I Think My Chronic Brain Fog Was Simply Exhaustion From Poor Sleep Quality

barefooter

Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
218
For months (maybe even a year), I've been having brain fog, feeling spaced out, lacking motivation, feeling depressed, etc. I was also sleeping very poorly. I'd be up late on my computer, go to bed around 12 or 1, sleep for 8-10 hours, and wake up feeling exhausted--everyday. It was really depressing and I felt totally helpless! Then last week I started getting really serious about sleep. I started taking b1, k2, and l-ornithine before bed, not being on the computer late, and getting to bed by 10.

The very first morning after trying this, I woke up before my alarm at 6, felt fully rested, motivated, and excited about life. I was alert throughout the day, had one of the best days I'd had all year (doing nothing interesting really), and had zero brain fog. I did the same thing the next night, and woke up even earlier at 5:30. I've kept this up for a week now, and I'm astonished at how much better I feel. It's like I just woke up from a long dream (more like a nightmare actually)! Last night I went to bed at 9:30, and I was up at 4, rearing to go. I went on a walk, worked out, and made breakfast before the sun even came up.

I'm sure there are tons of causes of brain fog, but if you're suffering from this and suspect you have poor quality sleep, it may be time to get serious about sleep. This has made me realize that good quality sleep is as important as nutrition, and I'd been focusing too much on one area and not enough on others. It makes me wonder how many mental conditions are really just chronic fatigue related.
 

tara

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2014
Messages
10,368
Excellent. Makes sense to me.
I figure 'baby-brain' could be at least half if not all accounted for by chronic sleep-deprivation, too.
 

Makrosky

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
3,982
barefooter said:
post 108717 For months (maybe even a year), I've been having brain fog, feeling spaced out, lacking motivation, feeling depressed, etc. I was also sleeping very poorly. I'd be up late on my computer, go to bed around 12 or 1, sleep for 8-10 hours, and wake up feeling exhausted--everyday. It was really depressing and I felt totally helpless! Then last week I started getting really serious about sleep. I started taking b1, k2, and l-ornithine before bed, not being on the computer late, and getting to bed by 10.

The very first morning after trying this, I woke up before my alarm at 6, felt fully rested, motivated, and excited about life. I was alert throughout the day, had one of the best days I'd had all year (doing nothing interesting really), and had zero brain fog. I did the same thing the next night, and woke up even earlier at 5:30. I've kept this up for a week now, and I'm astonished at how much better I feel. It's like I just woke up from a long dream (more like a nightmare actually)! Last night I went to bed at 9:30, and I was up at 4, rearing to go. I went on a walk, worked out, and made breakfast before the sun even came up.

I'm sure there are tons of causes of brain fog, but if you're suffering from this and suspect you have poor quality sleep, it may be time to get serious about sleep. This has made me realize that good quality sleep is as important as nutrition, and I'd been focusing too much on one area and not enough on others. It makes me wonder how many mental conditions are really just chronic fatigue related.

Interesting...! Thanks for sharing. And glad you're waking up from the zombie state haha

By the way, why did you chose b1, k2 to sleep ? These are promoters of energy, it's not unheard of that some people get insomnia from K2, and others that can't go to sleep if they take their b-complex late in the day.

The l-ornithine... Is it Peat safe ?

It should be interesting to know if it's the quality of the sleep produced by the supplements, or the different schedule. Because you're sleeping the same number of hours (or less) and yet you feel better. I've always noticed that I feel much better if I wake up early. In my case it's not about supps or total number of sleep hours, but going to bed earlier and waking up earlier.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DaveFoster

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
5,027
Location
Portland, Oregon
I find that I'm far more resistant to sleep-deprivation now that I've been taken things to raise metabolism and counter stress-hormones. I can pull an all-nighter and average 4 hours per night for a week and feel absolutely fine. Maybe your supplements are allowing your mitochondria to function more efficiently or something that benefits cellular metabolism.
 
OP
B

barefooter

Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
218
Makrosky said:
post 108737 By the way, why did you chose b1, k2 to sleep ? These are promoters of energy, it's not unheard of that some people get insomnia from K2, and others that can't go to sleep if they take their b-complex late in the day.

It seemed that during my sleep I was very stressed, because I would chatter my teeth sometimes, toss around, and sometimes have nightmares or stressful dreams when I did remember them, despite sleeping through the night without waking. I had a bottle of b1, and knew it had been talked about as a stress reducer, so I thought I'd give it a try. I was already taking the k2, so figured what the heck why not try it before bed. Before taking these, I felt like I was dying a little when I went to sleep, so maybe my body needs the extra energy during the night.

Makrosky said:
post 108737 The l-ornithine... Is it Peat safe ?

That's a good question, and I'm not sure of the answer yet as I need to do more research. I have read many testimonials of how much it's helped with sleep, so at this point if it does have negative, the benefits may outweigh it for me. I know it was talked about in one of the recent Danny Roddy podcasts, but I'll need to go back and listen. It was only mentioned very briefly and I don't remember the context, but it got me interested. I've heard it can increase growth hormone, but I think that may be in larger doses.

Makrosky said:
post 108737 t should be interesting to know if it's the quality of the sleep produced by the supplements, or the different schedule. Because you're sleeping the same number of hours (or less) and yet you feel better. I've always noticed that I feel much better if I wake up early. In my case it's not about supps or total number of sleep hours, but going to bed earlier and waking up earlier.

This is something I've considered, that it's just the different schedule that's helping me. I plan to test the theory, but at the moment I'm feeling so much better I don't want to mess with anything. After a couple more weeks of this, I plan to try dropping the night time supps and keeping the schedule to see what happens.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Makrosky

Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
3,982
barefooter said:
Makrosky said:
post 108737 By the way, why did you chose b1, k2 to sleep ? These are promoters of energy, it's not unheard of that some people get insomnia from K2, and others that can't go to sleep if they take their b-complex late in the day.

It seemed that during my sleep I was very stressed, because I would chatter my teeth sometimes, toss around, and sometimes have nightmares or stressful dreams when I did remember them, despite sleeping through the night without waking. I had a bottle of b1, and knew it had been talked about as a stress reducer, so I thought I'd give it a try. I was already taking the k2, so figured what the heck why not try it before bed. Before taking these, I felt like I was dying a little when I went to sleep, so maybe my body needs the extra energy during the night.

Makrosky said:
post 108737 The l-ornithine... Is it Peat safe ?

That's a good question, and I'm not sure of the answer yet as I need to do more research. I have read many testimonials of how much it's helped with sleep, so at this point if it does have negative, the benefits may outweigh it for me. I know it was talked about in one of the recent Danny Roddy podcasts, but I'll need to go back and listen. It was only mentioned very briefly and I don't remember the context, but it got me interested. I've heard it can increase growth hormone, but I think that may be in larger doses.

Makrosky said:
post 108737 t should be interesting to know if it's the quality of the sleep produced by the supplements, or the different schedule. Because you're sleeping the same number of hours (or less) and yet you feel better. I've always noticed that I feel much better if I wake up early. In my case it's not about supps or total number of sleep hours, but going to bed earlier and waking up earlier.

This is something I've considered, that it's just the different schedule that's helping me. I plan to test the theory, but at the moment I'm feeling so much better I don't want to mess with anything. After a couple more weeks of this, I plan to try dropping the night time supps and keeping the schedule to see what happens.

:hattip
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Ipsissimus

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2015
Messages
6
What dose of B1 and K2? What type of K2?

Thanks, and congrats on getting some much needed rest.
 

JCastro

Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2016
Messages
101
barefooter, do you still attribute your improvement to changing the time you go to sleep, or the supplements?

I can see how poor quality sleep is bad, but just going to bed late, like at 12 or 1, is it really that detrimental? I wonder if many airplane pilots get chronic fatigue from shifting their sleep schedules around.

Oh, yeah they do.
 

JCastro

Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2016
Messages
101
So, I have been having some 2 or 3 day cycles of no sleep for the first time ever. Sleep deprivation is a popular niche treatment for depression. Apparently it increases BDNF (which lowers serotonin) but it also increases a broad spectrum of other things, including tryptophan and serotonin sadly, but also taurine (which I think also lowers serotonin). I notice that after the first night of no sleep and into the next day, I get an increased feeling of surrealness, far-awayness, and it reminds me of what you read about SSRI's side effects, and kind of reminds me of the time I was on an SSRI. Things are less depressing, but only because you are being chemically altered, not in a good way, most likely.

And I think sleep deprivation is very hard on the gut. Probably hard on a bunch of organs. Sleep is important. But this is a phase I'm going through. Hopefully it ends, sooner rather than later.

Oh, and filling up frequently with lots of protein sugar and some coconut oil makes this more tolerable. I was physically unable to do "all-nighters" in childhood cause I wasn't eating enough. But I think it's a measure of health reserves to function on no sleep. The go-getters seem to do it. President Trump prides himself on "always being awake at 3am to answer the call"!
 

sladerunner69

Member
Joined
May 24, 2013
Messages
3,307
Age
31
Location
Los Angeles
To what specifically do you attribute this rare capacity? Peat living, I suppose, but could you encapsulate your approach for us?

I discoverred this type of sleeping when I read the 4-hour body by Timothy Ferris, it is called the "uberman" polyphasic sleep schedule. Essentially you force your mind into adapting to 20 minute power naps 6 times a day. The body learns to dive right into deep REM sleep the second you shut your eyes, so you are theoretically getting the same amount of deep wave REM sleep as you would be under an 8-hour sleep block. It actually works quite well, except for the time your body is under light wave sleep is completely missing, which may or may not provide serious benefits (this is to be determined). There are also some catches, like if you miss a nap or your timing on the nap, then you are royaly screwed and you feel like the walking dead. But I would recommend to anyone looking for more time for working on their passions or reading or whatever, Leonardo Davinci, Tesla, Lord Byron and other intellects were known to sleep this way.
 

bawild

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
35
Do you get any deep slow wave sleep (SWS) with this approach? SWS seems to be critical for memory and mental clarity among other things. I have sleep apnea which not only ruins sleep quality by reducing and fragmenting SWS and REM, but also causes brain hypoxia/reperfusion which is associated with high stress hormones, oxidative stress and shrinkage of certain structures in the brain. You can imagine the impact on brain fog, mood and energy. I'm a month into CPAP and things are improving.

@haidut posted a study showing Ritanserin can almost double SWS. Anyone try this to see if this made them feel more refreshed in the morning?
 

Regina

Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2016
Messages
6,511
Location
Chicago
Do you get any deep slow wave sleep (SWS) with this approach? SWS seems to be critical for memory and mental clarity among other things. I have sleep apnea which not only ruins sleep quality by reducing and fragmenting SWS and REM, but also causes brain hypoxia/reperfusion which is associated with high stress hormones, oxidative stress and shrinkage of certain structures in the brain. You can imagine the impact on brain fog, mood and energy. I'm a month into CPAP and things are improving.

@haidut posted a study showing Ritanserin can almost double SWS. Anyone try this to see if this made them feel more refreshed in the morning?
My rat had a few drops of 5a-DHP and 4 drops of ritanserin before bed last night with a glass of sugary milk with a tbs of gelatin and a pinch of salt. Slept 11 hrs solid. Woke-up incredibly refreshed. Felt guilty and set about getting things accomplished. Not groggy at all.
 

Ideonaut

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2015
Messages
499
Location
Seattle
I discoverred this type of sleeping when I read the 4-hour body by Timothy Ferris, it is called the "uberman" polyphasic sleep schedule. Essentially you force your mind into adapting to 20 minute power naps 6 times a day. The body learns to dive right into deep REM sleep the second you shut your eyes, so you are theoretically getting the same amount of deep wave REM sleep as you would be under an 8-hour sleep block. It actually works quite well, except for the time your body is under light wave sleep is completely missing, which may or may not provide serious benefits (this is to be determined). There are also some catches, like if you miss a nap or your timing on the nap, then you are royaly screwed and you feel like the walking dead. But I would recommend to anyone looking for more time for working on their passions or reading or whatever, Leonardo Davinci, Tesla, Lord Byron and other intellects were known to sleep this way.
Kool, thnx!
 

Constatine

Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2016
Messages
1,781
So, I have been having some 2 or 3 day cycles of no sleep for the first time ever. Sleep deprivation is a popular niche treatment for depression. Apparently it increases BDNF (which lowers serotonin) but it also increases a broad spectrum of other things, including tryptophan and serotonin sadly, but also taurine (which I think also lowers serotonin). I notice that after the first night of no sleep and into the next day, I get an increased feeling of surrealness, far-awayness, and it reminds me of what you read about SSRI's side effects, and kind of reminds me of the time I was on an SSRI. Things are less depressing, but only because you are being chemically altered, not in a good way, most likely.

And I think sleep deprivation is very hard on the gut. Probably hard on a bunch of organs. Sleep is important. But this is a phase I'm going through. Hopefully it ends, sooner rather than later.

Oh, and filling up frequently with lots of protein sugar and some coconut oil makes this more tolerable. I was physically unable to do "all-nighters" in childhood cause I wasn't eating enough. But I think it's a measure of health reserves to function on no sleep. The go-getters seem to do it. President Trump prides himself on "always being awake at 3am to answer the call"!
The increases in bdnf is a stress reaction. The body ups it's production of neutrophic factors in response to mental stresses. When you get a brain injury bndf levels skyrocket to repair the brain, when you are sleep deprived your brain is under stress and increases BDNF. This does not mean that lack of sleep is good for the brain of course.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom