Ultradian Rhythms: The Key to CEO Energy

Ultradian Rhythms

Ever have one of those days when you started the day with Superman's energy but by 10:00 in the morning, you had the energy of a slug on Xanax? Yeah, me too.

That's because we were on the downside of an Ultradian rhythm. A what? Your brain and body are a mess of signals, waves, rhythms and pressures. We know about brain waves, electrical signals and the various pressures within the body. And there is one more that has a bearing on your energy, ultradian rhythms. At first blush this sounds like something out of Star Wars or mysticism. But actually it’s pretty simple. 

Just like our circadian rhythms help us regulate a 24-hour day between sleeping and waking, ultradian rhythms manage the cycles of our energy production, output and recovery throughout the day. We do not have a steady output of energy throughout the day. Our energy goes up and down. For me, there is little I can do to boost my energy and productivity between about 2:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon. Then around 4:30 or 5:00 I get that “second wind.” This is a function of my ultradian rhythms. 

When we start our day, our energy reserves and fuel supply should be high. As we begin, we reach a peak about 90 minutes in when our performance begins to decline. The debris of our mental and physical  activity have built up in our system. Metabolic waste and cellular debris need to be flushed away. Our prefrontal cortex has random bits of information which need to be processed; some to be stored in memory and others to be forgotten.

In short, our brain and body need to clean up after themselves. So we might begin to feel a little groggy, unfocused and slower. This is normal. It is your body’s pit crew waving the flag for you to come in for maintenance and refueling. This is when the body detoxifies, rebalances blood sugar and regenerates cellular fuel for the next 90 minutes.

Your brain also needs recovery time to get glucose and oxygen into your brain cells. It also needs to tag information and insights you’ve acquired and to develop neural connections that link and store information for later recall. After 20 minutes or so, your systems have rebalanced, refueled and reorganized to get back in the race. And the cycle begins again. 

You can think of your day as a series of 90 minute sprints followed by 20 minutes of recovery, give or take, throughout the day.

But what if you ignore the body's pit crew and stay on the track, which is what many of us do. The ultradian cycle will continue and you’ll perk up again, just not quite as on top of it as you were during the first cycle. In other words, you’ll slow down and if you were on a track you’d be losing your position. Continuing to slog through means that we are clearly not at our best. Are you really as effective on that third or fourth consecutive zoom or meeting as you were in the first? No, you’re not.

By missing these short breaks, no amount of caffeine and snickers bars will be able to pull us out of the ravine we’ve careened down. We have suffered both physiological and psychological wear and tear. The impact of the body includes the following:

• Increased markers of inflammation

• Imbalanced blood sugar and insulin response

• Neurotransmitter dysfunction

• Declining motor skills and perception

In other words, the body begins to malfunction and shut down just like the racecar without a pit stop.

Psychologically, our cognitive performance and emotional regulation also plummet.

• We’re unfocused so we miss details and make mistakes

• Our creativity and insight are dulled

• Our energy and resilience tanks

• Our emotional self-regulation are weakened

If we continue to blow off ultradian breaks, we experience diminishing returns on our productivity and the probability for mistakes and bad judgement skyrocket. In other words, we sabotage our CEO Mental Fitness and our leadership effectiveness becomes vulnerable. This accounts for why we sometimes arrive home as an evacuated shell of the person we were when left this morning. We’re home, but we’re not really there.

Consequently, we might crash on the couch, eat too much of the wrong food, fail to really engage with our loved ones and self-medicate with whatever helps us relax and unwind. And chances are, we likely won’t sleep and recover as well overnight. If we’re not watching, we begin to build up an energy mortgage as the week progresses. Moreover, it’s not a prescription for work life balance, well-being or vibrant relationships.

Now, in all fairness, not every CEO pushes themselves to the point of exhaustion day in and day out. But many do, and I would submit that most CEOs ignore one or more of those pit crew flags through the day. CEO Mental Fitness is about understanding how the brain and body operate to maximize its performance. You win the race through a series of carefully orchestrated sprints interspersed with recovery.

"Live and Lead Better."

Liam Chrismer