Black Nights Matter!

This is the true iteration of this endless plea, and is one that actually makes sense!  Black Lives Matter means very little indeed.  But Black Nights Matter- well, this is important stuff.

If you are sleeping in a room with windows that let light into your bedroom, you probably have no idea that this is one of the most pernicious things that you can do to your health.  For hundreds of millions of years, our ancestors have had light only within the window provided by nature- from dawn til dusk! 

But now, mostly within the past few decades, and increasingly since we started staring at screens, computer, phone, and tablet- all emitting tons of blue light- with is the light that is supposed to jar us awake in the morning- we are subjected to this stimulus not only in what is supposed to be waking hours- but late into the night as well!

Many people have taken this still further, setting their TV’s on timers, so they fall asleep to the blue light emitter that is tv, as their body is attempting to fall asleep.  Talk about upsetting the circadian rhythms!!  Just imagine how upsetting, how confusing this is to our inner ‘clock’, something that has been inviolate since before the time of Christ.  Our health, overall, can only suffer in a huge way.

Some of the most serious potential problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation are high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure or stroke. ... Chronic sleep deprivation can even affect your appearance. Over time, it can lead to premature wrinkling and dark circles under the eyes.   If sleep deprivation goes on long enough, for perhaps a couple of weeks: the result is death.  After only 48 hours your body goes into ‘micro-sleeps’, where it sleeps despite your best efforts, even while you try to remain awake.  (You’re not, really, for stretches where you might appear to be).

The bottom line is this: if you are staying up late at night, watching TV or your computer or phone, you probably are feeling virtuous- “Hey- I’m getting all of this work done!” 

You’re not.  You are screwing yourself out of health, just as much as if you skipped exercise or eating well!  More, actually!  Sleep is crucial to health and wellness- not to mention fitness.  You need a regular schedule of good nights of sleep, as much as scheduled exercise, or good daily nutrition!

I hope you realize at this point that the whole point of ‘Black Lives Matter’ is a political stunt- nothing to pay any attention to at all, if you are a thinking, rational person- it is pure propaganda of the basest source.  It just made a good headline!  And probably, if those fake ‘leaders’ who so espoused this ‘movement’ would get enough good sleep, they would realize how nonsensical their points really were.

But my own point is nonetheless perfectly valid and important: 

Get good sleep!  Every night- black out your windows with curtains, get to bed early, and try to maintain this, day after day- get to bed early, get up early! 

So much of the Paleo Prescription is just good-old grandmotherly advice: get up early- exercise every morning, eat a big breakfast, a big lunch and a light supper.  Spend time with your family in the evenings, ala ‘Little House on the Prairie’- play fiddle or other music, sing and dance, and otherwise connect with your family and tribe!   Pretend you live in the wonderfully successful Small Town Americana that has been so unfortunately discarded and denigrated by the Left. 

Paleo Life was enshrined in Small Town Living of the early 20^th century.  It was ancestral in so many ways, and when that lifestyle was discarded in favor of ‘modernism’, America lost her heart and soul!  Norman Rockwell was thrown on the trash heap as outdated, and racist…

This was the discarding- orchestrated by the evil, socialist, Marxist LEFT: a planned outcome, one that not only cast aside the proven ideals and ethics of Conservatism- but also threw aside the proven maxims of tribal living, like:

Monogamy

Two Parent Families

Self- Sufficiency

Tribal (Local) Government, not BIG Government

Health and Wellness done within the FAMILY, not in Big Medicine environments

I  could go on, and on, for a long, long time.  But for that, you need to listen to all of my podcasts! 

Just remember now that, you need to sleep 8 hours each night!  After that, diet and lifestyle matter- but not until you understand that :

Black Nights Matter!!

Check out this episode!

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe #116 Inclined Bed Therapy cures...EVERYTHING!!

According to several researchers, traditional horizontal sleeping has been shown to prevent the ability of the body's circulatory system to function at an optimum level; thus, this sleeping position causes restricted blood flow and the inability of the lymphatic system to flush out the toxins that accumulate in the many networks of vessels throughout the body. Inclined Bed Therapy (IBT) tends to solve this problem. Introduced by Andrew K. Fletcher, Inclined Bed Therapy (IBT) involves sleeping on a bed raised at the head between 4 and 8 inches using bricks, wedges or blocks. This utilizes the force of gravity to improve the circulation of the body while asleep and taking advantage of this by allowing body cells to heal and regenerate on their own.  Circulation is maintained and improved from changes  in all fluid densities in the lymphatic system due to gravity. For this,  reports from users around the world stated that Inclined Bed Therapy can be useful in disorders such as spinal cord injury, back pain, acid reflux or GERD, sinus and respiratory disorders, sleep apnea, poor circulation, blood pressure, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

The HEAD of the bed is to the right!

I know, it sounds absolutely incredible!  Basically the theory is that every condition of the human body, any disease or imperfection, is improved drastically by sleeping with increased circulation!

Hey, that doesn’t sound so crazy, does it?  Circulation is literally the lifeblood of the human body- improve that in a large way, and; well, the human body will improve from the increase in life-giving circulation.

Andrew Fletcher is the Englishman who introduced this form of therapy, after deducing that the circulation of the sap in trees is exactly like our own circulation- it is not only through the action of a “pump” (in our case, the heart), but it is the action of gravity and “transpiration”, which raises the fluid in trees to hundreds of vertical feet in height.

The human body works similarly- by sleeping on a flat surface, we inhibit our circulation.  The venous return of the blood is hampered by sleeping flat.

What is crazy is that sleeping with the head of the bed elevated 5-6 inches solves all of your circulation problems!

No cost, no lifestyle change- just sleep with your head elevated at a roughly 6 degree elevation!

If you have varicose veins, this is a fast, total cure.  No debate; it is!  But there are many, many other benefits:

Psoriasis, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, bladder incontinence, bed wetting, insomnia, fidgety legs and limbs / Ekbom syndrome oedema, sleep disorders, night time paralysis, multiple sclerosis, ME, CFS, diabetes, varicose veins, migraine headaches, poor eye sight, pain, bowel incontinence, acid reflux, gerd, balance problems,  lethargy, poor circulation, metabolic disorders, immune deficiency, these are just some of the diseases that improve with IBT.

Ironically, standard medical practice is to elevate the foot of the bed, to make people sleep on a decline for varicose veins.  This helps at first, while the patient is lying down, but as soon as he gets up the swelling comes back!

By raising the HEAD of the bed, the natural circulation is increased hugely, and in a permanent fashion.  Actually, the thing to remember is this:

To lay totally flat in a bed is harder on your body than anything else you can do!

When you stand or change positions all day, or run, walk, or exercise, your circulation increases in a big way.  We all know this!  BUT, if you sleep in an elevated head position, your circulation during those hours is vastly improved as well.  So, if you sleep like this, which is about 1/3 of your life, your health will improve by a huge, huge margin.

OK- I have done this (you knew old Paleojay would, didn’t you grasshopper?), for several weeks.  First, I just noticed that I slept really, really well!   So did my wife, who initially was NOT on board to raise the head of the bed.  But the proof was in the pudding, as they say!

Then, I looked at my feet as I exercised each morning.  I have veins on my feet that are kind of bright blue!  Since I worked as a mailman for 38 years, and have always been a heavy exerciser, I assumed this was just extreme “foot abuse”, and since there was no pain, I never really thought a lot about it...

After about a week of IBT, THE VEINS HAD DISAPPEARED ON MY LEFT FOOT, AND ARE NOW HALF GONE ON MY RIGHT!

I had never even though about it- I just enjoyed sleeping really well, each and every night, and the fact that I didn’t really need to get up to urinate- but then, I started to put the pieces together.  All of this from just sleeping on an incline??

And here is the kicker:

NO sleep apnea.  No snoring! (Just ask my wife).  VASTLY improved quality of life, even though I was perfectly healthy beforehand (I thought), all just from sleeping on an incline!!??

It makes sense: the more upright you remain throughout life, the more you retain your faculties.  And do you know what?

In the ancient world, this was well known.  Even in the Egyptian tombs of the Pharoahs, they have measured the preserved beds of these Kings...

THEY ARE ALL ELEVATED AT THE HEAD,
EXACTLY 6 INCHES!

There is even a footrest provided, so the sleeper would not slide off of the bed.

So, my takeaway point?

SLEEP LIKE AN EGYPTIAN!