The Power of Sleep: How to Reset Your Circadian Rhythm for Optimal Health

Sleep is one of the most powerful tools we have for overall health, yet it’s often the first thing we sacrifice in our busy lives. If you’ve ever woken up feeling groggy, struggled with brain fog, or felt like no amount of coffee could get you through the day, poor sleep hygiene might be to blame.

Understanding the Circadian Rhythm

Your circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock, regulating your sleep-wake cycle every 24 hours. This natural rhythm is influenced by light exposure, temperature, and lifestyle habits. When in balance, it helps you wake up feeling refreshed, stay energized throughout the day, and wind down naturally at night. However, modern life—late-night screen time, irregular sleep schedules, and high stress—can throw this delicate system off course, leading to poor sleep quality and a cascade of negative health effects.

Symptoms of Poor Sleep Hygiene

Poor sleep hygiene doesn’t just mean getting too little sleep. It’s about the quality, consistency, and depth of your rest. Some common signs of poor sleep hygiene include:

• Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep

• Waking up feeling tired, even after a full night’s sleep

• Daytime fatigue and sluggishness

• Brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and memory issues

• Mood swings, irritability, or increased stress levels

• Cravings for sugar and caffeine throughout the day

• Weakened immune system, making you more prone to illness

If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to reset your sleep hygiene and bring your circadian rhythm back into balance.

6 Expert-Backed Ways to Improve Your Sleep Hygiene

The good news? Small, intentional changes can help regulate your body’s natural sleep cycle, allowing you to wake up feeling rested and energized. Here’s how:

1. Get Sunlight Early in the Day
   Natural morning light exposure helps regulate your circadian rhythm. Aim for at least 10-30 minutes of sunlight upon waking to signal to your body that it’s time to be alert.

2. Create a Consistent Sleep Schedule
   Going to bed and waking up at the same time—even on weekends—reinforces your internal clock. This consistency makes it easier to fall asleep and wake up feeling refreshed.

3. Limit Blue Light at Night
   Blue light from screens suppresses melatonin, the hormone responsible for sleep. Try dimming lights and avoiding screens at least 60 minutes before bed. If you must use screens, consider blue light-blocking glasses.

4. Design a Relaxing Bedtime Routine
   Wind down with activities that signal your body it’s time for sleep—gentle stretching, reading a book, or practicing breathwork can help reduce stress and prepare you for rest.

5. Optimize Your Sleep Environment
   Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet. Blackout curtains, white noise machines, and a comfortable mattress can all contribute to better sleep quality.

6. Be Mindful of Food & Drink Before Bed
   Avoid heavy meals, caffeine, and alcohol close to bedtime. Instead, opt for sleep-promoting foods like magnesium-rich nuts or herbal teas like chamomile.

Prioritize Rest, Reap the Benefits

By making sleep a priority and honoring your circadian rhythm, you’ll notice improvements in energy, mood, metabolism, and overall well-being. Better sleep isn’t just about feeling rested—it’s a cornerstone of a healthy, vibrant life.

At Clean in 16, we believe that optimizing your health starts with the basics, and sleep is at the heart of it all. If you’re ready to take control of your wellness, start with your night time routine—it might just be the key to unlocking your best self.

Ready to transform your health? Join us on the journey to better sleep, better energy, and a better you!

Cortisol & Stress: Is This Hormone Keeping You Stuck?

As women we are often juggling work, family, and the constant demands of life, you’ve likely felt the impact of stress. But did you know that stress has a hormonal fingerprint? That fingerprint is called cortisol, and when it’s out of balance, it can wreak havoc on your body, mind, and even your ability to lose weight.

What Is Cortisol?

Cortisol is often called the stress hormone, and for a good reason. It’s produced by your adrenal glands and plays a key role in managing your energy levels, metabolism, immune function, and even blood sugar. In small amounts, cortisol is your friend—it helps wake you up in the morning, gives you a burst of energy when you need it, and regulates inflammation.

But when stress is chronic, cortisol levels stay elevated for too long, leading to a cascade of unwanted effects.

Signs of High Cortisol

If you’ve been feeling constantly on edge, exhausted, or stuck in a cycle of weight gain and fatigue, high cortisol could be at play. Here are some common signs:

• Weight gain, especially around the belly (even if you're eating well and exercising)

• Cravings for sugar and carbs

• Difficulty sleeping or waking up feeling tired

• Brain fog, trouble concentrating, or memory issues

• Irritability, anxiety, or feeling overwhelmed

• Frequent colds or slow recovery from illness

• Thinning hair or dry skin

• Loss of muscle tone and feeling “soft” despite workouts

• Irregular menstrual cycles or low libido

• Stubborn lower belly fat that won’t budge

If any of these sound familiar, you’re not alone. Many women in their late 30s, 40s, and 50s experience cortisol dysregulation due to years of stress, poor sleep, and imbalanced nutrition. The good news? You can reset your cortisol levels naturally.

How to Lower Cortisol & Regain Balance

Lowering cortisol isn’t about eliminating stress completely—that’s impossible. Instead, it’s about giving your body the tools to recover, reset, and find balance. Here’s how:

1. Prioritize Sleep for Cortisol Balance

Lack of sleep is one of the biggest triggers for high cortisol. Aim for 7-9 hours per night, and create a wind-down routine with no screens before bed. Poor sleep increases stress hormones, so improving sleep hygiene is crucial.

2. Support Your Body with a Cortisol-Friendly Diet

What you eat directly affects cortisol.

• Eat protein with every meal to keep blood sugar stable.

• Focus on healthy fats like avocados, nuts, and olive oil.

• Reduce processed sugars and refined carbs that spike insulin and stress hormones.

• Add adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha and rhodiola to support adrenal function.

3. Exercise Smartly to Reduce Cortisol Naturally

Exercise is crucial, but too much high-intensity exercise can spike cortisol. Swap excessive cardio for strength training, yoga, or walking, which support hormonal balance and reduce cortisol levels.

4. Embrace Stress-Reduction Rituals

• Breathwork & Meditation – Just 5-10 minutes a day can shift your body from stress mode to calm mode.

• Journaling & Gratitude – Writing down what you’re grateful for has been shown to reduce cortisol levels and promote a positive mindset.

• Gentle Morning Sunlight – Natural light exposure helps regulate cortisol naturally and improves circadian rhythm.

The Clean in 16 Solution: A Natural Way to Lower Cortisol

At Clean in 16, we understand how overwhelming stress and cortisol imbalance can feel. That’s why our 16-day program is designed to help you reset your hormones, nourish your body, and reduce stress naturally—without crash diets or extreme measures.

By joining Clean in 16, you’ll get:

✅ A simple, clean-eating plan that supports hormonal balance and naturally lowers cortisol

✅ Expert guidance on sleep, movement, and stress reduction

✅ Daily rituals to reset your nervous system and improve overall well-being

✅ A supportive community of women on the same journey, helping you stay motivated

Ready to take back control and balance your body from the inside out? Join the next Clean in 16 challenge now! Your body (and your cortisol levels) will thank you.

Our transformative trip to thailand

For many years we have spoken about either going on retreat together or hosting one. The only problem we found with that was that often after a retreat you can find the post retreat buzz fading fast and the lessons learned slipping into the background as normal life resumes.

We designed the Clean in 16 to incapsulate all and more that a retreat brings whilst empowering the individual to make life long changes that can yield long lasting results.

Having said that as long term friends and both highly busy business women and mums we needed a break, we were also wanting to see what really goes down on these big detox retreats.

So off we went to Thailand.

Beck has been travelling to Koh Phangan for the last 10 years and has done most of her yoga, meditation and breathwork training there so she went off to train in Kundalini yoga to strengthen her knowledge within this field.

Whilst Hels decided to throw herself into full detox, including juice fasting, dry fasting, daily enemas she also really wanted to concentrate on developing spiritually and energetically.

We then had a week together to truly embrace all the weird and wonderful things the island had to offer.

We truly had the most wonderful time and as we write this blog on our train back from the airport we are musing. We have come to realise that the majority of the practices we have participated in during our stay are already part of our Clean in 16 plan.

For us this really compounds our belief in this wonderful plan. Through pooling together our years of , not just knowledge, but also personal experiences through trail and error we genuinely believe we have created the perfect plan.

So what is it that you would like to achieve from a retreat? Would it be:

• weight loss

• stress reduction

• pain reduction

• better sleep

• clearer skin

• more energy

• learning to priorates yourself

• balancing hormones

• better diet

• learning new habits

• a fresh start

And yes you could travel half way across the world at a mammoth cost but as we sit here on the train we realise that its all here in the plan. That we have put together something that can have the same benefits of an expensive detox retreat from the comfort of your own home without leaving your family and friends.

It is something that can be weaved into busy lives.

And yet the success stories of our past participants shows us that all of this can be achieved in just 16 days.

So I suppose our main feeling from our trip is one of true pride in what we have achieved and what all of our participants have achieved too.

So it is back to the cold for us but we return with so much excitement for our next intake.

April team here we come!

Much love

Hels & Beck

Our transformative trip to thailand

A very important insight gained from this trip is that you don’t necessarily need to travel all the way to South East Asia to get the post detox retreat buzz.!