The body should be able to regulate it's own circadian rhythm with proper care. That means if you are healthy, work in the fields, get up at dawn, sleep at dusk and eat right-the brain has ways of secreting hormones that signal time to wake up and time to fall into brain rest. The problem will come when we go over and above by watching TV for 24 hours, "sleeping in" for more than to consecutive days, eating poorly or with no regularity, taking stimulants like caffeine/bad carbohydrates/adhd prescriptions. When you participate in repetative poor scheduling, the brain will think you are in a different time zone and it will not know when dusk is so the quality of deep brain wave rest will be compromised. You will know by the mere fact that you wake up fatigued, fall asleep at the wheel, become irritable with problem solving, or memory is hampered.
Snoring is not good. We often attribute the sound of a child snoring to -"a good sleep". If the snoring is associated with pauses of apnea (not breathing) then the brain is not getting oxygen and sends impulses to the diapragm to gasp for air. It may sound funny on youtube (or annoying to the partner) but the heart also gets shut out from oxygen and it will suffer by sending out a stress response and turning on adrenaline and epinephrine.......two hormones that are not supposed to be floating around the blood stream during peaceful shut-eye. The only way to find out about if a loud snorer is going through apnea is a sleep study. Medical insurance will pay for sleep studies in the lab but you usually have to get a "Home Sleep Unit" from the lung specialist and wear it for 1-7 nights. This will document a problem and signal to your insurance doctor that a more formal and detailed test is required. The end result is a positive pressure mask or nasal canula to wear at night so the soft tissues of the nose/mouth/throat stay open at night to allow air flow in and out. (thus no obstruction) NOTE-usually if you lose weight the soft tissue that is blocking the passageway will shrink allow the breathing tube to remain open. Imaging that, a non surgical, non chemical way to get rid of sleep apnea!!!! Oh but weight loss isn't covered by insurance. What is covered by insurance is a nasty surgery called the UPPP (see link)
If there is not apneic issue and you are just suffering from shift work sleep problems, sometimes you can do things naturally to help the brain drift off into a sleep rhythm again but it takes ritual pattern establishment over 21 days or longer. See my lecture on sleep Today we have immediate access of over 100 channels of stimulating TV programs and usually a closet full of equally stimulating processed food. Run away! Run away like you are running from zombies!! It is too easy to open a package and say you will just have 1-2 bites but then feel guilty you ate 20 servings before the TV program finished!! It is hard to stay true to a diet when you are weak....that is usually about 10pm to 2am. (and in ancient healing like Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine-one is not supposed to be filling the stomach at these hours)
You can schedule your macro nutrients to assist in bringing the brain to bedtime, you can also keep your exercise to day time, you can practice the relaxation response to induce positive serotonin secretion to help in training the brain to establish a good circadian rhythm but if this doesn't work then there are hypnotic prescriptions that will force you to sleep but it usually results in poor dream state and an addiction to the medicine.
