Russell Foster isn’t just the sleep expert acting as a consultant on the BetterSleep app—he’s a published author, too! His new book, Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health, has been officially released via Penguin Books. In it, Foster guides you through how our body clock is such a vital component of getting the proper amount of sleep every night and how you can enhance your sleep routine with your body clock in mind.

Keep reading to find out what more you can expect from this book and how to use it to improve your sleep hygiene!

Body Clocks and How They Impact Our Sleep

Also known as our circadian rhythms, internal body clocks are how we’re subconsciously aware of what time of day it is. The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) is the area of our brain that controls how we see the light, and darkness and is the primary regulator of our body clocks. We also use this part of our brains when we see light since our retinas deliver these signals there, causing a wide range of hormones to be activated within the body. But once the night falls, the opposite effect happens, as our melatonin levels start to rise.

Russell Foster, the author of Life Time, is a circadian neuroscience expert. He joins the BetterSleep team carrying decades’ worth of experience in his field, including making scientific discoveries related to our circadian rhythms and becoming Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford. With this book, Foster aims to educate readers about how these rhythms impact our sleep habits and other aspects of our overall health. Using a combination of his own research and that of other biologists and scientists, Foster shows how doing certain activities at certain times of the day affects us more than we think.

What Does This Book Tell Us About Them?

For you to live, work, feel, and sleep better, Life Time offers a guide to improving each of these facets of your everyday life and building a stronger, better routine. Because the daily grind can throw us out of whack, affecting our physical and mental health, it’s essential to understand how these internal clocks work, and how to optimize your routine to get a better night’s sleep and minimize the risk of disease later in life.

Foster also spends plenty of time debunking myths about our daily routines and circadian rhythms, uses science to back up his claims, and discusses how to best calibrate your daily habits, so your optimal routine can be attained. When we understand the science behind how our rhythms can be thrown off balance, we can learn how to be our best selves and live our healthiest lives—whether with your metabolism, sleep schedule, immunity, medication timing, or anywhere in between.