SLEEP

[Rinse & rePeat]

That sounds delicious! And even more so if it gave you some really good sleep. How did you make it? I am particularly interested in the chocolate you use. Since reading more about cadmium in dark chocolate I have stopped eating it. But I do miss it - I used to eat a couple of squares at night. The last two days, I have made some oatbran for breakfast to keep myself warm and each time I added a tbsp of raw cacao powder into it. Very nice! It has made me think about chocolate again ... :)

I don’t eat chocolate all the time for the same reason you avoid it….

Dietary Strategies for the Treatment of Cadmium and Lead Toxicity

Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are toxic heavy metals that cause adverse health effects in humans and animals. Chelation therapy, the conventional treatment for heavy metal toxicity, is reported to have a number of safety and efficacy issues. Recent studies ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Some of the most common toxic metals humans routinely come into contact with are lead, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic. Common sources of exposure include:

– Cigarette smoking (cadmium)
– Pollution from fossil fuel combustion and/or vehicular exhaust
– Paint and/or pipes in old buildings (lead)
– Drinking water (arsenic, lead)
– Fish (mercury)
– Plants grown in polluted soil
– Indoor dust in homes, schools, and work places
– Cosmetics

Fight Heavy Metals with Essential Minerals

Heavy metals affect almost every organ and body system, which can lead to wide-ranging health problems. Although heavy metals might be difficult to excrete, it is possible to reduce your load and mitigate the negative effects.

deannaminich.com

 

[Jennifer]

I drink a half cup of milk in the night sometimes to get back to sleep, but I he said the bulk of the calcium, aka protein, is better used during time day, I assume for the same reason he says to eat proteins during the day, for energy. I sleep much better having ice cream than milk, which aligns with him saying fats and carbs are better for sleep, and we all know magnesium promotes better sleep too. I will have to remember to post back here when I come back upon things he said related to this.

My mum used to drink milk to fall back to sleep, too, and I drank it whenever I woke during the night having an adrenaline attack, and it always stopped it within 15 minutes. Milk contains all the electrolyte minerals including magnesium, and a good balance of fats, carbs and protein, which Ray said were all good for sleep, and he definitely recommended milk for sleep so that’s why I find it confusing when you say that he said we should get our calcium foods during the day. I’m still trying to find where he said that to see what the context was, but these are just some of the many quotes I found of him recommending milk, and even protein, for sleep:

“Is it a matter of getting calcium to counter that? Yeah serotonin and histamine are both brain excitatory signals and that's why antihistamines are used for improving sleep. They're both antiserotonin and antihistamine drugs do improve sleep but you can do the same thing with good nutrition lots of calcium, vitamin D and thyroid.”

“And that helps you sleep? Yeah, milk contains a good balance all in itself, because it has some fat, some protein, and some sugar.”

“I've seen similar things in people with cancer or just extreme old age insomnia when they drink a little syrup like concentrate of sugar in milk or eat a bowl of ice cream during the middle of the night, they could get back to sleep.”

“What would you drink in the middle of the night? Just water? That's better than nothing but if you're having a sleep problem, then maybe juice or milk, sugared milk and even chicken soup, something that appetizes. A good chicken consommé with plenty of salt will lower your adrenaline. Salt is good for the adrenals.” 1-1-2014

“And sometimes just by eating enough sugar and salt during the day and a little extra at bedtime, they can not only cure their insomnia, but sometimes their blood sugar is corrected enough that the blood pressure problem disappears. So actually a little sugar before bed may help things sleep, especially when it's with a food like milk or something that keeps it in the stomach for a while.” 1-1-2014

“But, for example, a tablespoon of sugar in a glass of milk, could be honey, will usually put a person back to sleep for a couple hours.” 1-24-2014

“A protein deficiency makes the liver unable to activate the thyroid hormone the same way a lack of sugar does. You need at least 80 grams of high quality protein. For example, milk or cheese or eggs will give you good protein to make the liver able to process the thyroid. A low thyroid function, the symptoms you mentioned are very classical hypothyroid symptoms because the brain needs energy to go to sleep properly. Hypothyroid people have been given EEGs which show that they never can get into deep restful slow wave sleep.”

“She's asking about your sleep. It depends on how good the weather is, how good my food was, and so on, but seven and a half to nine hours, it's variable. Usually I wake up during the night and have some milk and sugar or orange juice to lower the stress. Having milk at bedtime will lower several of the stress hormones. I've got in the habit of, if I wake up in the night, having some sugar and milk or orange juice and milk, and that resets the hormones so that you don't experience the same amount” 9-17-2019

“Almost all human aging happens during the night and when the nights are long in the winter, the aging process has more hours every day to act. The lowering of the blood sugar and increase of free fatty acids during the night is part of what drives that degenerative stress. So if you wake up after four hours of sleep, for example, and renew your muscle and liver glycogen stores and brain glycogen with a glass of milk and orange juice, for example, that will interrupt the stress and let you get back to some restorative sleep.” 8-17-2020

“Yeah, a very practical, simple thing is a glass of warm milk with an ounce or two of either sugar or honey in it. And the milk makes the sugar or honey absorb more slowly. And the effect of the sugar is to lower your adrenaline, which the older a person gets, the more problem they have with sleep hypoglycemia causing increased adrenaline. And that can lead to high blood pressure problems so that old people who are told to take a blood pressure drug will often get worse insomnia as their blood sugar falls.”

“And so keeping very bright lights right up until bedtime will minimize the fall of blood sugar. But having a carbohydrate meal late in the afternoon or before bed, a glass of orange juice or milk with honey, sometimes just the dose of sugar is enough to put you to sleep for an hour and a half or two hours. It takes time for the liver to start storing glycogen. So it's good to have another glass ready for when you wake up, have another dose of orange juice or milk and sugar. And salty things.”

“Getting your blood glucose back up. Getting your blood glucose back up, but what about that high cortisol in the night? It's going to take the oats to do that? If your thyroid and progesterone are good, you can make it through eight or ten hours of sleep without getting hypoglycemia. But some people wake up in the night and have some milk and orange juice.” 4-8-2022

 

[Jennifer]

“However, calcium should not be taken in the afternoon or evening because calcium is easily deposited and has the ability to accumulate, forming calcium oxalate easily increases the risk of causing other diseases such as kidney stones, urinary stones. , constipation and typically trouble sleeping and tossing in children .
Calcium should be taken in the morning (about 1 hour after breakfast) or in the afternoon with plenty of water, giving us the opportunity to be exposed to more sunlight (the skin synthesizes vitamin D for the body). ), which helps to absorb calcium more efficiently. In addition, when supplementing with calcium, we need the movement of the body so that the amount of calcium taken in has time to transfer to the target bone.”

https://www.vinmec.com/en/news/health-news/why-should-not-take-calcium-in-the-afternoon-or-evening/:~:text=Calcium%20should%20be%20taken%20in,to%20absorb%20calcium%20more%20efficiently.

Here are a couple of quotes regarding calcium supplementation that I came across while searching through Ray’s interviews:

“Milk comes with an adequate amount of magnesium to balance it, some of the other minerals, as well as the sugars and fats that help us assimilate the calcium properly. So the effect of milk is many times better than a calcium supplement.” Ray Peat

“Powdered eggshells really are by far the next best to milk and cheese. In the case of milk, you have both the fat and the lactose helping to absorb the calcium. In the case of the powdered eggshell, at least it's in the form of calcium carbonate, which is the form that it's going to be most beneficial. Calcium carbonate is how calcium is integrated into the bone. I think the reason they see some counterproductive effects from calcium supplementation is that they're using such strange things as pills for nutritional supplements, calcium phosphate, orotate, gluconate, aspartate, and so on.” 9-21-2021

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

My mum used to drink milk to fall back to sleep, too, and I drank it whenever I woke during the night having an adrenaline attack, and it always stopped it within 15 minutes. Milk contains all the electrolyte minerals including magnesium, and a good balance of fats, carbs and protein, which Ray said were all good for sleep, and he definitely recommended milk for sleep so that’s why I find it confusing when you say that he said we should get our calcium foods during the day. I’m still trying to find where he said that to see what the context was, but these are just some of the many quotes I found of him recommending milk, and even protein, for sleep:

“Is it a matter of getting calcium to counter that? Yeah serotonin and histamine are both brain excitatory signals and that's why antihistamines are used for improving sleep. They're both antiserotonin and antihistamine drugs do improve sleep but you can do the same thing with good nutrition lots of calcium, vitamin D and thyroid.”

“And that helps you sleep? Yeah, milk contains a good balance all in itself, because it has some fat, some protein, and some sugar.”

“I've seen similar things in people with cancer or just extreme old age insomnia when they drink a little syrup like concentrate of sugar in milk or eat a bowl of ice cream during the middle of the night, they could get back to sleep.”

“What would you drink in the middle of the night? Just water? That's better than nothing but if you're having a sleep problem, then maybe juice or milk, sugared milk and even chicken soup, something that appetizes. A good chicken consommé with plenty of salt will lower your adrenaline. Salt is good for the adrenals.” 1-1-2014

“And sometimes just by eating enough sugar and salt during the day and a little extra at bedtime, they can not only cure their insomnia, but sometimes their blood sugar is corrected enough that the blood pressure problem disappears. So actually a little sugar before bed may help things sleep, especially when it's with a food like milk or something that keeps it in the stomach for a while.” 1-1-2014

“But, for example, a tablespoon of sugar in a glass of milk, could be honey, will usually put a person back to sleep for a couple hours.” 1-24-2014

“A protein deficiency makes the liver unable to activate the thyroid hormone the same way a lack of sugar does. You need at least 80 grams of high quality protein. For example, milk or cheese or eggs will give you good protein to make the liver able to process the thyroid. A low thyroid function, the symptoms you mentioned are very classical hypothyroid symptoms because the brain needs energy to go to sleep properly. Hypothyroid people have been given EEGs which show that they never can get into deep restful slow wave sleep.”

“She's asking about your sleep. It depends on how good the weather is, how good my food was, and so on, but seven and a half to nine hours, it's variable. Usually I wake up during the night and have some milk and sugar or orange juice to lower the stress. Having milk at bedtime will lower several of the stress hormones. I've got in the habit of, if I wake up in the night, having some sugar and milk or orange juice and milk, and that resets the hormones so that you don't experience the same amount” 9-17-2019

“Almost all human aging happens during the night and when the nights are long in the winter, the aging process has more hours every day to act. The lowering of the blood sugar and increase of free fatty acids during the night is part of what drives that degenerative stress. So if you wake up after four hours of sleep, for example, and renew your muscle and liver glycogen stores and brain glycogen with a glass of milk and orange juice, for example, that will interrupt the stress and let you get back to some restorative sleep.” 8-17-2020

“Yeah, a very practical, simple thing is a glass of warm milk with an ounce or two of either sugar or honey in it. And the milk makes the sugar or honey absorb more slowly. And the effect of the sugar is to lower your adrenaline, which the older a person gets, the more problem they have with sleep hypoglycemia causing increased adrenaline. And that can lead to high blood pressure problems so that old people who are told to take a blood pressure drug will often get worse insomnia as their blood sugar falls.”

“And so keeping very bright lights right up until bedtime will minimize the fall of blood sugar. But having a carbohydrate meal late in the afternoon or before bed, a glass of orange juice or milk with honey, sometimes just the dose of sugar is enough to put you to sleep for an hour and a half or two hours. It takes time for the liver to start storing glycogen. So it's good to have another glass ready for when you wake up, have another dose of orange juice or milk and sugar. And salty things.”

“Getting your blood glucose back up. Getting your blood glucose back up, but what about that high cortisol in the night? It's going to take the oats to do that? If your thyroid and progesterone are good, you can make it through eight or ten hours of sleep without getting hypoglycemia. But some people wake up in the night and have some milk and orange juice.” 4-8-2022

Milk obviously is a quick convenient food for many reasons, and for those who have trouble sleeping he says having “a little” or “some” of it is good to get back to sleep or before sleep. Most people don’t want to sit and chew food or heat up bone broth while trying to sleep anyways. Calcium has many benefits, but it being essential for energy production seems to be a major reason for it and we just don’t need energy for sleep. Without conveniently knowing where he said calcium is best utilized during the day and magnesium at night, here is what other authorities say on the subject…

“Calcium helps regulate muscle contraction. When a nerve stimulates a muscle, the body releases calcium. The calcium helps the proteins in muscle carry out the work of contraction.

When the body pumps the calcium out of the muscle, the muscle will relax.”

Calcium: Health benefits, foods, and deficiency

People need calcium for bone health and other functions. Find out why people need calcium, which foods provide it, and what happens if they consume too little.

www.medicalnewstoday.com

“Although there is a strong theoretical framework in place to explain the effects of dietary calcium on energy metabolism, the precise mechanisms whereby dairy products exert substantially greater effects than do equivalent amounts of calcium are not yet clear. However, these additional effects are likely to be mediated, in part, by whey-derived bioactive compounds, including ACE inhibitors, and by the high concentration of BCAAs in whey protein. These data provide the framework for the development of an effective weight management strategy—based on the use of dairy products in a DASH-based diet—for the prevention of overweight and obesity and for the control of energy balance.“

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522039466

“Why shouldn't you take calcium and magnesium together?

For people who take calcium supplements and multivitamins, it's best to take them at different times of day. Calcium can affect how the body takes in the nutrients iron, zinc and magnesium.May 20, 2023”

The best time to take your calcium supplement

Timing matters when taking these supplements. Learn how to take them.

www.mayoclinic.org

“Large doses of minerals can compete with each other to be absorbed. Don't use calcium, zinc, or magnesium supplements at the same time.”

How to Take Different Kinds of Vitamins

Taking a vitamin supplement to cover your nutritional bases? Find out how and when to take it so your body gets the most from it.

www.webmd.com

“Taking calcium and magnesium together can lead to constipation and other stomach problems, and it might make both supplements less effective.”

Should You Take Calcium and Magnesium Together? | Livestrong.com

Although these minerals perform similar functions in the body, taking calcium and magnesium together might slow their absorption, especially in large doses.

www.livestrong.com

“The biggest issue today is due to the generalized low stomach acid lives of the U.S. population, is that calcium and magnesium should not be taken together. The reason for this is that magnesium neutralizes stomach acid and makes the stomach more alkaline.”

“How should you take calcium and magnesium? Take your calcium and magnesium separately. Take your calcium with meals and your magnesium 1 hour before or 2 hours after meals. I (usually) suggest taking magnesium at bed time.”

Calcium & Magnesium - Craig Zunka DDS

Calcium & Magnesium: Another area that we have all grown to know is that calcium and magnesium need to be balanced in our daily intake

www.craigzunkadds.com

“However, calcium should not be taken in the afternoon or evening because calcium is easily deposited and has the ability to accumulate, forming calcium oxalate easily increases the risk of causing other diseases such as kidney stones, urinary stones. , constipation and typically trouble sleeping and tossing in children .

Calcium should be taken in the morning (about 1 hour after breakfast) or in the afternoon with plenty of water, giving us the opportunity to be exposed to more sunlight (the skin synthesizes vitamin D for the body) which helps to absorb calcium more efficiently. In addition, when supplementing with calcium, we need the movement of the body so that the amount of calcium taken in has time to transfer to the target bone.”

Why should not take calcium in the afternoon or evening?

Calcium is an essential mineral for bone growth. However, if you do not know how to properly supplement calcium, it can have adverse effects on health. Do not add too much calcium at one time

www.vinmec.com

“Take your calcium supplements with meals, rather than alone. The calcium needs the acid from stomach juices to break it down.”

The Right Way to Take Calcium Supplements - American Bone Health

For some people, it can be a challenge to get enough calcium from diet alone, especially if they do not eat dairy. Keep a quick calcium diary for 5 days, and

americanbonehealth.org

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Niacinamide activates benzodiazepine receptors in the brain, which affects sleep. Dosages of 50 mg to 1,000 mg of niacinamide taken at bedtime have helped many people sleep better. (Niacin can also be used since your body can easily convert it to niacinamide.)”

https://www.healthydirections.com/articles/bone-joint-health/niacin-health-benefits?closebox=true#:~:text=Niacin%20for%20Sleep&text=Dosages%20of%2050%20mg%20to,helped%20many%20people%20sleep%20better.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

HEW75 said…

“My dad and I have the same issue. Any form of coconut at any time of day results in heart pounding, wired-brain feelings, and severe insomnia. I so wish I could eat it since I can't do dairy. There needs to be a support group for this. :)

From BodyBuiliding.com: "Medium-chain fatty acids like those found in virgin coconut oil are not used by the body like fats, but rather like carbohydrates. This means that medium-chain fatty acids do not circulate freely in the blood or get stored away to add to bodyweight. Instead, they are sent to the liver, where they are immediately converted to energy."“

Insomnia From Coconut Oil

I figured out that coconut oil causes me severe insomnia. So bad that I can not even fall asleep and up until morning, or even if I fall asleep I am up at midnight and no matter how much I eat at night, I am too active to go back to sleep again. I am prone to insomnia anyway and have been...

raypeatforum.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“HD: Right. So that's the parasympathetic nervous system. It's all about what happens after you eat a meal for example: You relax. You take it easy. You digest your food. Everything is being produced by the glands, that are secreting enzymes into the intestine or the stomach to digest your food. The heart rate slows down.
I always think the parasympathetic is fairly peaceful and wet, if you like.

RP: And it tends to take over at night. It helps the person go to sleep by slowing the heart rate. At least it should slow things down during the night; but with problems such as diabetes, or hypoglycemia, or various metabolic disorders, it can get overactive and instead of just calming things down, slowing the metabolism, lowering blood sugar, because you don't need so much, it can cause too much insulin secretion and other glandular secretions. For example, causing too much mucus formation. And the increased insulin can lower your blood sugar too much. Then, that can lead to intensified activity of the nerves, intensifying both contraction and relaxation where it shouldn't be happening.”

Some Ray Peat Quotes On Sleep From Audio Transcripts

I went through a sleep search specific to the audio transcripts and found the following. Seems a common issue so hopefully will help others. If you need more context, click the link about the quote and search for sleep Ray Peat on Sleep Uses Of Urea - KMUD, 2015-02-20 RP: The blood sugar is...

raypeatforum.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“RP: Yeah. And, some people wake up cyclically during the night. When I was counseling dieters, there were some very fat people who would wake up: one of them woke up every hour during the night. The other one, I think, was sleeping an hour and a half, or so. And I got them to set an alarm clock to wake themselves up about 5 or 10 minutes before their expected waking, and eat anything with carbohydrates (milk, or juice, or even a cracker or something), and to do that every hour. And, within a week, they were sleeping through the night, and then they were able to start losing weight. Those stress hormones that raise your temperature and pulse rate around dawn were also increasing the blood sugar ( in diabetics, they call it the dawn phenomenon). But it’s the result of the stress hormones that rise during the night. The darkness itself is causing stress, activating hormones. So, in the winter, people are more likely to have disturbed sleep, because of long nights. And getting extra carbohydrates late in the day can help you sleep longer without these episodes of…usually, its nightmares waking people up with a pounding heart.

HD: That’s the adrenalin, right ?

RP: Yeah.”

Some Ray Peat Quotes On Sleep From Audio Transcripts

I went through a sleep search specific to the audio transcripts and found the following. Seems a common issue so hopefully will help others. If you need more context, click the link about the quote and search for sleep Ray Peat on Sleep Uses Of Urea - KMUD, 2015-02-20 RP: The blood sugar is...

raypeatforum.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Caller: I have temperature problems. I’m a light sleeper, and I’ve recently heard that valerian tincture improves one’s ability to relax, fall asleep, and stay asleep through the night. I’ve taken it, and have been astounded how helpful it was ( and for my brother too, who has trouble falling asleep). I wanted to ask if one can develop dependency, and if there are any contra-indications ?

HD: No. Valerian works on Gaba channels. But, in very rare occasions, some people get very stimulated by it. The majority of people do find a good benefit from it, and it does shut off that internal dialogue that keeps people awake when they sit and talk to themselves, and especially if people wake in the early hours. But I know Dr Peat’s interpretation of any kind of insomnia would generally be down to high adrenalin, preventing people from entering a deep, restful sleep.

RP: Valeriane’s Gaba mechanism is very good; it’s a very safe drug. But I think that using a drug of that sort is protective. But it is potentially habit forming. And besides my own experience, when I took thyroid, being able to relax and sleep soundly… on one of my trips, talking to doctors and such, I’ve ran into a doctor who looked horrible, said he hadn’t slept for three nights. And I mentioned my experience with thyroid, and gave him 10mcg of cytomel. And the next night of my talk, he pulled me aside before introducing me, and said: “That stuff’s better than morphine!”.“

Some Ray Peat Quotes On Sleep From Audio Transcripts

I went through a sleep search specific to the audio transcripts and found the following. Seems a common issue so hopefully will help others. If you need more context, click the link about the quote and search for sleep Ray Peat on Sleep Uses Of Urea - KMUD, 2015-02-20 RP: The blood sugar is...

raypeatforum.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Some of the current publicity that is used to promote the fact that melatonin is used to make you go to sleep, it happens to be also a thing that goes up during hibernation, and its function is to lower the body temperature, and remember the hospitalized patients -- the ones who had the lowest temperatures were the least likely to survive, because as the thyroid goes down and your body temperature falls, you lose a lot of your immune functions and tissue repair capacity. So lowering your body temperature does make you hibernate and it does make you sleep, but you don't want to use something out of context to force that.

The studies that have been used to advocate melatonin's possibly anti-aging effect were done on mice and rats, and it turns out that they are very opposite to human beings and pigs, because they work at night in general and sleep in the daytime, and so melatonin for them has exactly the opposite meaning that it does for people and pigs. And for example, in humans and rats, melatonin raises prolactin, but in humans, prolactin knocks out progesterone production and causes infertility and stress and osteoperosis for example.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“For some people taking a warm foot bath at bed time and then putting on socks and a warm cap sleep better.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“HD: So cascara would be pretty for improving bowel motility and excretion?

RP: Yeah and some of the so-called soluble fibres, even pectin for example from fruit can greatly increase the production of serotonin and disturb the sleep.”

Some Ray Peat Quotes On Sleep From Audio Transcripts

I went through a sleep search specific to the audio transcripts and found the following. Seems a common issue so hopefully will help others. If you need more context, click the link about the quote and search for sleep Ray Peat on Sleep Uses Of Urea - KMUD, 2015-02-20 RP: The blood sugar is...

raypeatforum.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Q: When we breathe through mouth rather than nose at night, this can get rid of too much CO2 and this is a problem.

RP: yes the medical analysis is that people don’t breathe enough at night, but when you look at the blood chemistry the usual thing is that they hyperventilate during the night, because as their blood sugar is pushed down to sleep, their adrenaline comes up periodically and this makes them have in effect higher estrogen, higher inflammatory hormones which drives hyperventilation and blows off too much Carbon Dioxide. Then they don’t breathe for a while so they wake up feeling like they have died or have not been breathing enough . The best chemical for this is Diamox (Acetazolamide ) that causes the body to retain more carbon dioxide, it prevents the body from losing too much carbon dioxide which keeps it in the blood.

It’s well established as a cure for sleep Apnea, also used by skiers to prevent altitude sickness, because altitude sickness is a lack of CO2 not oxygen.“

 

[Jennifer]

Milk obviously is a quick convenient food for many reasons, and for those who have trouble sleeping he says having “a little” or “some” of it is good to get back to sleep or before sleep. Most people don’t want to sit and chew food or heat up bone broth while trying to sleep anyways. Calcium has many benefits, but it being essential for energy production seems to be a major reason for it and we just don’t need energy for sleep. Without conveniently knowing where he said calcium is best utilized during the day and magnesium at night, here is what other authorities say on the subject…

Thank you for posting what other authorities say, but I need to correct the bolded part. It’s not true that we don’t need energy for sleep. The only time our bodies don’t require energy is when we’re dead. As you can see just from the quotes you posted, we have so many biological processes that continue to take place while we sleep that require energy. Even something as seemingly static as our muscles at rest, consume energy. It’s one of the reasons why we want our glycogen topped off, and why so many people who wake during the night find that consuming food helps them fall back to sleep. Ray talked about this in one of the quotes I posted:

“Almost all human aging happens during the night and when the nights are long in the winter, the aging process has more hours every day to act. The lowering of the blood sugar and increase of free fatty acids during the night is part of what drives that degenerative stress. So if you wake up after four hours of sleep, for example, and renew your muscle and liver glycogen stores and brain glycogen with a glass of milk and orange juice, for example, that will interrupt the stress and let you get back to some restorative sleep.”

Whether or not a glass of milk is “a little” or “some” or more convenient than heating up chicken soup doesn’t negate the fact that Ray recommended a calcium food as a sleep aid which, without knowing the context, seems contradictory when you say he said we should have our calcium foods during the day. I think it’s important to clarify because if a member who is suffering from insomnia and trying to follow Ray’s recommendations reads that out of context and forgoes having dairy at night, they may miss out on the benefits you, my mum, myself, members I’ve spoken with, those Ray gave recommendations to, and people throughout time—drinking a glass of warm milk before bed is a long-standing practice for promoting sleep—have experienced so I’ll keep looking for the interview or quote and if I find it, I’ll make sure to post it. :)

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Thank you for posting what other authorities say, but I need to correct the bolded part. It’s not true that we don’t need energy for sleep. The only time our bodies don’t require energy is when we’re dead. As you can see just from the quotes you posted, we have so many biological processes that continue to take place while we sleep that require energy. Even something as seemingly static as our muscles at rest, consume energy. It’s one of the reasons why we want our glycogen topped off, and why so many people who wake during the night find that consuming food helps them fall back to sleep. Ray talked about this in one of the quotes I posted:

“Almost all human aging happens during the night and when the nights are long in the winter, the aging process has more hours every day to act. The lowering of the blood sugar and increase of free fatty acids during the night is part of what drives that degenerative stress. So if you wake up after four hours of sleep, for example, and renew your muscle and liver glycogen stores and brain glycogen with a glass of milk and orange juice, for example, that will interrupt the stress and let you get back to some restorative sleep.”

Whether or not a glass of milk is “a little” or “some” or more convenient than heating up chicken soup doesn’t negate the fact that Ray recommended a calcium food as a sleep aid which, without knowing the context, seems contradictory when you say he said we should have our calcium foods during the day. I think it’s important to clarify because if a member who is suffering from insomnia and trying to follow Ray’s recommendations reads that out of context and forgoes having dairy at night, they may miss out on the benefits you, my mum, myself, members I’ve spoken with, those Ray gave recommendations to, and people throughout time—drinking a glass of warm milk before bed is a long-standing practice for promoting sleep—have experienced so I’ll keep looking for the interview or quote and if I find it, I’ll make sure to post it. :)

I’m not Ray Peat so again I couldn’t tell you why exactly he said that, but I can see many reasons why, and I can see why warm milk would be helpful too. I think you keep missing the point, it isn’t about a glass of milk at night, it is about getting the bulk of calcium during the day. I won’t forget to post here if I happen to stumble upon him saying that.

 

[Jennifer]

I’m not Ray Peat so again I couldn’t tell you why exactly he said that, but I can see many reasons why, and I can see why warm milk would be helpful too. I think you keep missing the point, it isn’t about a glass of milk at night, it is about getting the bulk of calcium during the day. I won’t forget to post here if I happen to stumble upon him saying that.

I see. I missed the point because you first said that Ray said we should have our calcium foods during the day and then in your reply to me you said that “he said the bulk of the calcium, aka protein, is better used during time day,” so I thought you meant the bulk of the protein is better used during daytime, since calcium is obviously not protein. I’ve never heard Ray say that regarding the bulk of calcium either, and I even asked him his dietary recommendations. The reason why my mum was consuming so much dairy, even in the evening, and overcoming her chronic insomnia was in part because of my communication with Ray. I’ve searched my old conversations with him, his interviews and his articles the past two days and I still haven’t come across where he said that so unless you happen to stumble upon it, I’ll just assume it was for a specific context that doesn’t apply to most people. Thank you for all your effort, Rinse. I appreciate it. :)

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

@Jennifer Yes assume what you want, it is no bother to me. We are just going round and round, now with the milk is not protein. We are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. You’re still my “Mini Me”

 

[Jennifer]

@Jennifer Yes assume what you want, it is no bother to me. We are just going round and round, now with the milk is not protein. We are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. You’re still my “Mini Me”

I don’t know what you mean by “now the milk is not a protein.” I said calcium is not protein. It’s a mineral. If you meant to say milk, yes, it’s a protein, but I can’t read your mind, Rinse. Anyway, you seem on the defense because I asked for clarification so I won’t bother next time. I still love you.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

I don’t know what you mean by “now the milk is not a protein.” I said calcium is not protein. It’s a mineral. If you meant to say milk, yes, it’s a protein, but I can’t read your mind, Rinse. Anyway, you seem on the defense because I asked for clarification so I won’t bother next time. I still love you.

I was tired last night, being out of town this weekend, juggling a lot, and not sleeping well myself, but I am happy to clarify anything anytime Jennifer. It was just getting maddening being expected to go listen to every interview Ray Peat has ever done to appease the situation or I must be mistaken, so agreeing to disagree is all I could do. I have made it my mission to not misquote Ray Peat and told him so in my first correspondence with him. He appreciated that. Waking this morning with fresh thoughts, maybe he was talking about calcium and magnesium supplements, and not so much milk, as it was a simple statement that he made. I use to take a liquid calcium magnesium supplement at night before bed, many years for insomnia, which worked for my sleep, but they caused me to form stones everywhere in my body. I even had calcium crystals coming through the roof of my mouth on several occasions. So I took note of him saying that years ago, and obviously stopped taking the supplements. It does not make me happy when things go awry between two well intended people, so I apologize for my part in this discussion gone wrong.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“The metabolic rhythm should correspond to the light-dark rhythm, because darkness is a basic biological stress, and sleep is protective against the stress of darkness. Since TSH has many maladaptive effects, and rises along with prolactin and cortisol during the night, some thyroid taken at bedtime helps to reduce the stress, moderating the TSH rise while keeping the blood sugar from falling too fast. Ice cream (i.e., sugar and fat with a little protein) at bedtime has a similar effect, reducing the rise of adrenaline, cortisol, etc., with the result that the morning cortisol peak will be lower, preferably below the middle of the common range, and then it should decline in the afternoon.”” -Ray Peat