I used to sleep like I was the world champion of slumber. If I wanted 8 hours, I did so easily and without interruption. Every so often on a day off, maybe I’d get ten if I felt so inclined. And, every so often I’d get 4 or 6 hours, and still handle things just fine.
Those days are over. For the past few years, I’ve battled to get a functional level of sleep, and I have tried seemingly everything to get back to the refreshment I used to experience every morning. Was I just getting older? New life circumstances? Mental stress? I had no idea, but it nearly broke me in the process of figuring it out. Sometimes I couldn’t get to sleep, other times I’d wake up and couldn’t fall back to sleep, tossing and turning all night. Other times I’d be up urinating multiple times, then lay there while frustration set in, further impairing my ability to sleep. So now, after battling this for several years and testing every conceivable variable under the sun, I’ve finally returned to an approximation of the sleep I used to get, so I thought I’d write this article in case anyone else needed help with their sleep patterns. I won’t be addressing mental issues such as depression or stress,(see other articles) so I’ll stick to mostly physical and environmental issues that can negatively impact sleep. Here is the first thing you need to understand: Good sleep has multiple variables. It is unlikely that any one thing will outright fix the issues you’ve had, so there are many things that need to align in order to get you that restful sleep you desire. That’s why this article is called the Sleep Equation, sometimes it feels like tweaking an algorithm messing with one area of your sleep without messing .up in another. So without any further delay, here’s the list of all the things I’ve tried that finally helped me, and I hope helps you. 1. Temperature: My ability to fall asleep and stay comfortable improved dramatically once I started setting the thermostat from 66-69. 2. Snug factor: Coupled with the cooler temperature, I introduced heavier blankets, which I believe made a difference in my level of comfort. Feeling snug under piles of blankets helped a great deal. 3. Less meat at dinner: This one was a shocker. I normally eat massive quantities of meat in general, so I never considered that it might be a problem. One day I skimmed an article about vegan pro wrestler Tyler Bate. In it, he mentioned that once he went vegan, he slept considerably better. Now, I’m not going vegan, no way in hell, but I thought maybe reducing protein could help. Turns out, that was right on the money, and I found an article (which I can't find now) confirming just that. It seems the body can’t relax properly if it’s processing too much meat, at least in some cases. This is an example of “not every body is the same.” For me, once I dropped down to quarter portions, it made an immediate impact. 4. Cereal before bed: I used to do this all the time my good sleep days, but never associated it with being a reason I was sleeping so well. Turns out after some research that some level of simple carbs are good before bed to spike serotonin levels, making for more restful sleep. Which leads me to my next, and most significant one. 5. Low carb diets wrecked me: Everyone is different, and there are those for whom this diet worked wonders. For me however, this was a nightmare. I slept poorly, and never felt good in general. I will never try this diet again, or at least not at the near zero carb levels I was doing. 6. Supplements: I tried every supplement under the sun. GABA, various blends of Zinc, Magnesium, and Melatonin, none of which really got the job done consistently. I also took some over the counter testosterone products that contained stuff like tribulus, which produced far worse sleep as well. I never wanted to use actual sleep meds (such as Ambien), since I felt like that was only obscuring, rather than actually fixing the problem. 7. Comfort: Should be obvious in accordance with the Snug Principle mentioned above, but try to get a comfortable mattress, sheets, and pillow. This might take some doing, for me the pillow was the hardest one to find, and highly specific to the individual’s sleep patterns. The tricky part is not getting frustrated while you make incremental adjustments daily. 8. Citric Acid and Carbonation: It is impossible for me to overstate what a revelation this was. I used to urinate at insane levels, as there would be times I’d go 4 or 5 times in a hour. The culprit? Acidic and/or carbonated drinks. Worse still, nearly everything has one or the other. The little Mio flavorings I used were wrecking my bladder, and it took years to figure it out. I just always assumed that’s just how it was, that I urinated a lot. Turns out, citric acid is in all of the stuff I like to drink. What used to really nuke my bladder was Monster Energy Citrus. These drinks have a lot of adverse effects, so keep an eye on your consumption. These can have adverse effects on your bladder and consequently, ruin a good night of sleep. 9. Water Retention: I take a lot of supplements that cause excess water retention such as Creatine and Citrulline. Even if you drink nothing for half the day, you are likely to still urinate a lot in the middle of the night due to your body purging excess water. If you are retaining water, you are more likely to have to get up to urinate in the middle of the night. 10. Work out: I hope this is blatantly obvious, but if not, here it is. Even if all you do is walk, get some level of physical activity and motion. So there you have it, years of trial and error boiled down into one article. Hopefully this helps, and if you know anyone with sleep issues, please share this and hopefully we can all sleep a little better at night. Steve Mager If you enjoyed this article, please share it and follow me on social media: Facebook: www.facebook.com/StevenAMager Twitter: https://twitter.com/StevenAMager Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steve_mager/ Get my book, Forging the Iron Mind: [https://amzn.to/2uxRvCs]
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If you trained hard in the late ’90s then you know one supplement came as close as we’ve ever gotten to a magic bullet for weight loss and energy:
Ephedrine. This supplement, found in iconic products such as Ripped Fuel and Stacker 2, along with the venerable ECA stack (Ephedrine, Caffeine, Aspirin) fueled innumerable workouts of myself and my friends. These products were capable of elevating a lousy workout to good, and good to exceptional, based on the seemingly never-ending font of energy they produced. For years, I took these products in frankly unsafe levels, getting to the point where I was overdosing nearly every day, just to get that jacked, machine-like rampage going in the gym. I remember nights of partying and drinking, then waking up on 4 hours of sleep, popping a few Stacker 2s, then going berserk in the gym. Even if I was utterly wiped out, this pill could bring me back from the brink, and power up a great workout. Such was the power of Ephedrine. No supplement, before or since (save steroids and prohormones) has produced such a noticeable effect on energy levels and weight loss. As a matter of fact, no one even tried to argue it wasn’t effective. So how did a supplement, the core of which had been used in Chinese medicine since the Han dynasty with over 2000 years of history, get banned? The same way a lot of the first wave of Prohormones (over the counter steroids for all intents and purposes) did: Baseball, coupled with pharmaceutical and insurance companies. The FDA had been looking into Ephedrine since the early ’90s, but nothing serious ever came of it, given the long history it has had globally. They would issue a report or white paper, call it a day and move onto the next thing. Then, on February 16th, Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler died after a workout, and subsequent toxicology showed that he had Ephedrine in his system. This was all the impetus needed to move on Ephedrine, even though he had multiple other health issues, and had overdosed Xenadrine on a hot day without hydration. Even the doctors stated that they could not conclusively prove ephedrine was the cause of death, and many others have died of heat and exercise problems without Ephedrine. In the wake of this death, paper after paper was released detailing the potentially harmful effects of Ephedrine. Immediately, within one month, the FDA issued proposed rules to regulate the supplements, and in less than a year, a blanket ban on Ephedrine had been issued. Frankly, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the government resolve anything this quickly, but here we were, watching a supplement used for thousands of years get banned despite a complete lack of factual basis. The key to this whole thing is understanding that the FDA bows to pressure from outside groups and utilizes tainted scientific data. In my book, I showed how Coke paid scientists in the ’60s to shift the blame from sugar to fat for obesity and heart disease, to keep people slugging down sugary sodas. The FDA is the organization that spent decades recommending an aspirin a day, only to retract the recommendation many years later. People would even have side effects from an overdose of ASPIRIN, showing that any drug can be potentially harmful. Banning cocaine, or heroin, or steroids were one thing, but the Ephedrine ban was the first moment I can remember where the government banned something that was only theoretically dangerous. In the wake of the Ephedrine ban, many more effective supplements got the ax as well. So, how did this all happen? Take a look at all of the most effective supplements that have been banned, or are in the process of being prohibited or restricted. Ephedrine, Glutamine, CBD Oil, and even Prohormones are all highly effective, and also dirt-cheap. These have either been banned already or are on the chopping block. In addition, they all have prescription alternatives that are insanely expensive. Adderall, Testosterone Replacement and the like are prescribed like candy and are not only more expensive but highly addictive. Take a look at TRT (testosterone replacement therapy). In the old days, if you wanted to get jacked, you just ran a cycle of over the counter Androstenedione, the supplement that Mark McGwire took when he was blasting baseballs into the stratosphere. It would amp your Testosterone levels, you’d get jacked, then come off of it for a while and everything was great. Sure enough, Andro and its variants were too effective and too cheap. Andro gets banned and placed in the same category with actual steroids; meanwhile, Big Pharma comes up with a way to keep you jacked 24/7/365 by completely replacing your natural testosterone production, and calling it TRT. So now, instead of popping some cheap Andro for a few months, then taking some time off, you now get to completely replace your natural testosterone production, for a nice tidy monthly payment, since coincidentally, no other method is legal. All you have to do is never come off of it, since it completely stops your testosterone production, permanently. Better hope you never lose your health insurance package on that one. I used to think the banning of supplements was just a sort of nanny state overreach by the government. It is, but keep in mind, these FDA and government officials have been shown information that they believe to be correct. Not all of them are corrupt bureaucrats, rubbing their hands together like super-villains, most are probably actually being deceived. The real question is who commissioned the studies that showed Ephedrine to be dangerous and presented them to the FDA? Which group got paid for the studies? What about Andro? Who stands to gain by a particular supplement being banned, when there is a permanent pharmaceutical replacement available at a much higher cost? Remember, the next time you take some absurdly expensive prescription and pay a ludicrous amount each month for insurance, that at some point there was likely a dirt cheap version that got shoved off the life raft in favor of prescription medication. Steve Mager If you enjoyed this article, please share it and follow me on social media: Facebook: www.facebook.com/StevenAMager Twitter: https://twitter.com/StevenAMager Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steve_mager/ Get my book, Forging the Iron Mind: [https://amzn.to/2uxRvCs] |
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