I haven't been getting a lot of good quality sleep lately, been really busy with work, designing nutrition programs, provide personal training sessions for clients, not to mention trying to squeeze some time keeping up with the latest health and medical research and reading some of my favorite books as well. Trying to maintain this blog for FREE, is another thing. Let's just hope that I can keep writing and sharing as much health, nutrition and fitness truths to all of you out there as long as I could. No promises, just keep blogging.
Today, this chapter, will be the last chapter for this topic. You could call it as 'prescriptive chapter' or the ending of the long posts which describes how carbs/sugar, sleep wake cycles, hormones, appetite, mental well being, biological aging, mood, energy levels, lights exposure after dark, weight management are all linked strongly together.
Now, after reading all the previous 13 posts of SLEEP topic, what happen next? You must be asking to yourself, "What to do now? How can I ensure my circadian rhythm or biological clock tunes properly?". What I can tell you is that there is no ONE answer to it. Grab your coffee or tea, sit on a comfortable chair, this would certainly be one of the most important pillars of health. Before we dive in further to finish off this last post, let me do a quick recap on what I have wrote and discussed in the earlier posts.
As we've learnt, in times of actual famine, not just when your side of the planet went dormant or winter, only those of us with stored carbohydrate got to live. Those of us who didn't have any stores died. Our DNA hates that. So, an acute insulin response to eating carbohydrates became genetically established over millennia for survival.
Through the miracle of technology, we have lost the famine period. The famine period emptied the stored sugar in your muscles and liver, and, more important, from your accumulation of body fat. The next summer, feasting filled it again. That means that episodic high insulin was our salvation. For maybe four to five month out of twelve, insulin levels were elevated to make use of the feast-before-famine period. Continuously elevated insulin meant only one thing for mammals. Winter is on the way. If that day never comes, you just keep storing as long as there are long hours of light.
Now, you are in deep trouble with mother nature. Research and common sense would indicate that being overfed, in the grand scheme of things, is asking for it. In the 'food web', every species must stay in balance or all bets are off.
Since the stakes are so high, the rules are usually pretty strict. Light and dark cycles control insulin through carbohydrate craving, but also more directly, through your stress mechanisms. Remember, when the lights are on, your cortisol stays up because it's a blood sugar mobilizer. It also helps your to be ready to run or fight. Continuously high levels of cortisol. which are mobilizing your blood sugar, means insulin stays up too, to disperse that blood sugar to your muscles. So, just watching TV late into the normal sleep period keeps your insulin up longer then nature wants it to be, causing insulin resistance and you know what that means.
You get fat by just smelling a cookie or cake. For paleolithic man, long days meant the end of summer and the approaching end of the food supply. The short sleep cycles of long days translated into an increase need for carbohydrates to store fat and to seratonin into melatonin for the part of the year when he would sleep more in order to reduce metabolic functions to save energy when it was scarce, so carbs-craving is a precursor to sleep, and modern man still responds to instinctive behaviors led by hibernation drives. As a result, we crave carbohydrates only when we are tired, not when we need food.
Now, this is what you should pay attention and focus. It will be a long elaboration, that's why your big mug of coffee comes in handy. Needing food, protein and fat, being hungry for food, is very different from being hungry for sleep, and we are so eternally hungry for sleep that we have destroyed the trip switch for normal appetite. As far as breakfast, lunch and dinner are concerned, figure out what season it is, and try to eat in sync. Well, that doesn't really apply to some countries which has no season at all, and Malaysia is one of them, primarily humid tropical weather all year long, apart from recent raining seasons. I always educate all my friends, colleagues and relatives as well as family members, eat according to how your autonomic nervous system regulates, both sympathetic and para-sympathetic.
Now, don't run, or perform any sorts of chronic aerobic exercises or routines. Lift weights or perhaps try Pilates or Yoga, Tai Chi or Chi Gong. Meditation does help to calm the mind and soul, and performing marathon or any long endurance training simply will not help.
In winter, eat meat and green stuff(veggies), and very little carbohydrates, around 25 to 50 grams per day. When designing your food plan for winter or cold season, the first thing to do is choose your carbohydrates. I've met tons of people who think that carbs are all the same. Carbs are carbs. That is partially true as complex carbs in vegetables and grains, and the simple sugars in fruits and candy, are all registered as sugar by the body.
Now, lose the bread or any food products from the bakery. I will blog one day about how dangerous grains and gluten pose to our body, and any bread is still fake food. Just don't eat it. Bear in mind, there are no bread trees or pasta bushes. Bread and pasta do not occur in nature. Cheese and eggs are good, if it's only from grass fed free range cows without contamination of pesticides, antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones. Have some organ meats, eat liver or pate. Of course again, from healthy free range animals.
If you want to control your appetite, you must sleep as many hours as you would in nature according to seasonal light exposure. That means for six to seven months out of the year you need a minimum of 9.5 hours in total darkness each night. to keep your hormones from switching to summer mode. Up to fourteen hours a night is normal in winter for animals in nature. During summer, you can live on margaritas and stay up late and have sex all day and all night. For those working night shift or rotation schedules, I'm sorry, there is no way out. Either quit your job or pay the price for your health and life.
But as fall comes, or somewhere in September:
- Go to bed earlier, incrementally
- Turn off the TV after 9pm
- Better yet, take it out of the bedroom (It would be distraction if in same sleeping room)
- Sleep as many hours as you can without getting fired or divorced
- Always get up as close to dawn as possible
If you can't fall asleep that easily, read for fifteen or twenty minutes. Reading will put youto sleep faster then late night television anyway. Bottom line, the pulsing light of the TV screen after dusk erodes melatonin secretion over the long haul by frying your pineal gland, which is as bad as it sounds.
Now, pay attention. Nine and half hours of solid sleep each night for at least seven months out of the year is the minimum required to beat cancer, diabetes, heart disease and depression. Strive for a steady pushing forward of bedtime until 9.5 hours of sleep is a habit at least close to seven months a year. Once it happens, you will most likely wake up without an alarm clock and you won't be able to stay awake any later than 9.30 or 10pm. Will this affect your social life? Answer is YES, so will be cancer and obesity.
Your immune system will thank you for it by keeping you alive.
- Keep lights in the house at low levels of intensity after dark. Pretend it's romantic. There's really no reason to have your kitchen or living room lit up like Nou Camp stadium during a night game. Besides, the money you save on your electric bill and your shrink will pay for the supplements we are going to suggest.
- If you are going to a movie or watching TV after 9pm, wear rose colored glasses to block green light. In a clinical trial, just wearing red glasses after sundown, increased melatonin secretion by 70%. Well, you may look goofy, but you decide yourself.
- Once you do make it to bed, be sure you sleep in utter darkness in a fairly cool room. Think cave. You wouldn't want to sleep in a room which makes you sweat your pants waking up in the middle of then night.
- Hang heavy drapes. Any leakage of lights will reduce or stopped melatonin production. Any part of your whole body will register any light leaks in your bedroom.
Now, remember to eat every meal with some good clean quality protein. Protein is essential. Eat it every day, every meal. Remember, no protein, no neurotransmitters or immune function. It is as simple as that. Vegetarianism is laudable, but it's impossible to get enough protein from their diet. Even monkeys murder for meat! Fats are essential too. They are necessary for all cellular functions. For the low or non fat dieters, watch out, apart from high risk of depression and malnutrition, no fat, no hormones, and that means cancer. Ensure it's from plants of animals, and not processed or junk foods. Of course, avoid refined or hydrogenated oils aka transfat, as well as eliminate as much sugar as possible. Also, avoid anything which labels non-fat or low fat. Those foods contains higher sugar content and chemicals as additives to fool your palate into believing that they have fat in them.
Only eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Avoid canned fruits and frozen vegetables, usually are processed. Drink at least half your own body weight of clean filtered water, as I've always tell everyone who asked for my advise. Avoid other beverages, and water should be your only fluid consumption. To think of it, doctors, dieticians, health magazines advised the public to drink 8-9 glasses of water daily. If a lean average adult drink 9 glasses of water daily, what would happen to a huge 220 pounds male dude if he consumes the same portion of water? Common sense folks!
As this is the final and last post of this SLEEP topic, I hope all of you readers out there, find this information helpful. I hope more people are aware of how important proper sleep wake cycles could affect your overall state of health and quality of life. Thinking you could survive and be healthy with 5-6 hours of sleep each night is just simply ridiculous. Till then, have a pleasant sleep.
Through the miracle of technology, we have lost the famine period. The famine period emptied the stored sugar in your muscles and liver, and, more important, from your accumulation of body fat. The next summer, feasting filled it again. That means that episodic high insulin was our salvation. For maybe four to five month out of twelve, insulin levels were elevated to make use of the feast-before-famine period. Continuously elevated insulin meant only one thing for mammals. Winter is on the way. If that day never comes, you just keep storing as long as there are long hours of light.
Now, you are in deep trouble with mother nature. Research and common sense would indicate that being overfed, in the grand scheme of things, is asking for it. In the 'food web', every species must stay in balance or all bets are off.
Since the stakes are so high, the rules are usually pretty strict. Light and dark cycles control insulin through carbohydrate craving, but also more directly, through your stress mechanisms. Remember, when the lights are on, your cortisol stays up because it's a blood sugar mobilizer. It also helps your to be ready to run or fight. Continuously high levels of cortisol. which are mobilizing your blood sugar, means insulin stays up too, to disperse that blood sugar to your muscles. So, just watching TV late into the normal sleep period keeps your insulin up longer then nature wants it to be, causing insulin resistance and you know what that means.
You get fat by just smelling a cookie or cake. For paleolithic man, long days meant the end of summer and the approaching end of the food supply. The short sleep cycles of long days translated into an increase need for carbohydrates to store fat and to seratonin into melatonin for the part of the year when he would sleep more in order to reduce metabolic functions to save energy when it was scarce, so carbs-craving is a precursor to sleep, and modern man still responds to instinctive behaviors led by hibernation drives. As a result, we crave carbohydrates only when we are tired, not when we need food.
Now, this is what you should pay attention and focus. It will be a long elaboration, that's why your big mug of coffee comes in handy. Needing food, protein and fat, being hungry for food, is very different from being hungry for sleep, and we are so eternally hungry for sleep that we have destroyed the trip switch for normal appetite. As far as breakfast, lunch and dinner are concerned, figure out what season it is, and try to eat in sync. Well, that doesn't really apply to some countries which has no season at all, and Malaysia is one of them, primarily humid tropical weather all year long, apart from recent raining seasons. I always educate all my friends, colleagues and relatives as well as family members, eat according to how your autonomic nervous system regulates, both sympathetic and para-sympathetic.
Now, don't run, or perform any sorts of chronic aerobic exercises or routines. Lift weights or perhaps try Pilates or Yoga, Tai Chi or Chi Gong. Meditation does help to calm the mind and soul, and performing marathon or any long endurance training simply will not help.
In winter, eat meat and green stuff(veggies), and very little carbohydrates, around 25 to 50 grams per day. When designing your food plan for winter or cold season, the first thing to do is choose your carbohydrates. I've met tons of people who think that carbs are all the same. Carbs are carbs. That is partially true as complex carbs in vegetables and grains, and the simple sugars in fruits and candy, are all registered as sugar by the body.
Now, lose the bread or any food products from the bakery. I will blog one day about how dangerous grains and gluten pose to our body, and any bread is still fake food. Just don't eat it. Bear in mind, there are no bread trees or pasta bushes. Bread and pasta do not occur in nature. Cheese and eggs are good, if it's only from grass fed free range cows without contamination of pesticides, antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones. Have some organ meats, eat liver or pate. Of course again, from healthy free range animals.
If you want to control your appetite, you must sleep as many hours as you would in nature according to seasonal light exposure. That means for six to seven months out of the year you need a minimum of 9.5 hours in total darkness each night. to keep your hormones from switching to summer mode. Up to fourteen hours a night is normal in winter for animals in nature. During summer, you can live on margaritas and stay up late and have sex all day and all night. For those working night shift or rotation schedules, I'm sorry, there is no way out. Either quit your job or pay the price for your health and life.
But as fall comes, or somewhere in September:
- Go to bed earlier, incrementally
- Turn off the TV after 9pm
- Better yet, take it out of the bedroom (It would be distraction if in same sleeping room)
- Sleep as many hours as you can without getting fired or divorced
- Always get up as close to dawn as possible
If you can't fall asleep that easily, read for fifteen or twenty minutes. Reading will put youto sleep faster then late night television anyway. Bottom line, the pulsing light of the TV screen after dusk erodes melatonin secretion over the long haul by frying your pineal gland, which is as bad as it sounds.
Now, pay attention. Nine and half hours of solid sleep each night for at least seven months out of the year is the minimum required to beat cancer, diabetes, heart disease and depression. Strive for a steady pushing forward of bedtime until 9.5 hours of sleep is a habit at least close to seven months a year. Once it happens, you will most likely wake up without an alarm clock and you won't be able to stay awake any later than 9.30 or 10pm. Will this affect your social life? Answer is YES, so will be cancer and obesity.
Your immune system will thank you for it by keeping you alive.
- Keep lights in the house at low levels of intensity after dark. Pretend it's romantic. There's really no reason to have your kitchen or living room lit up like Nou Camp stadium during a night game. Besides, the money you save on your electric bill and your shrink will pay for the supplements we are going to suggest.
- If you are going to a movie or watching TV after 9pm, wear rose colored glasses to block green light. In a clinical trial, just wearing red glasses after sundown, increased melatonin secretion by 70%. Well, you may look goofy, but you decide yourself.
- Once you do make it to bed, be sure you sleep in utter darkness in a fairly cool room. Think cave. You wouldn't want to sleep in a room which makes you sweat your pants waking up in the middle of then night.
- Hang heavy drapes. Any leakage of lights will reduce or stopped melatonin production. Any part of your whole body will register any light leaks in your bedroom.
Now, remember to eat every meal with some good clean quality protein. Protein is essential. Eat it every day, every meal. Remember, no protein, no neurotransmitters or immune function. It is as simple as that. Vegetarianism is laudable, but it's impossible to get enough protein from their diet. Even monkeys murder for meat! Fats are essential too. They are necessary for all cellular functions. For the low or non fat dieters, watch out, apart from high risk of depression and malnutrition, no fat, no hormones, and that means cancer. Ensure it's from plants of animals, and not processed or junk foods. Of course, avoid refined or hydrogenated oils aka transfat, as well as eliminate as much sugar as possible. Also, avoid anything which labels non-fat or low fat. Those foods contains higher sugar content and chemicals as additives to fool your palate into believing that they have fat in them.
Only eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Avoid canned fruits and frozen vegetables, usually are processed. Drink at least half your own body weight of clean filtered water, as I've always tell everyone who asked for my advise. Avoid other beverages, and water should be your only fluid consumption. To think of it, doctors, dieticians, health magazines advised the public to drink 8-9 glasses of water daily. If a lean average adult drink 9 glasses of water daily, what would happen to a huge 220 pounds male dude if he consumes the same portion of water? Common sense folks!
As this is the final and last post of this SLEEP topic, I hope all of you readers out there, find this information helpful. I hope more people are aware of how important proper sleep wake cycles could affect your overall state of health and quality of life. Thinking you could survive and be healthy with 5-6 hours of sleep each night is just simply ridiculous. Till then, have a pleasant sleep.
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