Best Tips For Getting Restful Sleep / (increasing GABA?)

lampofred

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Something that hasn't been mentioned on here is that when you are thinking, glutamate is "on" and GABA is "off." At least in my case, a very powerful way to increase GABA (and as a result, dopamine) has been to consciously keep a blank mind for as much of the time as possible. Living in my head uses up so much energy that I get hypothyroid symptoms (low temps, racing heart with weak pulse, vasoconstriction) from overthinking which disappear in minutes after quieting my mind.
 
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Braveheart

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Something that hasn't been mentioned on here is that when you are thinking, glutamate is "on" and GABA is "off." At least in my case, a very powerful way to increase GABA (and as a result, dopamine) has been to consciously keep a blank mind for as much of the time as possible. Living in my head uses up so much energy that I get hypothyroid symptoms (low temps, racing heart with weak pulse, vasoconstriction) from overthinking which disappear in minutes after quieting my mind.
Excellent point...
 

YourUniverse

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Something that hasn't been mentioned on here is that when you are thinking, glutamate is "on" and GABA is "off." At least in my case, a very powerful way to increase GABA (and as a result, dopamine) has been to consciously keep a blank mind for as much of the time as possible. Living in my head uses up so much energy that I get hypothyroid symptoms (low temps, racing heart with weak pulse, vasoconstriction) from overthinking which disappear in minutes after quieting my mind.
"Dopamine is the currency of all thought and movement" -Travis

Ive thought about this too. Constantly (over)thinking must be a dopamine drain. It probably explains why meditation has been intermittently therapeutic, in my case
 
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Cirion

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Actually in my experience overthinking is due to a serotonin brain. In my experience a dopamine brain is more creative, more focused on "doing" than thinking about something. Racing thoughts keeping you awake at night is the classic serotonin / stressed brain.

Finally, I've found that if I'm experiencing the overthinking, usually its because of some physical reason (hungry & need to eat, an external stressor I need to turn off like EMF's, blue light) and I have never really successfully used meditation or anything like that to turn off the overthinking although I have seen some small benefit to doing relaxing things I guess, like an epsom salt bath but that is technically alleviating a magnesium deficiency.
 

Owen B

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After second night on the earthing mat, a chronic pain in my back I had developed has diminished over 50%. The first night it actually increased. There may very well be something to this... I bet the first night it was my body starting to go into healing mode and temporarily flared up the inflammation in preparation for healing... or that's my explanation at least lol

I wonder if putting a mat over the belly could help with gut problems... I think that because negative EMF's aggravate the gut, so maybe positive EMF's could heal it?

What do you mean that it increases melatonin? I don't notice that effect. Melatonin has a clear drugged feeling to it, I don't experience that from earthing myself.

I don't consider this an abnormal method to attain health in any way, if anything, it is one of the more natural things to do (for thousands of years man remained in contact with the earth nearly 24/7 even while sleeping, its only until recently that we became "smart" and made buildings that we started to lose that).
They talk about melatonin all the time. They have a decent grasp of inflammation. But they seem to think that melatonin is the elixir of life.

I tried the mat again last night around 10:30 PM for about 10 - 15 mins. I had a pretty good sleep. Lots of dreams. But really droopy today. Way too much melatonin. I'm going to return it.
 

Bogdar

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I probably get plenty of calcium. mountains of goat cheese every day. I supplement 600 mg magnesium on top of whatever else I may get from food. I get lots of fats (saturated) and sugars, plenty of salt, adequate protein (something like 40% fat 40% sugar 20% protein), generally peat approved foods for the most part.

I hear what you're saying about socializing, the problem is I have zero desire/motivation/energy to do so. It's been my experience in the past when I have been healthy that the desire to be social comes about naturally when I'm healthy, and forcing it isn't that useful (for me at least). The very first outing I did the last time I was very healthy, I struck up a conversation with several women and asked one out (Keep in mind, I'm normally very bad around women). Conversely I've had times when I've been unhealthy and forcing socializing really didn't work for me at all no matter what I did, and any attempts to hit on women were laughable and pointless & I also develop a stutter and poor ability to speak my mind when my androgens are low (especially around attractive women) so they reject me outright due to my pathetic approach.

What I'm trying to say is that: High androgen males are sociable. However, trying to be sociable doesn't give you high androgens or even improve them. That has not been my experience. Actually, I often felt worse after attempting to socialize in poor health, due to feeling embarrassed by pathetic conversations and weak attempts at seducing women and then replaying said incident in my head repeatedly once back home compounding it. Experience for some other people may differ I'll admit, so I'm sure I'm not a one size fits all example.

It's possibly also because I don't really have any good friends locally, and I have a very hard time finding people who really share my values, either male or female. Socializing is generally very physically and mentally draining for me, so it really only works out for me when I'm in a high energy state. I honestly enjoy my own company more than other peoples' company, especially when I'm in a low energy state.
LOL it is so well said. Exact same thing for me.
 
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Cirion

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Yes, I've been a proponent of nofap for a while. This just seems to be more evidence that I'm GABA deprived if a single orgasm sends me into a negative place mentally for as long as a week or two.
 

lampofred

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Lots of red light seems to be helping with increasing GABA for me
 

Douglas Ek

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I probably get plenty of calcium. mountains of goat cheese every day. I supplement 600 mg magnesium on top of whatever else I may get from food. I get lots of fats (saturated) and sugars, plenty of salt, adequate protein (something like 40% fat 40% sugar 20% protein), generally peat approved foods for the most part.

I hear what you're saying about socializing, the problem is I have zero desire/motivation/energy to do so. It's been my experience in the past when I have been healthy that the desire to be social comes about naturally when I'm healthy, and forcing it isn't that useful (for me at least). The very first outing I did the last time I was very healthy, I struck up a conversation with several women and asked one out (Keep in mind, I'm normally very bad around women). Conversely I've had times when I've been unhealthy and forcing socializing really didn't work for me at all no matter what I did, and any attempts to hit on women were laughable and pointless & I also develop a stutter and poor ability to speak my mind when my androgens are low (especially around attractive women) so they reject me outright due to my pathetic approach.

What I'm trying to say is that: High androgen males are sociable. However, trying to be sociable doesn't give you high androgens or even improve them. That has not been my experience. Actually, I often felt worse after attempting to socialize in poor health, due to feeling embarrassed by pathetic conversations and weak attempts at seducing women and then replaying said incident in my head repeatedly once back home compounding it. Experience for some other people may differ I'll admit, so I'm sure I'm not a one size fits all example.

It's possibly also because I don't really have any good friends locally, and I have a very hard time finding people who really share my values, either male or female. Socializing is generally very physically and mentally draining for me, so it really only works out for me when I'm in a high energy state. I honestly enjoy my own company more than other peoples' company, especially when I'm in a low energy state.

Whats the biggest sleep symptoms?
Do you have a hard time falling asleep, hard time staying asleep? Hard time waking up in the morning? Not feeling rested upom waking up no matter how much sleep you get? How many hours do you generally sleep?
 

Douglas Ek

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Yes, I've been a proponent of nofap for a while. This just seems to be more evidence that I'm GABA deprived if a single orgasm sends me into a negative place mentally for as long as a week or two.

Hhmmm what happens when you had an orgasm? You get more tired for a week? Drains your energy? Anxiety problems?
 

Douglas Ek

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Thats BS I had the exact same problem at one point with drained energy and increased anxiety after i masturbated for years. I was sure it was due to some kind of sexual exhaustion but I always thought well I didnt masturbate that much at all? Everyone else does it way more without problems? So why would I have exhaustion then? Eventually I realized I was iron deficient and once I corrected that I can have sex and masturbate as much as I want with all those symptoms completely gone. Its all about finding the root cause of the problem. I just don’t believe anymore in the sexual castration of excess sex sounds dumb. We where created to replicate.
 

YourUniverse

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Thats BS I had the exact same problem at one point with drained energy and increased anxiety after i masturbated for years. I was sure it was due to some kind of sexual exhaustion but I always thought well I didnt masturbate that much at all? Everyone else does it way more without problems? So why would I have exhaustion then? Eventually I realized I was iron deficient and once I corrected that I can have sex and masturbate as much as I want with all those symptoms completely gone. Its all about finding the root cause of the problem. I just don’t believe anymore in the sexual castration of excess sex sounds dumb. We where created to replicate.
Thanks for your sharing. Your experience does not negate the content of the post, however.
 
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Cirion

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Whats the biggest sleep symptoms?
Do you have a hard time falling asleep, hard time staying asleep? Hard time waking up in the morning? Not feeling rested upom waking up no matter how much sleep you get? How many hours do you generally sleep?

These days I rarely have a huge problem falling asleep, but I generally wake up once or twice (but don't have a huge problem going back to bed usually). Main problem is not feeling rested. Only time I get can a waking temp of 98.5F or so is if I sleep almost 12 hr like I tend to do on weekends.

Hhmmm what happens when you had an orgasm? You get more tired for a week? Drains your energy? Anxiety problems?

Fatigued, lazy, moody, irritable, just overall signs of a drained metabolism yeah.

Thats BS I had the exact same problem at one point with drained energy and increased anxiety after i masturbated for years. I was sure it was due to some kind of sexual exhaustion but I always thought well I didnt masturbate that much at all? Everyone else does it way more without problems? So why would I have exhaustion then? Eventually I realized I was iron deficient and once I corrected that I can have sex and masturbate as much as I want with all those symptoms completely gone. Its all about finding the root cause of the problem. I just don’t believe anymore in the sexual castration of excess sex sounds dumb. We where created to replicate.

So you think that whereas alot of people think its zinc its actually low iron? I used to heavy dose zinc (I stopped maybe 6 months ago+) thinking that would fix it but zinc basically had zero effect. I agree about finding the root cause but until I do I can't afford to masturbate at all because it does mess me up bad.

Maybe I permanently messed up my iron stores after that megadose experiment even though it was months ago now?
 
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Douglas Ek

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These days I rarely have a huge problem falling asleep, but I generally wake up once or twice (but don't have a huge problem going back to bed usually). Main problem is not feeling rested. Only time I get can a waking temp of 98.5F or so is if I sleep almost 12 hr like I tend to do on weekends.



Fatigued, lazy, moody, irritable, just overall signs of a drained metabolism yeah.



So you think that whereas alot of people think its zinc its actually low iron? I used to heavy dose zinc (I stopped maybe 6 months ago+) thinking that would fix it but zinc basically had zero effect. I agree about finding the root cause but until I do I can't afford to masturbate at all because it does mess me up bad.

Maybe I permanently messed up my iron stores after that megadose experiment even though it was months ago now?

Why don’t you just get a full iron panel with all different measures.
I see alot of my old symptoms in you. I remeber what ever I did nothing seemed to make it better untill I found the cause for me. The feeling was just very fatigued, tired and drained 0 motivation. I think it’s partly lack of dopamine. But you should investigate how your iron status is. s-iron, ferritin, transferrin, hemoglobin and even ceruloplasmin if you can get that I think got some stuff to tell. I don’t know what to think but I just see a lot of people with the same symptoms of feeling extremly fatigue, low temp and 0 motivation which all just seems to be more signs of low iron than zinc in my opinion. And no one gets better on any other supplements. But the only supplement they never suspect or tried (iron) might do the trick. It did for me and trust me I did spend thousands of dollars on supplements first to try get me out of my misery untill I finaly saw the pattern and decided to investigate further and I realized it was iron. Even though my ferritin was 50 i feelt horrbile all other measure where either borderline low or indicating low iron but non was under reference range and still it made me a complete mess.
 
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Cirion

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Why don’t you just get a full iron panel with all different measures.
I see alot of my old symptoms in you. I remeber what ever I did nothing seemed to make it better untill I found the cause for me. The feeling was just very fatigued, tired and drained 0 motivation. I think it’s partly lack of dopamine. But you should investigate how your iron status is. s-iron, ferritin, transferrin, hemoglobin and even ceruloplasmin if you can get that I think got some stuff to tell. I don’t know what to think but I just see a lot of people with the same symptoms of feeling extremly fatigue, low temp and 0 motivation which all just seems to be more signs of low iron than zinc in my opinion. And no one gets better on any other supplements. But the only supplement they never suspect or tried (iron) might do the trick. It did for me and trust me I did spend thousands of dollars on supplements first to try get me out of my misery untill I finaly saw the pattern and decided to investigate further and I realized it was iron. Even though my ferritin was 50 i feelt horrbile all other measure where either borderline low or indicating low iron but non was under reference range and still it made me a complete mess.

I am starting to think you're right man. I have been lazy to test because I don't really have a Dr. currently, don't wanna deal with Dr.'s, and also trying to build up my health savings account, but yeah, think I need to just do it and test.
 

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