I've been experiencing a stretch of nights where my dreams wake me up. The dreams are not nightmares at all but are always very busy. I'm wondering if I am collecting too much "information" in the day and possibly even when I'm sleeping, so tonight I'll start a ritual of letting go of the day and creating some kind of container of sleep. The container won't let more stuff get in. Sealed container that is no longer accepting information. I wonder if it will work!
I was wondering also if this was a container that doesn't let more stuff in, but also lets certain things out? Like a colander with lots of one-way valves.
Oh golly I love that image. Something like a filter component that allows for the "off-gassing" of the day while keeping more input from invading. This sounds far more healthy than a kind of barrier. More like a bouncer who is there to say thank you to those exiting, while maintaining a certain protocol for those who wish to enter. Selective to the input that supports sound sleep.
"Avoid fasting or skipping breakfast if last night's sleep was poor."
Can you explain a bit more about why this is important? I have sometimes found that if I'm tired in the morning and I eat breakfast, I feel even more tired, where as if I postpone eating for a few more hours my energy is more balanced.
This is a lovely question, Alastair. Thanks for posing it. I want to share my philosophical approach as context before answering your question.
My approach with any practices or tips is to hold them lightly. I see them as ideas to experiment with. And as with any experiment, we might need to try a few times to be able to reproduce the outcome, especially if we can't control well for the things that can vary.
For example, we might hear in some circles that eating a bowl of rice is going to spike your blood sugar enormously. But when we look below the headlines, it's more nuanced. If you take continuous glucose monitor (CGM) readings from people who did that, you'd see some have a big spike in blood sugar, and some don't. And that's where the environmental factors and conditions come in - like sleep, stress, mood, any bacterial, viral, fungal infections you might be dealing with.
Generally speaking there are different types of stressors. Some can be beneficial - hormetic - like exercise, and our body adapts. Some are chronic, like stress.
I like to think of our capacity to deal with stressors as a bathtub. We can fill the bath tub with water (stressors). We can turn the taps so water comes our faster or slower. When we get in the bath, the water level rises. Now, I like to keep my baths warm, so I'll add more hot water after I'm in. But if I'm not careful, if I don't turn the hot water tap off, I'll not only get too hot, but the water will start spilling over the lip of the bath.
Coming back to your question about "avoiding fasting/skipping breakfast", we can also overdo the hormetic, beneficial stressors and place a load on our body that turns something beneficial into something less so.
In other words, we are keeping the taps on.
If your bathtub is not so full, for example, you've dialled in on other ways of dealing with stress - meditation, eating real food, moving about - then your body's capacity to deal with stressors will be higher.
But if your bathtub is already close to the brim, then your capacity to deal with an extra stressor - like fasting or skipping breakfast - might be low or non-existent.
My real life experience of this has been with psoriasis. It's the autoimmune condition I've managed for 20+ years well through diet, exercise, mindfulness, and bringing joy into my life.
But that "recipe" stopped working. Why? Because I didn't have the capacity to deal with the other stressors that had accumulated over time: exposure to mould toxins, heavy metals, yeast and gut dysregulation.
Fortunately, I've been able to restore that capacity by removing those stressors.
I think your experience of skipping breakfast fits into the model I've shared.
That said, what's good is that you are noticing what works for you, and curious about what and why can help you feel better.
Does that help with your question? Let me know if you have any follow up thoughts!
I've been experiencing a stretch of nights where my dreams wake me up. The dreams are not nightmares at all but are always very busy. I'm wondering if I am collecting too much "information" in the day and possibly even when I'm sleeping, so tonight I'll start a ritual of letting go of the day and creating some kind of container of sleep. The container won't let more stuff get in. Sealed container that is no longer accepting information. I wonder if it will work!
I love this idea of a "container of sleep".
I was wondering also if this was a container that doesn't let more stuff in, but also lets certain things out? Like a colander with lots of one-way valves.
What might this kind of container give you?
Oh golly I love that image. Something like a filter component that allows for the "off-gassing" of the day while keeping more input from invading. This sounds far more healthy than a kind of barrier. More like a bouncer who is there to say thank you to those exiting, while maintaining a certain protocol for those who wish to enter. Selective to the input that supports sound sleep.
Hi Eric,
I'm curious about one of these tips:
"Avoid fasting or skipping breakfast if last night's sleep was poor."
Can you explain a bit more about why this is important? I have sometimes found that if I'm tired in the morning and I eat breakfast, I feel even more tired, where as if I postpone eating for a few more hours my energy is more balanced.
Thanks!
This is a lovely question, Alastair. Thanks for posing it. I want to share my philosophical approach as context before answering your question.
My approach with any practices or tips is to hold them lightly. I see them as ideas to experiment with. And as with any experiment, we might need to try a few times to be able to reproduce the outcome, especially if we can't control well for the things that can vary.
For example, we might hear in some circles that eating a bowl of rice is going to spike your blood sugar enormously. But when we look below the headlines, it's more nuanced. If you take continuous glucose monitor (CGM) readings from people who did that, you'd see some have a big spike in blood sugar, and some don't. And that's where the environmental factors and conditions come in - like sleep, stress, mood, any bacterial, viral, fungal infections you might be dealing with.
Generally speaking there are different types of stressors. Some can be beneficial - hormetic - like exercise, and our body adapts. Some are chronic, like stress.
I like to think of our capacity to deal with stressors as a bathtub. We can fill the bath tub with water (stressors). We can turn the taps so water comes our faster or slower. When we get in the bath, the water level rises. Now, I like to keep my baths warm, so I'll add more hot water after I'm in. But if I'm not careful, if I don't turn the hot water tap off, I'll not only get too hot, but the water will start spilling over the lip of the bath.
Coming back to your question about "avoiding fasting/skipping breakfast", we can also overdo the hormetic, beneficial stressors and place a load on our body that turns something beneficial into something less so.
In other words, we are keeping the taps on.
If your bathtub is not so full, for example, you've dialled in on other ways of dealing with stress - meditation, eating real food, moving about - then your body's capacity to deal with stressors will be higher.
But if your bathtub is already close to the brim, then your capacity to deal with an extra stressor - like fasting or skipping breakfast - might be low or non-existent.
My real life experience of this has been with psoriasis. It's the autoimmune condition I've managed for 20+ years well through diet, exercise, mindfulness, and bringing joy into my life.
But that "recipe" stopped working. Why? Because I didn't have the capacity to deal with the other stressors that had accumulated over time: exposure to mould toxins, heavy metals, yeast and gut dysregulation.
Fortunately, I've been able to restore that capacity by removing those stressors.
I think your experience of skipping breakfast fits into the model I've shared.
That said, what's good is that you are noticing what works for you, and curious about what and why can help you feel better.
Does that help with your question? Let me know if you have any follow up thoughts!