i post less now that i am having more success and because i need to reduce my screen time. i hope to record important changes here and interact with members on the weekends only. this post is super long because i mainly wrote it for myself, not with members in mind. but i always appreciate any thoughts you have- that's why i love the forum. i get new ideas and maybe get misconceptions corrected.

with a few blips here and there, my sleep, and thus my cognitive function, has continued to be greatly improved compared to the days before i paid attention to artificial light. i just got my daytime yellow-tint blue blockers from matt maruca's company ra optics, and i love them. so much cheaper than what i was getting before with my regular prescription glasses and all the extra cost coatings i bought. now i just need to be careful i don't scratch them up because they have no scratch-resistant coating on them. i have worn glasses since i was 5 years old and every time i go to the eye doctor my vision has shown deterioration. so my lenses are coke bottle-like on the edges. i have astigmatism too. i used to wear a patch over one eye for 'lazy eye' to make the other eye stronger. i just remember it was itchy and uncomfortable. protecting my eyes and getting better sleep/brain function has driven me to be what is seen by my family members as coo coo.

on the coo coo note, i am doing more to live in a darkened environment when the sun is not out. before i found this site, i already had completely blacked out my bedroom to the point that i literally cannot see my hand in front of my face. that one single step is what has improved my sleep the most. my whole body relaxes in the darkness when i go into my blacked out bedroom at night. i love the dark the way wim hoff loves the cold. when i have had some bad sleeping nights, it seems the biggest factor is temperature. i need to make sure my family has turned the thermostat down at night to as low as they can stand it, which for them is 65 degrees (i have a sticky note by the thermostat to remind them because i usually go to sleep at 7 30 to 8 30 in the winter, way earlier than they do). on top of that i have to have my window open at least a crack even if it is 9 degrees out. so an important factor might not just be temperature- it might also be the moisture in fresh air and the fresh air itself as compared to the stale, dry air in my bedroom. another important thing i did in my sleeping environment is i permanently turned off the circuit breaker to my bedroom (my husband sleeps in a different bedroom because i sleep better that way). this change has been associated with better morning fasted blood sugar, even taking into account inaccuracies in glucose meters, and no hip pain or muscle twitches, which i used to get very occasionally in the middle of the night, but did not know what to do about. i have also been doing other lifestyle changes, so i can't specifically say turning off the circuit breaker has definitely been key to the hip pain/muscle twitches. but i can say that it has had a strong correlation with better morning faster blood sugar based on my daily tracking.

i have also recently started to just do more in the dark. i am very careful not to bump into things. i was already used to going up the stairs, brushing my teeth, and into my bedroom in the dark, but now i also take my morning shower in the semi-dark. a couple of years ago i noticed that i would have really bad hot flashes if i took a shower at night. i like to take really hot showers and the lights in the bathroom are really bright, so i think these two factors were linked to having bad hot flashes (i believe hot flashes and bad sleep are related do low melatonin and low precursor serotonin. artificial light destroys melatonin, and melatonin/serotonin play roles in temperature regulation. estrogen is needed to make serotonin, and my estrogen is declining due to menopause, leading to lower serotonin and melatonin). after seeing the connection, i never take showers in the evening. in the winter i have to get up before the sun for my job. knowing what a big factor taking a shower under bright light was in my hot flashes, i decided to try to take my morning shower with no lights on. we have a row of block glass at the top of the shower stall. i go in right when twilight is beginning so i have a very little natural light to help me. i am getting good at doing everything in the semi-dark, feeling around using the texture of things as a guide, being patient with myself when i drop stuff.

i also started to employ the 'gangsta' look when i ride the train to work. right now it is still fairly dark when i get on the train, and the interior lights of the train are very bright. i noticed a lot of the other riders (not business-suit people) had a stye of baseball cap with a hoodie pulled over it, which they kept on in the train. i was thinking maybe it was not just a style- maybe they were also having issues with the bright lights in the train. well, anyway, i started to mimic them and wear my yellow tint glasses with baseball cap, hood over the cap, and a coat over my hoodie for when it is really cold out. another cool thing i noticed is i'm more tolerant of the cold. i can sometimes be comfortable just in a hoodie at temperature when the other riders on the train need a big winter coat.

so the preceding was my morning routine. i have also changed things at work. i work at an elementary school in the morning and a middle school in the afternoon. the elementary school has just about no windows- nice design-not. it reminds me of the state prison where they just have those little slit windows, although it of course is not that bad...so anyway, lots of artificial light in the elementary school. so my yellow tint glasses are on. when i go outside for any reason, the glasses are off and i tolerate extreme blurriness because of my poor vision. in the car i crack the windows to get any stray sun rays, and i switch to my regular no tint glasses, which i keep on in the middle school since i don't turn on the lights in my room. the middle school actually had a genius who designed the building with lots of windows, so i don't need the yellow-tint to block out artificial blue light.

at the elementary school i try to protect my young students. i got ideas from listing to an emf warriors podcast. we are monitored by our supervisor on exactly how many minutes our young students are on the computer using a reading program. the reading program is excellent, but exposing these children to this much nnemf and blue light is disgusting. i have tried to mitigate this as much as possible without being accused of insubordination- ie for not reaching weekly goal minutes on the laptop using the reading program (which i was admonished for before when i didn't reach goal minutes). students all use wireless laptops, but there are 4 wired computer in the school library. when the librarian is not having class, i can get to use those wired computers with the children about 3 days out of the week (I have small groups). the other one or two days, i have to use wireless laptops. but instead of using the touch pad as i used to do and everyone else does, i hooked up a mouse and place the laptop as far away from the student as i can. with the touch pad, the screen is right in their face, so the mouse helps a little with radiation exposure i believe. some kids don't like to use the mouse, but i make them. i say it is healthier and then go into a spiel where i say the touch pad is all germy and they can get sick from it, but nobody uses the mouse, so it is cleaner (all true). the kindergartners get about 10 minutes/day on the laptop with me for 4 days. they get bored of being on any longer anyway. some of the students have a program generated goal of 80 minutes a week on the laptop using the reading program. that's on top of laptop use in their regular class (i pull them out for 30minutes a day for my class). originally our supervisor said to do a minimum of 40 minutes a week, but many teachers are following the program generated goal and doing much more (and the kids don't like it they say). we had a department meeting yesterday. with 4 teachers i am close with i talked about how other countries are realizing the dangers of wireless and nnemf's. i told them about what i am doing to reduce the children's exposure. one of the teachers is pregnant, and i was going over some things she could do. i told her to really try. and if her husband wasn't on board with it, to be sneaky (like me). i told her to turn off wireless at night, turn her cell phone all the way off, not have blue tooth on when it was on, keep it in air plane mode if she absolutely wanted to have it on when she wasn't using it, to use wired connections including keyboard and mouse whenever possible etc. i said to not have that cell phone on her body. i keep mine in my rolling bookbag. the thing is using laptops with the kids reduces teacher stress a lot if the kids like the program they are doing. so there is a temptation to over use laptops. but i am not giving in to that temptation. so i have started educating 4 teachers who know and respect me. i want to go further, however.

 

I still can't believe how good my sleep has been. Sometimes i might wake up in the middle of the night in a more awake state, but i always relax and get right back to sleep. and i am having happy dreams. i think that is a sign of more serotonin and thus more melatonin. before when i would take 5 htp to increase my serotonin, i would often immediately have good dreams that might even make me laugh out loud. unfortunately, the 5 htp wasn't a long term option since it didn't work consistently. now i never use it because i don't want to throw off my endogenous production as jack has alerted us could happen. this past weekend i wasn't getting a lot of sun since it was so cold, but i still made sure i went out in the early morning and evening. even that little bit helped so much. now i have two new outside habits in addition to my good bike riding and walking habits- i play with the doggie in the back yard with glasses off and i take a tool that is like a grasping hook to go clean up my yard and the field/playground area across from my house with glasses off. i figured i might as well do something useful while i get sun. i look for trash then look up to get sun then pick up trash. it's great!!!!!!!!!

 

well, my methods of sleeping better are occasionally confirmed when i deviate from them. when i am not protecting my skin and eyes from blue light at night because i am under a time constraint and need to work at the computer in the evening, i pay for it with disturbed sleep. this just reinforces to me that i have to plan ahead so that i don't put myself in those kinds of situations. for those of you familiar with lyle mcdonald, he just published on his site a massive book dealing with women's health. i just ordered it. this is the message i left him:
order placed- order info printed out and on fridge!!! early birthday present Lyle, do you address the effects of artifical blue light on the body?? if not, it might be interesting to look into the effects of artificial blue light and other forms of technology specifically on women's bodies. research might be sparse, though.
-my ultimate solution for reducing/eliminating insomnia, hot flashes and headaches at night came not from any exogenous source (like 5 htp or melatonin which worked inconsistently for me, or hormones which i have never taken due to family history of breast cancer). i simply had to subtract as much as possible artificial blue light from my environment after the sun set. this topic is picking up steam and i see references to it everywhere. in my case it works. i have the uvex blue blockers on after sunset. but i used to do that and that in and of itself was not good enough. i even have to pay attention to the artificial lighting in my house. my husband was going crazy switching every light bulb to LED energy-saving ones. i think it is that light that was really disturbing my sleep, not to mention screens from cell phones and computers. and the f.lux program wasn't enought to help with sleep. i can sleep if i stop all screens at 5:30 pm (in fall/winter) except for a tv screen about 15 feet from screen to my head (i actually measured with a tape measure). when i watch tv from that distance, i need uvex blue blockers on and almost no lights on in that room. i can maybe get away with a light on in an adjoining room. so sleeping has led to my short term memory improving while it previously had been in the toilet. at night i act like someone at the beach who always gets a bad sunburn. i protect my eyes and my skin. i walk around with a fishing hat on at night. you may laugh, but i rather that then people laughing at me because i am repeating something i just told them but had forgotten. just a thought about a possible topic for your book if you haven't already covered it.

 

last night i had a bad sleeping night and i think i know why. one of my family members wanted me to spend time with them with the light on in the room when it is normally is my lights out time- latest 7pm. so i just put on my fishing hat and uvex over yellow blue blockers and hoped that would be enough. i still got sleepy around my normal time- 8:30 pm, and i still fell asleep easily as i always do. the problem is i wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep. i give it a good hour to try to fall back asleep, and then i take melatonin. so what i learned, or actually was reminded of, is that i need all lights out except for a tv screen at a distance and the blue blockers on. if a family member wants to spend time with me in these winter months in the evening, it will have to be under these conditions because i need to not lose my mind. and insomnia will absolutely cause that to happen. exogenous melatonin does not work consistently. i saw a lot of robins today- it was around 40 degrees but the temperature is supposed to fall pretty drastically. i hope the birdies can adapt.

 

i've gained a noticeable amount of weight , and it is all tied to letting do my guard with my carb intake. i felt that with better sleep and blood sugar, i didn't need to be so vigilant. after starting to eat all the things regularly that i would only give myself very occasionally- strawberries, tangerines, bananas, low carb wraps, popcorn, even regular chocolate, the weight is on me. the cravings for all those things in strong now that i've opened up the floodgates again.
besides eating low carb, the thing that really stripped me of fat back in 2009 when i first read art de vany was doing fasted exercise in the morning and then walking around for hours afterwards before eating my first low carb meal of the day, where i would eat as much as i wanted. about 3 years after following this pattern and keeping in good shape, i started to get horrible hot flashes at night, especially when doing the fasted exercise. i stopped the fasted exercise and weight came on even though i was eating low carb. but no where near the amount of weight i've now gained. yesterday i had my coffee and did my weights and some bike sprints early in the morning. i didn't eat again until 10:30 am when i started to get a little hungry, which is a lot early that i would usually eat after fasted exercise, but i wanted to ease into this. my first meal was boiled asparagus and mushrooms, olive oil, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. then i ate again at 11:30 am with a ham and cheese low carb wrap, mustard, a tangerine, celery probably some other stuff. i didn't binge out later on it the day, which was a good sign. the most important things, though, were that my mood was good during the day and i had a good night's sleep. this is so important for me because i feel that i can do effective exercise and sleep well at the same time!!! and the other great thing is that my motivation to lose weight and feel good is based on wanting to feel good as i move through the world. it is not at all based on wanting others to see me as looking good. this viewpoint allows me to take my time, not rush, just be in a good, stable mood.
i am looking forward to the month of april when i will go in the backyard in my tan through swimsuit and begin to work on my solar callous. i have multiple moles, but i get checked every year and there is no skin cancer in the members of my family who also have a lot of moles. i will develop my callous slowly, however. i plan to go out the very first day of april and lay on each side only 5 minutes. i have become more cold tolerant, so this would have been very uncomfortable before, but now should be much less so. i will increase my minutes in the sun based on how my skin reacts as seen the following day. i have read that one needs to protect certain parts when wearing tan through swim wear, but i feel if i go slowly starting in april and tan in the mornings only at first, i should be ok. since i am going so slow, my body will give me an early warning if i am over doing it. i can't wait for april- it's almost here!!!

 

tonic for the soul-i will post videos that energize me every so often as i need them as an antidote.

 

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves..."

 

I want to learn about the history of the discovery of mitochondria, the electron transport chain, atpase, and eventually the most recent discoveries about these. If I put learning in a story format, I will absorb it easier and be able to visualize abstract concepts. Here is my first installment:
https://sciencing.com/discovery-mitochondria-20329.html

 

i have a very good morning routine compared to what i used to do. i get at least 5 minutes of twilight before i get on the train. then i get my car in the train lot and drive to a nice spot to get morning sunlight for about 20 minutes. i do work stuff, occasionally glancing up. my eye lids are thin, and i believe i get a lot of benefit from the sun's rays even when i am looking down at my work with my face towards the sun.

but even more more more important than morning sun for me is avoiding artificial light. yesterday i had great morning sun, but i didn't have my yellow glasses for wearing in my windowless work area or for riding the train. then i had to stay up until 9 pm without my uvex because of work (i need to order some amber/red blue blockers from matt!). i had an awful sleep last night. i woke up and just lay there for a long long time. finally i cracked the window to get cold air (i usually do this anyway) and took melatonin. then i was finally able to get to sleep.

i find the cold winter air so therapeutic at night. i breathe it into my lungs with the cozy covers on, and it cools down my whole body. it cools down the pillow so that when i turn over, i have a nice cool area to further lower my temperature.

 

i am trying our iris and am currently using the black and white "reading" mode- it just feels better to read this way. continuing from my last entry, i find that avoiding artificial light is more important than the amount of sun i get, remembering that i always get some sun. i can get loads of sun and still have an awful night sleeping if i am exposed to our stupid led lights in the house for a length of time, even trying to be covered up. now that it is getting light later, i am trying to exclude light earlier. at 7:30 there is still some light out, but if i am watching tv, i still put on the uvex. at 8 or 8:30 even though i might not be as sleepy, i go right up to my fridge (aka my bedroom), crack the window to let the cold air, and go to sleep. my temperature regulation is tied to my sleep quality and is never perfect, but getting to bed earlier and being exposed less to any artificial light helps my temperature regulation.

i think there are certain types of people who are canaries in the coal mine when it come to being highly sensitive to blue light- anyone with problems producing serotonin or dopamine. these people might just think that their diagnosed condition is the reason they have problems with sleep or with addictive behaviors and might not realize how blue light makes it worse. i have personally seen that people with defects in their serotonin transporters and people diagnosed with ADHD will have problems with blue light more so than others. in the future, these problems with sleeping and addiction will just spread to more of the population. i had heard of the problems with screens, but only through coming to this page did i learn about LED lighting- which my husband is obsessed with.

 

what will nutrition facts look like in the future? instead of a tomatoe having a certain quantity of lycopene, will it's nutrition be some quantity of IR light with a specific frequency?

also, is the optimal human diet necessarily a diet that follows light frequencies so that optimally you would need either to live in an area without winter or migrate to one? If you lived in an area with winter, could nearby lakes or the ocean supply you with everything you needed to survive optimally?

 

Do not post private Patreon blogs here. Last warning.

 

@Jack, please point out where i posted a private patreon blog. i think you have me mixed up with someone else.

 

I deleted them already from this very thread. So my action defined your infractions. Last warning.

 

And if you don't remember what you posted you have bigger fish to fry. Nonetheless, I won't tolerate it.

 

ok, i feel better now

 

http://www.fergon.com/iron-deficiency-and-menopause/
"Once a woman reaches menopause, a lack of iron can lead to many other conditions that are uncomfortable, embarrassing, and even degenerative. Some studies have linked iron to hot flashes, and people with iron deficiencies often report poor cold intolerance and body temperature regulation...Women can have an increased menstrual blood flow during the time leading up to menopause and even during menopause. This means that more iron is being released through the blood and leaving the body deficient of iron."

i have erratic bleeding now that i am closer to menopause. i have been diagnosed with anemia off and on for years. my ob/gyn and family doctor refuse to monitor it saying a yearly test is good enough. i am flying blind trying to supplement iron.

recently i have had a heavy period. preceding this period, my sleep has been fair. however, now the past couple days my hot flashes have returned. usually an aleve at night will help reduce my temperature and whatever else it does to allow me to get back to sleep and to feel fairly well rested in the morning. the night before last even the aleve didn't work. so my feeling is my iron has dipped to the point where i am not producing sufficient serotonin->melatonin. iron is needed in the production of serotonin. yesterday i took one iron pill, and even though last night i did have hot flashes, there onset wasn't unit 4 am, an improvement from the night before. today i will take 2 iron pills- morning and evening- and see if my sleep continues to improve. i will also get lots of sun today and eat shrimp. sometimes daytime stress can bring on hot flashes at night- maybe because stress affects serotonin production- but i am not feeling any stress right now as i am on vacation. so i will continue with my iron supplementation in addition to all the normal things i do to get a good night's sleep. i just wish that i had a better way to monitor my iron. right now i use subjective feelings like sore tongue and hot flashes/sleep quality.

 

Check this:

Hgb(g/dL)
Hct(%)
Ferritin(ng/mL)
Iron, Total
TIBC
Trasferrin saturation %
Transferrin, serum

 

thanks, jan. I know what to test. I wanted these tests earlier, like 3 months after my last test of ferritin and hemoglobin, but my doctor refused saying I only needed an annual test. what i should have done 4 months ago is found a new doctor who would have seen the necessity of monitoring me for anemia, or ordered the tests myself and paid out of pocket. what i really need is an iron meter akin to a glucose meter. i will call my insurace company about testing and cost.

 

Doctors have precious little time for you, help her/him.
Consider making a list of tests that you want,
corresponding list of ICD-10 codes
and try to convince your doctor to sign on top and the bottom.
Something like this:

https://forum.jackkruse.com/index.php?threads/pg-e2-ratio.6427/page-4#post-199717