Super-Light GAINZZZ Thread

I'm a natural night-owl, and I think it's because I dread the new day. Seriously. I think I have an aversion to going to bed, because I feel I didn't get enough done and I'm just not done with the current day yet.

But as you know, sleep is important, not just how much, but when. These videos from that guy I keep linking lately -- this on the importance of sleep, and this on how to improve sleep -- finally gave me the propaganda I needed to start going to bed by 12.

Note that it doesn't matter if this is true or not; whether true or not, it's still useful propaganda for getting me to do what I've long wanted to do (go to bed at a normal hour).

So the propaganda is this: For most people (it varies, but for most), the period of peak human growth hormone production is between 10 pm and 2am, if you're asleep during those hours. If you're not asleep, you missed out, and you'll just have to limp along with your sub-sub-standard HGH production.

Human growth hormone has so many absurdly positive effects on the human body that there's a black market in getting exogenous doses of it. It's called the "Youth Hormone" because it may slow aging effects, which is increasingly important to me as I contemplate, one day, entering my thirties.

So, after reading a lot about how to increase HGH (naturally) through stupid herbal supplements and crap, it turns out one of the most important ways is just to go to sleep at a decent time like a normal person.

I have been doing that (though I've been having sleep problems for unrelated reasons).

A point this guy makes in those videos is that there's actual sleep and then there's effective sleep. If you drink caffeine any time before bed (some people say you need to stop like ten hours before bed, which seems extreme), you may fall asleep, but you might cause yourself to have ineffective sleep where you just don't push into the deeply restorative phases of sleep very deeply or for very long. So if you go to bed with caffeine or alcohol in your system, your clock might say you got seven hours of sleep, but a more accurate measure, based on how long you spent in deep restorative sleep, might be more like six hours.

Oh and I mentioned this already, but thanks for the various tips on overcoming insomnia. One of the most effective things for me was putting a cold compress on my pillow to chill the blood in my neck and back. The body reads "cold" as "time for sleep," apparently.

Another thing I've been doing -- and given the weather, it's been pretty easy to do this -- is making sure I get real sunlight in my face soon after I wake up, to reset the body clock.*

Another simple thing which is harder to do that I'd've imagined -- drinking a lot of water. Which, yeah, helps GAINZZZ.

I think this might be a problem some have with getting enough water. I think this is my own problem. When you're dehydrated, your brain is kind of fuzzy, and you're low energy.

So what do you drink? Water? No, you're fuzzy-headed and you're low energy. You drink coffee, tea, or Coke Zero, Jack!

But of course those cause you to pee out more water, dehydrating you further. Making you more fuzzy headed and lethargic.

So what do you drink? Water? No way, give me another Coke Zero! I'm tired, baby!

So anyway, I think the message here is you just gotta suck it up a few days and really pound that sweet sweet water, Marco Rubio style, until you get properly hydrated and not tired and slow-witted and in need of constant caffeine.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was drinking water, I was feeling pretty good. Now because of low sleep, I've been having Coke Zero and not so much water, and I'm just dead tired and worse yet I'm getting cramps a lot. Almost like my body is saying, "Drink water, asshole."

So that's all I got this FriGAINZZZ. The two cheapest and most important supplements out there, which everyone ignores because they're trying to track down Distilled Tiger Breath mixed with Powdered Foot Fungus From a Shaolin Monk's Slipper from a black-market vitamin dealer in Kuala Lampur.

My GAINZZZ this week: None. Tired as shit. I didn't even expect GAINZZZ because I knew just by the way I felt that my body was pure crap. Happy I just didn't go backwards.

Broccoli Sprouts: Seems like a cheap way to have a constant supply of high-nutrient low-carb veggies.

Broccoli sprouts are loaded with anti-oxidants, with much more suphurophane by weight than broccoli.

And you can just make mason-jars full with a week or so's growing, in a mason jar inside your house.

I just got some seeds and the jars. Haven't actually started the process yet.

I know this guy is a hippie but hear him out.

* I forgot the point of this blather -- even though my sleep has been poor due to CPAP problems, I kind of like going to bed now because I kind of like getting up. So I don't dread the next day. I imagine I'll feel better about it once I get some good sleep.

posted by Ace at 07:34 PM

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