We Are What We Eat But Also What We Sleep

What sleep has to do with "generosity of spirit" and more...

Our lives are like a lump of clay, that we are gifted. Then we sculpt.

How we live, contribute and interact with our world, is the sculptor’s knife.

In today’s world, there is a great deal of strife. Triggered anger. Depression. Young kids on drugs to treat anxiety.

Our lumps of clay are getting sticky.

I was just spending a week at the amazing Dr. David Brownstein’s house on Orchard Lake, near Ann Arbor, the city that houses U of M, my alma mater.

I shadowed him for a day. Always learning. Dr. Brownstein repeatedly told patient after patient, “Get back to the basics”.

What are the basics?

Food, air (the new food), exercise, community, purpose… and sleep. They all matter.

• Do you eat at least 5 colorful veggies and fruits a day?

• Are they diverse, meaning you eat different choices? Healthy guts (the “mothership” of our immune system) love “diversity”. Not monotony.

• Do you work out about 30 minutes a day getting healthfully “pink” in the face?

• Do you have a friend or family member that you tell each other how much you care?

• Do you sleep deep so you wake up refreshed? I care less about hours than how you feel when you wake up.

Lack of “restorative” sleep is associated with increased weight, risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, hypertension, and sexual dysfunction.

But wait, there’s more.

A study from the Univ. of CA Berkeley showed that lack of sleep also affects social interactions, making people less willing to help others. Less generosity of spirit.

In folks with insomnia, MRI scans reveal “less” activation of empathy parts of the brain.

Assessments of “sleep-deprived” also show a decreased desire to help others.

Charitable giving even drops 10% after the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. I am not a fan of Daylight Savings, ugh.

So, if you are not feeling GREAT or feeling like you’d hope to, this is what I often do when I am feeling “off”.

• Drink more water.

• Check my hormone therapies.

• Try to eat about 10 colorful veggies (easier than you think with salads and sautes’)

• Go to the gym and get my blood moving and get healthfully and sanely “pink” in the face. Circulation is life and it often up-regulates the “life” inside you.

• Call someone up to help them with something.

• And before bed, take something that helps with sleep. I will be posting my insomnia article soon, but magnesium glycinate, melatonin, homeopathic “Moon” drops, and more might help. Some folks need some of that old nerve root drug, gabapentin.

• And also remember to consider potential sleep disruptors. These can be caffeine too late in the day, alcohol, too little exercise or time outside, as well as watching screens too much and too close to bedtime. Lifestyle and food all contribute to which parts of your brain get healthy stimulation while you sleep. Even the parts that make you want to give more good stuff, rather than angered stuff. Wow.

However, remember, “Biology is not linear”.

One person may need 40 mg of melatonin to help with sleep (and generosity) or someone else may feel knocked out unless they use “under” one mg of melatonin.

One person may achieve a deeper sleep with 200 mg of magnesium glycinate while someone else may need more.

Don’t forget hormones. The number one cause of poor sleep is hormone imbalance. This used to be mainly as we aged. But with hormone-disrupting chemicals in our air, food, and water, even kids today can suffer from hormonal imbalances.

Consider my new products designed to try to help hormones stay safer and signal better (Biotics “Receptor Detox” and “Hormone Balance & Protect”).

Don’t fret over not sleeping or feeling well. But first, get back to the basics and see if this serves you better.

To be more your best.

For your lump of clay to be your own piece of art!

Dr. B.

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Reference:

Sleep loss leads to the withdrawal of human helping across individuals, groups, and large-scale societies. PLOS Biology, 2022; 20 (8): e3001733 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001733