MUSINGS FROM THE WABBIT HOLE.

PREVENT ADOLESCENT OBESITY: TAKE BACK TEEN BEDTIME!

Dr. Heather Hamilton, Founder Team Breakthrough!

Every once in a while, I fall down the wwwrabbit hole of research, following links and invariably ending up somewhere that has no bearing on where I was going in the first place. Humorously this also might be why I deleted the Amazon ap from my phone. Currently I’m revising the 8-hour BreakThrough! continuing education series for the American Counseling Association and updating provider references for recovery from mental and metabolic health disorders. So how the heck did I end up reading about Addison’s and Cushing Disease? More importantly, in the middle of revising our chapter and videos for recovery from PTSD and metabolic health, why am I writing about adolescent obesity on a Saturday morning? Although excess food intake and physical inactivity are traditional risk factors of the obesity epidemic, circadian misalignment and concurrent sleep restriction have emerged as a leading lifestyle factor.

Desynchrony and Circadian Rhythms

We know there is significant dysregulation of wake sleep patterns for those suffering with mental (PTSD) and metabolic (T2 diabetes) health disorders to name a few. Similarly in Cushing’s disease, there is chronic exposure to excessive circulating levels of glucocorticoids, the loss of circadian rhythm, together with loss of the normal feedback mechanism of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis [1]. It’s established that circadian misalignment increases the risk of developing chronic health disorders as there is a reduction in energy expenditure, an attraction to unhealthier food choices and interference with critical day/night cues that regulate brain-body functioning [2].

Desynchrony Affects Mental and Metabolic Health

So why do we need to TAKE BACK BEDTIME FOR TEENS? When we let our teens stay up until the wee hours of the morning and sleep until noon, we are enabling and inducing desynchrony between food intake, energy expenditure, the phase locked functioning of major organs and autophagy processes that are set by the central light/dark clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus. Desynchrony occurs when the central and peripheral clocks are mistimed. Peripheral clocks that ensure normal organ, hormonal and neuronal functioning receive their input from the central clock. I promised myself this would be a one pager, so in short, during one of the critical periods of brain-body development, when our teens depart from the cycles that ensured human evolution and survival for the better part of 6 million years, their risks for developing obesity, mental and metabolic health disorders and premature mortality increase significantly. What we don’t know yet, is the extent to which desynchrony during the teen years results in permanent molecular changes that affect immunity, trigger inherited genetic disorders, contribute to neuroinflammation, and systemic brain-body dysregulation. The most miserable and helpless experience for a parent is to watch a child suffer or die prematurely, no matter the age. You may face resistance, hostility and even conflict, but for your well-being and theirs…TAKE BACK BEDTIME FOR TEENS!

Support for Your Patients

Every month our team offers closed 16 week courses to help your patients recover from their mental health and weight related metabolic health conditions. Free of any advertising or product endorsements, our approved courses focus on the care aspects of mental health recovery, behavioral health and relapse prevention.  Space is limited to 12 individuals per group. When we conduct groups for organizations and private practices, providers and support staff are welcome to attend free of charge.

If this is a good fit for your organization or clients please reach out to us.

Dr. Heather Hamilton, Founder Team BreakThrough!

Hhamilton@breakthroughwmt.com

breakthroughwmt.com

References

1. 1. Juszczak A, Morris D, Grossman A. (2024) Cushing’s Syndrome. In: Feingold KR, Ahmed SF, Anawalt B, et al., editors. Endotext [Internet]. South Dartmouth (MA): MDText.com, Inc.; 2000-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279088/

• • Archer, S. N., Laing, E. E., Möller-Levet, C. S., van der Veen, D. R., Bucca, G., Lazar, A. S., Santhi, N., Slak, A., Kabiljo, R., von Schantz, M., Smith, C. P., & Dijk, D. J. (2014). Mistimed sleep disrupts circadian regulation of the human transcriptome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(6), E682–E691. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1316335111