Transitioning to Shorter Days: How to Support Your Mitochondria & Circadian Rhythm

Mitochondrial health is having its moment this year and we’re fully here for it. After all, mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells – quite literally generating energy (in the form of ATP) for all of our essential cellular functions. As you can imagine, when our mitochondria are damaged and/or not functioning properly, our energy levels are going to be severely impacted as well as other body systems. 

Now, here’s the interesting part. While our mitochondria are powerful beyond belief, they’re also quite sensitive to lifestyle and environmental factors. For instance, a lack of sunlight, exercise, sleep, or antioxidants can actually lead to mitochondrial dysfunction among other things. To double-click on sunlight for a second, our mitochondria are under circadian clock regulation which means that their function is closely tied to our sleep and wake patterns.

As we inch closer and closer to the winter solstice, the days inevitably get shorter with the nights growing longer. Our transition into more darkness often comes with an entirely understandable desire to hunker down at home, eat less fresh produce and more hearty comfort foods, and workout less. Don’t worry, this is not by any means a slap on the wrist. It’s all a very normal part of the season shift! It simply asks us to be a bit more aware of nurturing our mitochondrial health in the fall and winter months. So consider this your guide.

5 ways to support your mitochondria and circadian rhythm 

Get morning light as soon as you wake up

Regardless of what time you get up in the morning, exposing your eyes to sunlight first thing helps your circadian clock understand what time it is. You want to reveal some amount of bare skin and avoid using any sunglasses during this time to ensure that you’re absorbing as much near-infrared light as possible. This particular kind of light donates photons to your mitochondria, increases ATP production, reduces inflammation, and boosts melatonin generation (which plays a HUGE role in our sleep). 

Aim to go to bed around the same time every night

There’s nothing your circadian rhythm loves more than a sleep routine. In order to get sleepy around the same time each night, it can be helpful to create a pre-bed ritual that tells your brain and body that it’s safe to wind down and get some rest. A few ways to do this are: keeping the lights low at night, using red lights and/or wearing blue blocking glasses, avoiding any stressful activities (like checking emails in bed), taking sleep-supporting herbs, and incorporating relaxing screen-free activities like reading, meditation, or gentle yoga.

In addition to keeping your sleep-wake pattern consistent, prioritizing sleep allows your body to take out the “metabolic trash” that has accumulated throughout the day as a product of simply being a human being (1). Also, when your body has powered down for the night, your mitochondria are able to reduce their metabolic activity, repair themselves, and undergo other quality control mechanisms. 

Move your body consistently

Put simply, exercise improves your mitochondrial function, making them stronger and healthier. First off, exercise (both resistance training and endurance training) stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis or the process by which new mitochondria are generated. Physical activity also enhances ATP production by regulating mitochondrial respiration and triggers mitophagy, which flags and removes any damaged mitochondria (2). And, finally, exercise increases both the density of mitochondrial membranes AND the number of enzymes involved in ATP production, helping your mitochondria do their job in producing energy for the cell even more efficiently (3, 4). It can be super hard to motivate yourself to walk, run or bike outdoors when it’s dark out, so fall could be a nice time to consider bringing in a new type of movement. For instance, hot yoga might feel really good when it gets a bit colder, or maybe you sign up for an online program or in-person gym for a set period of time. 

Incorporate a bit of cold therapy

PSA: you do NOT need to have a fancy cold plunge in your home to reap the benefits of cold exposure. We talked about how exercise induces mitophagy (your body’s natural process of removing damaged mitochondria) earlier and cold therapy does this very same thing (5, 6). Additionally, repeated exposure to icy cold temperatures increases the amount of brown fat on your body and brown fat is densely packed with mitochondria. So just by spending time in a cold ice bath, your body produces healthy new mitochondria. Wild! If you want to experiment with some cold exposure this fall and winter while celebrating the beauty of the seasonal shift, you can adventure out to find a natural ice bath in your environment  – like a river, sound, ocean, creek or lake. For a less involved option, you can simply turn your shower’s water temperature down to the coldest it goes, be brave, and ~try~ to withstand about 2-3 minutes of this at the very end of your shower routine. 

Eat plenty of foods that support your mitochondria

Mitochondria are enclosed by a unique double-membrane, consisting of an inner and outer membrane. This is made up of phospholipids, or fats, that contain two fatty acids and a phosphate group. So getting high quality fats from your diet helps to maintain the structure and function of this mitochondrial membrane. Fats also act as fuel for your mitochondria! We’re talking oily fish, avocados, egg yolks, nuts, grass fed meats, seeds, flaxseed oil and olive oil.

Protein is another hugely important macronutrient category for your mitochondrial health. In many animal protein sources, you’ll find carnitine, creatine, CoQ10 and amino acids (including taurine). Carnitine (found in Metabolic Guard) is a critical nutrient for beta-oxidation, the process that breaks down fatty acids into energy for the cell. Meanwhile, creatine helps to shuttle high-energy molecular compounds from the mitochondria into the cell for immediate use (7). And CoQ10 actually hangs out in the mitochondrial membrane to carry electrons down the electron transport chain, ultimately generating ATP. It also acts as an antioxidant, targeting and removing any free radicals that create oxidative stress and, therefore, mitochondrial dysfunction (7). Other antioxidants like alpha lipoic acid (ALA) do this as well, so eating foods rich in antioxidants is incredibly protective to your mitochondria. Some ideas are: beets, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower, spinach and strawberries to name a few. And, finally, we can’t talk about eating for your mitochondria without touching on B vitamins. B vitamins are crucial for energy production, serving as cofactors or coenzymes for a plethora of biochemical processes, including beta oxidation, the citric acid cycle, gluconeogenesis and amino acid metabolism (7). Foods rich in B vitamins are: meats, nuts, organ meats and seeds.