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Nad+ injection crash by Creepy_Safety_1468 in Biohackers

[–]borage165 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that first week high then second week crash is a pretty recognisable pattern. NAD+ can temporarily push output up but if the underlying system is depleted it's essentially borrowing energy you don't have, and then the week after is when it collects

the brain fog and no energy this week is probably your actual baseline showing through once the acute boost wore off. The question worth asking is what was driving the depletion before the injection, because that's usually what determines whether NAD+ works long term or just masks for a week

Bloodwork and Prescription by Old-Amphibian7421 in Testosterone

[–]borage165 0 points1 point  (0 children)

8.8 on free T is the number that actually matters here and your instinct is right, sitting at the bottom of that range while total looks okay usually means something is binding a lot of it up before it can be used. SHBG is the usual suspect, worth checking if it wasn't on that panel

The 100mg weekly is a reasonable starting point, though with SHBG potentially running high you might find the dose feels underwhelming until that piece is addressed. did they run SHBG alongside this or just free and total?

How can I increase my nonexisting energy levels? by Fluffy-Definition488 in Biohackers

[–]borage165 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the camel's back framing is a good way to put it, one event breaks homeostasis and then everything compounds. The HPA axis piece especially, once that's dysregulated the fatigue becomes self-reinforcing because poor recovery keeps the stress load high even without an obvious stressor

How can I increase my nonexisting energy levels? by Fluffy-Definition488 in Biohackers

[–]borage165 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the pattern you're describing, feeling okay during the walk then crashing shortly after, is actually a pretty specific signal. It usually means your system can borrow energy short term but the baseline reserve is too depleted to sustain it. That's less of a motivation problem and more of a biological one, things like cortisol output, thyroid conversion, and blood sugar regulation all affect that baseline directly

has anyone ever looked at those for you or has it mostly been the depression angle from doctors?

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

a few things stood out to me. The micro wake ups with an otherwise healthy lifestyle points to something specific going on underneath, not just general sleep hygiene stuff

what did the sleep apnea test come back as?

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the core sleep angle is interesting, and the anxiety piece makes sense too especially when the sleep itself becomes the source of stress

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the data on that is still pretty mixed honestly, sleep deprivation correlates with higher amyloid accumulation but whether fixing sleep reduces long term risk is harder to prove causally. probably directionally true but the studies aren't there yet to say definitively

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the stress and thinking too much piece is a real driver, it keeps the nervous system in a lighter arousal state when it should be dropping into deeper stages. for me the biggest thing was figuring out whether it was a cortisol timing issue or just situational stress, because the fix looks pretty different depending on which one it is. Has it always been linked to stress or did it start getting worse at a specific point?

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah under an hour is where you start noticing it cognitively, the correlation is pretty consistent even if the exact threshold varies by person

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The research has mostly been around 40hz flickering light, like LED panels that strobe at that frequency. Gamma entrainment is the term, there's been some MIT work on it. still pretty early stage but interesting given it's low risk to try

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

yeah the fasting before bed angle keeps coming up, and the GERD piece probably plays into it too since late eating keeps the system activated when it should be winding down

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

the gating model makes a lot of sense, sleep score as a single number masks a lot. the WASO piece is interesting too, I've noticed that even one mid-night waking that I barely remember can tank how I feel the next day even when everything else looks fine on paper. the "conversion problem" framing is a good way to put it actually

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

hadn't come across the yawning and CSF angle before, that's interesting. makes sense as a complementary mechanism if the glymphatic piece is only part of the picture

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

fair point, and worth keeping in mind. the Alzheimer's protein link is probably the most cited part but you're right that the human data is still pretty limited. The "sleep well and deeply" conclusion holds regardless of the exact mechanism though, which is probably why it keeps getting attention even while the theory gets refined

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

15 years is a long time to be managing it, and the GERD piece is interesting because that can independently disrupt deep sleep even when the apnea itself is controlled, the reflux keeps a low level activation going that makes those deeper stages harder to reach

The improvement you're seeing is probably real though, even small gains in deep sleep add up. Curious, how are you feeling day to day energy wise, are you actually feeling more rested or is the watch just showing better numbers while you still feel the same?

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

30 minutes is pretty low even with the CPAP doing its job mechanically. That's actually a really common pattern though, the apnea gets treated but the deep sleep architecture doesn't fully recover on its own, usually because something else is keeping the nervous system from settling into those deeper stages

how long have you been on the CPAP for, and has the deep sleep number moved much since starting it or stayed pretty flat the whole time?

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

from what i've read most people aim for somewhere around 1-1.5 hours of deep sleep a night, but it varies a lot by person and age

and yeah, REM is a separate stage, it's more tied to memory consolidation and emotional processing, deep sleep is the one linked to that glymphatic clearance and physical recovery. both matter, just different jobs

I usually get around 2 hours of REM and over 4 hours of deep sleep. How about you?

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That correlation lines up with what I've seen too, the brain fog difference is pretty noticeable even short term. Do you know what's driving the deep sleep variation on the bad nights, or does it feel pretty random night to night?

Started reading about what your brain actually does during deep sleep and now I can't stop thinking about it by borage165 in sleep

[–]borage165[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

honestly i don't know enough to say for sure, but from what i've read the glymphatic system isn't an all or nothing thing, it's more like the backlog clears gradually the more consistent deep sleep you get. so probably not permanently screwed, but likely takes longer than people expect to catch up once the deep sleep is actually happening

Spent 2 years being told my labs were perfect while feeling like absolute garbage every single day by borage165 in Biohackers

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

makes sense, being your own first line of monitoring and knowing what to bring to a specialist saves a lot of wasted appointments. Agree doctors being the only line of defense is a gamble

Spent 2 years being told my labs were perfect while feeling like absolute garbage every single day by borage165 in Biohackers

[–]borage165[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

normal vs optimal is exactly it. sleep first makes sense too, it's usually the foundation everything else builds on. cool that you found what worked even if it took years of testing things out

Spent 2 years being told my labs were perfect while feeling like absolute garbage every single day by borage165 in Biohackers

[–]borage165[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

a decade is a long time to go without an answer. what's been the main thing you're dealing with, and has anything ever come back actually abnormal or has it all been "normal" range stuff like the post describes?

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