Introduction 

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    I have been interested in experimenting with my circadian rhythm and finding out how difficult it is to alter one’s circadian rhythm. Currently, before I start experimenting, my circadian rhythm is misaligned. I have been regularly going to sleep at one to two in the morning and waking up at nine or ten on the weekends and just before seven on weekdays. My body does not have a regular sleep schedule, and my wake-up time and falling-asleep time keep changing. I plan on altering my sleep schedule, so I naturally fall asleep at eleven at night and wake up at six thirty in the morning. To alter my circadian rhythm, I will try taking melatonin gummies to force my body to sleep at certain times. 

 

Sleep log

 

The morning of April 21st.

    I got a measly four and a half hours of sleep last night. I fell asleep around 2 am and got up at 6:50 am. The lack of sleep showed when I tried to get up, as it was a struggle to crawl out of bed. There was zero feeling of being well-rested in the morning, and I was not fully awake until much later in the morning, at least after 9 am. Before 9 am, I was pretty out of it and dozing off a little, but after, I felt fine, maybe a little tired, but not nearly enough to fall back asleep.

 

Morning of April 22nd.

    I got a much better eight hours of sleep last night, but even with the extra sleep, I was even more drowsy. I fell asleep at 12:30 am and “woke up” at 8:30 am, but I could not get out of bed till after 9 am. But once I was up, I stayed up. The energy stayed with me throughout the day.

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Morning of April 23rd.

    Once again, I got another eight hours of sleep from 1 am to 9 am. I slept like a rock last night, most likely due to being my parent’s designated driver last night. Having to put up with both of them drunk after the school event for a 40-minute car ride really takes it out of you. Unlike all the other times, I had no difficulty getting out of bed this morning and felt very refreshed in the morning. 

 

Morning of April 24th.

    I got somewhere around seven hours of sleep. I fell asleep somewhere between 11:45 and 12 and woke up at 6:45. It was not a very good sleep. I woke up drowsy and completely remembered my dream, which never happens to mean. In this dream, Middleburg Academy reopened, and I went back there for the last few weeks of my senior year. Why I had this dream, I do not know, but I probably remember it because I woke up during REM sleep.

 

Morning of April 25th.

   I decided to take melatonin gummies to try to sleep early and to just see how they work, and let me tell you, they do not play around. The ones I got said to take two 30 minutes before planning to go to bed. So at 10 pm, I took two of them, and by 10:40, I passed out with my phone still in hand. Though the melatonin gummies helped me sleep, they did not help me wake up. The alarm went off at 6:45, but I fell back asleep until my second alarm at 6:55. I also remembered my dream again, but I am not sure if it was because of the melatonin gummies or if I woke up during REM sleep again.

 

Morning of April 26th.

    Once again, I took melatonin gummies, and I had the same effects. I took them at 10 pm and fell asleep around 10:30 pm, but this time I woke up a few minutes before my 6:45 alarm. Although I naturally woke up earlier, I was still highly drowsy upon waking. I also remembered my dream, which leads me to believe that the melatonin gummies have me waking up during REM sleep instead of after it ends.

 

Morning of April 27th.

    Even though I did not have to wake up earlier the next day, I still took melatonin gummies last night, though this time, I took them at around 11:45 pm. I expected to wake up sometime around 8 am, but shockingly I first woke at 7 am. Although I did not stay awake long because I always wake up drowsy after taking melatonin, so I fell back asleep until 9 am. I believe that my circadian rhythm is set to having me wake up at around 7 am, but I am unsure of what time my circadian rhythm has me fall asleep.

 

Morning of April 28th. 

    I have been tired of waking up drowsy, so I did not take melatonin gummies last night. I fell asleep at around 12:45 pm and woke at 6:30 am. Unlike the nights when I took melatonin gummies, I did not feel very drowsy when I woke, but since it was so early, I tried to fall back asleep unsuccessfully. My circadian rhythm is shaped around the school day now, and I a  interested to see how it will hold up during the weekend.
 

Morning of April 29th.

    I ended up taking a three-hour nap the day before, so I decided to take melatonin gummies again because I had to get up at 6:30 am to drive to Delaware. I took the melatonin at 10 pm and fell asleep at 11 pm. Unlike the other times I took the gummies, I fell asleep after a full hour instead of half an hour after taking them. I woke up before my 6:30 alarm at 6:12, and I could not fall back asleep for the last few minutes. Like all the other times I took melatonin, I remembered my dream and woke up drowsy.

 

Morning of April 30

    I did not take melatonin gummies last night, and I woke up feeling good. I fell asleep at 11:30 pm and woke up at 8:20 am. I was a little drowsy but not nearly as drowsy as I am when I take melatonin gummies. However, I did remember my dream, which normally does not happen when I sleep without taking melatonin. 

 

Morning of May 1

   Once again, I took no melatonin, and I felt great. I fell asleep at 11 and woke up at 6:45. I woke up with zero drowsiness and felt extremely well rested, which does not happen when I take melatonin gummies. I can confidently say that my circadian rhythm has been adjusted to 11 pm and 7 am based on how I felt this morning. 

 

Morning of May 2

    I went to bed early last night at 10:15 because I was exhausted after my tennis game, and I woke up at 6:45. I decided to take a melatonin gummy because my ankles were in so much pain that I had to hang them off the foot of the bed to put the least amount of pressure on them. I did not wake up before my alarm which usually happens when I take the melatonin gummies, but I was still extremely drowsy.

 

Morning of May 3

    Despite playing a tennis game that went to a tiebreaker, I stayed up until 11 pm. This time I did not take any melatonin gummies, and I woke up at 6:40, just before my alarm. My sleep last night was amazing. I had no drowsiness in the morning, and I felt extremely well rested, although my legs and ankles are a little sore from my game. My circadian rhythm is completely shifted to have me wake up around 6:45 for school days now.

 

Morning of May 4

    I went to bed at 11 pm and surprisingly woke up at 6:30 with no alarm. Since I had an AP exam that afternoon, I had my alarm set for 8 am, but my body naturally woke up at 6:30. I did fall back asleep until 8 am. Once again, I had no drowsiness and woke up well-rested. 

 

Morning of May 5 

    I skipped my first classes today because after AP exams, all learning finished, and it allowed me to sleep in. But my body is set to falling asleep at 11 pm and waking up at 6:30 am. So just like last night and the one before, my body will wake up at 6:30 without fail. Even though I naturally wake up at 6:30, I can still fall back asleep, and I did until my alarm at 8 am. 

 

Conclusion 

    During the 15 days where I recorded my sleep, I noticed some interesting things. For one, altering a circadian rhythm is a simple and easy process, but it takes time. I thought that I could change one in around three days and that I would have been able to change my circadian rhythm multiple times throughout this process. But I was very wrong. It took seven days for my circadian rhythm to start waking me up in time, but it was still half an hour later than it needed to be. It took three more days for it to adjust to that extra half hour.

For the actual process of altering a circadian rhythm, I found that it works better to go to sleep at the same time rather than wake up at the same time. Before I adjusted my circadian rhythm, I would get up at the same time every weekday, but this did nothing to help me fall asleep at the same time each night. Falling asleep at the same time each night also helps your body catch up on lost sleep. During the first few days, when I fell asleep at eleven, I slept in longer. It was not until after I caught up on my sleep debt did I start naturally waking up earlier. Another thing I notice is that once your circadian rhythm is set, there is no avoiding your body’s set times. No matter what I am doing, I will start to get tired at eleven at night, and no matter how late I stay up, I will wake up just before seven. 

    Although the gummies work as intended, the quality of sleep that you get while using them is poor. Every time I took the gummies, I quickly fell asleep, but the wake-up was always a struggle. Every time I woke up after using them, I was extremely drowsy. I felt like I could fall back asleep immediately if I did not crawl out of bed. That drowsiness stayed with me for a while as well. Whenever I took the melatonin gummies, I did not fully wake up until after an hour and a half, sometimes even more. I can not recommend using melatonin gummies on a nightly basis. The only time I will recommend using them is if you can not fall asleep at a consistent time or if your circadian rhythm is so bad that you do not fall asleep till extremely late. Once your circadian rhythm is set, your body will naturally fall asleep at a given time, and there will be no need to take melatonin. But taking melatonin can help get your body to fall asleep at a set time, so I can only recommend using it for the first three nights when adjusting your circadian rhythm. 

    An interesting thing I noticed when I took melatonin gummies was that I remembered my dreams almost every time I took them. Dreaming happens during REM sleep, which is the stage of sleep where the brain is active. I believe that I remembered my dream each time I took melatonin because the extra melatonin in my system changed the duration of my sleep cycles. However, it is impossible for me to be sure without lab testing. On the nights when I got the same amount of sleep but without the extra melatonin, I did not remember my dreams, nor was I drowsy. This makes me think that the extra melatonin shifted my sleep to more REM sleep hence the dreams being remembered. This could also explain why I never felt well-rested. NREM sleep is the deep restorative sleep that people usually think of as sleep, but if this sleep stage is being pushed out for more REM sleep, then it can explain the drowsiness and poor sleep quality. These are just some possible explanations that can not be verified without a lab.

    Shifting a circadian rhythm is a simple process that only takes some time and commitment with massive benefits. Someone with a proper circadian rhythm can fully avoid sleep deprivation and its consequences. Anyone can alter their circadian rhythm with nothing more than some commitment to fall asleep at the same time for a few nights in a row. Even the one part of shifting a circadian rhythm that requires some dedication can be circumvented by taking melatonin supplements. If anyone ever wants to feel better in the mornings and not have their mind bogged down by sleep deprivation, all they have to do is set a bedtime and stick with it until it becomes natural.