How am I biohacking?
We aren’t living in the stone age anymore, so why treat our body as if we were? There are so many vitamins that our bodies need to perform at optimal levels, but if we don’t get those vitamins, our body still performs as its evolved to do, but at sub optimal levels.
Millenia ago, we used to fight daily for meat and vegetables for our diet. Usually to make sure we had any. Today, we have to fight to make sure we get proper nutrients into the diet, because the problems of today are more advanced. Factory farming leads to denutrification of our food. We need to be more weary and put in more effort to eat properly and optimally, even in a world we we have enough food. We used to fight the environment, today we fight the free market principles. There are many areas where focus is warranted.
Circadian rhythm is your body clock. Its tethered to the sun. Generally humans go to sleep when the sun slept, and wake when the sun awoke. It was safest to do so. Today we have artificial light, typically of the blue light range (similar light to the sun). This fools our body into thinking the sun still has yet to set, yet doesn’t provide us the vitamin D we need for bodily function.
I suggest to use the night light settings on your devices. My new ALienware M15 R3 laptop with “OLED screen” has a totally red night light screen, and its impeccable! The older ones don’t do night light settings justice. I’m also not impressed with the iPhone 11 night light setting. The saving grace is the “Ra Optics” blue light blockers that I bought. These are not your typical shitty amazon grade blue light blockers. I’m not completely impressed with the frame, it seems to sit a little crooked on my face. But the lens are top notch. I suggest using candles at nightfall. They are red light spectrum and won’t affect your blue light receptors in your eyes and ears, unlike the lights of the city.
Speaking of ears, yes there are photo receptors in areas of your brain near your ears, and they are affected by light. Enter human charger, a headphone-like device that ‘charges’ your body by providing blue light to your brain for 8 minute doses when you wake up. This should supercharge your body and get your bright eyed and bushy tailed in no time. The newest version is set to release this month and I’m patiently waiting for international delivery.
I ordered the new human charger coming out soon. Lately I have loved asking Siri when is sunrise. My wife and I take our daughter for a walk daily. We rarely ever miss a walk, even if its a short one around the block. Missing it would mean my daughters sleep schedule gets messed up, and my chihuahua named Romeo would likely piss and shit on the carpet.
You may feel fatigued in the morning if you’re too hot. through the night. Sleeping at 18C–19C (64F–67F) is ideal for your body. Our bodies are evolved to expect a dip in temperature at night. Melatonin production typically starts before you go to sleep, one good reason for a routine. If that’s interupted by blue lights, you may have issues falling asleep. Once asleep, enter vasodilation, a process whereby your arteries and capillaries open to allow blood to flow to extremities and cool the core. If you’re too warm at night, it can really mess up your sleep wave pattern; light, REM, deep. Ideally you also want a lowered resting heart rate at night and lower heart rate variability (more consistent beat). You may try a hot shower and/or a hot cup of water before bed. This could calm your system and your body will aim to lower the temperature of your body to counteract the heat. I heard a while ago that dessert dwellers drink hot water in the day as it will have a cooling effect from their body’s internal work.
Try sleeping with fewer blankets and if that helps, adjust the thermostat lower at around dinner time to allow time for the bedroom to cool sufficiently. The chilipad promoted by Tim Ferriss is currently on its 4th generation. There are still kinks. Its a gadget that you don’t need. It deposits warm (harmless) exhaust and may cool you but warms your entire room. Some people still swear by this thing. Feel free to try it but be warned, its got a hefty price tag. I’ve personally been sleeping with only a thin sheet and its been contributing to better sleeps.
Upon waking, we have typically not been drinking water for 8 hours. (I do drink water if I have pee breaks in the night). Water is vital. Water is life. You will have burned off water in a process known as evaporation. It transpires out of you into your clean sheets. Clean your sheets weekly at a minimum, preferably twice a week if possible, especially if you’re a heavy sweater. And drink water more water, depending on your weight, you should be drinking about 2 to 4 L daily. When we wake up, we are dehydrated, so best thing to do is drink water that will retain, so add salt. Preferably sea salt with trace minerals. Add 3 grams of sea salt to 12 ounces of water and squeeze a lemon wedge to complete the electrolyte concoction. Your body will thank you. As a general rule of thumb, I hope I don’t need to tell you this. Do not drink refined sugar, basically any drink that isn’t water.
If hot showers before bed will help you sleep cooler, then cold showers will help you live hotter? Cold showers will change your life. You may need to instill use of the Wim Hof breathing techniques, good news, there’s an app for that! Do the breathing technique and hit the shower. By the time you’re done your regular routine clean, turn the shower to cold and let loose for 30 seconds or more. Trust your breath.
Sleeping for 8 hours is important. I’m not 100% about whether the polyphasic sleep patterns work for me since I have not been successful to experiment with them, check our “Ubersleep” by Puredoxyk for more info. Some cultures have naturally evolved with nap schedules. Perhaps depending on where your heritage derived from geographically or culturally, you may have different results. During the week, I’m aiming for a 8pm-3am sleep. This allows me to get several hours of uninterupted work done in the mornings before my daughter wakes up, and gives me the solid 8 hours I need to perform optimally. In “Why We Sleep”, Matt Walker breaks down the importance of sleep. If you’re one of those who wants to ‘sleep faster’ like Arnie says, you may want to read this book first. Anyway, I’m a pragmatist, I realize 8pm sleep might not always be possible, but most nights should be.
Biohacking your diet is mega important. Stay away from processed as a rule of thumb. Anything made in a factory is probably not good for you. If it is, then check to make sure its got fewer than 5 ingredients, and make sure you know what they are. Live food is the best. That would equate to raw. But this isn’t always possible. The fact is you need to be learning about diet for the next 5–10 years. You’ll be amazed what you learn. Some of the best vegan protein sources include pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, hemp seed hearts, sunflower seeds. These are not factory produced roasted and salted, but raw ones that are heirloom, or non-genetically modified, and organic. They also have good natural fats.
Consume fatty foods like coconut meat (especially from young coconuts, so buttery and rich, yum!), olives, avocado, nuts and seeds, grass fed butter, MCT oil, coconut yogurt (no added sugar). Cooking oil is not ideal. Most oil you want to consume should be raw. And for omega 3’s, obviously seafood is good source for that, but if you’re a vegan, shoot for flax seeds/flax oil. If you want a supplement, try 1–2 tablespoons of Udo’s oil daily, a vegan omega oil blend.
Stay away from sugar, its the cocaine of the food industry, a total cash cow that is produced from unhealthy beets. Yes, 80%+ of North America’s refined sugar comes from over-ripened beets (this is not the healthy kind.) To get the complex carbs your body craves and needs, go for rice, oats or other gluten free grains, yams, potatoes, fruits.
Nature packs things in perfect little containers for you, so wrapping food in plastics is hopefully not necessary. I aim to use glass jars whenever possible. And go organic when possible. They use fewer pesticides, hopefully none at all, and stay away from GMO. Its not humans job to be tinkering with DNA and then consuming those foods. I do not live in a laboratory and I did not sign up to be a test subject.
