your internal timing so your brain and body can work with you, not against you. DM me to learn more, or book a free 30-minute Clarity Call (link in bio).

Until next time, keep those neurones firing (on time!).

Thierry