BREAKING NEWS: As a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, I get weekly notifications of new studies and articles about the science and medicine of sleep. I’m going to select some of the most appropriate links they send to me (I get about 30 a week), and share them with those who are more scientifically or academically inclined in our Night Club community. There is so much research going on these days, some of which is really practical – and even life saving. Good sleep is so essential to health, sanity, and of course our ability to work with the nocturnal meditations. If we don’t sleep well, we don’t dream well, we’ll have trouble remembering dreams, and we’ll have trouble lucid dreaming. Building on solid foundations is so important with the nocturnal practices.
Here’s a brief riff on sleep changes in the elderly:
Funny, my first take on the “social timing” article was “introverts can’t get any relief.” But maybe it’s just the work environment causing stress that makes things worse.
Can’t access cerebrospinal fluid article but abstract gives gist. I asked for a spinal tap. If I remember and if the Immuno office is even open next week, will ask again. Part of cascade - my virus system is broken. 1-of-2 shots for pneumonia vaccine protocol (given when age 60 or so?) didn’t take, per titer. Not freaking out like - oh - everyone, but the doc’s office might, for the PID patients.
An article on the side-bar:
“A bidirectional relationship between sleep and AD has been proposed on the basis of studies in animal models and humans. Numerous studies have shown that sleep-wake activity is disturbed in individuals with dementia due to AD.”
Again I gotta reverse it. Is it poor sleep that influences AD, is it AD that influences sleep, or is it something bigger that is influencing sleep?
The Methylation Cycle cascade that’s gaining traction identifies excess glutamate as an ‘excitogen’ (right word?) and a by-product of all the molecule hijacking going on. (going to post it soon…esp re: the Parkinson’s comment). So check this:
[AD (and others) is nerve cell death caused by over-excited nerves unable to turn off. Gated calcium chloride channels test results fine/in-range.]
“…hyperactivation is initiated by the suppression of glutamate reuptake.”
FYI I’m on the fast path to AD. A good blast of mold (any kind) and I develop “reversible dementia” is the only way I can describe it. Can’t find my way out of a neighborhood I lived in for 4 months. Can’t understand what “in two days” means, even after looking at a calendar, etc. The extreme confusion clears up with enough diflucan/sweating. I have a ‘perk’ - I get to experience what it’s like, then quasi-recover to tell the story. For now. For those with dementia/AD, the baseline isn’t recovered for comparison.
And - cilantro! is said to reduce mercury (assuming other heavy metals) from the brain when nothing else will. (mag: What Doctors Don’t Tell You)
Going off of memory for this next one because I can’t find the articles I saved: heavy metals get lodged in nerve receptor sites. Or cell receptor sites in the brain. (mercury test: in range. memory: not so much)
I have some limited background in research—though not in medicine—but I still found the first article interesting reading, thanks for posting. The first study, about a population to which I belong, is striking in its leading question—instant “clickbait” for most readers. Reading further, the study leans towards answering the question with an affirmative answer. However, as I read this, I think that there are more limitations to the research as described than is reported, including factors such as culture, diet, exercise, marital status, work history, life experiences and even the research methodology itself. I’m not saying that sleepiness isn’t an indicator for later illnesses amongst older adults, negatively answering the study’s title question, just that the study should be read with an understanding that grandpa and grandma might only want to take a snooze because as we age, we often nap to recharge our batteries during the day. Being “older” may be the greatest risk factor for diabetes or cancer or a dozen other maladies. Thoughts?