I read a study over the weekend that I planned to pick apart today, but I don’t have the mental energy to write about it. I’m prone to occasional bouts of insomnia, and the past few nights I’ve been thoroughly bouted. Friday night I slept perhaps a half-hour. I went to bed, took what amounted to a brief nap, then popped awake. That’s usually how it starts. I tried to convince my brain I was still sleeping by lying still with my eyes closed. My brain didn’t fall for it.
So I went downstairs and worked on a programming project until about 10:00 a.m. Then I finally fell asleep and stayed asleep until mid-afternoon. Saturday night I fell asleep around midnight and slept until noon. Last night I tried to sleep, couldn’t, and gave up. I crawled back into bed at 6:00 this morning and woke up five hours later.
This has happened on and off for decades. I’ve tried without success to spot a pattern, but apparently there isn’t one. I’ve had insomnia on low-fat diets, low-carb diets, and when not dieting at all. It’s happened when I haven’t had a drink for months, and it’s happened after a night of drinking beer or wine. (That’s the worst: feeling loopy and wide awake at the same time.) I’ve gone to bed hungry and had insomnia. I’ve gone to bed feeling full and had insomnia. I’ve stopped drinking caffeine in the afternoon, but it hasn’t helped … which shouldn’t have surprised me, because I once I gave up caffeine completely and that didn’t help either.
All I know is that on some nights, my brain refuses to shut down. Sometimes I’m thinking about a specific problem — programming challenges when I’m in the middle of a project are pretty much a guaranteed sleepless night. You’d be surprised how often the eureka! moment comes at 3:00 a.m. When it does, I don’t really have any choice except to go downstairs and try the solution. If it works, then I usually sleep.
But on other nights, I’m relaxed, happy, not feeling any pressure, yet my mind seems to be a conveyor belt of random thoughts. I watch them go by almost as a neutral observer. “Hmm, that one’s interesting. I haven’t thought about Doug Watkins since fourth grade. I wonder what kind of guy he turned out to be. That was cool when his mom took us the dolphin show. Amazing. Too bad his parents had that awful poodle. That reminds me, the girls don’t want a boxer anymore. What was that breed they said they liked? I’m not getting a dog without a fenced-in back yard, though. Hey, when was the last time the van had an oil change? Was it Christmas? We really should clean out the garage so we can park the van in there on hot days.”
Usually this goes on for a night or two, and then I’m over it. However, in my mid-twenties, I once went five days without sleeping, save for brief naps. Towards the end of that week, I was walking home from a diner two blocks from my apartment — I was too tired to cook — and stopped at the corner of Clark and Fullerton, a busy intersection in Chicago. I looked to my right and saw a WALK sign, then responded by stepping off the curb onto Fullerton. Someone behind me grabbed my belt or jacket and yanked me backwards just as a car zoomed past. The car missed me by perhaps 12 inches. I turned around and mumbled “thank you.” To this day I can’t tell you anything about who saved me … male, female, young, old, nothing. My brain had stopped processing information.
If there’s such a thing as an natural night-owl, I’m one of them. I know paleo types believe in waking up with the sun and falling asleep well before midnight, but that’s never seemed to fit with my natural body clock. I do most of my creative thinking at night. Always have. If I’m tired during the day, I start to feel better when the sun goes down.
I was perfectly happy with my sleep schedule during my days as a traveling comedian, when I rarely went to bed before 3:00 a.m. If I finished a show at midnight and was within 200 miles of Chicago, I’d just drive home. Once I drove from Nebraska to Chicago after realzing I wasn’t going to sleep.
This could be a bit genetic. I’ve had a few bipolar relatives on my dad’s side of the family. Perhaps I caught a touch, but just enough to be occasionally unipolar. I get wired up at times and can’t sleep, but fortunately I don’t get the depressions afterwards. I just go back to being more or less normal.
I suppose the upside is that I’m capable of working around the clock if I have to. While editing Fat Head, I was facing a deadline to deliver a sample cut to a distributor, and my computer decided to torture me by crashing several times per day. (This was before I bought a Mac Pro with Final Cut, so you Apple fans can relax.) I ended up working for three days and nights, leaving my office only for coffee and food, plus two quick trips home for a shower. I delivered the hard drives to FedEx a half-hour before the last deadline, then went home and slept for 18 hours.
At times like this, I’m hugely grateful to be self-employed. When I had office jobs, I had to just suck it up and go to work without sleep. If the boss says working hours are 9:00 to 5:00, that’s what they are. Now clients hire me to write programs and deliver them some weeks later. They don’t know when I work and don’t care, as long as the software is finished on time. So if I pop awake at 2:00 a.m. and know I’m going to be awake all night, I just go downstairs and work. If I end up sleeping away most of the next day, no big deal. My wife suspects I may be part vampire, but she’s understanding.
Anyway, I’m going to relax tonight, stay away from the programming so I don’t discover any problems that need solving, and try to fall asleep by midnight. Wish me pleasant dreams.
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From one developer to another, try this: http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/
I’ve give that a try, thanks.
Did you catch the BBC (BBC America) program, “The Man That Never Slept” It was about fatal insomnia. I happened to catch it one night when i couldn’t sleep. It seems ironically cruel that they play this show late at night. Gives you plenty to think about when you still can’t get to sleep after the shows over.
Hope you do catch some good z’s soon.
I haven’t seen that one. HBO had a good documentary about an insomniac who can only sleep during the day. I related to him … he confessed that he likes being awake when the world is asleep. So do I. There’s nothing like writing in the middle of the night, not a peep in the world outside.
Have you tried taking melatonin at least an hour prior to going to bed? You may have to adjust the dose to suit your needs.
Trytophan seems to help. I fall asleep more quickly now. It just doesn’t work all the time.
Time for some ECT or a lobotomy to make you normal.
Please, no lobotomy. I’m afraid I’d start believing what politicians say.
This came up in the comments section on my blog today coincidentally: http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/2010/08/clarence-bass.html
Although I never had problems sleeping except when on a low-carb diet, I have noticed that the quality of my sleep is almost entirely dependent on the amount of protein I consume during the evening meal. This would make sense on some level, as protein intake patterns a rise in glucagon and cortisol to perfection, both of which have a tendency to keep you alert and awake.
Protein also inhibits tryptophan crossing the blood-brain barrier. My two cents would be to have a dinner with no meat whatsoever. Whatever carbs you do eat, dinnertime is the time to do it. Starch or fruit in the evening doesn’t just put me to sleep, it puts me into a coma. You can see that theme with some of the other commentors in the post I linked to. Worth a try. Definitely would increase the odds of a good night’s sleep if ya axe me.
I may experiment again, but I was just as prone to insomnia during my vegetarian days, when starch was the basis of my diet.
Pleasant dreams… and a good night’s sleep!
Tom, I have the same pattern but less intense. I just have nights where I cannot go to sleep, no matter how tired I am. I’ve recently discovered that if I take the amino acid taurine and another called GABA, it seems to help at times. These two amino acids are precursors for serotonin, a relaxation neurotransmitter in the brain. Just a thought..
I’ll pick those up next time I visit the vitamin shop. I take tryptophan now, and it does seem to help.
Some nights I’m tired but can’t sleep. But other nights, I literally don’t get tired. I feel wide awake despite no sleep.
Flex time is awesome. 9-5 is a dying paradigm. Takes a good manager to know what the useful metrics are. Bad managers will default to face time.
Flex time is awesome indeed. We’re really only tied to the clock by our girls — school, dance lessons, etc. I work my own hours, my wife sometimes does her web design work after the girls are asleep, we record all the shows we like on TV and watch them later, etc.
One of my office jobs was a computer trainer, so of course I had to be there for class hours. Those were some looooong days if I hadn’t slept.
Just pretend you are in Australia. It’s only 4.40PM here.
Now that you mention it, as I was working away in the week hours of Sunday morning, it was on a project for an attorney in Australia. I told my wife I should get a job with an Australian company and telecommute.
sounds like you have DSPS (delayed sleep phase syndrome?). I dont’ think you are insominiac.
i have no trouble falling asleep but i just don’t get sleepy until after 1:30AM (at least). but unlike you, i have a regular job.
paleo-diet has helps many of my health problems. but this is one area that makes it worse cause i have more energy now.
why fight nature? just accept where your circadium clock wants to be.
regards
I agree. I typically go to bed after 1:00 AM and then get a full night’s sleep. When the insomnia comes around, I go to bed at 1:00 or 2:00, stare at the ceiling, give up at 3:00, go downstairs and get back to work.
have u tried some supplements for this? try popping some magnesium orotate or glycinate + some GABA pills like 1h before you want to go to bed. this calms everyone down at least a bit. if still not strong enough, ad 100-200mg 5-HTP plus 5-10mg time released melatonin. works best if you haven’t eaten at least for 3h before going to bed. also be sure to avoid everything with glutamate (MSG) and aspartame in it. no one can sleep properly on this stuff.
I should’ve mentioned that in the post. I take magnesium and tryptophan. I believe they help, but now and then the insomnia wins.
i too suffer from this with no apparent pattern.
for me a heavy workout later in the day is a definite thing, i try not to do them but work dictates these things.
found this, you may have read it, some swearing but amusing rant about vegetarianism/veganism
http://www.chaosandpain.com/content/vegetarianism-and-veganism-are-logical-poopie-flavored-lollipop
It is kind of funny.
I am lucky to not have the insomnia problem that you have, but, usually once a week I have the laying in bed and over thinking some problem. It could be a big or small problem. My mind will twist away on it for two to three or more hours. I usually get out of bed after that, take 3 Advil. Watch some rerun on TV for a half hour and that seems to do the trick. I can go back to bed and fall asleep within 15 minutes. Even luckier for me, I am now retired. When I got up for work at 3:45 every day for 30 years, a night like that was miserable.
Two things seem to cause it for me. Sugar in the late afternoon, and Chinese food for dinner. I try to avoid both.
I’ve tried to spot a dietary pattern, but I don’t think there is one for my insomnia. I know beer at night makes it hard for me to sleep, but I rarely drink the stuff anymore.
I’m very similar, although I did notice that the further into ketosis I am the harder it is for me to turn off my brain. Coincidentally, I’m a former programmer as well.
I’ve found that melatonin (quick release + slow release) helps. On nights where I work out, I have also tried adding a glass of raw milk with whey protein before I go to bed and it does wonders. I just budget in the carbs into my daily allowance.
Yesterday I took a nap for about an hour when I put the kids down for their nap, and I couldn’t do more than 5 hours last night before I had to get up this morning, even though I didn’t have to get up for two more hours.
Trytophan seem to help me. Just not every time. I’d heard about ketosis as factor, but I’m just as prone to it after a pizza as after a steak.
Hi Tom:
I used to have the same problem. I did a tonne of reading and came to the conclusion that I was zinc deficient, likely due to years of low fat, low protein, high carb eating (Dave Dixon posted a link on twitter yesterday to a study linking high carb diets to zinc deficiency. Here’s the link: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7386/409). Zinc may not be the cause of all insomnia, but it was the problem in my case, along with a high saturated fat, high protein, low carb diet, of course. Thanks for this very informative web site.
Can’t hurt to try. I also take L-tryptophan, which seems to have helped. It’s just not quite foolproof.
What were the sleep habits of cave-peeps? I read an account of modern hunter gatherers that woke up and went on a baboon hunt at 2 or 3am. Most pre-industrial societies are big on naps (afternoon siesta anyone?). Tired? Sleep. Not tired? Not sleep. Me think good idea.
Several intesting threads on sleep over at PaleoHacks. Here’s one:
http://paleohacks.com/questions/2509/anyone-getting-less-sleep-on-a-paleo-diet
Interesting. I’d probably enjoy a culture with an afternoon siesta as well.
Good night. May dreams of Chicago-style pizza be yours.
You’ve described me to a tee. I could be tired all day, but come 11 PM, I start to wake up and get energized. I sometimes wish I had a way to stop time during the day so I could rest and allow my body to catch up with the clock.
I guess we’d both make good night watchmen.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Hitting peri-menopause did it for me – I’ll sleep just fine for weeks (occasionally, if I’m fortunate, months) and then boom! Insomnia. For DAYS. (Right now, it’s been well over a week.) Like you, this has been a problem no matter what I eat/drink – it happened when I ate a lot of grains/starches and drank a lot of alcohol, and it’s happening now, when I eat no grains/starches and drink very little alcohol. It sucks like a bucket of ticks.
I know I have more to say about the subject, but…I’m too damn tired to.
I imagine all of us who are prone to it have looked for the magic pattern. I understand why people come to depend on drugs, although I’m determined to avoid that. After my shoulder surgery, I was on vicodin for weeks and slept like a rock. I missed the instant sleep, but couldn’t stand feeling fuzzy all day.
I have the same problem Tom. I’m a natural night owl and I struggle to sleep on a normal schedule. I usually don’t sleep well until after 1 am or so and then I may or may not sleep solid until around 7, when John gets up. It’s never predictable. Many times I can’t get my thoughts to stop and I end up falling asleep from sheer exhaustion later. I’ve tried lots of remedies, but so far nothing works.
I’m going to go with the great minds thinking alike theory here. I presume John is a morning person. One of us always seems to marry one of them.
Have you tried any slightly less legal herbal supplements? I have 2 friends and 1 sibling with diagnosed bi-polar disorders and that is the only “supplement” that works to help them sleep. I understand you are a family man and this might not work for you but I know it has helped many people tackle a sleepless night.
Nothing less than legal. Although I have disagreements with the drug laws, I certainly can’t risk violating them with a family to support.
I take 5-http and magnesium as well, and it seems to give me a better sleep but as you say it is not reliable. I tried intermittent fasting (IF) a week ago and noticed I slept better. Not sure why or if it was just coincidence.
I am still in 9-5 land, but trying to become self employed as we speak!
ps
Was just thinking, many Europeans have a siesta and then work long into the night. I think I would choose this way of resting. A snooze after lunch then start work about 3 or 4 and work till late. Even today it is not unusual for shops and banks to close for lunch for several hours. Although frustrating for those of us not used to it, I think they have the right idea.
It sounds very civilized to me.
Another natural calming vitamin used for insomnia is Inositol.
Also, over-the-counter antihistamines can sometimes help when sorely needed. You may feel a bit groggy upon wakeup, yet, they’re nothing like ass-whooping and addictive benzodiazepines.
However, steer clear of any decongestants, that is, unless you want to tear a telephone book in half.
I took NyQuil once and had a hangover the next day. Awful stuff. But I’ll look for inositol.
ah, btw, also be sure to turn down screen brightness of your monitors when working late. the bright light from screens that don’t automatically adjust to the environmental lighting can stay waaay too bright if you don’t turn them down manually at night!
Good idea. They are bright.
I have a similar problem: I feel wide awake at 10 p.m. Usually, if I just get in bed and turn the lights out, I fall asleep within a few minutes.
A few things that help during a patch of insomnia: turning off the computer at least an hour before bed and not watching any disturbing shows during the evening. I often see the suggestion to go to bed at the same time every night, but since I like to go out during the week (those are the good dance nights), that’s not an option for me.
Since starting a low-carb diet, I sleep much more soundly, and need a lot less sleep, but still like to stay up late.
When I was still a big starch-eater, I used to get restless legs at night. At least that’s gone.
I have the occasional bout with insomnia, but the big thing for me is that I need a long wind-down. I usually take 30 minutes to and hour to fall asleep. The thing that bothers me most about this is that my wife can literally fall asleep in 60 seconds. We’ll be talking in bed, say goodnight, a few moments and she’s out.
When I do have trouble getting to sleep, the only thing I’ve found that helps is to go downstairs and do a couple hundred jumping jacks.
Your wife is like mine. Must be something genetic. My older daughter will go to bed at 8:00 then read by flashlight until 10:00. Her younger sister, like my wife, is asleep 10 minutes after lights out.
no advice, but i have the same problem!!! i say we move to australia
i have mag and tryptophan too…tried melatonin too….all of them and nothing, my brain does NOT STOP at night….be it a song in my head, writing a blog in my sleep, ranting about something, its always gogogogog
There are a lot more of us than I thought. That’s what it is with me; even when the body is tired, the brain refuses to shut down.
Wow. Maybe there needs to be a new study: “Smart Brains Cause Occasional Insomnia”. I’m a night owl by nature, but I work 7:30 a.m. to 3:05 p.m. Ugh. My brain gets going and then I’m stuck awake. I do end up getting sleep, but not enough. I try not to get on the computer too late in the evening. Since I’m on my computer at almost 10 p.m., you can guess how well that works. Sometimes melatonin helps, sometimes it doesn’t. Tylenol PM and NyQuil don’t work for me at all. When I was in the hospital a few years ago, they even tried giving me Ambien. Nasty stuff…I didn’t sleep when taking it, and later in my stay, it caused hallucinations in combination with some other drugs. So…I try to read some nonfiction book that might bore me to sleep.
We should all start a club. I once worked a 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. shift in a restaurant and hated it. People tried telling how great my schedule was because I had my afternoons free … yeah, right, free to go home and sleep until 7:00.
Hi Tom,
I’ve also always had this problem. Moreove I’ve allways been a natural nightowl. Everytime I’ve had a choice when to go to bed/stand up for a longer time my sleep shedule would naturally set a going to sleep at 5-6 in the morning and getting up at 13-15 in the afternoon. Interestingly I would always require about 2hours less sleep with this rhythm than when I forced myself in a normal one.
Currently there are no lectures at university and I expected for the same thing to happen, but to my surprise I now naturally go to bed at 11pm, go to sleep quickly and wake up (without an alarm clock) at 7 am without the usual groggyness.
The only difference is, that i keep my bedroom window open and the sun can wake me (I think your body recognizes the light and downregulates your melatonin level and prepares you for waking up)
Perhaps you want to give it (or those “light alarm clocks”) a try
I’d happily let the morning light wake me up if I’d had eight hours of sleep at that point.
Have you looked into adding a pinch of sea salt on your eggs or taking 5 mg once or twice a week of OTC Lithium aspartate? The sea salt is for the trace Lithium salt it contains. You really might want to look into this. The dose for bipolar is 150 -400 mg per day- much greater. Cunnane didn’t mention it in “Survival of the Fattest” but since he makes a great case that we evolved our huge, complex, FATTY brains on the seashores and we were flush with just the right quant (not too much either, but mostly not lacking) of Iodine, Iron, Zinc, Copper and Selenium (and these elements are all just as important today in brain function and lipid metabolism), he says many today are low in one or more of these vital trace elements.
The reason I mention Lithium was because I was thinking about the seemingly current pharma trend to take a perfectly good, cheap process or cure (low sugar diet, aspirin, estrogen-can’t be patented) and replace it with a toxic, fantastically profit- generating blockbuster drug. Lithium is cheap, effective, and very well tolerated in much higher doses than I mention here. Our highly industrial grain based ‘food’ system may be lowering the small amount that was present naturally and now that most of us don’t live at the shore. Also all the sodium added to everything may be replacing the small, but vital, amount of Lithium we just could use. I also read that it is critical to synapse formation and glial cell production.
Please look at this Abstract from PubMed and let me know what you think.
Biol Trace Elem Res. 1990 May;25(2):105-13.
Lithium in drinking water and the incidences of crimes, suicides, and arrests related to drug addictions.
Schrauzer GN, Shrestha KP.
I’ve never tried that, but sea salt sounds like a worthwhile experiment.
do some research on Qi(chi). late at night the heart chi is flowing which activates the mind, you might consider some chinese acupuncture or chinese herbs to help settle the activity of your energy flow (chi). consult a well known doctor of oriental medicine.
Three inexpensive over-the-counter health food store remedies worth trying for sleeplessness/restless mind are Calms Forte (homeopathic sleep aid in tablet form), the Biochemic Phosphates (homeopathic tissue salts tablets), and/or the Bach Flower Essence White Chestnut, which is a liquid in a dropper bottle. Many people (myself included) find them surprisingly effective. They are safe for both adults and children and produce no unpleasant side effects. Instructions for use are included in the packaging.
We have a huge vitamin/supplement store in our area. I’ll check for those.
More lithiated musings. This may not seem related to insomnia, but Lithium is a well tolerated treatment for bipolar, and the manic phase can be thought of as a big-honkin’ extreme bout of insomnia.
In the ’40′s, Lithium chloride was on the market, but it was too high a concentration, which naturally caused all kinds of problems and toxic reactions, so it was pulled. While too much is bad, too little may be equally problematic. Then there is this sort of understandable confusion about whether or not Lithium is a trace mineral in human nutrition. Lithium is element # 3 and it is a lightweight. It has such a low atomic weight that when trace minerals are measured, by weight, Lithium seems to be almost non-existent compared to its heavyweight brethren required minerals like heavy iron, corpulent copper, and Zoot-like Zinc. I’m not making this up. Lithium gets lost because the requirement for a trace element is based on weight and not on #’s of moles. ‘Moles’ tells you how many atoms (ions) are present. If a mole of Lithium is required in human nutrition, just as illustration because it’s nowhere near a whole mole, it may not be detectable by weight. But a mole of copper (10X heavier) would definitely show up on the weight scale. But the number of ions required of both Lithium and Copper in human health is identical. Lithium appears to have many important properties in the human body and brain. It seems to me a shame because of a measurement sensitivity issue and then a conceptual flaw, combined with a marketing mistake decades ago, make us miss the vital role this ‘trace’ mineral probably has.
I caution diagnosing stuff through the web, BUT, I’ve learned so much by googling, Pub Med, these lively discussions etc. that you just have to wonder and look and think for yourself. Here’s a website. Read it with care, but it has made me think 2X.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res003jh/lithium-orotate/id13.html
I do get the full articles from the Abstracts I read at Pub Med. I’m a chemist and I can always get them via ILL from the college where I work, even the ones from obscure journals. So I read stuff on google, follow the trail and get the primary research paper to confirm it for myself. I am offering my opinions here for your thought stimulation and consideration. I may be misinformed about some things and since I only just learned about this possible Lithium link recently and have not had a chance to flesh it all out yet, I may be in error. However I’m pretty convinced about the reason why Lithium may be a trace required nutrient and also why it isn’t thought to be one…..yet- the weight vs. mole issue.
Maybe it’s gluten. I was very prone to this as well. Since I have been gluten-free it only happens when I have something big on my mind. Alot of Celiacs have had insomnia before going gluten-free.
That may be true for many insomniacs, but since my diet consists of meat, eggs, cheese, vegetables and fruits, I’m probably ingesting little or no gluten.
I do the same thing, but thought it was caused by menopause.
Perhaps I’m going through the change.
Laurie.
I read this on Emily’s Evolutionary Psychiatry Blog. “El Paso, Texas has high levels of lithium in the water, but low rates of violence and mental hospital admissions compared to other cities “. Do they have better levels of insomnia or not? Here is link to an article in Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905404,00.html
Curious.
Lithium Oratate can be purchased at some health food stores without a prescription because it’s in its natural state and the body usually knows what to do with it. It’s quite effective for insomnia but it can leave one feeling rather dull, dosage depending.
However, it is a salt, so one needs to drink more water than usual to offset its diuretic properties which can lead to dehydration.
If I ever have insomnia for more than a day or two, I might try that. As it is, I always seem to get over it quickly.
Lithium-induced increase in human brain grey matter
The Lancet, Volume 356, Issue 9237, Pages 1241 – 1242, 7 October 2000 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)02793-8
Dr Gregory J Moore PhD a b , Joseph M Bebchuk MD a, Ian B Wilds MSc a, Guang Chen MD a, Prof Husseini K Menji FRCP(C) a c
Summary
Rodent studies have shown that lithium exerts neurotrophic or neuroprotective effects. We used three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging and brain segmentation to study pharmacologically-induced increases in grey matter volume with chronic lithium use in patients with bipolar mood disorder. Grey-matter volume increased after 4 weeks of treatment. The increases in grey matter probably occurred because of neurotrophic effects.
Libertarian musings towards the end, I think you will love
“”By Jonathan V. Wright, M.D.
(Reprinted From “Nutrition and Healing”)
Lithium fights crime and some of your most nagging health concerns
Turns out it’s not only the strict use of the death penalty lowering crime rates in some areas of Texas. And while I’m sure “Dubya” would be quick to take credit, it’s not stricter laws or changes in sentencing guidelines either. Using 10 years of data accumulated from 27 Texas counties, researchers found that the incidence of homicide, rape, burglary, and suicide, as well as other crimes and drug use, were significantly lower in counties whose drinking water supplies contained 70-170 micrograms of lithium per liter than those with little or no lithium in their water.
The researchers wrote: “These results suggest that lithium at low dosage levels has a generally beneficial effect on human behavior…increasing the human lithium intakes by supplementation, or the lithiation [adding lithium] of drinking water is suggested as a possible means of crime, suicide, and drug-dependency reduction at the individual and community level.”
And that’s not to mention all of the lithium health benefits we went over in Part 1: It may be useful in treating Alzheimer’s disease, senile dementia, and possibly Parkinson’s disease. Lithium not only protects brain cells against normal wear and tear, but also offers additional protection against a whole variety of toxic molecules, including patent medications. It can also promote brain cell regeneration and increase brain cell mass. In essence, the research suggests that lithium is a brain anti-aging nutrient.
All of these results are every bit as good as (if not better than) the data that led to dumping toxic waste (fluoride) into so many public water supplies. So why haven’t public health and safety “authorities” been pushing for further intensive research on water-borne lithium and criminal behavior?
I’m certainly not in favor of the government adding anything to pure drinking water. But if it insists on forcibly mass-medicating us through our water supply (a thoroughly un-American concept I’m 100 percent against no matter what the added substance is), why haven’t they considered adding something that might actually do some real good for people’s health and safety? Isn’t the possibility of reducing homicide, suicide, rape, robbery, burglary, theft, mental hospital admissions, and drug addiction related arrests just as important as the possibly of preventing tooth decay?
Call me pessimistic, but I suspect lithium is still being ignored because no huge, politically connected industry has enormous quantities of lithium-containing waste lying around. (In the 1940s, that’s exactly how water fluoridation began, by using up huge quantities of fluoride-containing toxic waste generated by the politically connected aluminum industry.)
But if there’s one thing we all know about the U.S. government, it’s that we shouldn’t wait for the people running it to do anything to help us, especially when we can help ourselves. So today let’s go over a few more of lithium’s benefits and I’ll tell you how you can help yourself to this valuable mineral right now.”"
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Lithium Shows Promise Against Alzheimer’s in Mouse Model
An enzyme crucial to formation of Alzheimer’s (http://www.alzheimers.org/unraveling/index.htm) plaques and tangles may hold promise as a target for future medications, suggest studies in mice and cells. By blocking the enzyme, lithium (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/medicate.cfm#ptdep6) stems the accumulation of beta amyloid, which forms Alzheimer’s plaques, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report in the May 22, 2003 Nature. Inhibiting the enzyme, glycogen synthase kinase — 3 alpha (GSK-3 alpha), also blocks formation of neurofibrilary tangles by the tau protein.
I’m sorry if I’m cramming your comments with all this, but since I just became aware of a possible trace Lithium requirement in human nutrition (just like the other multiple epiphanies I had after I finished Taubes GC,BC on June 16, 2008) – I’m on a mission. Low-dose Lithium supplementation is cautioned against. But where is the symmetry? If I had known, before June 16, 2008, that cereal grains, vegetable oils, low-fat foods, vegetarian fare, table sugar, etc. most probably cause diabetes, heart disease, obesity, anti-social behavior, depression, dementia, auto-immune diseases, metabolic syndrome, mental illness, deformed teeth, autism, I certainly would not have consumed that garbage, laboratory invented ‘food’ and would have taken my chances with high-animal fat, zero grain, high-cholesterol, high-salt foods earlier. A little diuresis and the long term possibility of Lithium-induced kidney problems (much larger doses over long term), would have made me feel as great as I do today with my new FATHEAD diet SOOOOONER.
No apologies necessary.
Holy crap your post described me to a T – I have struggled with conforming to the rest of the world’s “normal” schedule my entire life.
I naturally tend to stay up later and later and and feel more creative, alert, and productive at night. I go through “manic” sleepless cycles as you mentioned as well. During those times, sleep is troublesome and intermittent as my mind just seems to refuse to shut-off. As with you, pre-occupation with work often precipitate it.
Then after wearing myself out for several days I go back to a more normal (for me) pattern of easy, restful sleeping. But eventually it starts all over gain.
For the past 5 years I have worked from home, which allows me to indulge my natural weird sleep patterns. Many times I have gotten so turned around on my sleep patterns (staying up later and later and later) that I drifted back around back into a “normal” daily schedule!
I never considered that I have manic tendencies before, since I don’t really experience any depression, I just tend to sleep better and my body feels more relaxed. My mom used to say I had an “artistic personality” when I was growing up, which was her euphemism for such things. The funny thing is, I ended up with a career as an artist in the entertainment industry. I wonder if a “creative” personality has a correlation to the sleeping/bio-rhythmic cycle problem.
I’ve wondered about the creative-mind correlation myself, since I seem to hear about this more often from writers, comedians, musicians, artists, etc.
Once in awhile, when I find myself clocking farther and farther forward, I just skip a sleep cycle completely and go to bed before midnight the next night. Seems to work … until the next time.
Loved this article and I can total relate to it. Been there, done that, DOING THAT!!! But thanks for the chuckle!! These days I’m popping 1 or 2 xanax to get to sleep and it works pretty well most nights despite the fact that I hate drugs and doctors but hey, it’s better than having my brain totally shut down considering it’s half way there already!
Days on end without sleep is no fun. I hope you can do it without the drugs eventually.
I think it’s something about Chicago.
Honestly, as others have said, this is me. Right down to the more-creative-without-sleep part. I can’t write when I’m getting enough sleep, and I can’t get enough sleep when I have a story to write.
Like right now…
I’ve tried exercising myself to exhaustion, changing diet, taking OTC sleep aids…cool baths, warm baths, relaxing music, yoga…nothing much helps. It’s not as bad when I’m in the sun all day, which may have that melatonin link, but it’s still noticeable. I just fall asleep at 4 instead of 6. Woohoo.
One thing that has helped is writing the ol’ fashioned way instead of using my compie. When that not-gonna-sleep feeling comes on, I open up a notebook and start writing [scribbling] down whatever’s on my mind. I usually wake up with indents from the spiral binding, but I get to sleep before I need to be awake. The computer seems to put my mind on a never-ending ADHD cycle. Roosters on skateboards? That song I haven’t heard since 1994? Ooo look, a new blog post on Fat Head…ohai!
We’re everywhere, apparently. Stephen King is of course known for being prolific, but he explained in an interview years ago that he has no choice: if he doesn’t write every day, he can’t sleep.
I read an account today of a guy that treated his insomnia symptoms by watching the Golden Girls. Quite an interesting take, at this point, I’m willing to give anything a shot-
C-SPAN might do the trick as well.
It sounds like your cortisol levels may be too high. Normally cortisol kicks in at about 5am, ramping up until late morning and then falling off throughout the day. High levels later could be a sign of too much stress on the adrenals ( they are mal-adapting). See Cushings Disease…
Very interesting the way everyone’s initial response is to pop some substance.
I’ll give that a look.
I’m a huge night owl too, the extent that I prefer to go to bed around 5 – 6 am. I also suspect I’m one of those people whose sleep cycles tend to work along 26-28 hours instead of 24. I fall asleep really easily if I’ve been awake for 18 hours or more but if I haven’t and it’s not between 5 – 6 am, forget it, I’m not getting to sleep. Luckily I have an office night job that I’m very happy with where I work from 5 pm to 2 am and then have a few hours at home to wind down before my body naturally wants to sleep.
After reading all the paleo stuff about melatonin and how humans are ruining themselves with artificial lights, I was kinda worried for awhile but I get plenty of sleep, I’m able to suntan during the afternoon before work, and I’m healthy so maybe there are some of us that would be the ones keeping an eye out for lions while the rest slept. I am only around 30, though, so maybe my youth is masking any ill effects of a “non-paleo” schedule.
I believe if you’re getting enough sleep, you shouldn’t worry too much about what the “correct” bedtime is.
Why not try a very old and simple yoga routine? Lying in bed in a dark, quiet bedroom – on your back – try to empty your mind and focus on your body and the bit of it you are working on. Start by tensing every single muscle in your left foot for about 10 seconds, then let go again and feel all the muscles relax. Do the same with the right foot and then proceed to left calf, right calf, left thigh, etc. etc. Buttocks, pelvic floor, belly, chest, hands, arms, neck – one part at a time – finish by tensing your face as hard as you can. The whole excercise should take 5-10 min. It can be very relaxing and will send most people to sleep afterwards. Maybe not you. You sound like a hard-case insomniac.
I’m more of a soft-case insomniac. When it comes, nothing works, but luckily for me it’s a sporadic thing.
Intellectuals has a tendency to loose contact with their body. Do you work out? I know that you walk, but do you ever press your body to it’s limits and try to expand those?
Yes, I lift weights.