Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. Not only does it manage your sleep phase, but it protects from cancer cells wandering around. Been taking it for 35 years - started at 3mg/night, now 10mg/night. But as you get older, your pineal gland does fade. The Pineal Gland is the Third Eye of indigenous/spiritual people. Cannot recommend enough!
Daily Light Exposure:
Peoplekind were designed to wake at dawn, sleep at dark. You wake naturally with the light, and sleep naturally with the sunset. This the Circadian Rhythm. Shocked that people sleep less than 6 hours/night. Our modern world (sounds archaic, we are probably neo-modern now) offers off-hours work, a diversion from the melatonic sun-clock, farm animals go by the sunrise.set, imposes a very false set of standards. When I was growing up, TV came on the air 4pm, off air 11.20pm. I wish that was still the benchmark.
Exercise (diet & nutrition)
See above Daily Light Exposure. You are supposed to work/exercise your body/be alive during daylight hours.
Caffeine:
Use with caution. It is a good antioxidant but yymv. Myself,can't drink coffee after 9am or it interferes with Melatonin, Daily Light. Exposure.
Omega 3:
Originally from saltwater fish and grass fed cattle, it is becoming a supplement, which is ridiculous. Go for Atlantic sardines - only true good source. Your body needs this to metabolize a bunch of important legacy stuff.
Tryptophan:
I stay away from turkey meat. I keep my dogs away too. I don't want to be sedated. Scary how big the turkey has grown, As a child, we would go to the turkey farm and pick a bird. All running around chirpy, oblivious.
Vit D
Oyez, oyez: Free antioxidants! Free antioxidants! Nobody cares. They rely on pharma now. Centuries, if not millennia of healing plant protocols available. My pharmacist brother could not understand why I never had covid (after all, they had the jabs and caught it, regardless.) Maybe I had but not realized? Nope. Antibody and T Cell tests show I have never, and will likely never. Because if you boost your immune system, sleep well, forgive and don't forget - is all you need.
MD I hate surveys. I did it anyway, but won't again. Thank you and STAY STRONG.
Thanks for the comment Sunshine. There's plenty more to include but at some point you either limit what you post or you tell people to brace themselves for a book. It should really serve as a reminder that we should do our best to improve all aspects of our health.
As to the surveys, you really don't have to fill them out but it's just something for yourself more than me. I think sometimes people aren't quite aware of their own behaviors unless asked. This probably wasn't the best way to go about it or ask questions (the polls feature is really limited on Substack).
I also drink a lot of coffee, and it does not affect my sleep. I've always been a heavy coffee drinker.
Since Covid, I now add things like turmeric, ashwaganda, astralaga, and various teas to my coffee, so as not to cause my stress about should I or should I not quit. I just get things in my body the easiest way possible.
Now, exercise is a problem for me now. Since I got the J&J shot in March of 2021, I have been anxious about clotting. And, with all the sudden deaths nowadays, especially after exercise, I'm warier about strenuous exercise. I actually research and found out that strenuous exercise is not recommended when you are ill. I consider exposure to the virus (which is unavoidable now), as a potential illness, the immune system is working on. I know that constant exposure to the virus being introduced into your body (high-infectious pressure), is not a good thing. It is for this reason that I do moderate movements throughout the day to get in "exercise".
The coffee one is really interesting because it's one of those things that makes me wonder if we know the actual effects from long-term coffee drinking. Does coffee really not affect us, or do we just consider how we feel to be the new normal?
The exercise stuff is really difficult. I've heard so many mixed messages in case of heart inflammation or risk of clots, but at some point it becomes important to weigh both the benefits and the risks. I would assume the longer the timeframe since the last dose the less worry there should be. As to exercise and the immune system, there were actually a few mixed studies that argue that post-exercise is a time when the immune system is weakened and could leak to greater risk of infection. It's a highly contentious argument and most evidence is highly conflicting.
Covid did not change my sleep patterns for the 1st year. I went to bed and woke up the same time as before. What did change was in the summer of 2020, I began to feel tired during the day, and struggled about taking a nap. Then it occurred to me that it was the body's way of repairing itself, so I assumed it was due to exposure to the virus, and just began to follow my body's lead... if I felt tired, I would just take a nap. ..(I'm self-employed, working from home for 15 years, so no change for me).
In 2021, probably due to anxiousness and social media, I began having difficulty falling asleep. My remedy was to replace social media scrolling with painting..(using the same eye/hand movements & coordination).. it worked. I now have a ART GALLERY...LOL.. never knew I could paint. So since 2021, I paint and listen to a book until I feel sleepy.
I began routinely taking melatonin during the latter portion of 2021, after I listened to a presentation given by Dr. Paul Merick from the FLCCC, and he explained the significance of melatonin in relation to the mitochondria. I do feel a difference if I do not take my nightly dose, not extreme, but after my melatonin 5mg gummy (lol), I'm asleep within 30 mins.
Finally, my mind decided to remember and accept the saying I learned in school- rest and digest, meaning the body does a lot of work during sleep, and needs alot of energy, so just go lay down when you feel sleepy and be thankful that my body is working properly... and I am consciously listening.
Thanks for this article, because it is so important.
In the December 2020 Christmas season, my family contracted Covid.. (though) most didn't know. The ones who didn't know they were infected continued to work, and the ones who knew they were infected stayed in the bed. The ones who didn't rest died, and the ones who did lived. Enough proof for me.
I think there's a lot with our body that we should be more in-tuned with, such that when we feel tired it may not be enough to just go to sleep, but to ask ourselves why we feel sleepy. If we didn't get enough sleep, then maybe our body is running out of juice pretty early. If we got good rest, could we be coming down with something or did we just have a heavy meal full of things that would make us sleepy? It's generally a good idea to understand why we feel sleepy, more than to just try to alleviate the symptoms of sleep.
And that's great to hear about the paintings! I think we all need to find hobbies to take our mind off of COVID or other madness going on. Social media is possibly one of the most toxic things to the human cognition. It rots the brain with stress and anxiety that would otherwise never be there. It creates an atmosphere of dependency and parasocial dynamics that makes us all more sick and more worse off.
That's interesting about the Mitochondria. Bret and Heather did one podcast in which they mentioned intracellular Melatonin. It appeared that infrared light may play a role in intracellular Melatonin. However, intracellular Melatonin is different than circulating Melatonin, so I wonder if supplementation would have an effect.
I'm sorry to hear about your relatives. As much as we consider COVID to be mild for many, there are many who may succumb to the illness. One thing I've argued that COVID should have taught us is that we should probably be more aware of when we get sick and be mindful that we probably shouldn't be wandering around, and should instead relegate ourselves to bedrest. The number of times I had coworkers come to work and cough up a storm but play it off was quite ridiculous- you're just going to get other people sick. If there was anything we should have learned it probably should have been to be mindful of our own health and not try to downplay our sickness if it means possibly getting others sick.
PS I forgot Magnesium! Relaxes the muscles, important for the Cal/Mag ratio. Eat it, soak in it, rub on your knees and elbows. Don't forget we came from the soil/earth, and all healing eventually comes from soil/roots.leaves/sun.
I've actually tried Magnesium because of its role in muscle. Not sure how effective it is, but minerals are one thing we should be more mindful of both in terms of benefits as well as side effects. Especially with Iron which can be easy to get too much of.
There’s another great support for sleep that I have been using for years. Research has shown that our bodies have a thermoregulation system in which the onset of sleep is accompanied, or initiated by, a gradual drop in our core body temperature. As part of this inner cooling process, the temperature in the hands and feet increases. When we take a hot bath or shower before bed, we accelerate this process of increasing the warmth moving outward to the extremities et c. and cooling down internally. The brain interprets this as a strong signal for going to sleep.
For me it is the most powerful before-bed strategy for immediately falling asleep that I’ve ever discovered. I’m also a person who has always slept in 2 consecutive blocks of time . . . I waken after about 4 hours of sleep and don’t typically go back to sleep immediately. I get up and read or do something out of bed after this “first sleep” before returning to bed an hour later for the “second sleep”. My return to bed is preceded by another hot bath or shower . . . and I’m immediately asleep for another 3-4 hours! Here are some online references discussing the scientific studies and theory behind all of this.
Yes, I believe a few of the articles I posted above mentioned thermoregulation. I think that's pretty interesting. It's something I've heard mentioned a few times. Thermoregulation can be a bit tricky if you live in a household with others who always want to have a hand on the thermostat.
I ended up not including it because that just means I'll be going down the road of writing another book. I think many of the other topics are things that are beneficial to overall health and not just sleep. I think being mindful of our device use is probably one of the most important things we should remind ourselves so we avoid constantly being on our phones even before bed.
Regardless, thermoregulation is a pretty interesting topic. I believe Joe Rogan must have mentioned it many times, probably within some context of "heat-shock proteins", which is something I haven't looked up much but also sounds interesting.
This is a great article. I will use some of the tips. Maybe change a laptop for a book at bedtime. But I usually only use the laptop for 5-10 minutes and fall asleep. What I found great for myself, also, is to NOT eat much after 6pm.
I've heard about the eating situation. It's interesting hearing what works for different people. The device portion is probably one of the most important things to consider since most of us are likely to do it and pretend as if it's not a big deal. It's a pretty big deal, and likely is the reason for why it takes us a long time to fall asleep.
I found your rundown of sleep-affecting issues helpful, and also affirming. Apparently I am doing a lot of things right! I read a lot on my iPad (your substack, for one), but I only read actual books for an hour at bedtime. I do take Melatonin but mostly for oxidative benefit (I have AMD). I have a morning cup of joe more to be sociable toward my SO than because I “need” it. And vitamin D (endo and exo) is now a regular part of my anti-Covid routine. My main sleep issue is having to get up a time or two to pee … I’m working on that! Thanks for this good info.
Thanks Judith! To be honest, many of the topics here aren't quite asking for much. Getting exercise, eating right, and probably not having 3 or 4 cups of coffee is probably something that should be manageable for many people. However, life tends to have different plans for many people.
I hear you on the last part. I can sometimes have trouble drinking water throughout the day, which may result in me overcompensating at night which may wake me up. Again, it's probably important to be mindful of if we have too many liquids before bedtime, although other factors may be involved as well.
One thing you did not cover in your article was pain preventing a good nights sleep. Having Adhesive Arachnoiditis makes a goodnights sleep impossible for me with pain waking me several times during the night. There is nothing that medicine can do for me excepting by increasing my pain killer dosage which is almost at it's limit now. Once I give in and accept the increase there's nothing else left that they will admit to. Exercise and stretching does help as it's when I stop moving that the pain is most noticeable, hence the bad sleep.
great article, thank you. One thing I suggest my patients consider (on a conceptual level) is how they live during the day, because that carries into the night. Compared to our grandparents, our lives are very different, our biology is sensitive to the more urban or technologically demanding life. How might day time living adjust (mentally, emotionally, physically) for more nourishing rest.
Thank you Modern Discontent for a thorough view.
Melatonin:
Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. Not only does it manage your sleep phase, but it protects from cancer cells wandering around. Been taking it for 35 years - started at 3mg/night, now 10mg/night. But as you get older, your pineal gland does fade. The Pineal Gland is the Third Eye of indigenous/spiritual people. Cannot recommend enough!
Daily Light Exposure:
Peoplekind were designed to wake at dawn, sleep at dark. You wake naturally with the light, and sleep naturally with the sunset. This the Circadian Rhythm. Shocked that people sleep less than 6 hours/night. Our modern world (sounds archaic, we are probably neo-modern now) offers off-hours work, a diversion from the melatonic sun-clock, farm animals go by the sunrise.set, imposes a very false set of standards. When I was growing up, TV came on the air 4pm, off air 11.20pm. I wish that was still the benchmark.
Exercise (diet & nutrition)
See above Daily Light Exposure. You are supposed to work/exercise your body/be alive during daylight hours.
Caffeine:
Use with caution. It is a good antioxidant but yymv. Myself,can't drink coffee after 9am or it interferes with Melatonin, Daily Light. Exposure.
Omega 3:
Originally from saltwater fish and grass fed cattle, it is becoming a supplement, which is ridiculous. Go for Atlantic sardines - only true good source. Your body needs this to metabolize a bunch of important legacy stuff.
Tryptophan:
I stay away from turkey meat. I keep my dogs away too. I don't want to be sedated. Scary how big the turkey has grown, As a child, we would go to the turkey farm and pick a bird. All running around chirpy, oblivious.
Vit D
Oyez, oyez: Free antioxidants! Free antioxidants! Nobody cares. They rely on pharma now. Centuries, if not millennia of healing plant protocols available. My pharmacist brother could not understand why I never had covid (after all, they had the jabs and caught it, regardless.) Maybe I had but not realized? Nope. Antibody and T Cell tests show I have never, and will likely never. Because if you boost your immune system, sleep well, forgive and don't forget - is all you need.
MD I hate surveys. I did it anyway, but won't again. Thank you and STAY STRONG.
Thanks for the comment Sunshine. There's plenty more to include but at some point you either limit what you post or you tell people to brace themselves for a book. It should really serve as a reminder that we should do our best to improve all aspects of our health.
As to the surveys, you really don't have to fill them out but it's just something for yourself more than me. I think sometimes people aren't quite aware of their own behaviors unless asked. This probably wasn't the best way to go about it or ask questions (the polls feature is really limited on Substack).
I also drink a lot of coffee, and it does not affect my sleep. I've always been a heavy coffee drinker.
Since Covid, I now add things like turmeric, ashwaganda, astralaga, and various teas to my coffee, so as not to cause my stress about should I or should I not quit. I just get things in my body the easiest way possible.
Now, exercise is a problem for me now. Since I got the J&J shot in March of 2021, I have been anxious about clotting. And, with all the sudden deaths nowadays, especially after exercise, I'm warier about strenuous exercise. I actually research and found out that strenuous exercise is not recommended when you are ill. I consider exposure to the virus (which is unavoidable now), as a potential illness, the immune system is working on. I know that constant exposure to the virus being introduced into your body (high-infectious pressure), is not a good thing. It is for this reason that I do moderate movements throughout the day to get in "exercise".
The coffee one is really interesting because it's one of those things that makes me wonder if we know the actual effects from long-term coffee drinking. Does coffee really not affect us, or do we just consider how we feel to be the new normal?
The exercise stuff is really difficult. I've heard so many mixed messages in case of heart inflammation or risk of clots, but at some point it becomes important to weigh both the benefits and the risks. I would assume the longer the timeframe since the last dose the less worry there should be. As to exercise and the immune system, there were actually a few mixed studies that argue that post-exercise is a time when the immune system is weakened and could leak to greater risk of infection. It's a highly contentious argument and most evidence is highly conflicting.
Covid did not change my sleep patterns for the 1st year. I went to bed and woke up the same time as before. What did change was in the summer of 2020, I began to feel tired during the day, and struggled about taking a nap. Then it occurred to me that it was the body's way of repairing itself, so I assumed it was due to exposure to the virus, and just began to follow my body's lead... if I felt tired, I would just take a nap. ..(I'm self-employed, working from home for 15 years, so no change for me).
In 2021, probably due to anxiousness and social media, I began having difficulty falling asleep. My remedy was to replace social media scrolling with painting..(using the same eye/hand movements & coordination).. it worked. I now have a ART GALLERY...LOL.. never knew I could paint. So since 2021, I paint and listen to a book until I feel sleepy.
I began routinely taking melatonin during the latter portion of 2021, after I listened to a presentation given by Dr. Paul Merick from the FLCCC, and he explained the significance of melatonin in relation to the mitochondria. I do feel a difference if I do not take my nightly dose, not extreme, but after my melatonin 5mg gummy (lol), I'm asleep within 30 mins.
Finally, my mind decided to remember and accept the saying I learned in school- rest and digest, meaning the body does a lot of work during sleep, and needs alot of energy, so just go lay down when you feel sleepy and be thankful that my body is working properly... and I am consciously listening.
Thanks for this article, because it is so important.
In the December 2020 Christmas season, my family contracted Covid.. (though) most didn't know. The ones who didn't know they were infected continued to work, and the ones who knew they were infected stayed in the bed. The ones who didn't rest died, and the ones who did lived. Enough proof for me.
I think there's a lot with our body that we should be more in-tuned with, such that when we feel tired it may not be enough to just go to sleep, but to ask ourselves why we feel sleepy. If we didn't get enough sleep, then maybe our body is running out of juice pretty early. If we got good rest, could we be coming down with something or did we just have a heavy meal full of things that would make us sleepy? It's generally a good idea to understand why we feel sleepy, more than to just try to alleviate the symptoms of sleep.
And that's great to hear about the paintings! I think we all need to find hobbies to take our mind off of COVID or other madness going on. Social media is possibly one of the most toxic things to the human cognition. It rots the brain with stress and anxiety that would otherwise never be there. It creates an atmosphere of dependency and parasocial dynamics that makes us all more sick and more worse off.
That's interesting about the Mitochondria. Bret and Heather did one podcast in which they mentioned intracellular Melatonin. It appeared that infrared light may play a role in intracellular Melatonin. However, intracellular Melatonin is different than circulating Melatonin, so I wonder if supplementation would have an effect.
I'm sorry to hear about your relatives. As much as we consider COVID to be mild for many, there are many who may succumb to the illness. One thing I've argued that COVID should have taught us is that we should probably be more aware of when we get sick and be mindful that we probably shouldn't be wandering around, and should instead relegate ourselves to bedrest. The number of times I had coworkers come to work and cough up a storm but play it off was quite ridiculous- you're just going to get other people sick. If there was anything we should have learned it probably should have been to be mindful of our own health and not try to downplay our sickness if it means possibly getting others sick.
All the best to you Susan!
PS I forgot Magnesium! Relaxes the muscles, important for the Cal/Mag ratio. Eat it, soak in it, rub on your knees and elbows. Don't forget we came from the soil/earth, and all healing eventually comes from soil/roots.leaves/sun.
I've actually tried Magnesium because of its role in muscle. Not sure how effective it is, but minerals are one thing we should be more mindful of both in terms of benefits as well as side effects. Especially with Iron which can be easy to get too much of.
There’s another great support for sleep that I have been using for years. Research has shown that our bodies have a thermoregulation system in which the onset of sleep is accompanied, or initiated by, a gradual drop in our core body temperature. As part of this inner cooling process, the temperature in the hands and feet increases. When we take a hot bath or shower before bed, we accelerate this process of increasing the warmth moving outward to the extremities et c. and cooling down internally. The brain interprets this as a strong signal for going to sleep.
For me it is the most powerful before-bed strategy for immediately falling asleep that I’ve ever discovered. I’m also a person who has always slept in 2 consecutive blocks of time . . . I waken after about 4 hours of sleep and don’t typically go back to sleep immediately. I get up and read or do something out of bed after this “first sleep” before returning to bed an hour later for the “second sleep”. My return to bed is preceded by another hot bath or shower . . . and I’m immediately asleep for another 3-4 hours! Here are some online references discussing the scientific studies and theory behind all of this.
Benefits of Showering Before Bed
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/shower-before-bed
Before-bedtime passive body heating by warm shower or bath to
improve sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31102877/
Sleep and Thermoregulation
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468867319301804?via%3Dihub
Yes, I believe a few of the articles I posted above mentioned thermoregulation. I think that's pretty interesting. It's something I've heard mentioned a few times. Thermoregulation can be a bit tricky if you live in a household with others who always want to have a hand on the thermostat.
I ended up not including it because that just means I'll be going down the road of writing another book. I think many of the other topics are things that are beneficial to overall health and not just sleep. I think being mindful of our device use is probably one of the most important things we should remind ourselves so we avoid constantly being on our phones even before bed.
Regardless, thermoregulation is a pretty interesting topic. I believe Joe Rogan must have mentioned it many times, probably within some context of "heat-shock proteins", which is something I haven't looked up much but also sounds interesting.
This is a great article. I will use some of the tips. Maybe change a laptop for a book at bedtime. But I usually only use the laptop for 5-10 minutes and fall asleep. What I found great for myself, also, is to NOT eat much after 6pm.
I've heard about the eating situation. It's interesting hearing what works for different people. The device portion is probably one of the most important things to consider since most of us are likely to do it and pretend as if it's not a big deal. It's a pretty big deal, and likely is the reason for why it takes us a long time to fall asleep.
I found your rundown of sleep-affecting issues helpful, and also affirming. Apparently I am doing a lot of things right! I read a lot on my iPad (your substack, for one), but I only read actual books for an hour at bedtime. I do take Melatonin but mostly for oxidative benefit (I have AMD). I have a morning cup of joe more to be sociable toward my SO than because I “need” it. And vitamin D (endo and exo) is now a regular part of my anti-Covid routine. My main sleep issue is having to get up a time or two to pee … I’m working on that! Thanks for this good info.
Thanks Judith! To be honest, many of the topics here aren't quite asking for much. Getting exercise, eating right, and probably not having 3 or 4 cups of coffee is probably something that should be manageable for many people. However, life tends to have different plans for many people.
I hear you on the last part. I can sometimes have trouble drinking water throughout the day, which may result in me overcompensating at night which may wake me up. Again, it's probably important to be mindful of if we have too many liquids before bedtime, although other factors may be involved as well.
One thing you did not cover in your article was pain preventing a good nights sleep. Having Adhesive Arachnoiditis makes a goodnights sleep impossible for me with pain waking me several times during the night. There is nothing that medicine can do for me excepting by increasing my pain killer dosage which is almost at it's limit now. Once I give in and accept the increase there's nothing else left that they will admit to. Exercise and stretching does help as it's when I stop moving that the pain is most noticeable, hence the bad sleep.
great article, thank you. One thing I suggest my patients consider (on a conceptual level) is how they live during the day, because that carries into the night. Compared to our grandparents, our lives are very different, our biology is sensitive to the more urban or technologically demanding life. How might day time living adjust (mentally, emotionally, physically) for more nourishing rest.
Surprised you did not mention the use of software (like f.lux - free) to modify the light of monitors (reduction of blue in the evening).