This will duplicate some things others have already said, but a few factors are:
- Amount of caffeine. Caffeine has a 12 hour half life. 12 hours after your last caffeinated drink, you will have 50% of the caffeine in your system. Healthy adults should not exceed 400mg/day regardless.
- Amount of D3 and B vitamins your gut bacteria are deficient in. Your gut bacteria need energy to break down the foods you eat for the symbiotic relationship that break down fiber and other things required for your health. If they do not have enough D3 and B (all B vitamins), they will give off proteins that will induce stress / cortisol. This becomes a cyclical problem if not addressed.
- Environmental stress. If your mind has too many unresolved issues, your cortisol levels will be too high. Delegate as many issues to other people as you can. This is probably going to be a hard one if you are a founder. It's hard to let go, especially if you are passionate about your ideas and goals.
- Not enough sleep. But wait, that is the problem, right? Lacking sleep raises toxicity levels in your body, including your brain. This creates a cyclical problem that will worsen with time. Your brain keeps track of how much sleep it lost and at some point you will experience hallucinations or waking dreams when this catches up with you. Deep sleep (all four stages) are required to allow your brain to purge toxic material. Do not use sedatives / drugs to sleep. That isn't real sleep. D3, L-Theanine (amino acid), 5-HTP (amino acid) can help with hormones that can make you sleepy.
- Light. A few hours before you intend to sleep, mute the light. Use soft lights. Avoid screens. Power off the smart phone and put it in a drawer. Wear a sleep mask (intended for day sleepers, but helps cut out tiny bits of light from LED's on devices)
There are MANY more factors, but I have to go to a meeting and don't have time to put all the nih.gov references here. Maybe I will add some later today.
Thankyou for the correction. I am probably mis-remembering from a talk that Dr. Matthiew Walker gave at Google about sleep. I will need to figure out where I got the 12 hours from.
Comments
This will duplicate some things others have already said, but a few factors are:
- Amount of caffeine. Caffeine has a 12 hour half life. 12 hours after your last caffeinated drink, you will have 50% of the caffeine in your system. Healthy adults should not exceed 400mg/day regardless.
- Amount of D3 and B vitamins your gut bacteria are deficient in. Your gut bacteria need energy to break down the foods you eat for the symbiotic relationship that break down fiber and other things required for your health. If they do not have enough D3 and B (all B vitamins), they will give off proteins that will induce stress / cortisol. This becomes a cyclical problem if not addressed.
- Environmental stress. If your mind has too many unresolved issues, your cortisol levels will be too high. Delegate as many issues to other people as you can. This is probably going to be a hard one if you are a founder. It's hard to let go, especially if you are passionate about your ideas and goals.
- Not enough sleep. But wait, that is the problem, right? Lacking sleep raises toxicity levels in your body, including your brain. This creates a cyclical problem that will worsen with time. Your brain keeps track of how much sleep it lost and at some point you will experience hallucinations or waking dreams when this catches up with you. Deep sleep (all four stages) are required to allow your brain to purge toxic material. Do not use sedatives / drugs to sleep. That isn't real sleep. D3, L-Theanine (amino acid), 5-HTP (amino acid) can help with hormones that can make you sleepy.
- Light. A few hours before you intend to sleep, mute the light. Use soft lights. Avoid screens. Power off the smart phone and put it in a drawer. Wear a sleep mask (intended for day sleepers, but helps cut out tiny bits of light from LED's on devices)
There are MANY more factors, but I have to go to a meeting and don't have time to put all the nih.gov references here. Maybe I will add some later today.
All good points. Note that caffeine has a half life of 5 to 6 hours, rather than 12. I’d cite it, but a simple search makes this apparent.
Thankyou for the correction. I am probably mis-remembering from a talk that Dr. Matthiew Walker gave at Google about sleep. I will need to figure out where I got the 12 hours from.