Taking a long break can help you recover, but preventing another burnout requires conscious effort. You can optimize your body’s natural work-rest cycle by tapping into your ultradian rhythms. Here’s how to do it.
What Are Ultradian Rhythms?
Everyone has an in-built biological clock. Also known as biological rhythms, they regulate sleep patterns, wake periods, and hormonal changes. For example, circadian affect physical, mental, and behavioral changexs over 24 hours. Similarly, ultradian rhythms affect your energy levels multiple times a day.
Ultradian rhythms have a much shorter cycle that lasts 90-120 minutes. That means our bodies experience a high-energy state every 90-minutes followed by a low-energy phase. This can vary from person to person, but it follows the same mechanism.
By understanding your ultradian rhythms, you can effectively map out the most productive points of your day. That will also help you take breaks when you need them the most. As such, you might have a better chance of avoiding burnout.
How to Measure Ultradian Rhythms
Learning to use ultradian rhythms can be immensely rewarding. It promotes mental health apart from improving productivity. The goal of this pattern is to prevent overworking and mental fatigue. Firstly, you will need to measure how long your high energy period lasts. You can use the Forest app to do this.
Forest is one of the most popular productivity apps. There is also a Chrome extension available. If you’re unsure, begin by setting a 10-minute work timer. The app plants a virtual tree that grows as you stick to the timer. If you abandon the timer, the tree dies.
After the 10 minutes, if you still feel motivated and refreshed, try doubling that timer. You should ideally stop when you begin feeling lethargic or tired. This will tell how long you can sustain a high energy period. Over time, you can improve this duration.
Another important aspect while using ultradian rhythms is avoiding distractions. The Forest Chrome extension allows you to add any websites to a blocklist. This will prevent you from accessing those websites.
Alternatively, you can use a gamified habit tracker to make sure you stay on track. Tracking your time and the tasks at hand is essential for a successful work period, especially if you have anxiety disorders, ADHD, or similar mental health conditions.
Habit tracking apps such as Habitica help create routines and visualize your progress. The RPG-style app is a great way to keep track of your work. It will help you stay focused, accountable, and motivated while completing a task. Additionally, Habitica rewards you for your progress.
Making the Most of Your Breaks
The most important part of using ultradian rhythms is the breaks. One of the many work strategies is to power through the day with disproportionate breaks. However, that increases the risk of burnout. A study published in the PLoS One journal stated that burnout is a significant predictor of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, insomnia, depression, and much more.
Therefore, once you complete your 90-minute work period, take a mandatory 20-minute break. When you begin feeling groggy, give yourself some time to relax. Mindfulness and power naps are two of the best ways to use your breaks. You can use mental health-focused Chrome extensions that remind you to take time off work. That will also help prevent eye strain and health issues from low mobility.
With apps like Atom, One Deep Breath, Calm, and Medito, you can practice short guided meditation sessions. For example, Calm has a vast library of guided meditations, relaxing stories, music, and breathing exercises. Medito helps you create a habit of daily meditation using 10-minute sessions. Each day you get a new guided meditation session to follow. The Atom app has an in-built habit tracker, which makes creating a meditation routine even easier.
Power naps are ideal if you want to feel refreshed in a short span. According to Cleveland Clinic, power naps can help improve short-term memory, alertness, mood, and focus. The easiest way is to set a 20-minute alarm on your phone or smartwatch. Apps like Power Nap with Andrew Johnson are also useful. This app incorporates sleep meditations that make falling asleep easier and wakes you up through audio cues.
Why Should You Try Out Ultradian Rhythms?
Using ultradian rhythms can help you utilize your body’s natural energy cycles. That means you can work more efficiently and take a break when you need one. Ultradian rhythms were popularized by sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman in 1982. Thereby, these are well-researched concepts in chronobiology.
Similar techniques, such as the Pomodoro, rely on 25-minute work intervals combined with a five-minute break. However, a five minute-break may not be sufficient enough for you to recover. Moreover, if you have a high energy threshold, you can work comfortably longer than 25 minutes.
Research published in the Sleep Journal showed that even a 10-minute nap helped improve alertness and cognitive function. This indicates that short naps are effective at battling mental fatigue that arises from sleep deprivation, stress, and burnout.
Make Mental Health a Priority
If you’re dealing with a mental health condition, focusing on tasks can be extremely challenging. Pushing yourself can hamper your progress and place additional strain on yourself. Therefore, prioritize self-care and get professional help if required.
You can also use apps such as Intellect, 29k, Woebot, and CBT Companion to start your mental health journey. These apps offer several psychologically-tested tools and resources that can ease your symptoms. Furthermore, telehealth services—such as Doctor on Demand and Sesame Care—can make professional help affordable and accessible.
Remain in Sync to Avoid Burnout
Ultradian rhythms can be extremely helpful if you work in a high-stress environment. Stress and long working hours are detrimental to mental and physical health. However, by using apps for habit tracking, productivity, and mental health, you can optimize your work as well as breaks.
With smartwatches, you can even track your moods and overall mental health. That will help you plan your breaks accordingly. Splitting your work and rest based on your body’s natural activity cycles can prevent future burnout.
