Rinse & rePeat
Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2021
- Messages
- 21,516
“Good sleep requires fairly vigorous metabolism and a normal body temperature. In old age, the metabolic rate is decreased, and sleep becomes defective.” -Ray Peat
I must have hit old age in my twenties, because I had terrible insomnia back then. Looking back now, and knowing more now than I did then, my problem was definetly because of my metabolism. I thought, because I was extremely underweight, that I had a fast metabolism, but now realize I had an unhealthy metabolism. When I was at a healthier weight in my teens I had no problems sleeping. Now I laid awake for hours trying to go to sleep, and even had a bout of sleep walking, where I injured myself falling while trying to run out of the house naked thinking my house was on fire!
My sleep improved in my 30’s, being exhausted chasing around and entertaining small children around all day, and I kept up that pace until they graduated, and my life finally settled down a bit more. Unfortunately I also put on some extra pounds. That is when my sleep took a turn for the worse again. My health got worse and my sleep was a different kind of bad. I could fall asleep easy, but I would wake up a few hours later and could not go back to sleep. I would get hot in the night too and extra air conditioning was necessary to sleep.
“This view of sleep is consistent with observations that disturbed sleep is associated with obesity, and that the torpor-hibernation chemical, serotonin, powerfully interferes with learning.” -Ray Peat
I cut out the grains and lost the extra pounds, but now histamine issues in my late 40’s were the new cause of my sleep issues. It was usual to sleep for a few hours then be wide awake the rest of the night. After many months of this I finally gave up one night and made a cup of coffee at 3:00 A.M. and found instead that the coffee with all the cream and sugar calmed my histamines and made me sleepy again. So from then on I would have a shot of coffee with milk and sugar in the middle of the night to get back to sleep. Then I found that a half cup of water with sugar and a pinch if salt did the trick. After my histamine issues resolved I switched to a big spoonful of raw honey, to appease my liver, like Ray Peat suggests, to get back to sleep, and it has worked for several years, until extreme stress came into my life.
“ Salty and sugary foods taken at bedtime, or during the night, help to improve the quality and duration of sleep. Both salt and sugar lower the adrenalin level, and both tend to raise the body temperature.“ -Ray Peat
Stress is a whole different kind of sleep issue. I couldn’t get to sleep and didn’t stay asleep very long when I did finally fall asleep. Progesterone worked a bit to get me back to sleep, but only for two or three hours, so I would then try my honey, but it just wasn’t enough. I knew if I didn’t hack this problem soon that my health was going down the tubes and my outer appearance would follow. The first thing I tried was a Ray Peat recommendation to sleep with a dim light on, and strangely that helped some. I had already been sleeping with the bathroom fan on or a sound machine for 20 years, but the dim light had a calming effect. Funny cause I had been blocking as much light as possible for a good night sleep before, and didn’t expect I could sleep with some light in the room.
“I suspect that nocturnal sleep has the special function of minimizing the stress of darkness itself, and that it has subsidiary functions, including its now well confirmed role in the consolidation and organization of memory.” -Ray Peat
Over this past few months, I found it difficult to get a reliable good night of rest until this past couple of weeks. I started doing some sleep experiments and I know for sure that a meal 2 to 3 hours before bedtime will ruin my chances of sleeping well, and eating proteins, especially meat, at night is the worst! On one recent night, I fell asleep easily, but woke up around 3:00, so I tried a spoonful of organic marmalade, which RP says is a super anti-inflammatory, and I took a milk thistle with it, which is great for the liver, and I slept through the rest of the night into the late morning. Another night I had an early dinner and at bedtime I “bloomed” and dissolved a tablespoon of gelatin (not collagen) in hot water and added a big spoonful of organic orange marmalade along with a half teaspoon of casacara and that gave me THE BEST night sleep, never waking up once until the late morning. I tried a tablespoon of collagen with water the next night and got nothing from it.
I am still experimenting, and last night I tried a recommendation from my friend’s husband who is an avid bicyclist. He swears by a spoonful of peanut butter getting him back to sleep if he wakes up in the night. Not willing to eat PUFA’s for sleep, I made up my own “Peaty Peanut Butter” with defatted peanut powder, liquid coconut oil and sugar, and it got me back to sleep till late morning! I am gonna try an Epsom salt foot bath next and see how that goes.
“Increased body temperature improves sleep, especially the deep slow wave sleep. A hot bath, or even warming the feet, has the same effect as thyroid in improving sleep.” -Ray Peat
Knowing sleep is going to keep evading me as I grow older, I am determined to have many tricks to ensure my health doesn’t decline from lack of sleep ever again. Here is where I will share them.
“With age the metabolic rate progressively declines, and as a result the ability to maintain an adequate body temperature tends to decrease with aging.” -Ray Peat
I must have hit old age in my twenties, because I had terrible insomnia back then. Looking back now, and knowing more now than I did then, my problem was definetly because of my metabolism. I thought, because I was extremely underweight, that I had a fast metabolism, but now realize I had an unhealthy metabolism. When I was at a healthier weight in my teens I had no problems sleeping. Now I laid awake for hours trying to go to sleep, and even had a bout of sleep walking, where I injured myself falling while trying to run out of the house naked thinking my house was on fire!
My sleep improved in my 30’s, being exhausted chasing around and entertaining small children around all day, and I kept up that pace until they graduated, and my life finally settled down a bit more. Unfortunately I also put on some extra pounds. That is when my sleep took a turn for the worse again. My health got worse and my sleep was a different kind of bad. I could fall asleep easy, but I would wake up a few hours later and could not go back to sleep. I would get hot in the night too and extra air conditioning was necessary to sleep.
“This view of sleep is consistent with observations that disturbed sleep is associated with obesity, and that the torpor-hibernation chemical, serotonin, powerfully interferes with learning.” -Ray Peat
I cut out the grains and lost the extra pounds, but now histamine issues in my late 40’s were the new cause of my sleep issues. It was usual to sleep for a few hours then be wide awake the rest of the night. After many months of this I finally gave up one night and made a cup of coffee at 3:00 A.M. and found instead that the coffee with all the cream and sugar calmed my histamines and made me sleepy again. So from then on I would have a shot of coffee with milk and sugar in the middle of the night to get back to sleep. Then I found that a half cup of water with sugar and a pinch if salt did the trick. After my histamine issues resolved I switched to a big spoonful of raw honey, to appease my liver, like Ray Peat suggests, to get back to sleep, and it has worked for several years, until extreme stress came into my life.
“ Salty and sugary foods taken at bedtime, or during the night, help to improve the quality and duration of sleep. Both salt and sugar lower the adrenalin level, and both tend to raise the body temperature.“ -Ray Peat
Stress is a whole different kind of sleep issue. I couldn’t get to sleep and didn’t stay asleep very long when I did finally fall asleep. Progesterone worked a bit to get me back to sleep, but only for two or three hours, so I would then try my honey, but it just wasn’t enough. I knew if I didn’t hack this problem soon that my health was going down the tubes and my outer appearance would follow. The first thing I tried was a Ray Peat recommendation to sleep with a dim light on, and strangely that helped some. I had already been sleeping with the bathroom fan on or a sound machine for 20 years, but the dim light had a calming effect. Funny cause I had been blocking as much light as possible for a good night sleep before, and didn’t expect I could sleep with some light in the room.
“I suspect that nocturnal sleep has the special function of minimizing the stress of darkness itself, and that it has subsidiary functions, including its now well confirmed role in the consolidation and organization of memory.” -Ray Peat
Over this past few months, I found it difficult to get a reliable good night of rest until this past couple of weeks. I started doing some sleep experiments and I know for sure that a meal 2 to 3 hours before bedtime will ruin my chances of sleeping well, and eating proteins, especially meat, at night is the worst! On one recent night, I fell asleep easily, but woke up around 3:00, so I tried a spoonful of organic marmalade, which RP says is a super anti-inflammatory, and I took a milk thistle with it, which is great for the liver, and I slept through the rest of the night into the late morning. Another night I had an early dinner and at bedtime I “bloomed” and dissolved a tablespoon of gelatin (not collagen) in hot water and added a big spoonful of organic orange marmalade along with a half teaspoon of casacara and that gave me THE BEST night sleep, never waking up once until the late morning. I tried a tablespoon of collagen with water the next night and got nothing from it.
I am still experimenting, and last night I tried a recommendation from my friend’s husband who is an avid bicyclist. He swears by a spoonful of peanut butter getting him back to sleep if he wakes up in the night. Not willing to eat PUFA’s for sleep, I made up my own “Peaty Peanut Butter” with defatted peanut powder, liquid coconut oil and sugar, and it got me back to sleep till late morning! I am gonna try an Epsom salt foot bath next and see how that goes.
“Increased body temperature improves sleep, especially the deep slow wave sleep. A hot bath, or even warming the feet, has the same effect as thyroid in improving sleep.” -Ray Peat
Knowing sleep is going to keep evading me as I grow older, I am determined to have many tricks to ensure my health doesn’t decline from lack of sleep ever again. Here is where I will share them.
“With age the metabolic rate progressively declines, and as a result the ability to maintain an adequate body temperature tends to decrease with aging.” -Ray Peat
Last edited:
