What homeostasis can teach us about rest, nourishment, sleep, and the healing power of rhythm.
A New Moon, A New Invitation to Listen
With this new moon, I find myself thinking about the rhythms that shape our lives, many of which unfold without our conscious attention. The moon moves through its phases, the seasons transition, the trees respond to changes in daylight and temperature, and the natural world continually adjusts to changing conditions. Here in the Midwest, November brings shorter days, cooler temperatures, and trees that have released much of their foliage. Nature reminds us that periods of activity and growth are accompanied by periods of conservation, restoration, and rest. The new moon offers an invitation to consider our own rhythms and the ways we might better support the remarkable work our bodies are doing every moment of every day.
One of the things I find most fascinating about the human body is that it is constantly working to maintain balance. Even when we're asleep, sitting quietly, enjoying a meal, or walking outdoors, countless processes are taking place without our conscious direction. Our hearts beat, our lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, our kidneys regulate fluid and electrolytes, our immune systems monitor for potential threats, and our bodies continuously adjust to changes in our internal and external environments.
Much of this activity is part of a biological process called homeostasis, and understanding it can change the way we think about wellness.
Homeostasis: Your Body's Ongoing Conversation with Itself
The word homeostasis comes from Greek roots referring to similarity and standing or stability. In physiology, it describes the body's ability to regulate its internal environment within ranges that allow its cells, tissues, and organs to function properly, even when conditions around us are changing.
Consider your body temperature. Most of us don't spend much time thinking about how our bodies maintain a relatively stable internal temperature, yet sophisticated systems are constantly making adjustments. When we become too warm, we may begin to sweat, allowing heat to escape as moisture evaporates from our skin. When we're cold, our blood vessels may constrict to conserve heat, and our muscles may begin to shiver to generate warmth.
Something similar happens with blood glucose. After we eat, glucose enters our bloodstream, and hormones such as insulin help regulate how it is used and stored. When glucose levels begin to fall, other hormones help make energy available. Our bodies also regulate blood pressure, fluid balance, acidity, and countless other conditions through interconnected feedback systems.
Homeostasis isn’t a fixed state in which everything remains perfectly still. It’s a dynamic process of continuous adjustment. Our bodies respond to the demands of the moment, seeking stability while adapting to change.
I think this distinction is especially important for women, many of whom have spent years responding to the needs of everyone around them. We adjust our schedules for children, partners, aging parents, colleagues, clients, and communities. We learn to work through fatigue, postpone meals, shorten our sleep, and push past signals that we need rest. Sometimes these adjustments are unavoidable. But when they become our everyday way of living, we may begin to overlook the support our own bodies require.
Our bodies are remarkably adaptable, but adaptability isn’t the same as having unlimited reserves.
The Body's Internal Clock: Why Rhythm Matters
Homeostasis is closely connected to another remarkable feature of human physiology: our circadian rhythms.
The word circadian comes from Latin roots meaning approximately a day. Circadian rhythms are biological cycles that repeat roughly every 24 hours, helping regulate when we feel alert, when we become sleepy, how certain hormones are released, and how our bodies process energy.
We have a central biological clock in the brain that responds strongly to light and darkness, along with additional clocks throughout the body, including in organs involved in metabolism. These clocks help coordinate physiological activities across the day and night.
For example, exposure to morning daylight helps communicate to the brain that the day has begun. As darkness approaches, the body ordinarily increases production of melatonin, a hormone involved in signaling that it is nighttime. Meanwhile, cortisol, a hormone with several important functions, including helping us respond to stress and maintain energy availability, normally follows a daily rhythm, with levels generally higher around the time we awaken.
These aren’t isolated events. They’re part of an interconnected system that helps organize our body's activities.
When we maintain reasonably consistent patterns of sleeping, waking, eating, and activity, we provide our internal clocks with predictable signals. However, when our schedules change dramatically from day to day, or when we routinely stay awake and eat during hours when our bodies would ordinarily be preparing for sleep, those signals can become less coordinated.
Of course, not everyone has the freedom to follow an ideal daytime schedule. Shift workers, caregivers, people managing chronic conditions, and women with demanding or unpredictable responsibilities may have limited control over their daily routines. Once again, even though I may sound like a broken record - the goal isn’t perfection. It’s to create as much consistency and support as our circumstances allow.
Sleep Is When So Much of the Body's Restoration Takes Place
If there’s one area where I believe many of us could offer our bodies greater support, it’s sleep.
We often treat sleep as the time left over after everything else has been accomplished. We finish our work, respond to messages, prepare for the next day, perhaps watch a little television, and eventually go to bed when there’s nothing else that demands our attention.
But sleep isn’t simply the absence of activity. It’s an active biological state during which the brain and body perform essential functions that support physical and mental health.
During sleep, our bodies move through different stages, including non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Deep non-REM sleep is particularly associated with physical restoration, while REM sleep plays important roles in learning, memory, and emotional processing. Across the night, sleep supports immune function, tissue maintenance, metabolic regulation, and the brain's processing of information.
Sleep also interacts with our body's systems for regulating hunger, blood glucose, and stress responses. When we regularly sleep too little, we may notice changes in appetite, concentration, mood, and energy. Over time, insufficient sleep is associated with increased risks for several chronic health conditions.
Most of us need approximately seven to nine hours of sleep each night, although individual needs vary. Importantly, getting older does not mean that our bodies suddenly stop needing adequate sleep.
For those of us navigating perimenopause and menopause, sleep may become more complicated. Changes in reproductive hormones can contribute to night sweats, hot flashes, and disrupted sleep. Some women also experience greater difficulty staying asleep, even when falling asleep has never been a problem.
If this sounds familiar, I encourage you to approach these changes with curiosity and compassion rather than frustration. Persistent sleep difficulties deserve attention, and sometimes support from a healthcare professional is needed. There’s no virtue in enduring months or years of poor sleep when effective treatment options may be available. None at all!
One of the simplest ways to support our circadian rhythms is to establish a reasonably consistent bedtime and waking time. And if your schedule allows, consider choosing a waking time that you can maintain most days, including weekends, and then work backward to allow sufficient time for sleep. If you need eight hours of sleep and generally wake at 6:30 a.m., for example, you might begin preparing for bed around 9:30 p.m. and aim to be asleep by approximately 10:30 p.m. The exact hours matter less than allowing enough sleep and finding a rhythm that works with your life and your body's needs.
A consistent schedule helps your brain anticipate when to become alert and when to prepare for sleep. Morning daylight, regular movement, and reducing bright light exposure close to bedtime can reinforce those signals. And if you find that you’re tired during the day, consider whether your body may be asking for something other than another cup of coffee.
Rest Is More Than Sleep
Although sleep is essential, rest deserves its own place in our understanding of wellness.
We can sleep for eight hours and still feel emotionally depleted, mentally overwhelmed, or socially exhausted. We can wake from a full night's sleep and immediately begin filling our minds with news, messages, obligations, and expectations. Our bodies need opportunities for recovery during waking hours, too.
When we experience stress, our nervous systems help us respond by increasing alertness and mobilizing energy. This is a natural and necessary response. The problem isn’t that we experience stress, but that many of us move from one demand to the next without sufficient opportunities to recover.
Our autonomic nervous system plays an important role in these adjustments. Its sympathetic and parasympathetic branches work together to regulate functions such as heart rate, digestion, and physiological arousal. Although these systems are more complex than simple on-and-off switches, periods of safety, relaxation, and recovery can help reduce sustained physiological activation.
Rest might mean stepping outside between meetings and allowing your attention to settle on the movement of the trees. It might mean eating lunch without simultaneously answering emails, sitting quietly for ten minutes after arriving home, practicing gentle breathing, or choosing not to fill every open space on your calendar.
And so many of us have been taught or believe that your worth is connected to productivity, service, and the ability to manage everything, rest can require a shift in how we understand responsibility.
We may need to remind ourselves that caring for our bodies isn’t something we earn after completing our obligations. It’s part of what allows us to participate meaningfully in our lives. Rest is not a reward for having worked hard enough. It’s a biological and human need.
When We Eat Matters, Too
Most conversations about nutrition focus on what we eat. We discuss protein, fiber, healthy fats, vegetables, hydration, and the importance of nourishing our bodies with a variety of foods.
All of these matter. But an emerging area of nutrition research is helping us better understand that when we eat may also influence how our bodies process and use nutrients.
Our digestive and metabolic systems follow daily rhythms. Insulin sensitivity, digestive activity, and the body's responses to food can vary throughout the day. Research suggests that eating patterns that align reasonably well with our normal waking hours may support metabolic health, although scientists are still studying the long-term effects of different meal schedules.
A helpful starting point is simply to eat meals at reasonably consistent times rather than skipping meals throughout the day and then consuming most of their food late in the evening. If you typically awaken around 6:30 or 7:00 a.m., you might find that breakfast sometime in the morning, lunch around midday, and dinner in the early evening create a comfortable and sustainable rhythm. For example, breakfast at 7:30 or 8:00 a.m., lunch around 12:30 p.m., and dinner around 6:00 or 6:30 p.m. might work well for someone who goes to bed around 10:00 or 10:30 p.m.
These times are examples, not universal prescriptions. I’ve not found that there’s a scientifically established perfect breakfast, lunch, or dinner hour for every woman. What matters is finding a pattern that supports adequate nourishment, your individual health needs, and a reasonably consistent sleep schedule.
One practice worth considering is allowing approximately two to three hours between finishing a substantial evening meal and going to bed, when possible. This can help reduce discomfort from indigestion or reflux and may make it easier to sleep comfortably.
That doesn't mean you should go to bed hungry or ignore your body's signals. If you need an evening snack, eating something nourishing may be entirely appropriate. Women managing diabetes, taking certain medications, working overnight, or recovering from disordered eating may need different approaches.
I also want to distinguish between allowing time for digestion and the increasingly popular practice of prolonged or intermittent fasting which I practice from time to time. Although some research on time-restricted eating is promising, the evidence is mixed - long daily fasting windows may not be necessary or appropriate for all women, particularly during midlife. Our bodies require energy and nutrients to maintain tissues, support immune function, regulate hormones, and carry out the countless processes involved in daily living. Supporting homeostasis includes providing enough nourishment, not simply limiting the hours during which we eat.
Nature Reminds Us That Rhythm Includes Rest
Our bodies do not enter winter dormancy in the same way as trees and most plants, but the natural world offers a useful reminder that periods of reduced activity aren’t necessarily periods of diminished value.
When we spend time outdoors, we can also support one of the most important signals for our circadian rhythms: natural daylight.
Even a short morning walk can offer an opportunity to experience daylight, move our bodies, and create a transition into the day. A walk after lunch may provide a welcome break from sitting, while an evening stroll can become a gentle way to transition from the responsibilities of the day toward rest.
As a relational forest therapy guide, I’m continually reminded that nature offers more than a place to exercise. It invites us to notice, to slow down, and to become aware of our relationships with the living world. Perhaps you notice that the light has changed since last month. Perhaps the air feels different against your skin, or you hear the sound of dry leaves moving along the ground. These moments of attention can offer a welcome interruption to the pace of our daily lives. They can also remind us that we are part of nature, not separate from it.
A New Moon Practice: Creating a Rhythm That Supports You
As we welcome the new moon, I invite you to consider one small change that might make it easier for your body to maintain its natural rhythms. Rather than creating an ambitious list of wellness goals, begin by observing your ordinary day.
What time do you usually wake up? Do you feel rested when you begin the morning? Are your meals reasonably consistent, or do you often become so busy that you forget to eat? Do you give yourself time to transition from the demands of the day into sleep? When was the last time you experienced a period of rest without feeling that you should be doing something else?
You might spend the next week simply noticing these patterns without judging them. Then choose one supportive commitment. Perhaps you will begin waking at approximately the same time each morning and opening your curtains to welcome the daylight. Perhaps you will protect a regular lunch break or begin eating dinner a little earlier. You might create a thirty-minute evening ritual that includes turning off your computer, dimming the lights, preparing a cup of caffeine-free tea, and allowing your body to recognize that the day is coming to a close. Or perhaps your commitment will be to pause for five minutes in the middle of the afternoon, giving yourself permission to rest before you become completely depleted.
Whatever you choose, allow it to be an experiment in caring for yourself rather than another obligation to fulfill. You don’t have to change everything at once, of course.
Coming Home to Your Body
The more I learn about the human body, the more I appreciate its extraordinary capacity for adaptation and regulation. Homeostasis is one expression of that capacity, reminding us that wellness is not a static destination but an ongoing process of responding to change. There will be seasons when our lives feel relatively balanced and others when we are navigating illness, grief, caregiving, professional demands, or unexpected transitions. Our bodies will respond to these experiences, sometimes in ways that invite us to pay closer attention.
Perhaps we can begin to see our bodies less as projects that need constant improvement and more as living systems worthy of our care, patience, and respect. We can nourish them, allow them to rest, move them in ways that feel supportive, and listen when they ask us to slow down. And when our bodies need additional support, we can seek it without feeling that we have somehow failed.
The invitation of this new moon is simple: What would it look like to create a life that works more closely with your body's natural rhythms, rather than continually asking your body to work around your life?
Perhaps that’s one of the most meaningful ways we can practice wellness: by remembering that balance isn’t something we have to achieve perfectly. It’s something we can continue to support, one compassionate choice at a time.
A Gentle Invitation
If you're interested in exploring how sleep, nourishment, stress, and everyday routines influence your well-being, I invite you to schedule a complimentary 50-minute health and wellness coaching session. Together, we can explore the patterns that are working for you, the ones you might want to change, and small, sustainable ways to support your health.
Visit www.inhalene.com to learn more.
This article is intended for general education and is not a substitute for individualized medical advice. Persistent sleep difficulties, significant fatigue, or concerns about blood glucose and other health conditions deserve appropriate professional evaluation.