#304

Great question!

When I say freakishly good diet, I mean I was WFPB and was making almost everything from scratch. Surprisingly, I was eating that way for several years prior to my test.

I haven’t repeated the test, and while having nothing to do with my diet, I wouldn’t be surprised if my gut was somewhat better now. In fact, I was so discouraged by the results, my diet is no where near as perfect anymore.

I sense my gut might be better because since starting rapa in April and incorporating all the medicines/supplements I’ve learned here, I now feel phenomenal after not feeling particularly good for over a decade.

The gluten sensitivity I developed in my early 50’s also disappeared. Go figure!

#305

How should exercises and meals be timed then? Exercises in the morning?

#306

Depends on whether you’re trying to move the clock forwar or backwards. If you just changed to a time zone where you have to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier, it’s good to exercise and eat early in the day because that tends to help move the clock to do that. If want to move the clock the opposite way, eat and exercise close to bedtime.

#307

I don’t want to change my sleep schedule at all. I have insomnia, that’s why I’m asking

Does morning training around 9:30 somehow disrupt my sleep pattern if I like to go to bed at 10:15 PM?

#308

What sort of insomnia do you have. Is it sleep maintenance or getting to sleep.

#309
#310

No training in the morning is very unlikely to disrupt your sleep if you go to bed at 10:15 PM.

#311

I have both, I’m a difficult case.

#312

For myself it is staying asleep. After five hours I am awake and hard to get back to sleep.

#313

What I think happens here is you run out of melatonin in the CSF and your system switches from parasympathetic state to sympathetic state and the CAR (Cortisol Awakening Response occurs). One option is to wait until you are close to the next sleep/HPA cycle (they last 90 mins or ) and then try to sleep accompanied with breathing exercises/meditation. I would also use melatonin, but it is not necessarily essential.

The problem is that with the CAR you won’t be able to sleep immediately and it is important not to worry about this and to plan your night time to have say 80 minutes awake whilst you start another sleep cycle.

1 Like
#314

Every sleep supplement has some drawbacks. You have to ask yourself this: Which is going affect my health more, lack of sleep or the side effects of the sleep aid?

“Significant sleep-promoting effects of quetiapine resulted
from both the 25 mg and the 100 mg dosages. In this
group of healthy volunteers, quetiapine accelerated the
initiation of sleep, increased the duration of TST and
enhanced sleep efficiency, with a parallel reduction in
time spent awake. Furthermore, a highly significant dose-dependent increase in percentage sleep stage 2 was observed.”

I am aware of quetiapine ( Seroquel) because my daughter has been prescribed this for decades and takes much larger doses than are needed for sleep improvement. At this time, she is unaware of any adverse effects.

It works quite well for me at the 25 mg level, and 50 mg really knocks me out for the night.
For me, it is a very clean sleep aid. The only drawback for me is the long half-life. If you take too much, it will take a while for it to wear off in the morning. Since I am a coffee drinker and retired, this is not a significant issue. The coffee seems to counteract it quite well. It has no addictive qualities. I take it only after a stressful day and still feel slightly agitated at bedtime.

Of course, I ordered mine from India, and it was fairly cheap.

Try it for a little while and see if it affects you the same way it affects me.
There are few things I dislike more than a restless night’s sleep.

Sleep-promoting properties of quetiapine in healthy subjects

https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/s00213-003-1759-5

5 Likes
#315

Had better sleep since started this routine:

Evening Relaxation & Sleep Prep

8 PM: Recovery Boost
Red Light/IR Time 15 min: Circulation
Why: Pre-sleep recovery
Synergy: Red Light = recovery boost*⁷

9 PM: Pre-Sleep Relaxation & Gout Management
Magnesium 200 mg: Relaxation
Colchicine 0.6 mg: Gout prophylaxis and heart health
Apigenin 50 mg: Sleep aid, GABA

Why: Preps sleep, gout control, and cardio protection
Synergy: Magnesium + Apigenin = calm; Colchicine = gout*⁸

10 PM: Sleep Initiation
Melatonin 5 mg: Sleep signal
Glycine 1,000 mg: Sleep quality
Trazodone 50 mg: Sleep sustainment

Why: Initiates sleep 1 hr pre-11 PM
Synergy: Melatonin + Trazodone = onset; Glycine = quality*⁹

3 Likes
#316

For this reason I take taurine in the morning and glycine at night.

#317

I have some odd news on the sleep front.

Now I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea. And I got an oral appliance to push my lower jaw out to reduce the blockage that is causing this condition. But even though the dentist that made it for me kept moving out the spacing, I still had waking events.

However, I recently had a plantysmal neck lift (pretty radical), which tightens my plantisma muscles and tightens all the loose skin under my chin and neck. And guess what? My sleep apnea symptoms have improved significantly! Now there is SOME evidence that this is a consistent positive effect from such surgery, but I have not seen any study that proves this out. So to my knowledge, no doctor is willing to claim causality here. But I can tell you in my case that it definitely improved things. For instance, NOW I can push my chin down on my neck and can still breath comfortably. That was not the case before.

Now my sleep condition is multi-causal I am sure of that. So I am still not sleeping as long as I want and tend to wake up during the night too much. But my deep sleep and REM sleep durations have improved and my overall length of sleep has increase by a half hour approximately. So…progress.

1 Like
#318

In another thread, @dicarlo2 suggested: “WoodyKnows Side-Sleeping Backpack, Sleep Position Trainer”, for positional sleep apnea. Available on Amazon.

After several days I can report that it works.

I’ve tried everything else. Just something worth considerating.

1 Like
#319

As longtime Seroquel user, I can vouch for it’s effectiveness as a knockout pill. It does, however, have some side-effects, such as dry mouth and compulsive eating. I counteract these side-effects with 0.5 mg of klonopin. I don’t know why this works, but it does, at least for me.

About two months ago, I started using epitalon intranasally. As a melatonin enhancer, it augments the sleep effects of quitiepine. It also seems to have anti-aging effects on the brain. In particular, I had previously noticed some age-related memory lapses that I found disconcerting. My memory retrieval system has always been pretty good. In any case, the epitalon spray has eliminated these lapses. I’ve also been using selank spray EOD, and this probably has had an additive effect on the epitalon. I strongly recommend both peptides for their epigenetic properties.

1 Like
#320

One might also consider inclined bed therapy. I bought a wedge, 8" at the high point, and it’s helped my sleep significantly; I now have clear nasal passages all night long. It’s glorious to breathe freely at night. I wish this gift on everyone. :nose:

2 Likes
#321

Side sleeping helped with me but it was not quite enough. Somehow I could still get blockages.

I have an incline wedge I tried first thing and it failed completely.

Really this is a personal matter. So many factors it is impossible to have a universal cure-all.

And yes, perhaps the CPAP might be it. But I would rather do just about anything than have that damn thing strapped to my face every night.

#322

This probably wont work for you, but I found that I needed to adjust the angle of my head on the pillow so that when my jaw completely relaxed my mouth didnt fall open and my airway blocked. Just sleeping on my side wasnt quite enough.

So I filled a sock with some other old socks to make a roll. The roll could be positioned under my head, on the pillow in a way that provided the precision extra support.

Sounds weird, I know, but it works for me.

1 Like
#323

I tried various wedges but always ended up rolling onto my back. Thanks, though.

The current solution is the one that at least for now is working 100%.,