+ 16 Sleep - Fix it for maximum gains
We all know how important sleep is to building the body of your dreams, but for many of us the quality of sleep that we need is easier said than done. I for one absolutely cannot sleep without medication unfortunately. Alpha-wave intrusion is what I am diagnosed with. I am always looking for new things to try and alleviate my need for sleep meds and the latest I have been looking at has been researching acupuncture meridians and meridian time flow.
The short and nasty with the meridian time flow is that the body functions like a clock and certain things happen based upon the time of day, essentially a circadian cycle. If certain times of this meridian flow are being interrupted, this can be used to help nail down and treat illnesses. So let’s put this to work with our sleep cycle if you are having issues sleeping well.
First off, let’s define what is a good night’s sleep is so we are all on the same page here? A good night’s sleep means we should be falling asleep easy, not waking up until the morning, and have plenty of energy when we do wake up. So, if you’re having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up, or God forbid all the above, it is a sign that you have issues you need to deal with to get back to sleeping soundly.
Ok, now let’s just assume we should be getting a good 8hrs of sleep every night. Let’s start with a 10pm bedtime. Like I mentioned, waking up now at different times of the night can be indicative of a certain problem that needs to be addressed to help get you back to sleeping soundly. These are the things you may want to try and address based upon if you are not sleeping soundly.
Waking up from 11pm-1am is usually a sign of something messed up with your sugar/glucose levels. Nasty cortisol is likely spiking in an effort to balance your sugar levels in the bloodstream. Here is something you can do to try and fix this problem. Include more veggies in your diet and eliminate sugary foods closer to bedtime, i.e. no high GI carbs or just try eliminating all carbs before bed. The other thing is your last meal before bed may be just too large, so tone it down if need be or just don’t eat before bed and see if that corrects it.
Waking up from 1am-3am is a sign of liver toxicity. Liver detox is a priority for you. Try laying off the orals and get on some liver supps.
3am-5am is usually a sign of oxidative stress. Get a good multi-vit and take some antioxidants.
Waking up from 5am-7am is usually related to the large intestine and/or, hang on here, the triple warmer meridian. Usually though, if this is around the time you normally wake up to go to your daily grind, it really shouldn’t be a concern.
Now the silver lining here is that are natural ways to improve your sleep and obviously your health at the same time. Some of the simplest and most effective ways to help improve sleep are making sure you have adequate nutrient levels of magnesium and zinc, D3 and eliminate stimulating activities immediately before bed such as TV, the computer, or being on your phone. I think it is has something to do with the blue light those devices emit that fire up the brain and make it hard to sleep afterwards. So get your nutrients in order, stay off the phone and computer before bed and consider the suggestions above if you are waking up during the night to hopefully get you back to sleeping soundly again and maximizing your gains.
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As far as liver detox, are you referring to a liver specific herbal cleanse/detox? Or a Tudca/Nac approach along side discontinuation of liver stressing compounds? I'm not knowledgable in the area of cleanses/detox. I've seen a fair bit of talk about an Inositol/Methionine/Choline protocol that appears to have great benefit, other than that I've only seen traditional herbal cleanses/detox protocols for overall health.
Tudca, NAC, Liv 52. etc. anything to help out your liver would be beneficial.
Awesome. Thanks for the input.
Phone keeps me up the most.
Have you tried 5HTP? I take 1000mg before sleep and get good 7,8 hours. If anyone ventures into 5HTP (1000mg +)do not take it in the morning or you may fall asleep while working/driving.
I don't believe I have taken it. I'll look into it.
Not quite so simple tho. Your DNA also plays a role on how deep a sleeper you are. Also as we get older a slightly but steadily enlarging prostate guarantees you will be getting up to piss.
Also how much or hard we dream is genetic. I dream from the moment my eyes close but wake up about every 2-3 hours
AnonIs it unusual not to dream? I honestly do not dream, I think I am dead inside or an extreme heavy sleeper.
Do you smoke pot?
AnonNegative, first and last time I smoked was 16 yro and it made me sick.
Ok only asked bc pot can be a culprit to not dreaming (aka dream killer, literally)
I think it has been proven that everyone dreams - but only a certain percentage remember them, and they are usually the dreams just upon waking. Most dreams last only seconds, and we sleep for hours.
https://www.asdreams.org/aboutdreams/?
jayiskFunny that dreams/nightmares only last a few seconds. It feels sometimes like it's a long story playing out in your mind. And I usually wake up after those.
They feel real sometimes and I'm not sure if l should ask someone if that really happened..or it was just a dream.
The graphic nightmares l wake up with my heart racing and need sometime to calm down.
Yes mate. I have the same. Sometimes my dreams are so real that I wake up and question whether being awake is reality or still a dream - if you get what I mean. I have had dreams that upon waking make me question whether I actually lived/experienced what I had dreamt - it seemed so real that I have questioned my mental state and wondered - "Did that really happen? Was it really a dream or is that a memory?"
It's interesting how the emotions are the same awake or asleep. My wife has been pissed at me for an entire day because of what I did in her dream. Intellectually she knew I didn't do anything, but emotionally she couldn't let go of the (dream) fact I left her stranded at a party we didn't go to the night before.
Anonlol, my wife tells me I cheat on her in her dreams all the time, I tell her shes just insecure and then the fight begins. It's been 7 years and I still dont know when to shut up.
I have cheated on my wife in my dreams at least a thousand times. But funny thing, as I get older just as often as not she is the one I am with in my dreams. That wasn't often the case when I was younger. And for the record I have never cheated on my wife and we are crossing a quarter century together.
Props on 25 years. What’s the secret?
jayiskTell her you had a dream that she is cheating on you with the girl she dreamed about you cheating on her with..,lol
mind-blow
If you want to avoid the fight try another tactic. Give her a kiss and a hug and say something like: "Hey, it's just a dream, it's not gonna happen in real life' (or something like that). Even if she is insecure, reassurance is better than pointing out something she already knows.
Thought it was just my crazy wife that did that.....
I strangled her pet bunny.....crazy bitch, we don't even have a bunny
Well, you don't have a pet bunny anymore.
Lol...... just a little BUMP in the garden ;)
Lol.
Dreams hold symbolic meaning.
...the rabbit died. Is/was she pregnant?
Actually Greg if I remember correctly we were expecting our 2nd boy.......freaky!
I put no credence in the alleged meaning of dreams - for me it has always been about 'deleting files' - our subconscious mind is like a PC, dreams may seem to be random, but they are part of our mental disk defrag - disjointed pieces of files (memories/thoughts) are combined, reviewed and then deleted...but if you believe in dreams having real meaning, here you go mate: https://mydreamsymbolism.com/dreams-about-rabbits-meaning-and-interpreta...
Bloody hell oz!
I want to and don't want to go to sleep now lol ;)
Sorry for creating that dilemma mate...sleep tight..or not ;-)
This happens to us too lol.
jayiskWomen just love to not let stuff go. Apparently even in dreams. Now thats bad.
haha! years ago my ex (when we were together) woke up in a foul mood towards me - apparently I had fucked some other woman in her dream - and she was pissed off at me. I joked and asked if I had fun - just made it worse. It's really deep stuff on a lot of levels.
It's funny you say that as I remember having those when I was with a certain ex - I'd dream she had cheated on me or I'd found her at it with someone else lol. I'd then be heartbroken and really upset about it, and even though I'd wake up next to her I'd be really off with her the next few hours and she'd wonder what the hell was wrong!
Yeah...I have never forgotten her attitude...she was pissed off for a couple of days. She knew that it was only a dream - but I think she believed that if she had dreamt it - then it was some kind of premonition. I was never unfaithful - but our sex life wasn't stellar - she had the sexdrive of a gnat - and that was the foundation of her dream as far as I was concerned.
Hahaha Ironic thing is my dream was a premonition of things to come - the sla* did end up cheating on me, absolutely threw me for six as she seemed such a sweet girl of all that I'd been with. So glad I'm not in that relationship now though - she'd moan on every single time I wanted to train just for an hour and often persuade me to miss sessions. After that waste of 3 years I learnt never to let anyone dictate to you how to live your life and what you do with your time
jayiskI have had good dreams where i am with a chick and things are getting good.., and then i wake up..,i try to go back to sleep to get back into the dream..,doesnt work, really sucks when that happens...lol
uuummm...that's what porn is for....
I use to often have those dreams and I could lucid dream also where I knew I was dreaming, but managed to stay asleep and control what was happening in it Lol - Nowadays though after using 19nors for periods of time they are no more...Now they are just completely deranged and nonsensical trenbolone dreams haha
jayisknightmares better than any horror movie. Even more vivid ones with some psych meds.
No, I think some people do and some don’tz some dream a little and some dream to the extreme ( me) lol. I used to like it but I know it interferes with my deep sleep and wish I could shut it off now.
I believe dreaming is a sign of deep (REM ?) sleep (good thing)
Rustyhookerhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/3720426/
https://sportslabnyc.com/sleep-muscle-recovery/
First wave of deep sleep opens up hgh and rem reboots the brain
They ran some studies a few years back about how much sleep the human body actually needs. it varied person to person. The whole 8 hours of sleep thing was debunked. The higher amount of sleep needed was only because of when you are sick or suffering from illness the body needed to be "shutdown" to repair itself. Outside of that the average best sleep practice is 7-9 hours and that is measured by WHEN you go to sleep not when you lay down to try and sleep. There is no substantial evidence that you need eight hours of sleep or more a night. if you get 6 or 7 or 8 they concluded that your body is not "suffering."
Its been debated back and forth so many times.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/08/sleep-how-much-do-we-rea...
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/refire-don-t-retire/201609/how-m...
In order to determine what your individual sleep needs are this has to be done:
Set aside a week or two you can focus on sleep and not get bothered.
Select a time to go to sleep and stick with it every single night.
Allow yourself to sleep in as long as you want, without an alarm clock in the morning.
After a few days, you will begin to see how much sleep you really need by the time you go to bed to the time you wake up.
I did this myself and found I need only 7 hours of sleep a night, any less I felt tired all day. Any more the same symptoms occurred, I felt tired. This was part of a sleep study I did in college for psychology.
By the way Mak, having to sleep using medication is very bad.
I think the 8hr thing is a starting point. What I have heard is that if you wake up in the morning and feel refreshed/ready to go you are getting enough sleep. If you keep hitting the snooze button you need to get to bed earlier. If my fiance doesn't get 8+ hrs a night she is not fun to be around. I really don't know how much I need because everything is so messed up with the insomnia. After lying in for 6 or so hours there is no way I can get back to sleep. I may feel tired and groggy but my body won't let me go back to sleep so I just get up.
I for sure know that having to rely on meds to sleep is not good, but I was going borderline insane from the insomnia so the meds have kept me sane to point anyway.
Insomnia can kill you. Your case is completely different.
I found out yesterday there’s apps you can get to block the blue light from phones and computers. Haven’t tried any yet but am going to look into it.
I started using Flonase and breath right strips to help with congestion at night and am planning to add Zyrtec since I may have allergies. So far this week I’ve been waking up and not needing coffee, just abusing it.
I saw on my iphone that it has a setting for nightime use that changes the color spectrum of the screen to more soothing warm tones at night.
Hot topic lately, not so much for gains but longevity (for me). I’m finding;
-400mg of magnesium before bed
-6mg melatonin when needed
-all lights off
-house set about 66/67 degrees
Also a lack of sleep has a direct correlation to high BP.
Good post Mak
I have been reading alot about the benefits of magnesium. I have started supplementing with it along with some melatonin also and a bunch of other vitamins and minerals. My bedtime cocktail so I should hopefully be seeing if it is making a difference relatively soon. I need it really cool to get to sleep. Anything over 60 and I am sleeping on top of the covers instead of underneath them. I can definitely see how lack of sleep would effect BP. It is very stressful on the body.
Good read. Sound sleep is not something i am privileged too. I probably sleep 4hrs a day, Tried and tried everything but my body just runs on 4hrs.
I usually wake up from 430-435am..........when my alarm goes off lol
My biggest problem with sleep is having to rotate days to nights every few days because I work shift work. There are days when i have to short change my sleep getting only 3-4 hours so I can rotate to a new sleep cycle....I stay up for 28 hours straight, some times even longer and I do that several times a month to get back on a normal day schedule. Then there are days i sleep for 12-14 hours straight to compensate for the short change. It's never consistent unless I'm on vacation