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Deep sleep may be the best defense against Alzheimer’s

• mbrochh 3y ago
  The best defense against Alzheimer's is avoiding carbs and insulin resistance!
• bicijay 3y ago
  But how do i know my sleep quality?
  • slater 3y ago
    Use a smartwatch, or ask your doc to have a sleep study done
    • Spivak 3y ago
      You can also get a less accurate but potentially still useful reading with only the phone in some apps. You'll get false negatives because it can only really measure movement but if it says your sleep is shit it probably is.
    • schaefer 3y ago
      Color me septal… Can you cite a medical study that evaluates the accuracy of your smart watch’s assessment of your quality of sleep? Preferably one not sponsored by the manufacturer?
      • cypherpunks01 3y ago
        "Performance of seven consumer sleep-tracking devices compared with polysomnography" Sleep. 2021 May PMC8120339 Seems to accurately analyze them. Conclusion "Device sleep stage assessments were inconsistent." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8120339/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8120339/ This research was funded by the Office of Naval Research, Code 34. (see also Disclosure Statement)
        • edandersen 3y ago
          From the study: "Most devices (Fatigue Science Readiband, Fitbit Alta HR, EarlySense Live, ResMed S+, SleepScore Max) performed as well as or better than actigraphy on sleep/wake performance measures". Great news.
          • cypherpunks01 3y ago
            Yes, the study evaluates the accuracy, and the results are not good!
          • crossroadsguy 3y ago
            The Garmin one is discontinued. Also, is there a more "layman readable" version of this paper/report?
            • tallanvor 3y ago
              The Garmin watches have been replaced by newer versions with upgraded sensors. Garmin's tracking isn't perfect, but each version has made small improvements.
      • sollewitt 3y ago
        Your skepticism is justified. Oura publish their data, and to quote them: >Oura ring was 96% accurate in detecting sleep compared to polysomnography, 48% accurate in detecting wakefulness, 65% agreement in detecting “light sleep,” 51% agreement in detecting “deep sleep” and 61% agreement in detecting REM So it's basically wrong with sleep categorization about half the time.
        • hackernewds 3y ago
          oura ring hardware is horribly limited in terms of precision. let it not be a barrier to invest in a good wrist/arm/head band
      • sedatk 3y ago
        Garmin publishes their accuracy data: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/health/garmin-health-announces-sleep-study-results/ https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/health/garmin-health-annou...
      • ryanfreeborn 3y ago
        Many have already pointed that there have been studies to measure the accuracy of sleep analysis by wearables. They aren't that great. If you have a concern, you should definitely seek out a polysomnograph, and wearables should not be a replacement for that. However, you can't get a polysomnograph every night, and wearables are probably the best option for regular analysis. Just because they're not that great doesn't mean they're useless, and doesn't mean they won't improve.
        • hackernewds 3y ago
          they can be https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8120339/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8120339/ Most devices (Fatigue Science Readiband, Fitbit Alta HR, EarlySense Live, ResMed S+, SleepScore Max) performed as well as or better than actigraphy on sleep/wake performance measures, while the Garmin devices performed worse.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • crossroadsguy 3y ago
      Is there something I can just keep next to my pillow? Or something like that? I don't like wearing (and don't wear) watches or any kind of bands/rings/etc at all - they feel like a constant weight and then there's sweat, and pressure, and all that.
      • zackangelo 3y ago
        The Eight mattress will measure sleep stages without you having to wear anything.
        • jetanoia 3y ago
          My experience with them is mixed. I’ve had a couple of theirs and they’ve been markedly inaccurate in some categories. For example, reporting I was not in bed when I actually was, or vice verse on other nights. As a result, the sleep hours were off. I still love it for the temperature control (set to manual, not their ‘auto’ algorithms), but if it can’t reliably report something as simple as whether I’m in or out of bed, then accurately judging sleep stages should be even less likely. My oura ring has been far more helpful in identifying patterns leading to less quality sleep. For example , by highlighting elevated resting heart rates and asking me if I ate later that night, consumed spicy foods or alcohol, etc. That said, it’s not terribly durable. After a couple years it refused to accept firmware updates. Then a few weeks ago (after maybe 3 years of use) it stopped connecting to the app altogether and support tickets are going unanswered. This is greatly disappointing but I may spring for a replacement anyway because of how helpful it’s been in correlating lifestyle choices to sleep parameters (& quite consistently so).
          • ajolly 3y ago
            Agreed on preferring my oura vs my eight bed for sleep tracking. Just found out that their web interface gives you a lot more analytic tools than the app, check that out if you have not already.
      • pnw 3y ago
        Before Apple bought them and discontinued the product last year, the Beddit sleep monitor was the best option for me. I’ve had mine for years and use it religiously. It’s a small sensor that goes on your mattress. You may be able to find one still for sale. It’s far more practical than wearing an Apple Watch to bed.
    • senectus1 3y ago
      heh, I recently got a GW4. it's telling me that i get approx 22 mins a night of "Deep sleep" (average of 7 hours total asleep) this sounds like i'm screwed...
  • ChrisPebble 3y ago
    A sleep study is the gold standard, but sleep trackers like Oura reportedly getting pretty good and a lot cheaper and easier.
    • alwayslikethis 3y ago
      You need at least an EEG to have even a remote chance of getting good data. No smartwatches or rings will do the trick. Zeo was a good one, but discontinued 10 years back. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Consumer-Sleep-Tracking-Devices%3A-A-Critical-Review-Lee-Finkelstein/a18d14fbc724c2dfe982fa4b44fbae1d5948c68b?p2df https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Consumer-Sleep-Trackin...
    • dude01 3y ago
      My son just had one, and they said they found nothing. But looking around, apparently most sleep studies in USA just look for sleep apnea. By default they don't actually look for anything else.
  • frankfrankfrank 3y ago
    Try the Sleep Cycle app, at least on iOS. It’s an orange icon with an old analoge, bell alarm clock image.
  • deadmutex 3y ago
    If you don't want to have to worry about charging things, or wearing them to bed, Google Nest Hub is great: https://store.google.com/us/product/nest_hub_sleep_sensing?hl=en-US https://store.google.com/us/product/nest_hub_sleep_sensing?h... . It can also track sleep stages, etc. This has been on sale for < $75, which is way less than a wearable, etc. https://ai.googleblog.com/2021/03/contactless-sleep-sensing-in-nest-hub.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2021/03/contactless-sleep-sensing-... https://ai.googleblog.com/2021/11/enhanced-sleep-sensing-in-nest-hub.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2021/11/enhanced-sleep-sensing-in-...
    • cactusplant7374 3y ago
      Does this work if you are sleeping in bed with a partner?
      • deadmutex 3y ago
        Yes. It can even tell you when you're snoring (instead of your partner).
        • hackernewds 3y ago
          Skeptical it can glean all of that without EEG, let alone without heart rate.
          • deadmutex 3y ago
            Check out some details in the second blog link. Of course a sleep clinic with a lot of sensors will give you much better results. The analogy would be a massage chair vs masseuse. Different price/convenience tradeoffs.
          • the_third_wave 3y ago
            Heart rate can be discerned remotely using infrared cameras [1] so that would be doable. [1] https://www.thinkmind.org/articles/smart_2017_2_20_48002.pdf https://www.thinkmind.org/articles/smart_2017_2_20_48002.pdf
  • jasondigitized 3y ago
    Even if I determine my sleep quality…then what? If it’s bad, and I am eating healthy, workout and don’t have apnea what am I supposed to do with this information?
    • coldtea 3y ago
      There are a lot more things to check/do besides "eating healthy, workout and not having apnea". For example, the times when you eat matter (even if you eat healthy to begin with). The light levels matter - is your bedroom pitch dark? Noise levels matter. Temperatures matter a lot. Things like sleep position could play a role. Pets sleeping with you waking you up at night. And several other things besides. Or you might have a condition that prevents you from sleeping well, even if it's not apnea. Might be stress. Or something that needs medical treatment, or a vitamin deficiency. You might also need supplements such as melatonin.
    • bonniemuffin 3y ago
      You could try different combinations of beds, pillows, blankets, white noise, blackout curtains-- there are lots of different ways to adjust your sleep environment to do a bit of trial-and-error to find out what helps. I found that I sleep best with blackout, loud white noise, a very soft pillow under my head, and a firm pillow beside my legs so I can sleep on my back with one leg bent and resting on the leg pillow. The bent leg thing is not something I've ever heard of anyone else doing. I just had to figure it out by trying a ton of different ways of arranging my limbs in bed-- previously I had really struggled with hip pain during the night no matter how I slept.
      • deadmutex 3y ago
        also ambient temperature, etc.
        • spoonfeeder006 3y ago
          and sunlight during the day, darkness during the night (or filtering out blue light with glasses / apps)
  • hitsurume 3y ago
    My personal theory / opinion in how I know I slept deeply is whether I had a dream that felt like a fairly long period. There was a point in my life where I literally had no dreams and slept like I was passing out. I realized that this was greatly affecting my long term memory. I went and made incremental steps in getting my sleep better and thankfully was able to start dreaming again, and even got to some points where my dreams became lucid, like being in inception. Anyways that's just my personal indicator on whether ive been sleeping deeply.
    • spoonfeeder006 3y ago
      You're talking about REM sleep, not deep sleep. The article is talking about (I believe) the N3 stage of non-rem sleep, which is when the surrounding space around cerebral arteries expand and cerebral spinal fluid outside those arteries with flush out toxins During this stage of sleep, neurons also fire in unison at a slow frequency on the order of 1Hz I don't think that happens in REM sleep, which actually looks more like wakefullness than the N3 stage, but with certain aspects of cognition shut off (like the rational part, and the motor activation part)
      • hitsurume 3y ago
        Thanks for pointing this out! This definitely makes. me wonder if there's a way for us to tell whether we had adequete deep sleep without using an app or some external machine. My points about REM/Dreaming was that I could notice these things naturally without aid.
        • hackernewds 3y ago
          get a minimal activity monitor, without any "smart" functions. you can get ones that charge for 15m every 5 days now. (trying not to promote a particular product)
        • spoonfeeder006 3y ago
          It might be possible to get that indirectly through cognitive tests taken throughout a person's life and see how they progress Sleep quality deteriorates rapidly after age 45, at least from what I was told by the Dreem2 tech support a while ago. My understanding is this involves the amplitude of brain waves during primarily the N3 stage, while physical exercise has been shown to enhance that amplitude, e.g. walking 3 miles a day The Dreem2 headband does have the ability to enhance the amplitude and duration of N3 brain waves also, by using timed pulses of pink noise in a feedback loop Though I don't think that feature was available to consumers inside the USA cuz of FDA regulation BS
  • spoonfeeder006 3y ago
    There's the Dreem2 headband, but I don't think its available to consumers in the USA anymore. Maybe it is in other countries Its basically a reusable EEG device connected to your phone, aka a sleep study every night, but maybe slightly lower quality I'm sure with persistence and ingenuity there should be a way to get it
  • psiops 3y ago
    I'm happy with my Oura ring. Apparently its sleep analysis is on par with gold standard polysomnography (PSG) sleep lab test. https://ouraring.com/blog/new-sleep-staging-algorithm/ https://ouraring.com/blog/new-sleep-staging-algorithm/
    • CastFX 3y ago
      Independent studies show that it's among the best but not quite on par with medical grade devices. I suggest to have a look at this channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m_oBiYk8Rk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m_oBiYk8Rk
    • GvS 3y ago
      Over 300 EUR and a subscription on top of that?!
      • criddell 3y ago
        How does that compare to the cost of a PSG test? Where I live a sleep lab test is pretty expensive so the Oura is an absolute bargain.
  • _joel 3y ago
    My fitbit tracks it well, cheap thing I've had for years.
• frankfrankfrank 3y ago
  Well, looks like I’m getting Alzheimer’s, boys.
  • melbourne_mat 3y ago
    Yeah I also don't sleep well. I wonder if lack of deep sleep has a causal relationship to Alzheimer's or if it's just an association?
  • ngngngng 3y ago
    Who are you?
    • morkalork 3y ago
      That's what he'll be asking himself everyday once it starts to hit hard
    • irjustin 3y ago
      A person who doesn't sleep much
  • Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago
    Yeah, as someone with crappy sleep (this night for example I slept 4 hours, with only 36 minutes deep sleep according to my smartwatch), this kind of headline doesn't cheer me up one bit :( I guess things are what they are, though. Good that we uncover knowledge like this.
    • hutzlibu 3y ago
      It should be no surprise, that it is not good for your health, if you do not sleep well. So fixing whatever it is preventing you from good sleeping really should be priority number 1 if you want to maintain or restore your health. Easier said than done, of course, but reducing coffeine, doing more sports and avoid bringing the smartphone into your bedroom would probably be a good start.
      • 3y ago
• avinassh 3y ago
  What are some good ways to increase the deep sleep? What has worked for you? I have used wearables to measure, it’s always less than an hour for me
  • hitsurume 3y ago
    Not a sleep expert, but you can do sleep study to see if you may have sleep apnea . If you don't have that, then its about managing your health , environment and stress. Make sure you're not too over weight which can effect your sleep. Make sure your room is cool and not stuffy or hot. Wash your sheets reguarly, nothing beats sleeping in fresh sheets. Look into a better mattress or pillow. Lastly another game changer for me is a weighted blanket. It makes me feel like i'm protected and comforted.
  • aik 3y ago
    I have an Oura ring and got it because I had a sense my deep sleep was terrible. I would often wake up at night and wake up with a headache in the morning as I often stay up late and often would not get enough sleep. Found that magnesium personally helped me incredibly. I now sleep through the night, feels like my sleep is much deeper, etc., and my Oura stats show likewise. Still the other most important thing is to just go to bed on time. If I jump on my computer before bed I almost always get stuck and go to bed way too late. Hard habit to change but essential.
    • hitsurume 3y ago
      Where are you getting magnesium from? Are you taking a supplement or something else?
      • aik 3y ago
        Supplement right before bed. This stuff is so individualized/your mileage may vary so need to try and see what works for you but I used to do a basic magnesium citrate supplement and now do a triple mag blend with glycinate, malate, taurate.
  • thegabez 3y ago
• markus_zhang 3y ago
  Deep sleep is perhaps a luxury for a modern family man. Work, kids, everything is going against good quality sleep.
  • coldtea 3y ago
    Unless his life is also a luxury, deep sleep is a nessecity. Those other things can take a back seat, unless it's an emergency situation concerning the wife, kids, etc. A modern family man is also no use dead or when performing badly due to lack of good sleep.
  • PragmaticPulp 3y ago
    There are certainly periods of work and early parenthood that make sleep difficult, but that shouldn't be true for more than a few years. Unless you're grinding away at a once in a lifetime opportunity, you shouldn't be sacrificing years of your life to poor sleep to work 16 hour days or something. Make sleep a priority and learn how to set boundaries.
  • silverpepsi 3y ago
    I chose not to partake in any of those things knowing I really need my 9-10 hours. Genetic lottery blessed and cursed me in different ways, and my sleep requirements are one that will dictate my choices in life can't be the same as short sleepers. I was sleeping 6-7 hours through highschool and I can vividly remember it being the worst period of my life, standing in the shower each morning overwhelmed by the thought "I want to sleep so bad I wish I was dead, because that's like, an infinite satisfaction of the desire to sleep." Don't misread this it wasn't a dark thought at all, I was just THAT tired. Am I the only one making the hard choice- choosing good sleep forever?
    • spoonfeeder006 3y ago
      Damn thats rough, really schools shouldn't be dragging kids out of bed so damn early. Statistically it goes against their chronotype But hey, sports, right? Its all for sports
    • mk67 3y ago
• aantix 3y ago
  I've posted this before, but it's worth repeating. I recently discovered that I’m a slow metabolizer of caffeine. Via my raw 23andme data. https://you.23andme.com/tools/data/?query=rs762551 https://you.23andme.com/tools/data/?query=rs762551 C/C genotype. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/#C https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/#C... Instead of coffee being a net positive, it actually takes caffeine 4X the time to process through my body. It also increases my cardiac event risk (most normal metabolizers it does not). I can drink a cup of coffee at 8am and it still impacts my sleep the following night. My blood pressure remains really elevated (20+ points for systolic) the entire day. All these decades I’ve been ingesting coffee thinking it’s a “net positive” - not for my genotype. When the reality is I sleep like shit, my blood pressure is through the roof, I feel awful for a day or two of drinking a single cup, and it all makes sense now. Even with just 30mg ingested this morning at 8am, I still feel very wide awake at 9pm. When I totally detox from caffeine, go through the headaches, I ultimately feel calmer, and I get the best, deepest sleep.
  • mbrochh 3y ago
    Same here. I've quit coffee about 15 times in the last 10 years. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME, the result is the same: high blood pressure, bad sleep, constant lethargy (which can only be fixed by consuming more coffee), frequent headaches... all goes away after one week of detox.
  • paulrouget 3y ago
    Is that the rs4410790 marker ?
    • aantix 3y ago
      rs762551
  • someotherperson 3y ago
    Totally anecdotal, but have you tried coupling it with L-Theanine? I've become extremely caffeine sensitive over the last few years -- anything more than about 80mg has me off the walls for the entire day. But ensuring I get L-Theanine along with it essentially blunts the response quite significantly and allows me to function normally.
• heybeyley 3y ago
  [flagged]
• allig256 3y ago
  Alzheimer's is the least likely to kill you of "The Four Horsemen", however it seems to be the most elusive in terms of prevention and treatment. If deep sleep can contribute to prevention, it seems that yet again exercise is the going to be the best catch-all prophylactic.
  • dmix 3y ago
    > it seems that yet again exercise is the going to be the best catch-all prophylactic. A novel idea
  • zarzavat 3y ago
    It may be relatively less common but the slow death it inflicts is highly unpleasant, especially for the people around you. I strongly prefer to die of a heart attack.
    • lambdasquirrel 3y ago
      The worst part is that there isn't a well-defined point where you can say "I'd like to have a medically-assisted suicide" that isn't going to upset people (assuming it were legal). By the time you reach it, you quite possibly won't have the cognitive capacity to request it.
      • raincole 3y ago
        I don't believe there should be a "point" where you can say that. Medically-assisted suicide should be available for everyone. Of course with a prolonged evaluation period.
        • deleted 3y ago
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        • deleted 3y ago
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        • thinkharderdev 3y ago
• noonething 3y ago
  I think you get a lot of deep sleep with weed. Rem sleep not so much.
  • hutzlibu 3y ago
    I really do not recommend marijuhana for fixing sleep problems, because very soon, you won't find sleep without weed anymore.
  • xdavidliu 3y ago
    > I think you get a lot of deep sleep with weed. I don't think that's true. This is what Huberman and Matt Walker has to say about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwrrKlII4XA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwrrKlII4XA (I'm aware that Matt Walker is controversial, but I don't think the contents of this clip are)
• asin 3y ago
  My parents don't like me sleeping min 8hrs a day (on average i sleep 10hr). I work a lot and sleep a lot. It's cheap and easy thing to do. I belive it solves a lot of people's mental health issues
  • jader201 3y ago
    From what I understand (far from an expert), 10 hours on average (meaning sometimes more) sounds biologically unnecessary, and possibly will yield diminishing returns past 7-8. Of course, everyone is different and maybe there’s a reason you may benefit from more. But I wonder if sleeping more than ~8 hours is a symptom of something else (and possibly contributing to why your parents don’t like it). Curious if someone else more knowledgeable than I weighs in. Also, it probably wouldn’t hurt to bring up with your doctor (e.g. annual evaluation). I usually bring up anything that I feel is considered “not normal” (whatever that is). But again, I could be way off.
    • antognini 3y ago
      Depends on one's age, too. A teenager or someone in their early 20s will sleep a lot more and that's natural.
    • pluijzer 3y ago
      I somehow need nine hours of sleep. With eight or less I am groggy and have trouble concentrating. I am also very sensitive to not getting enough sleep anyway. My partner sometime ls comes to bed late and only sleeps for four hours. The next day she might be a bit sleepy but is fine. I wouldn't be able to think or do my work.
      • mensetmanusman 3y ago
        This was the case for a family member with undiagnosed apnea. If you aren't getting enough oxygen at night, your body will want more sleep than necessary under normal oxygen levels.
      • michaelcampbell 3y ago
• laristine 3y ago
  https://archive.is/1kqOz https://archive.is/1kqOz
• Ziggy_Zaggy 3y ago
  I recommend learning more about sleep. Here's a book that takes a deeper dive. I have no affiliation with the authors of the book or any of their case-studies. "Why We Sleep" https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501144316 https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...
  • ashirviskas 3y ago
    "Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep" Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors" - https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/ https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/
    • hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago
      "Alexey Guzey’s Theses on Sleep gained a lot of popularity and acclaim on LessWrong and among people I follow on social media, despite largely consisting of what I think were weak arguments and misleading claims. I found that a bit surprising, so I decided to write a post pointing out several of the mistakes I think he’s made, and reporting some of what the academic literature on sleep seems to show." - https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sbcmACvB6DqYXYidL/counter-theses-on-sleep https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sbcmACvB6DqYXYidL/counter-th...
      • hackernewds 3y ago
        Natália Coelho's post on Guzeys criticism of Matt Walkers book is scuffed with inaccurate methodologies, and redundant circular arguments, counter to popular understanding of sleep mechanisms (I'm kidding, but I couldn't resist pointing out how meta the dialogue around sleep has gotten)
      • currymj 3y ago
        This is true, and the guy has actually now given up on most of his “you don’t need to sleep” stuff. However a couple of the scientific errors he found in the original book were truly egregious.
• pier25 3y ago
  Reishi mushrooms have helped me sleep deeper and balance my emotions too. Before, once or twice a week I'd stay up til 2-3am unable to sleep thinking about stuff (mostly work). Now it's rare when I'm not asleep after 11pm.
• ghoogl 3y ago
  [dead]
• xdavidliu 3y ago
  > A new study suggests it may be sleep, and in particular deep sleep. That’s the stage when the body repairs bones, muscles and the immune system. It’s also when the brain consolidates new memories. If you burn the candle at night, you’ll be more susceptible to illness and more likely to forget things you recently learned. Wait, I thought it was REM sleep that was responsible for memory consolidation and learning? Can someone clarify?
  • mdhen 3y ago
    Pretty sure you are correct. Marijuana decreases time in REM which is why it affects learning ability.
• Nemi 3y ago
  This is going to sound far fetched, but hear me out - I am 55. When I was young I slept like a rock, like most people. Fast forward to a few years ago and I could barely get through the night. I would wake at 3:30am and just not be able to get back to sleep. During the day I was exhausted and in a mental fog. I had other symptoms too: * Heart palpatations, especially at night. My brain interpreted it as anxiety. It wasn’t * Extreme sleepiness, both after meals and at bedtime. Yet, when I would try to go to sleep I would often lay for an hour. * Constipation * When I lifted weights, I would start strong but then would be exhausted after one or two sets. I would rest, but my muscles never seemed to recover during my workout * Excessively thirsty all the time Note that I did not think these were all related. On the contrary, most of these I didn’t even realize were a problem really. I just thought that was how I was. Then I read something (I think it was a comment on HN) that mentioned something about potassium deficiency. I researched it and realized that it can cause many of those symptoms that I had. I started taking some slowly at first (you read about all the dangers of too much potassium) and I immediately noticed some improvement. Turns out that you need 4700mg of potassium in your diet and only 1000mg of sodium, but that is often inverted in the modern diet. I suspect I have a undiagnosed kidney issue that does not allow me to retain potassium like normal people. That, coupled with my high sodium diet made it so that I is constantly flushing out my potassium when my body is trying to get rid of the excess sodium. I now take potassium throughout the day, primarily a couple of hours after meals and before bedtime. (I also take magnesium at bedtime) The transformation in my sleep has been nothing but amazing. I used to be one of those people that constantly talked about getting enough sleep. I would regularly sleep 9 hours and still feel like I barely got enough. Now I sleep about 7 hours and feel fantastic. I wake up refreshed and my head is so clear during the day. I still wake up at night (to pee), but I always get right back to sleep. I suspect that your brain uses electrolytes in the flushing process when sleeping. I have a pet theory that the prevalence of alzheimers and other cognitive decline is due to our high sodium and low potassium/magnesium diets. I always understood the value of vitamins and minerals, but did not appreciate the fact that electrolytes are like the gas and oil of a car engine. They are used daily, but deplete and need to be constantly renewed. Your engine can run when your electrolytes are out of whack, but so many basic functions are compromised. It is not just about running and sweating. I want to make the required disclaimer to talk with your doctor about this and be careful, as too many electrolytes can be as bad as not enough, so don’t be stupid. I will note that I did talk with my doctor and, though he was receptive, he just wasn’t equipped to explore this level of granular topic. He was used to seeing people that were two steps from death, so when he saw me as an outwardly fit 55 year old, he thought I was doing fine. I hope this helps someone!
• gcanyon 3y ago
  In my 20s if I hit 3-4am awake, I'd often just not go to bed at all. This happened at least once or twice a month. Into my 40s, my regular go-to-bed time was around 2am. Now I have my watch trying to get me to sleep from midnight to 7am every day. Hopefully it's not too late...