Nurture your sleep and circadian rhythm by managing blue light, time restricted eating or intermittent fasting. Having a healthy circadian rhythm can balance hormones, brain chemicals, gut microbiome, organ function and reduces inflammation. These benefits add up to decades of healthy life. Dr. Satchin Panda’s circadian rhythm research has discovered that light and meal time have profound health impact. He found a new light sensor in our eye measures blue light to tune brain functions ranging from falling asleep to throbbing migraine pain in a sunny day. This simple discovery has triggered a new field of light therapeutics in which phones have come up with features to flip a button to “night shift” and blue filtering glasses are new sleeping pills. Dr. Panda also discovered that the number of hours between our breakfast and dinner may be as important as day’s calorie counts.

Dr. Panda grew up in India, did his doctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute, and postdoctoral training at Novartis before starting his independent research lab at the Salk Institute, La Jolla. He is a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Research, an American Federation of Aging Research mid-career scientist. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx