“Improved Metabolism with Ray Peat, but Still Struggling with Sleep and Gut Issues”
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Ever since I discovered Ray Peat, I’ve generally been eating quite a lot, and I’ve improved almost every aspect of my health, including my metabolism and thyroid function. However, I still have a problem with sleep.
I’m now convinced that it has something to do with histamine, gut dysbiosis, and related issues. I just don’t know what I should do or what approach I should follow to actually resolve it.
For example, many times I feel like I shouldn’t have eaten too much because I get the urge to go to the bathroom during the night. On the other hand, if I haven’t had a proper bowel movement, I can’t sleep either. And if I haven’t eaten enough and don’t have enough fuel, I also can’t sleep.
I’ve also tried things like cyproheptadine and other approaches, but even then I either have difficulty falling asleep, or I wake up after only five to five and a half hours and then have difficulty falling back asleep. So even when I try to address the histamine side of things, the sleep problem still persists.
This is something that makes my life extremely difficult, and I honestly don’t know where I should focus my attention or what exactly I should do to solve it.
Unfortunately, I’ve also noticed that eating a lot of sugar doesn’t help my gut or my dysbiosis. That’s something I’ve observed in my own experience.
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What’s your diet like? Bloodwork?
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@hcwilliams Unfortunately, my diet hasn’t been that great lately. I haven’t been paying as much attention to it, and I’ve been eating quite a lot of carbohydrates. I’ve noticed that when I eat less or completely remove starches, I may actually feel better. But on the other hand, I also need to eat enough to support a good metabolism, so I can’t just stay hungry or undereat.
Unfortunately, I also have very frequent bowel movements, and that bothers me quite a lot. Sometimes it can even affect my sleep at night I may feel like I need to go to the bathroom, and that can keep me from falling asleep or wake me up.
Also, because blood work used to cause me quite a lot of anxiety in the past, I haven’t had any blood tests done for quite some time.
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@Ilias-Ant It would be good to see where cholesterol, cortisol, vitamin D, TSH are
Have you tried thyroid?
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A few general things to check off to have a good sleep. I avoid specifics to keep it short as everything is context-dependent and going into detail on one area that isn't relevant can easily throw you off scent.
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stable blood sugar going into sleep
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enough magnesium stores as magnesium is needed to form ATP magnesium complex for energy availability, especially with the brain.
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Sufficient potassium stores - as with potassium deficiency you cannot build magnesium stores
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minimization of oxidative stressors such as PUFAs and heavy metals (including free iron) that form free radicals that can destroy tissue were it not for the body's primary antioxidant defenses such as glutathione, uric acid, and albumin, just to name a few players
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minimizing the development and growth of pathogens from external and internal sources. External would be from eating foods that harbor bacteria and parasites from improper cooking and sourcing, as well as from having sores and cuts untreated that becomes an entry point for external. infection. Internal sources would be from.not having a good internal terrain such as having high acidity in the ecf (extracellular fluids) that favor the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria. One not ve missed is periodontal pathogens. These are just examples and are not comprehensive.
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Not to be overlooked is inflammation. These are usually coming from the body's own defenses but when depended on all the time to deal with an issue that won't resolve, becomes a chronic case of inflammation. One notable example is the production of endotoxins from dead microbes. This is the case with gram-negative bacteria usually, but can also happen with gram-positive bacteria and with fungus.
From these possibilities, you have to narrow down to which of these describe your situation. And then once you have identified your problem, you can begin to solve it. It is for me a long process. It is taking me at least half a lifetime. But it does not have to be if I can rely on some experts with comprehensive knowledge from good training and relevant experience. Which is to say there is little.
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@Ilias-Ant waking up after 5 hours sounds a lot like what Ray Peat described in his hypothyroidism article: "Some people wake up during the adrenalin peak with a pounding heart, and have trouble getting back to sleep unless they eat something." He tied it to the liver holding very little glycogen when thyroid is low, so adrenalin and cortisol go up overnight to hold blood sugar. When that happens, does a little milk or juice with something salty get you back to sleep?
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@thebiooracle Wasn't too interested in this thread until I read this, I definitely experience something similar to this (heart pounding, overheating, milk/juice getting me back to sleep)
I found that including more protein and fat in my diet, particularly for dinner, helps keep blood sugar steady throughout my sleep without the adrenalin waking me up.
I generally eat carb heavy macro-wise, so this was the obvious solution for me. I'm assuming someone who eats 30-30-30 and still experiences these symptoms has another issue.
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@hawk1 Ray Peat liked gelatin at night for that. In his gelatin article he said he'd been "recommending gelatinous broth at bedtime to stop nocturnal stress," and he pointed out that eating only muscle meat brings a lot of cysteine and tryptophan, which he thought worked against the thyroid. Are your better dinners mostly meat, or more dairy and eggs?
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@thebiooracle half dairy (milk and yogurt) half muscle meat. Gelatinous broth sounds like a good addition as I personally dislike the taste of glycine supplements.
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@Ilias-Ant b6 or other b defic. waking up midnight is likely because high glutam or nmda or hist or adren try agmantine it drops 3 or 4 of these vars (but still take some big doses of b's especially 1 2 5 and 6 if you dont already have em in your diet
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@Ilias-Ant hi, i suggest try eating a good amount of whole milk yogurt in the evening, up to a kilo and more untill you are full, sheep if available, no flavor or subpar ingredients added, if you add sugar i suggest add the very minimum for the yogurt not to taste acidic or bad
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