Ever since I was a young man, I would sleep around 1-3 A.M. I would wrestle with my thoughts, having just played video games or doom scrolling endlessly on a bright blue-lit screen. I was also a very low-fat, high-carb vegetarian, playing with so many diet and supplement protocols for months at a time. I would bunch up the pillows and endlessly run through my racing thoughts. I finally would resort to melatonin, valerian, and even tryptophan pills and eventually, after a few hours, pass out. This went on for years to come. Instead of living by the rhythm of the Sun as we all did for thousands of years, I, like many modern humans, was living by the machines. I became a night owl. In this blog, we hope to provide you with a detailed yet bird’s eye approach to achieving deep sleep and utilizing daily naps as a tool to provide your body, mind, and spirit with the ultimate recovery that it so desperately craves. Sleep isn’t so simple; it’s not just black and white, and that being said, we should not approach sleep protocols like such. However, our goal is to provide you with the most simple, efficient, yet effective routine you can manage and fit into your busy life. That’s what we are all about here at Mitigate Stress: Providing Simple, Practical, but Highly Effective Solutions and Routines.

In today’s world, we are given far too many choices in virtually any part of our life. Menus, protocols, modalities, morning routines, career paths, and more. We are bombarded with decisions on a daily basis. When it comes to recovery, we like to focus on the heavy hitters, we try to keep things simple because we understand most of our customers and clients are overloaded with information, stressed and deprived of precious energy, sleep, nutrition and most importantly, time…

That being said, we would have to say that the top recovery tool is a well-timed nap and adequate amounts of deep sleep. Everyone should strive for an early afternoon or late morning 10-60+ minute nap. Whether you are an athlete, an extremely busy Mom, Dad, or even a single man/woman focused on his/her career, whatever it may be, you should be prioritizing naps as a foundational recovery tool within your day-to-day life. That’s right, more important than saunas, ice baths, hot baths, and even some forms of exercise.

As we stated, most of us humans are:
1. Over Stimulated

2. Overwhelmed

3. & Overloaded

Sleep is critical for a multitude of brain functions, including how neurons (nerve cells) communicate with each other. In fact, your body and brain stay fairly active as you sleep. Recent studies suggest that sleep plays a housekeeping role that drains toxins from your brain that were built up during the day while you were awake. (Source)

Optimal healing only occurs in low-stress states and low-stress environments (given the demands are met). You ever hear the saying, “You can’t heal in the environment that made you sick.” Yes, this is a sleep blog, but we will most definitely touch up on our immediate environment since we will more than likely spend one-third of our life in it.

In the book, “We Want to Live”, author Aajonus Vonderplanitz PHD. states, “Sleep and rest are necessary for healing. Ninety percent of healing happens in sleep states. A nap a day is not only a beauty aid, it is rejuvenating physically, emotionally and mentally. When on a healthy diet, situations that seemed so complex, or difficult, or futile before a nap are often magically reduced to something more solvable after a nap. To help yourself feel better and become healthier, sleep, or at least nap, when tired.”
Sylvie Von Duuglus (Muay Thai Legend) believes that most people are not over training, they are simply under recovering. Her favorite form of recovery is sleep and daily naps, just like Khabib says himself (Undefeated UFC Legend) as well as many other famous athletes.

Today 40% of Americans are chronically sleep deprived from getting the necessary minimum of 7 hours per night. 

In Britain, an incredible 23% of the population sleep less than 5 hours per night. Only 15% wake up feeling refreshed.

More than ⅓ of Americans report getting less than seven hours of sleep in a 24-hour period. About 30% of adults have symptoms of insomnia, with 10% having insomnia that impacts their daily activities.

Since 1942, the average amount of time a person sleeps has been slashed by an hour per night.

Over the past century, the average child has lost 85 min of sleep every night…

The National Sleep Foundation has calculated that the amount of sleep we get has dropped by 20% in just 100 years..

There are a lot of factors that affect someone’s quality of sleep:

1. General Stress (Physical, Chemical, Emotional)
2. Food/Nutrition + Toxin Overload, Lack of Raw Fats to Nourish, Protect & Soothe
3. Light & Air Quality (Light Pollution + Air Pollution)
4. Humidity & Temperature + Breathable & Natural Fabrics
5. Off-gassing of Chemicals, Mattresses, furniture, and clothes. (Avoid Synthetic Materials/Fibers)
6. Noise (Internal/External) + Mental & Emotional Health
7. Stress in General (Physical, Chemical, Emotional)
8. Lack of Movement & Exercise, Atrophy, Postural Distortions, Lack of Circulation
9. Lack of Proper Hydration & Bioavailable Minerals (Beyond just clean water)
10. Lack of morning, midday, and evening sunlight exposure

Let’s dive right into some simple, practical Mitigate Stress Steps you can take to start healing by utilizing proper sleep, nap, and environment protocols:

First, let’s cover Food, Nutrition, & Toxins… Let’s start with eating windows, if you are having trouble sleeping, there are a few recommendations/protocols that we will suggest from both Dr. Ray Peat PhD. & Aajonus Vonderplanitz PhD. The first is that both suggest against fasting. They both say to not go too long without food, Dr. Ray Peat suggests eating a complete (protein/carb/saturated fat) meal every 2-3 hours. Aajonus recommends never going more than 5 hours without eating. He states, “If you go 5 hours without eating, the protein in the blood will go to zero, and you will start breaking down red blood cells for protein.” He goes on to say that after 8 hours of sleeping, you will generally lose around 2-4 tablespoons of blood and be slightly anemic, and you will have much less energy levels than if you ate something like a raw egg in the middle of the night. Aajonus states that usually isn’t enough because you will probably still wake up hungry.

Drinking a few ounces of a Raw Milkshake would be beneficial, or having a few ounces of white meat (red meat could give you too much energy). You could even have a few Tablespoons of cheese mixed with honey. He recommends eating in the middle of the night and consuming a generous amount of raw saturated fats throughout the day because of the modern toxicity that we are dealing with in our food, our air, our clothes, everywhere. We can’t escape it, so therefore, we can mitigate these stressors as much as we can without going utterly insane, of course. It may not sound natural, but we have to utilize these stress tools such as sleeping, raw fats, naps, red light, and other tools as much as we can if we want to experience wellness, vitality, & Strength. Raw fats bind to heavy metals, poisons, and toxins, and the majority of healing occurs during sleep. So, if you can combine the two, this is a huge step in the right direction.

Dr. Ray Peat PhD. suggests having ice cream before bed as well as a generous serving of glycine. Like we said, both Aajonus and Ray Peat have similar recommendations at times.

Check out this recipe you can consume before bed for a nice nightcap:

Homemade Raw Whipped Cream or Icecream Nightcap:

• 5-10 Tablespoons of Raw Heavy Cream (Gently Whipped, this will depend on how thick it is to start with)
• Raw Honey or (Optional) Raw Maple Syrup
• (Optional) Organic, Washed Berries, or in season extra ripe fruit.
• (Optional) Grass-Fed, Low Heavy Metal Gelatin Powder (We will discuss this more down below)
• What’s unique about this recipe is that you can whip it up like fresh whipped cream as long as the ingredients are extra cold, using a high-speed whisk and a little bit of gelatin powder if your grass-fed raw heavy cream isn’t extra thick (most store-bought heavy creams contain thickeners so why not use a natural, healthy one). You can also use an ice cream machine, and it will make the best ice cream you have ever tasted. Play with the flavors, some fresh vanilla if you desire, we recommend not going overboard with the sugar. 

So why ice cream before bed? Isn’t it considered junk food? Yes and no, anything can be made into a “junk food”. As long as you locally source high-quality grass-fed/grass-finished raw dairy products from a trusted source that cares about quality. Make sure the ingredients aren’t tampered with heat or oxidation and they’re fresh. As Aajonus says, we need raw saturated fat more than ever before because we live in an overly toxic and polluted world where we consume chemicals and heavy metals on a daily basis. Most of us are unaware of the obvious fact that we are being poisoned every single day. 

Some suggest not eating 2-3 hours before going to bed due to digestion interfering with sleep, again this is why the homemade raw whipped cream recipe is effective because it is very easy to digest and assimilate, plus with the added glycine (Gelatine) it provides even more sleep benefits. If you choose to not eat too close to bed, let’s say 3 hours away from sleep, then it can be beneficial a few times a week to have some activated charcoal before you sleep, this will help reduce endotoxin levels and much more.

In the recipe, we mentioned Gelatin (Glycine). Let’s discuss that for a bit…

Dr. Ray Peat, PhD is a huge fan of gelatin, bone broth, collagen, glycine, and amino acids in general. Aajonus, on the other hand, does not recommend it and is actually against most of the gelatin and collagen powders on the market due to the extended processing and heavy metal contamination in most brands. If I’m not mistaken, in his book, he recommends grating raw grass-fed bone and putting the shavings in a little bit of water instead. We have never tried this, but we will have to in the future.

Here’s why Ray Peat Recommends glycine: A generous supply of glycine/gelatin, against a balanced background of amino acids, has a phenomenal variety of anti-stress actions. Glycine is viewed as an “inhibitory” neurotransmitter and encourages natural sleep. Utilized as a supplement, it has helped to promote recovery from strokes and seizures and to improve learning and memory. But in every type of cell, it apparently has the same kind of quieting, protective antistress action. 

The range of injuries produced by an excess of tryptophan and serotonin seems to be avoided or corrected by a generous supply of glycine. Fibrosis, free radical damage, inflammation, cell death from ATP depletion or calcium overload, mitochondrial damage, diabetes, etc., can be prevented or alleviated by glycine.

A small dose of glycine taken shortly after suffering a stroke was found to accelerate recovery, preventing the spreading of injury through its inhibitory and anti-inflammatory actions. Its nerve-stabilizing action, increasing the amount of stimulation required to activate nerves, is protective in epilepsy, too. This effect is important in the regulation of sleep, breathing, and heart rhythm.

“Although I pointed out a long time ago the antithyroid effects of excessive cysteine and tryptophan from eating only the muscle meats, and have been recommending gelatinous broth at bedtime to stop nocturnal stress, it took me many years to begin to experiment with large amounts of gelatin in my diet. Focusing on the various toxic effects of tryptophan and cysteine, I decided that using commercial gelatin, instead of broth, would be helpful for the experiment. For years I hadn’t slept through a whole night without waking, and I was in the habit of having some juice or a little thyroid to help me go back to sleep. The first time I had several grams of gelatin just before bedtime, I slept without interruption for about 9 hours. I mentioned this effect to some friends, and later they told me that friends and relatives of theirs had recovered from long-standing pain problems (arthritic and rheumatic and possibly neurological) in just a few days after taking 10 or 15 grams of gelatin each day.” – Ray Peat PhD.

So Why Fat is so important: (Check out our In-Depth Fat Blog Here)

We believe the main toxicity that people need to focus on removing from their bodies is Polyunsaturated Fats (PUFA’s), Plastics, Plant Defense Chemicals (Oxalates, etc.), and Heavy Metals (Iron, Lead, Mercury, Aluminum, etc.) and more. Ray Peat says Raw Saturated Fat (& Vitamin E)  is the antidote to PUFAs. As we know, PUFAs oxidize (lipid peroxidation) very easily in our bodies; they are also often rancid far before consumption. Aajonus reminds us time and time again in his book that Raw Saturated Fats bind to toxins, poisons, and heavy metals. If we are too skinny these toxins can recirculate freely causing tremendous amounts of oxidative stress, the body will still reserve our fat storage around the spine, the brain and the glands for survival and protection.

Fat literally protects us and keeps us alive, yet it is demonized and blamed constantly for the damage caused by the modern toxicity we mentioned above. Yes, certain fats (overcooked fats in general and PUFA’s) can harden in the liver and the tissues, but this is why we suggest keeping the majority, if not all, of your fats raw and saturated. Only cook with ghee and tallow. Stone-pressed olive oil is great; avoid avocado oil, most of it is rancid. Consume more Raw heavy cream + sour cream, Raw grass-fed butter, Raw homemade coconut cream, and grass-fed beef fat. Fat with every meal also helps protein to digest and be utilized to repair instead of as energy, which would be a waste of needed nutrition. Raw Fats also help sugar to digest slower, helping you to avoid those intense energy spikes followed by those gloomy blood sugar crashes.

Ray Peat & Aajonus both state that blood sugar is always an issue at night. The effect of daylight is to maintain efficient oxidative metabolism. He goes on to say that, “Just 15 minutes of darkness is enough to lower the efficiency of mitochondrial respiration. And so, keeping very bright lights (Red Lights, not Blue Light) right up until bedtime will minimize the fall of blood sugar, but having a carbohydrate meal (with a raw fat and quality protein source) late in the afternoon or before bed such as warm milk and honey can be enough to put you to sleep for an hour and a half or two hours. It takes time for the liver to start storing glycogen, so it’s good to have another glass ready if you wake up. Ray Peat also suggests that salty snacks before bed can help as well, perhaps some icelandic sea salted raw cheese with a piece of fruit or dash of honey is what we recommend. 

So, in summary, it’s about reducing stress hormones and activating the parasympathetic nervous system. After you eat a meal, you relax, you take it easy, you digest your food, everything is being produced by the glands that are secreting enzymes into the intestine or the stomach to digest your food, the heart rate also slows down. This is why it’s also important to avoid foods that are high in fiber or very challenging to digest and break down, especially before bed.

It’s not that simple, though… Dr. Ray Peat goes on to say, “The Parasympathetic NVS tends to take over at night. It helps the person go to sleep by slowing the heart rate. At least it should slow things down during the night; but with problems such as diabetes, or hypoglycemia, or various metabolic disorders, it can get overactive and instead of just calming things down, slowing the metabolism, lowering blood sugar, because you don’t need so much, it can cause too much insulin secretion and other glandular secretions. For example, causing too much mucus formation. And the increased insulin can lower your blood sugar too much. Then, that can lead to intensified activity of the nerves, intensifying both contraction and relaxation where it shouldn’t be happening.”

How coffee and caffeine can hurt our sleep:  

Most adults can safely consume up to 400 milligrams of caffeine each day, which is roughly equivalent to four cups of coffee. 

• 94% of Americans drink caffeinated beverages, with 64% drinking them every day. | Learn More 
• 71% of SleepFoundation.org survey respondents drink coffee every day. 70% think caffeine has an impact on their sleep.
• Top sleep issues reported by caffeine drinkers include daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and insomnia. 30% of survey respondents reported experiencing anxiety. 
• The half-life of caffeine, or the time required for just half of it to be eliminated from the body, is usually 4 to 6 hours but can be anywhere from 2 to 12 hours.
• Coffee promotes alertness and reduces tiredness by blocking adenosine receptors and preventing its sleep-promoting effects. However, once the effects wear off, people can experience sleepiness and muscle fatigue. 
• National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information
• The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.

 Source 

Let’s Discuss our environment because, like we said earlier, most of us will spend ⅓ of our life in our sleeping environment.

Ray Peat believes full darkness is not optimal for sleep, interesting isn’t it?

“Those stress hormones that raise your pulse rate and temperature around dawn are also increasing your blood sugar (in diabetics, they call it the dawn phenomenon). It is the result of the stress hormones that rise during the night. The darkness itself is causing stress, activating hormones. So, in the winter, people are more likely to have disturbed sleep, because of long nights. Getting extra carbohydrates with adequate saturated fats and protein later in the day can allow you to sleep longer without these episodes of…usually, it’s nightmares waking people up with a pounding heart.” – Ray Peat, PhD.

We don’t believe people take their immediate environment seriously enough, not just being clean and tidy, but also these other important habits you can try implementing to help improve your sleeping environment:

1. EMF: (Non-Native Electromagnetic Frequencies) can greatly disrupt someone’s sleep. Try unplugging your wifi router at night, keeping your phone on airplane mode, and unplugging anything in the room that doesn’t need to be plugged in. 
2. Lack of Fresh Air: Not having enough circulation of fresh air can impact the quality of what you are breathing in. We recommend cracking a window in your room, if this isn’t possible (weather, etc), invest in a quality air filter. We recommend airoasis or hypoair. Click here for our in depth blog on air filtration. 
3. Off Gassing: from toxic beds, toxic bedding, paints, synthetic fragrances,  polyester clothes, and more. We recommend https://homeofwool.com/ (code: MGS will give you 10% off) bedding material that is made from wool or organic cotton. 
4. Temperature: Our brain likes a cool environment and doesn’t like to be hot. If you can get your sleeping temp in the 60s, you may notice deeper sleep and the ability to fall asleep more quickly. This shouldn’t be much of an issue in the winter.
5. Block any blue lights: This can come from computers, tablets, phones, and any other electronic devices. Try removing them from your room as much as your lifestyle allows. 

We hope you have gained some more insight from the information presented above on how you can optimize your sleep and recovery. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or email us at [email protected]

Please share this with a friend if you’ve seen value, and we hope your sleep only improves from here.

In Christ,

Nick & Nathan