Ray Peat on sleep

"Contrary to popular ideas about thyroid, the gland will resume its functioning after stopping the use of a supplement even if it has been suppressed, and sometimes taking thyroid will increase the glands function to normal. Taking thyroid will sometimes help thin people gain weight, by improving protein metabolism, and it often helps people to sleep more soundly."

- Nutrition For Women

"Sometimes a few hundred milligrams of magnesium carbonate per day (or a spoonful of epsom salts, if this dose is divided into several parts to avoid the laxative effect) will immediately make it possible to sleep normally."

- Nutrition For Women

"Since blood sugar is normally higher in the daytime, because of lights effect on various glands, some people with defective livers find it easier to sleep in the daytime."

- Nutrition For Women

"Many of the changes caused by daily stresses are reversed during deep slow wave sleep. The amount of slow wave sleep is decreased with aging. A few animal studies have found that artificially extended sleep reversed some of the major problems of old age. Progesterone is able to increase the amount of slow wave sleep, probably because of its effect on body temperatur"

- November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"A combination of energy-promoting factors that increase body temperature and increase deep sleep seems like a reasonable approach to extending the healthy life span."

- November 2020 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Since the normal person has sharp diurnal cycles of brain activity (reflecting a proper concentration of the brain amines) and many psychotics have flattened cycles, involving disturbed sleep as well as disturbed waking consciousness, cyclic light stimulation of skin and head might be desirable to support regular cyclic activity of the pineal gland and brain."

- Mind And Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

"The oldest, most basic therapies, sleep and nutrition, have the same function of restoring energy reserves. Pavlov worked with the simplest stimulants and sedatives, for example caffeine and bromide, to restore normal nervous functions, and of course always considered sensory stimulation essential to maintaining and restoring normal functioning."

- Mind And Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

"The natural anesthetic steroids would probably be the first choice for a chemically induced state of sleep if they could be administered conveniently."

- Mind And Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

"Brain amines seem to support these ordered states--clarity of waking experience, as well as soundness of sleep, require sufficient amines. In rats that are made hypoxic, activity of monoamine oxidase decreases and respiratory effectiveness apparently increases adaptively (Khvatova, Rubanova, and Zhilina, Voprosy Meditsinskoy Khimii 19(1), 3-5, 1973. Administration of monoamine oxidase inhibitors improves resistance of mice to hypoxia (Piskarev, et al., Farmakologiy i Toksikologiya 36(1), 4854, 1973)."

- Mind And Tissue Russian Research Perspectives on the Human Brain

"In rats, prolonged sleep disruption produces a syndrome of increased food intake, weight loss, increased noradrenaline, decreased thyroxine, decreased body temperature,"

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The whole organism sleeps, though the brain regulates the process. In some aspects of its metabolism, especially the turnover of phospholipids, the brain is very active during sleep, but its energy consumption decreases, and it causes the skeletal muscles to relax, reducing their consumption of glucose."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Although free fatty acids normally increase during the night, their increase is much greater when sleep is inadequate, and a diabetes-like metabolism appears, with a shift toward the oxidation of fat rather than glucose."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"the stress of darkness creates an inefficient catabolic state, in which cortisol breaks down tissues to provide glucose, and that sleep, to some extent, reduces the stress."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"When cells are excited, they release some ATP into their local surroundings, where it signals fatigue or injury, activating the formation of inflammatory factors such as TNF-alpha, which promote the sleep rhythm."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"A small area of the brain can go into the sleep rhythm earlier than other areas, if it has been more strongly stimulated."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Since thyroid hormone is needed for oxidative metabolism everywhere in the body, its deficiency makes brain cells slow to relax, delaying the onset of sleep, and can even prevent the deepest restorative sleep. Since all cells are regulated by excitatory and inhibitory processes, hypothyroidism can create a bias toward excitatory states, leading to abnormal secretion and proliferation, for example."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"sleep begins in the cortex, and spreads to other parts of the brain and body."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The familiar events at the onset of sleep can be understood in terms of the spread of inhibition from the cortex to the brainstem and adjoining structures."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"During the night, even with the quieting actions of sleep, breakdown of protein is much faster than synthesis, and calcium is lost from the bones."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"For the generation of therapists who followed Pavlov, such as K.I. Platonov (1930), the induction of sleep was considered to be the most effective aspect of psychotherapy."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"The intensity of lipolysis during the night is decreased during the most restorative deep sleep, but the free fatty acids themselves, by blocking oxidation of glucose to carbon dioxide, tend to increase lactate and to depress glucose metabolism, creating an inflammatory and excitatory state that interferes with deep sleep."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Using snacks to minimize the nocturnal increase of free fatty acids and hypoglycemia is an effective way to support restorative sleep, and to retard the brain-aging effects of the accumulation of the unstable fatty acids. Calcium and vitamin D, sufficient to keep parathyroid hormone low, contribute to that process."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Salty snacks are especially helpful for bringing on sleep, probably by stabilizing blood glucose and lowering adrenalin. Ice cream, combining sugar, calcium, and some fat that prolongs the absorption of the sugar, is often effective for improving the quality of sleep."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"hyroxin, T4, helps to reduce the nocturnal level of the proinflammatory thyroid stimulating hormone, TSH, but 5 or 10 mcg of the immediately active T3 at bedtime will usually produce sleep within a few minutes."

- March 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"during deep sleep, inhibitory processes are able to restore stability to the cells that were damaged by toxic excitatory processes,"

- March 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Serotonin is the precursor for melatonin, which is important for adapting to darkness by promoting sleep to reduce stress."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"events in the intestine, where most serotonin is produced, in the blood where it’s transported, and in the lung, where much of it is detoxified, will affect the brain. Toxins produced by intestinal bacteria cause serotonin to be released into the bloodstream, and if the platelets aren’t able to keep it tightly bound until the lungs can eliminate it, some of it will reach the brain, where it will interfere with sleep and other brain functions."

- July 2019 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Other things that should be taken into account in any therapy are the light environment and the intestinal flora (endotoxin activates HIF), the cycles of sleep and activity, and the quality of environmental stimulation."

- July 2017 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"t bedtime, a mild warm bath can compensate for low internal heat production, increasing the metabolic rate and helping to increase glycogen stores and increase progesterone level, making deep restorative sleep possible. But if the bath is too warm or too prolonged, or if estrogen’s influence is too great, the increased metabolic rate can intensify the inefficient metabolism further depleting energy stores, and leading to higher stress hormones. Having extra carbohydrate before and during the warm bath improves its therapeutic function, and decreases the risk of heat shock."

- January 2021 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"REM sleep and the orienting reflex both promote flexibility and fluidity of thinking, with increased sensitivity to motion,"

- January 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"It has been suggested (Sanford, et al., 1993) that the presence of these waves in REM sleep indicates that the brain is in a state of more-or-less continual orienting. When progesterone is given during sleep, it increases the amount of REM."

- January 2018 - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Cyproheptadine, 2 to 4 mg at bedtime, would help with his sleep as well as the cancer. It also has calcium blocking action, aldosterone antagonism, and antagonizes serotonins antidiuretic effect."

- Email Response by Ray Peat

"Since I had become a sound sleeper as soon as I began taking thyroid, and had seen that thyroid alone would cure most people’s insomnia (sometimes, as one doctor described his experience, better than morphine) I began to understand that the adrenalin which disturbed sleep was an indicator of defective energy production, and that the things which restored sleep—thyroid, salt, sugar, protein, and progesterone, for example—were acting directly on the cells’ energy production."

- 2000 - January - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"I have recommended salty foods at bedtime to promote sleep, because of sodiums recognized anti-adrenalin effect. There are some complicated ways of thinking about its effect on adrenalin, as there are for explaining its thermogenic effect, but the simple fact that it is needed for absorbing glucose can explain its ability to lower adrenalin (since adrenalin rises when glucose is needed) and to increase heat production."

- 1998 - Ray Peat's Newsletter - 4

"Although I tended to be hypermetabolic, and had been puzzled for years about the co-existence of signs of both hyper- and hypothyroidism, I finally tried taking thyroid. Immediately, I was able to sleep easily and deeply, and my need for food decreased. It was obvious that thyroid was having a quieting effect on my whole metabolism. I slept more efficiently, woke up refreshed, and had abundant energy during the daylight hours, and began looking for chores to do around the house, just for fun. Before taking thyroid, the first thing I did every morning was to drink two or three cups of coffee, but a few days after taking thyroid I noticed I didn’t think about coffee very often, and I drank about 90% less, without feeling any withdrawal symptoms."

- 1994 - April - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"In the last 20 years, | have seen almost everyone’s insomnia disappear when they correct their hypothyroidism, sometimes just with dietary changes, but more often with a thyroid supplement. Many times, people have told me that they get to sleep within a few minutes when they take a minimal dose of thyroid at bedtime. By increasing the rate of energy production,"

- 1994 - April - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"Sleep is a generalized stress-limiting function of the brain."

- 1992 - June - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"While many people think of thyroid as a kind of stimulant, because it can cure the coma or lethargy of myxedema, this is a very misleading idea. In hypothyroidism, the brain exciting hormones adrenalin, estrogen, and cortisol are usually elevated, and the nerve-muscle relaxant magnesium is low. Normal, deep sleep is rare in a hypothyroid person. The correct dose of trilodothyronine (the active thyroid hormone) with magnesium is a reliable treatment for insomnia, cramps, and anxiety, whether these symptoms are caused by fatigue, or aging, or alcohol withdrawal."

- 1991 - June- Ray Peat's Newsletter

"People who are awake in the dark have higher levels of cortisol than when they are asleep in the dark, that is, sleep is a partial defense against the stress of darkness. The cortisol (an adrenalin) secreted in darkness, or other stress, has the important function of maintaining the blood sugar level."

- 1991 - January - Ray Peat's Newsletter

"I experimented with various herbs known to have antihistamine and anticholinergic action, with the thought that they would help to sustain blood sugar through the night. (For example, insulin secretion is stimulated by acetylcholine from cholinergic nerves, and lowering its action during the night would decrease the need for adrenalin and cortisol.) My best results so far have been with a combination of the mildly sedative Jimson weed and the stimulant Ephedra;in combination, it seems that their antihistamine and glucose sustaining effects predominate, allowing comfortable sleep without the dry-mouth effect of their anticholinergic action."

- 1991 - January - Ray Peat's Newsletter