How Long Does it Take to Reset Your Circadian Rhythm?

Struggling to fall asleep or wake up on time? Your body’s internal clock might be off track. A disrupted circadian rhythm can affect your sleep, mood, and energy. 

But don’t worry, resetting it is possible. In this guide, learn what throws it off and how to fix it so you can sleep better again.

• Stick to a consistent sleep schedule to reset your internal clock.
  
  

• Get morning sunlight to naturally align your sleep-wake cycle.
  
  

• Limit blue light at night to avoid melatonin disruption.
  
  

• Use melatonin supplements cautiously and only when needed.
  
  

• Gradually shift your bedtime to realign your circadian rhythm smoothly.

Circadian rhythm is the body’s natural 24-hour internal clock that regulates sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, and other essential functions, typically aligning with day and night patterns. 

When this rhythm is disrupted, people may experience insomnia, fatigue, mood disturbances, or difficulty concentrating, often seen in shift workers, frequent travelers, or those with irregular sleep habits. 

Triggers like jet lag, exposure to artificial light at night, or inconsistent sleep schedules can throw this system off balance. 

At its core, circadian rhythm is governed by a group of neurons in the brain’s hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which responds to light cues to keep the body’s timing in sync with the external environment.

An irregular sleep schedule can disrupt your circadian rhythm , making it harder for your body to align with natural sleep-wake patterns. 

Factors such as shift work, jet lag, and inconsistent bedtimes can throw off your internal clock. 

To keep your circadian rhythm in sync, try to maintain a consistent sleep schedule, going to bed and waking up at the same time each day .

• Artificial Light at Night Lowers Sleep Hormone Melatonin: Exposure to artificial light, especially blue light from screens, reduces melatonin, the hormone that helps you fall asleep. Bright lights at night make your body think it’s still daytime, so falling asleep becomes harder.

• Nighttime Light Exposure Disrupts Your Body’s Sleep Clock:  Regularly being around artificial light late at night confuses your body’s natural sleep rhythm, making you tired and unfocused the next day. The European Commission confirms that light at night interferes with your sleep cycle.

• Even Normal Room Light Before Bedtime Affects Sleep Hormone Levels: Studies show that moderate room light in the evening cuts melatonin production by over half, delaying when you get sleepy and shortening how long you sleep.

• Reducing Screen Time and Bright Lights Helps Your Sleep: To sleep better, try turning off screens and dimming lights at least an hour before bed to keep your melatonin levels healthy and protect your natural sleep rhythm.

• Shift work makes your body clock and schedule out of sync: Shift work causes your body’s natural circadian rhythm to not match the times you are awake or asleep. This mismatch leads to sleep problems, tiredness, and trouble adjusting to new work hours.

• Slowly changing your sleep time helps with night shifts: If you work night shifts, gradually shifting when you sleep and making your room dark like nighttime can help your body get used to the change.

• Night shifts upset natural hormone and energy patterns: Working nights disrupts important body rhythms like melatonin and cortisol, making it hard for your natural sleep and energy cycles to adjust.

• Being out of sync affects your body’s genes and health: When your schedule is off, it can change how your body’s genes work and affect different parts of your health, causing more than just tiredness.

• Taking care of your body clock is important for health on shift work: Because shift work affects many parts of your body’s timing system, managing these changes is key to keeping good sleep and staying healthy.

• Traveling Across Time Zones Confuses Your Body Clock: Jet lag happens when your internal clock doesn’t match the local time after crossing time zones. This causes tiredness, trouble sleeping, and feeling cranky.

• Going West Makes Your Day Longer, Going East Makes It Shorter: When you travel west, your body’s day gets stretched out, making jet lag easier to handle. Traveling east shortens your day, making jet lag feel worse.

• Sunlight and Avoiding Drinks Like Coffee Help Fix Your Clock: Getting outside in daylight after you arrive helps your body reset. Avoiding caffeine and alcohol is important because they make it harder to sleep and recover from jet lag.

• Comfortable Bedroom Temperature Supports Sleep Quality: Maintaining a bedroom temperature that is neither too hot nor too cold helps your body’s natural cooling process. Extreme temperatures can interfere with restful sleep and disrupt your circadian rhythm.

• Avoid Stimulants and Heavy Meals Before Bed: Steering clear of caffeine and heavy meals in the hours leading up to bedtime prevents sleep disturbances, supporting a more consistent and restful sleep pattern.

• Minimize Electronic Distractions for Better Sleep Hygiene: Reducing exposure to electronic devices and other distractions before sleep helps maintain healthy sleep hygiene, which in turn promotes a balanced circadian rhythm and improved overall sleep quality.

• Not Getting Enough Sunlight Confuses Your Body Clock: Natural light is a key player in regulating your body’s internal clock. When you don’t get enough of it during the day, your circadian rhythm starts to drift off track, which can throw your whole sleep cycle out of balance.

• Low Light During the Day Delays Your Sleep Hormone: Without daylight, your body struggles to know when it’s time to rest. Melatonin, the hormone that helps you sleep, doesn’t kick in properly, making it harder to fall asleep when night comes.

• Staying Indoors All Day Makes You Feel Tired and Moody: If you’re inside most of the time or working night shifts, your body misses the strong signals it needs to stay awake and alert. This often leads to constant fatigue, poor sleep, and low moods.

• Bright, Cool-Toned Bulbs Can Help If You’re Indoors: When natural sunlight isn’t available, lights that mimic daylight (5000k–6500k) can help reset your internal clock. They act like a substitute sun, keeping your rhythm from slipping too far off course.

• Getting Outside in the Morning Boosts Your Body Clock: A simple step like stepping outside in the morning can make a big difference. Real sunlight early in the day gives your body the right cues to stay alert in the day and feel sleepy at night.

• Having depression can confuse your body’s sleep signals: Mental health issues like depression don’t just affect mood, they also disturb the natural signals your body uses to know when to sleep and wake up.

• Some medicines make your sleep rhythm worse: Medications such as antidepressants and antihistamines often cause drowsiness or restlessness, which can throw off your natural sleep timing.

• Sleep disorders and thyroid problems mess with your daily rhythm: Conditions like sleep apnea or thyroid issues often disturb your ability to get good rest, which leads to an irregular sleep-wake cycle.

• Living with pain makes it hard for your body to relax at night: When you’re in constant pain, your body stays alert, making it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep, which disrupts your natural rhythm.

• Ignoring sleep problems can make your rhythm harder to fix: If health conditions or medications are affecting your sleep, it's important to talk to a doctor, leaving it untreated makes it harder to reset your natural schedule.

• Your body gets confused when you're around bright lights at night: Artificial lighting, especially from screens, can trick your brain into thinking it's still daytime. This confusion delays your natural sleep signals, making it harder to fall asleep when you should.

• Going to bed at different times every day makes sleep harder: When your sleep routine changes too often, your body doesn’t know when it’s time to sleep or wake up. This throws off your internal rhythm and leads to difficulty falling asleep or waking up feeling refreshed.

• Traveling across time zones can throw your sleep completely off: Crossing time zones forces your body clock to adjust quickly, which doesn’t happen easily. This often causes you to lie awake at night or wake up at odd hours, struggling to sleep normally.

• When your body clock is off, falling asleep feels unnatural: A misaligned internal clock makes your body feel out of sync with the world. It becomes hard to relax or feel sleepy at the right time, often leading to insomnia and nighttime restlessness

• Night wakings happen because your body clock is confused: When your circadian rhythm is off, your body doesn’t know when to sleep, causing you to wake up multiple times during the night.

• Traveling or working night shifts can upset your sleep cycle: Crossing time zones or changing to night shifts, as well as brain issues like dementia, confuse your internal clock and make staying asleep harder.

• Stress, anxiety, and insomnia keep your mind awake at night: Stress and sleep disorders make your brain stay alert when it should relax, leading to frequent waking.

• Using phones or watching TV before bed disrupts your sleep rhythm: Poor bedtime habits like screen time delay your body’s natural sleep signals and cause restless nights.

• Following a regular bedtime routine helps reduce night wakings: Keeping a consistent sleep schedule and creating a calm bedtime environment can help your body relax and stay asleep longer.

• Feeling Tired Despite Full Sleep Means Your Body Clock Is Off: Do you often feel tired even after a full night’s sleep? This could be a sign of circadian misalignment, where your sleep-wake cycle isn’t properly aligned with your body’s natural rhythms.

• Being More Awake at Night Shows Your Circadian Rhythm Is Disrupted: If you find yourself more alert at night than during the day or frequently napping, it points to disrupted circadian rhythms. Your body might not be getting the deep, restorative sleep it needs.

• Irregular Sleep Times Cause Social Jetlag and Daytime Fatigue: Inconsistent sleep schedules, like staying up late on weekends or working night shifts, can cause social jetlag. This means your natural sleep-wake rhythm doesn’t match your daily work or social demands, leading to tiredness during the day.

• Different Sleep Patterns on Workdays and Free Days Hurt Your Energy: When you sleep and wake at very different times on workdays versus free days, it disrupts your circadian clock. Late bedtimes on free days especially misalign your internal rhythm with work schedules, lowering your overall energy and performance.

• Hormonal Imbalance from Sleep Disruption: When your circadian rhythm is out of sync, sleep deprivation disrupts your cortisol levels, leading to irritability and anger. This hormonal imbalance directly affects your mood stability.

• Energy Drain Linked to Dopamine Imbalance: Poor sleep negatively impacts dopamine, the chemical responsible for your energy levels, leaving you feeling fatigued even after a full night's rest.

• Serotonin Disturbance Affects Mood and Sleep: It also throws off your serotonin levels, a chemical that plays a big role in both mood and sleep, which can leave you feeling low, unmotivated, or even depressed.

• Lack of Restorative Sleep Deepens Fatigue and Mood Swings: Without proper alignment of your circadian rhythm, your body misses out on deeper, restorative sleep stages. This results in persistent tiredness and the mood swings caused by ongoing hormonal fluctuations.

• Resetting Circadian Rhythm Restores Mood and Vitality: Bringing your circadian rhythm back into balance can significantly enhance your mood and energy, helping you feel more motivated and emotionally stable.

• Not Sleeping Well Makes It Hard to Remember Things: When your sleep isn't deep or long enough, your brain doesn’t get time to store new information properly. This can make it hard to remember even simple things from your day.

• Lack of Rest Leaves You Feeling Mentally Slow: Without enough restful sleep, your mind can feel cloudy or slow. This is often called brain fog, and it can make everyday tasks harder to finish or even start.

• Poor Sleep Affects the Brain Areas You Use to Think Clearly: Sleep problems can disturb important brain areas that help you make decisions, remember details, and control emotions. Over time, this can make it tougher to stay sharp and balanced.

• Trouble Focusing Could Be a Sign You're Not Sleeping: Right If you're finding it hard to pay attention or often feel distracted, your sleep might be to blame. Without enough good-quality rest, focusing becomes a real struggle.

• When sleep goes off track, hunger hormones get confused: Poor sleep messes with leptin and ghrelin, hormones that tell your body when you’re full or hungry. When you don’t sleep well, your body makes more ghrelin (which boosts hunger) and less leptin (which reduces it), making you feel hungrier than you really are.

• Sleep loss makes you crave more junk and sugar: Because of these hormonal changes, your body starts wanting quick fixes, like sugary snacks or greasy food. These cravings can be hard to resist, especially when your energy is low.

• Gaining weight becomes easier when sleep is disturbed: If your sleep is regularly disrupted, your appetite may spiral out of control. Over time, this can lead to overeating and steady weight gain, even if your diet doesn’t change much otherwise.

• Staying up late pushes you to snack more: Broken sleep often keeps you awake at odd hours, and that’s when cravings hit hardest. Late-night eating becomes more common, and that throws off your diet and digestion.

• Better sleep helps control your appetite naturally: Getting deep, regular sleep keeps hunger hormones balanced, reduces cravings, and helps your body manage weight more easily. Good sleep is one of the best ways to support a healthier appetite.

• Sleeping at odd hours makes it harder for your body to fight illness: When your sleep is all over the place, your immune system can’t work properly. People who work night shifts or have irregular sleep schedules often get sick more easily.

• Not getting enough sleep lowers your body’s natural defenses: Lack of good sleep slows down the production of important immune cells, making it harder for your body to protect itself from infections.

• A messed-up sleep schedule increases inflammation and allergy risk: When your internal clock is off, your immune system can overreact, causing more inflammation and making you more likely to have allergic problems.

• Bad sleep habits can mess with your gut health too: Your gut is full of helpful bacteria, but poor sleep can throw them off balance, affecting how your body digests food and absorbs nutrients.

• Fixing your sleep schedule helps your body recover and stay strong: When you sleep at the right times regularly, your immune system and gut both start working better, keeping you healthier overall.

• Changing your time zone makes your body take longer to adjust: When you travel across time zones, your body doesn’t switch schedules right away. Jet lag can keep you feeling off for several days, sometimes up to a week. Your internal clock needs time to catch up with the local time.

• Even small changes like daylight saving can throw off your rhythm: A one-hour change from daylight saving time may not seem like much, but it can still take your body a few days to realign with your regular schedule.

• Your internal clock runs the sleep show: Sleep and the circadian clock are intertwined and have persisted throughout history. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) orchestrates sleep by controlling circadian and homeostatic activities. Melatonin, a critical player in sleep regulation, acts as the "hand" on the endogenous circadian clock

• Older people take more time to reset their body clock: As we age, our body’s internal clock becomes slower to adapt. That’s why older adults may need more days to bounce back after sleep disruptions compared to younger people.

• Your brain has a special part that controls your sleep timing: There’s a part of your brain called the SCN that acts like a master timekeeper. It helps organize when you feel sleepy and when you feel alert, guiding your whole body’s rhythm.

• Melatonin is like your body’s natural sleep timer: Melatonin is a hormone that tells your body it’s time to sleep. It plays a key role in helping your body reset its internal clock, especially when your sleep schedule changes.

• Light signals help your body know when to sleep or wake up: Your exposure to light, especially in the morning and evening, tells your body when it should be awake or sleepy. This helps your circadian rhythm stay in sync with the day-night cycle.

• When your rhythm is off, your whole sleep cycle needs time to recover: Your sleep and circadian system are closely connected. If your rhythm gets disturbed, everything from your energy to your alertness can feel off. It takes time for your body to return to its natural balance.

• Going to bed and waking up at the same time helps your body sleep better: Keeping a fixed sleep and wake time trains your internal clock. When your body knows exactly when to rest and wake up, it becomes easier to fall asleep, stay asleep, and feel refreshed during the day.

• Changing your sleep schedule on weekends can confuse your body clock: Sleeping in or staying up late on weekends might feel good short-term, but it can throw off your body’s rhythm. This back-and-forth makes it harder to get quality sleep during the week and can affect your health in the long run.

• Your body needs a few days to adjust to a new sleep routine: If you’re trying to shift your sleep schedule, don’t expect overnight results. It usually takes a few days to a week for your body to catch up. Staying consistent every day helps speed up this process.

• Morning sunlight helps you wake up, evening darkness helps you sleep: Getting sunlight early in the day tells your body it’s time to be alert, while dimming lights at night tells it to wind down. This simple habit supports your body clock and helps you sleep more naturally.

• Morning light wakes up your body naturally: Natural morning light tells your brain it’s time to wake up and be alert, helping to reset your body clock.

• Spend time outside soon after waking up: Being outdoors for 20 to 30 minutes in the morning helps set your sleep cycle for the day.

• Use bright light if sunlight is hard to find: If there isn’t much sunlight, a lightbox or sitting by a bright window can help reset your rhythm.

• Blue light in the morning boosts your alertness: The blue color in morning light is especially good at waking you up and adjusting your internal clock.

• Morning light helps you sleep better at night: Getting sunlight early keeps your body on a natural schedule, making it easier to fall asleep when it’s dark.

• Blue light before bed confuses your body: Using screens at night sends the wrong signal to your brain. Instead of feeling sleepy, your body thinks it’s still daytime because blue light blocks melatonin, the sleep hormone.

• Blue Light Disrupts More Than You Think: Compared to green light, blue light has a much stronger effect, it can suppress melatonin for twice as long and shift your sleep rhythm more significantly. This makes screen exposure before bed especially harmful to your circadian rhythm.

• Turning off screens early helps your body relax: To give your brain a break and help your body get ready for sleep, it’s best to turn off phones, TVs, and computers at least an hour before bedtime.

• Filters and glasses can reduce the harm if you need screens: If you have to use your phone or computer at night, blue light filters or special glasses can block some of the blue light and reduce its effect on your sleep.

• Less screen time means better sleep quality: Avoiding screens and bright lights before bed helps keep your sleep pattern in sync, making it easier to fall asleep and wake up feeling rested.

• Doing calming things before bed tells your body it’s time to rest: A soothing wind-down routine tells your body that it’s time to slow down and get ready for sleep. Gentle activities like reading, light stretching, or deep breathing help calm your mind and ease tension, signaling that the day is ending.

• Using calming smells can help your mind relax faster: Scents like lavender, chamomile, or sandalwood, whether from a candle, room spray, or diffuser, create a peaceful vibe that helps your body and brain shift into rest mode more smoothly.

• Repeating the same steps each night helps your body learn when to sleep: When you follow the same relaxing steps every night, your body starts to expect sleep at that time. This makes falling asleep easier and helps keep your sleep schedule steady.

• Lowering the lights helps your brain know it’s nighttime: Dimming the lights about an hour before bed helps signal your brain that it’s time to sleep. Soft lighting encourages your body to make melatonin, the hormone that controls sleep.

• The more you follow your routine, the easier sleep will come: Sticking with your routine every night trains your body over time. With consistency, your body learns when to wind down, helping you fall asleep more naturally and wake up feeling better.

• Caffeine stays in your body for many hours: Caffeine is a stimulant that can keep you awake long after you drink it. Avoid having caffeine after the afternoon so it doesn’t disturb your sleep at night. Experts say stop caffeine at least eight hours before bed because it affects people differently depending on how often they drink it.

• Alcohol can make you feel sleepy but worsens sleep quality: Although alcohol might help you fall asleep faster, it actually breaks up your deep sleep, leaving you feeling tired and groggy the next day.

• Avoiding caffeine and alcohol in the evening helps your body relax: Cutting out caffeine and alcohol at night lets your body relax and follow a natural sleep rhythm.Experts recommend stopping caffeine at least eight hours before bed, as its effects can vary based on how frequently you consume it.  This helps reset your circadian rhythm and improves your sleep over time.

• Use Melatonin Supplements Sparingly to Protect Your Natural Sleep Cycle: Melatonin supplements can help adjust your circadian rhythm but should be used only occasionally. Taking them at the wrong time or in incorrect doses can disrupt your natural sleep patterns.

• Avoid High Doses to Prevent Side Effects: Higher doses may cause unwanted side effects, such as vivid dreams, headaches, and even feelings of confusion or disorientation.

• Take Small Doses About 30 Minutes Before Bed: If you choose to use melatonin, take a small dose roughly 30 minutes before bedtime and avoid making it a regular habit.

• Prioritize Natural Methods for Long-Term Rhythm Reset: Relying on natural strategies like consistent light exposure and maintaining a steady sleep schedule offers better, lasting results for resetting your circadian rhythm.

If your sleep schedule is significantly misaligned, consider gradually shifting your bedtime by 15 to 30 minutes each night . 

This allows your body time to adjust slowly, rather than forcing a dramatic change. Over time, this gradual shift will help your circadian rhythm realign with your desired schedule.

The key is consistency ; by sticking to your new sleep routine , your body will start adjusting, making it easier to wake up refreshed in the morning .