Vitamin D3 in Morning Improves Sleep Three Ways (Story 17)

Seth Roberts4 Comments

Chris Cappadocia recently commented here:

After the morning D3 entries started to appear here sometime before Christmas, I switched to taking my D3 first thing in the morning too (between 4-7000 IU) and so far I’ve noticed significantly increased feelings of sleepiness at bedtime, with moderate improvement falling asleep, reduced wakings throughout the night, and much better ability to sleep in.

I asked him for details:

Tell me about yourself.

I am a graduate student. I live in the Greater Toronto Area. I exercise almost daily (6 days a week maybe) with
weights (but nothing especially strenuous); most of the year I walk about an hour a day (but not January and February); I try to eat some vegetables every day, I have taken fish oil for at least six years, and in the last 8
months I’ve started to eat as much fermented food as I can easily obtain (kombucha and apple cider vinegar every day, kefir or yogurt or miso occasionally). Another thing which might be relevant is I’ve consumed a lot of caffeine ever since I started university. Regarding sleep though, I was off caffeine for six months one time and noticed no improvements (whatsoever!) in sleep.

When is “first thing in the morning”?

For about a month (January 2012) I have been taking D3 when I get out of bed, around 8:00 am. For this month, waking up and getting out of bed have roughly coincided. In December 2011 I took it usually at 9:30 am; if I woke up earlier than I preferred, at say 7:00 am, I would wait to take the D3.

Before you started taking D3 first thing in the morning, what time were you taking it? How long had you been taking it at that time? How long have you been taking it first thing in the morning?

I have been taking D3 daily for about 3 years. My daily intake was in the range 5000-12000 IU. I took the D3 throughout the day with food, and therefore somewhat randomly; a typical day on the high end might have been 2000 IU with a small breakfast, 5000 IU at lunch, 3000 IU at supper. Most often it was more like 5000 IU at lunch, 1000 IU at supper. I have been taking D3 in the morning since about early December 2011.

You say morning D3 caused “moderate improvement falling asleep” — you mean you fall asleep faster?

As an adult it has seemed to take an hour minimum, with two hours not being at all unusual (two or three nights a week). And then I could easily wake up shortly (an hour) after that. These times are all estimates, since
I try to avoid looking at the clock. But of course I do look sometimes, so I have some sense of these times, but it’s not so reliable. Also sometimes it’s not clear whether I’ve slept or not.

With that said, I would estimate the improvements falling asleep to be that in January it has mostly taken me under an hour, perhaps 45 minutes, to fall asleep. Also, I feel more content to just lie there and wait
for sleep, it feels like less of a struggle.

What are the average (median) times taken to fall asleep before and after starting to take your D3 in the morning?

I estimate:

90 minutes to fall asleep before starting morning D3

50 minutes to fall asleep after starting morning D3

over the last 6 months (the last two being the months on morning D3).

You say morning D3 “reduced wakings throughout the night” — Can you estimate the size of the change? What was it before morning D3? What is it now?

Three nights ago I woke up only once in the middle of the night, and it felt like maybe 20 minutes or so. Two nights ago I slept from 9:30 pm until about 7:45 pm, and I don’t recall waking up once. Last night 12:00 pm until
7:00 am, and I don’t recall waking up once. Before morning D3 I could easily wake up at 1:00 am for 5 minutes, 3:00 am for 30 minutes, 5:30 am for 45 minutes. This January, my impression is that I still do wake up three times a night or so, but remain awake only 5 to 20 minutes each time.

You say morning D3 has given you “much better ability to sleep in” — could you say more about this?

For at least the last 4 years I have been waking up earlier than I would prefer. I might go to bed at 11:00 pm and wake up at 6:00 am feeling very tired, unrested, and in a negative mood. (Due to not sleeping enough during those 7 hours; I am fairly confident I do not have sleep apnea.) Waking up early would not be an issue for me if I fell asleep at 11:00 pm and slept straight through until 7:00 am.

So by “much better ability to sleep in” I meant that I have woken up most days in January at 8:00 am, feeling rested but most notably, not feeling like “Ugh, I need more sleep” yet being unable to fall asleep again. I’ve felt like when I wake up, it’s the right time to get up. By the way, I did not notice this effect at 4000 IU. It showed up around 7000 IU.

What brand of D3 are you taking? Gelcaps or tablets?

Carlson gelcaps. Each cap is 1000 IU, in safflower oil. (I do not eat breakfast, so I take these on an empty stomach and this seems to give me no problems.)

 

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How to Eat Natto

Seth Roberts6 Comments

I started to eat natto, a kind of fermented soybean, after I became convinced that we need to eat plenty of fermented foods to be healthy. That was four or five years ago. Recently I learned it is a very good source of Vitamin K2, which is a co-factor of Vitamin D3.

This post about an infographic called World Stinky Foods (in Japanese) complains that the infographic doesn’t include natto. In my experience, however, natto has a moderately strong taste but does not stink. If anything it has too little smell, which is why it comes with packets of mustard and sauce. I think it is the texture that some people don’t like. Wikipedia refers to this difference of perception: “The flavor of natto can differ greatly between people; some find it tastes strong and cheesy and may use it in small amounts to flavor rice or noodles, while others find it tastes bland and unremarkable, requiring the addition of flavoring condiments.”

By ordering it in restaurants, I have finally figured out a good way to eat it: 1. Add both flavoring packets (mustard and sauce). 2. Add a raw egg. 3. Add chopped onion. 4. Mix. The egg adds protein and creaminess, the onion adds bite and crunch. I might try it with scrambled eggs. Ever since I learned that Mr. T (a rat) liked scrambled eggs, I have been eating about one egg per day.

Assorted Links

Seth Roberts2 Comments

Thanks to Allen Carl Jackson, Phil Alexander and Navanit Arakeri.

High Defect Rate in Ultrasound Machines That Scan Pregnant Women

Seth Roberts9 Comments

Two studies in Sweden by the same group have found high rates of defects in ultrasound machines used to scan pregnant women. The line of research began when doctors at the Karolinska Hospital discovered that many of their ultrasound machines were malfunctioning.

The first study examined about 700 machines from 7 manufacturers. About 40% had defective transducers — the only element tested. “The high error frequency and the risk for incorrect medical decisions when using a defective transducer indicate an urgent need for increased testing of the transducers in clinical departments,” the authors concluded.

The second study tried to find out how fast the machines break. The researchers examined about 300 machines all of which were working correctly (or had been fixed to work correctly) a year earlier. The retest showed that about 30% were defective. Apparently they break easily — and nobody notices.

These are lower bounds on the defect rate of the whole machine because only one part of it was tested. Because one part of the machine breaks so easily without detection, it makes me worry about the part of the machine that determines the strength of the ultrasound. How often is the actual strength much higher than the intended strength?

Caroline Rodgers has argued that ultrasound is a plausible cause of autism. A 2010 epidemiological study found no link between autism and ultrasound but these high defect rates call that study into question. In that study, almost all children (about 90%) had had experienced ultrasound before birth. This means that lack of correlation with autism means lack of correlation of number of scans (1 or more) with autism. This leaves open the possibility that it only takes one scan from a defective machine to produce autism. If that were true, and each child scanned repeatedly by the same machine (e.g., if a child has three scans, all are from the same machine), there would be no correlation between autism rate and number of scans.

These results scare me. It isn’t just ultrasound and autism. I blogged a few weeks ago about gross dosage errors in CT scans, some patients getting 10 times the intended dose of radiation. Here is another example where the operators of dangerous medical devices had no clue about appropriate testing and maintenance.

Thanks to Emily Williams who sent me a paper that mentioned these studies.

More about the ultrasound/autism link. Association between prenatal ultrasound and lefthandedness, which implies that ultrasound affects fetal brain development.

DIYization: The Word I Was Looking For

Seth Roberts1 Comment

In a recent post I wondered what’s a good word to describe the next step in economic progress after specialization — when making/doing X is done by the general public (not as a job) instead of just by paid specialists (as a job). For example, the introduction of cheap cameras allowed the general public, not just professional photographers, to take pictures. Personal science is an example of such a shift, of course. Thank you for your many suggestions, such as laitization, deguilding, promethization, and several more. The combination of Keimpe Wiersma’s suggestion (DIY) and wobbly’s suggestion (deguilding) led me to DIYing and DIYization.

DIYing, I learned, is an existing word with a different meaning (to do DIY). Although ordinary DIY (Home Depot) is associated with men, women appear to use DIYing far more than men and they use it to describe traditionally feminine activities (see this). For example, there is a blog DIYing To Be Domestic by a woman. This is irrelevant to whether I use it — it’s just interesting.

DIYization is much rarer. It appears in a 2005 essay called “Scandinavian Dreams: DIY, Democratisation and IKEA” where it refers not to a change in an activity but to a change in society — toward more DIY. IKEA, says the essayist, is an example of “the DIYization of society.”

DIYing is shorter. DIYization is more self-explanatory, less likely to be confused with dying, and makes clearer the connection with specialization. Not to mention it is more pompous — more Veblenesque. In the last chapter of The Theory of The Leisure Class, Veblen used long rare words to say that academics show off their uselessness using by using long rare words.

Apple Admits It Has a Workplace Problem

Seth Roberts25 Comments

From The Independent:

Facing a growing scandal over the working conditions of those making its best-selling gadgets, Apple has called in assessors from the same organization that was set up to stamp out sweatshops in the clothing industry more than a decade ago. The move is an admission that Apple’s own system of monitoring suppliers has failed to stamp out abuses, and that the negative publicity surrounding its Chinese operations threatens to cause a consumer backlash against its products.

I blogged about this a month ago. I think this announcement suggests the power of This American Life (which recently aired a show about working conditions at Apple’s factories) or Steve Jobs (his ability to “see no evil”) or both. It reminds me of the American Civil Rights movement. That movement made considerable progress soon after TV became widespread and Northerners could see Southern brutality on the evening news. Mike Daisey, via This American Life, suddenly made this problem a lot clearer to a lot of people outside Apple, thereby putting pressure on Apple management.

Vitamin D3 in Morning Improves Mood But Not Sleep (Story 8 Update)

Seth Roberts3 Comments

In an earlier post, Alexandra Carmichael of CureTogether noted that 4000 IU/day Vitamin D3 gave her better results than 2000 IU/day. Her mood was better and her sleep was better. But she’d only taken the larger dose once.

She recently sent me an update:

Since I last wrote to you [8 days earlier], I’ve been taking 4000-6000 IU Vitamin D3, and I can report that it’s NOT having a positive effect on my sleep, but it is balancing my mood significantly, helping me to handle normally overwhelming situations with much more ease, and avoiding mood extremes. This is a wonderful thing!

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I don’t fit the sleep-improvement set — I still wake up super easily in the night. Falling asleep is easy, but I attribute that to the blue blocker glasses. Also, 4000 IU is much better at balancing my mood than 2000 IU (no noticeable effect) or 6000 IU (feelings of intensity or overwhelm increase).

Vitamin D3 in Morning Helps Him Sleep Through the Night (Story 16)

Seth Roberts5 Comments

Greg Harrington left a comment on an earlier post:

I have had very similar results [fall asleep more easily] from first-thing in morning D3.(NOTE: I have great flexibility in my schedule — I can sleep/awake whenever I want — so I have been most focused on “restful” sleeping.) Differences: (a) My pre-D3 issue was restless sleep (waking up frequently), not failure to fall asleep. (b) The effect of sleeping all the way through the night was definitely immediate–very first night. (c) Also, most days I also wake up feeling more “rejuvenated”. This is not 100% though.

I asked him for details.

Tell me about yourself.

I’ve lived Austin,TX since 07/2011. Kansas City, MO before that. I’m a software programmer. 6′ 3″. 210 lbs. (White male, mostly German, but completely European descent.)

How did you want to improve your sleep?

I want to sleep through the night without waking up 3-6 times in a 6-9 hour sleep. This problem has lasted for 2-3 years. It sort of crept up on me. I go to sleep between midnight and 2 am.

How much D3 do you take? At what time?

I take 50,000 IU between 8 and 9 am. If I forget or wake up later, I don’t take it. This is the product I take: Bio-Tech D3 in 50,000 IU capsules.

Why 50k? It was available on Amazon, and I calculated that to be what you’d get from 75-90 minutes of full-body sunlight. Thinking about Paleo lifestyle…that seemed reasonable. This is a LOT more than most SE people are taking but I wanted to maximize the effect! ;-)

Any effects of D3 on something other than sleep?

I often waking up feeling more rested/rejuvenated. But not every day. I tend to feel tired between 11 pm and midnight.

What happened when you started taking D3 in the morning?

Assorted Links

Seth Roberts3 Comments

Thanks to Jim McGuire, Dave Lull and Peter Spero.

What Is a Good Word For This?

Seth Roberts45 Comments

Can you help me? I am looking for a word — maybe a new word — to describe the transformation of an activity from (a) something done only by trained specialists, as part/all of their job to (b) something done by the general public, not as a job. For example:

  • word processing software has made producing an attractive manuscript something that you no longer need hire a secretary to do — you can do it yourself.
  • digital cameras and software have made producing high-end photographs something you no longer need a professional photographer to make.
  • When I was a graduate student I hired a professional to make publication-quality figures for my scientific papers. Now I make them myself.

The transition I am talking about is part of a longer historical sequence that goes like this:

  1. Hobby
  2. Part-time job
  3. Full-time job
  4. Specialization (= division of labor)
  5. [new word goes here]

The best word I can think of is deprofessionalization. Unfortunately that has been used with a different meaning. Amateurization doesn’t work because amateur often means hobbyist. Popularization doesn’t work because the status of the activity has changed — from something done as part of a job to something done not as a job. It is one of several ways a job can change:

  • More efficient. New tools, materials, etc., make it possible to do the same job in a shorter period of time or at lower cost.
  • Higher quality. New tools, etc., make it possible to do a better job.
  • More exclusive (= higher barriers to entry). Something (e.g., licensing requirements) makes it harder for others to compete with you.
  • Less exclusive. Something (e.g., the Internet) makes it easier for others to compete with you.
  • ???. People no longer need to hire you or someone like you to do what you do. They do it themselves.

I care because personal science (science done to help oneself) is an example. For a long time, non-trivial science was done only by professional scientists. Now it is being done by non-professionals.

More What about publicization? Or is it too ugly? I looked up democratization as a possibility but found this under “democratization of photography”:”Serious photography has gone from being the preserve of the reasonably well off to something that just about anyone can take up with minimal expense”. That isn’t what I mean here — that the price of something comes down. Hoipolloization is too long. What about massification?

Still More It really is DIY, I hadn’t thought of that. That exactly conveys the transition from job to non-job. DIYing (or should it be DIYization?) has a nice ring to it, is very short, is not pompous, and would not need to be defined. I also like promethization, deguilding, democratization, and deprofessionalization.