“These ultradian rhythms help to account for the ebb and flow of our energy throughout the day. Physiological measures such as heart rate, hormonal levels, muscle tension and brain-wave activity all increase during the first part of the cycle—and so does alertness. After an hour or so, these measures start to decline. Somewhere between 90 and 120 minutes, the body begins to crave a period of rest and recovery.
We are capable of overriding these natural cycles, but only by summoning the fight-or-flight response and flooding our bodies with stress hormones that are designed to help us handle emergencies. The long-term cost is that toxins build up inside us. We can only push so hard for so long without breaking down and burning out.”
Ultradian Rhythms
When Milton Erickson conducted therapy, the sessions would regularly go beyond the standard hour. When asked why he did this, he replied it just seemed to take that long to get something done. Because Erickson’s focus was on the client, he would continue until the client gave some implicitly motivated indication they had done enough for that session. This shift would most regularly occur at around 90-120 minutes.
A sleep researcher named Nathaniel Kleirman found that there was a discernible cycle of behavioral and cognitive activity throughout the night. He described it as a 90-120 minute cycle which he called the basic-rest-activity cycle. Further research showed that this rhythm existed throughout the day as well. This flow of cycles throughout a 24-hour period is known as the ultradian rhythm.
At the end of each 2-hour cycle is what has become to be known as the Ultradian Healing Response, a 20-minute rest phase that is often the best time to experience a nap or practice naturalistic forms of meditation, prayer, deep self - reflection, and holistic healing. A human being is naturally organized to take something of a pause or shift of activity every couple of hours in order to maximize our learning, engage in reflection, and open our psycho-neuro-biology to integrate the benefits of recent experiences.In modern society, people are encouraged to push through these periods of natural pauses with the detrimental effects of an interference with the processes of brain plasticity which enable learning and memory as well as adaption.
All Code Zero sessions operate to the scientific principles of the Ultradian Healing Cycle.
“It has been proposed that chronic stress engendered by individuals who override and disrupt their own ultradian rhythms (by ignoring their natural periodic needs for rest in any extended performance situation, for example) are thereby setting in motion a basic psychosocial process of psychosomatic illness.
The stress related mind-body problems are viewed as an expression of distorted loops of cybrenetic information transduction ranging between the epigenetic and mind-brain level.
Further, a naturalistically oriented therapeutic hypnosis that utilizes the 20 minute ultradian rest period provides a comfortable, “healing state” during which disrupted ultradian parameters can normalize (reset or synchronize) themselves and thus undercut the process of psychosomatic illness at their psychobiological source.
This permissive receptivity to our natural need for rest and recovery is called the “Ultradian Healing Response” (Rossi, 1982, 1986a & b, 1991b; Rossi and Cheek, 1988).
It now appears that most holistic methods of mind-body therapy (psychotherapy, shamanism, biofeedback, the relaxation response, progressive relaxation, autogenic training, imagery, etc.) may utilize the natural 20 minute ultradian healing response as an unrecognized, general factor facilitating healing.
This also may be the unrecognized psychobiological basis of the “therapeutic benefits” experienced in many meditation methods (Zen, Transcendental, Yoga etc.) that traditionally enjoin beginners to practice for 20 minutes.
Advanced meditators typically practice for a full 90-120 minute ultradian cycle to utilize the entire range of their psychobiological potentials for personal/spiritual development.”
The Ultradian Stress Syndrome
When a person, as the vast majority do, habitually ignores the ultradian cues for rest and rejuvenation, disrupting and disturbing these natural healing processes, it can result in a myriad of mind-body symptoms that can lead to psychotic symptoms and the development of affective disorders such as depression, anxiety, heart disease, stroke, addiction, headaches, back pains, high blood pressure, ulcers, asthma, skin conditions, insomnia, obesity, suppression of the immune system and proneness to such opportunistic illnesses as the common cold, flu and infections of all sorts…
These diverse symptoms are all linked to the same underlying cause, neglecting the natural call for rejuvenation, creating physical and psychological fatigue.
Signs of Ultradian Stress Syndrome:
1. Do you suffer from stress-related health problems such as backaches, tension headaches, stomach or digestive problems, skin problems, asthma or high blood pressure?
2. Do you experience waves of depression, loss of self-confidence, and worry during periods of emotional fatigue during the day?
3. Do you often have challenges with forgetting names or words, or forgetting where you put things when you are overtired?
4. Do you experience transient emotional swings, irritability, impatience, fleeting bad moods, teariness, or even crying spells at certain times of the day?
5. Do you have an out of control eating problem? Do you tend to overeat in the late afternoon or early evening, or sugar snack during the day?
6. Do you have addictive behaviors to raise your mood or calm you down?
7. Do you exhibit nervous habit problems such as nail biting?
8. Do you find your important relationships stressful and conflict-ridden? Do you often feel you miss social clues, and misunderstand people?
9. Are you commonly accident prone? Do you find you make many errors in fine detail after an hour or two of successful concentration?
10. Do you have trouble falling asleep, or wake up without feeling truly refreshed from a night’s sleep?
When a person starts to understand just how the Ultradian Stress Syndrome may be limiting their prosperity, they usually flip right to the program section.
