Deep sleep, methylation and healing
...as essential prerequisites for health and healing. No Methylation --> No Deep Sleep --> No Healing -->No Methylation --> Eventual Death.
I am unvaxxed
The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute medical advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only.
Recovering from long covid
As part of my quest to recover from post covid, post 5G injury, I have been exploring many possible avenues, and as I am very poor and can afford little intervention, I am looking for the cheap and the free. This turns out to be a good thing, because the free treatments, that we tend to overlook, are core and foundational to any return to health. I posted an article a few days back on the importance of sunlight to health, for everyone, but particularly for the almost 50% of the human race that has MTHFR gene variants. This is the article I wrote about sunlight.
And for those who do not yet know what the MTHFR gene is and does, here is some background.
Today I am doing a deep dive into the importance of sleep, and particularly deep sleep, also particularly in relation to the almost 50% of the human race that has MTHFR gene variants. There are aspects of body maintenance or repair that can only be completed during deep sleep.
So the simple fact is, no deep sleep, no deep healing. You know how they wake you every two hours when you are in hospital - that ensures you cannot heal!
We need deep sleep
ChatGPT: Deep sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep (SWS), is essential for key maintenance and repair processes. This phase allows the body and brain to perform deep restorative functions that cannot be efficiently completed during other sleep stages. Here are the critical processes that happen almost exclusively during deep sleep:
1. Tissue Repair and Muscle Growth
Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is released in its highest amounts during deep sleep. This hormone stimulates:
Cell repair and muscle growth
Tissue regeneration, particularly in muscles, skin, and bones
Without enough deep sleep, recovery from injury or physical activity is compromised, leading to chronic pain and fatigue.
2. Brain Detoxification (Glymphatic System Activation)
During deep sleep, the glymphatic system becomes active, flushing out metabolic waste from the brain, including:
Amyloid-beta plaques (linked to Alzheimer's disease)
Other toxins that accumulate during waking hours.
Without deep sleep, the brain's detoxification is incomplete, which may lead to cognitive decline, brain fog, and neurodegenerative diseases over time.
3. Immune System Maintenance and Healing
Deep sleep boosts immune function by promoting the release of cytokines, which are signaling molecules that help:
Fight infections
Reduce inflammation.
Chronic sleep deprivation can impair the immune system, increasing vulnerability to infections and reducing the effectiveness of vaccines.
4. Hormonal Regulation and Metabolic Health
Deep sleep helps regulate key hormones, such as:
Insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism
Cortisol levels (stress hormone), which drop to allow for tissue repair
Leptin and ghrelin, which control hunger and satiety.
Poor deep sleep can contribute to metabolic disorders like diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.
5. Memory Consolidation and Learning
Although REM sleep is critical for emotional memory, deep sleep is responsible for consolidating factual information and motor skills learned during the day.
The brain replays important neural patterns, strengthening memory and improving problem-solving abilities. Without sufficient deep sleep, learning capacity and memory retention are impaired.
6. Mitochondrial Repair and Oxidative Stress Management
During deep sleep, energy demands are low, allowing the body to direct resources toward mitochondrial repair and reducing oxidative stress.
This phase also involves the removal of damaged proteins and stabilization of cellular energy production. Lack of deep sleep may contribute to mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic fatigue.
7. Autonomic Nervous System Reset
Deep sleep is essential for balancing the autonomic nervous system, particularly reducing sympathetic nervous system activity (fight-or-flight) and enhancing parasympathetic activity (rest-and-digest).
This ‘reset’ reduces blood pressure, heart rate, and stress, essential for cardiovascular health. Poor deep sleep can result in persistent sympathetic overactivity, contributing to hypertension and heart disease.
8. Regulation of Detoxification Pathways (Liver and Kidneys)
The liver performs crucial detoxification during deep sleep, including phase 1 and phase 2 detox pathways, which metabolize toxins, drugs, and hormones for elimination.
Deep sleep also supports renal function, optimizing blood filtration and waste elimination by the kidneys.
Summary Table of Key Deep Sleep Functions
Deep sleep is essential for whole-body repair.
Focusing on ways to improve deep sleep—such as stabilizing neurotransmitters, boosting melatonin, and reducing stress—may enhance your body's ability to complete these critical repair processes.
Connection between deep sleep and methylation
ChatGPT: There are potential connections between deep sleep and methylation, though the relationship is complex and not yet fully understood. Methylation, a key biochemical process that regulates gene expression, cellular repair, and neurotransmitter balance, may influence sleep quality, and vice versa.
Let’s explore a few ways methylation and deep sleep could be connected:
1. Neurotransmitter Regulation and COMT/MTHFR Variants
Serotonin and dopamine influence sleep regulation. Methylation affects the production and breakdown of these neurotransmitters.
If methylation is impaired, there can be disruptions in serotonin → melatonin conversion, which may impair sleep quality and limit deep sleep.
The COMT variant (slow activity) affects dopamine metabolism. This might keep dopamine levels higher, contributing to difficulty relaxing into deep sleep.
2. Melatonin Production and the Methylation Cycle
Melatonin, essential for maintaining a proper sleep-wake cycle, is synthesized from serotonin, requiring a methyl donor (SAM-e).
If methylation is impaired (e.g., due to MTHFR dysfunction or lack of methyl donors), melatonin production can be insufficient, reducing the ability to enter or sustain deep sleep.
3. Epigenetic Regulation of Sleep Genes
Sleep itself is controlled by a network of genes that are regulated through methylation and demethylation.
Poor methylation can affect the expression of these circadian-related genes, potentially disrupting deep sleep patterns.
Conversely, a lack of deep sleep may impair normal epigenetic maintenance, creating a negative feedback loop.
4. Inflammation, Mitochondria, and Sleep Repair
Deep sleep is essential for cellular repair and energy restoration, particularly involving mitochondrial function. Impaired methylation (as in MTHFR variants) can contribute to oxidative stress and inflammation, which disrupt sleep quality.
Without adequate deep sleep, mitochondrial function suffers, which could lead to further methylation disruptions since methylation demands energy and well-functioning mitochondria.
5. Homocysteine Levels and Sleep Quality
Poor methylation often leads to elevated homocysteine levels, which can impair cardiovascular function and reduce oxygenation during sleep. This could prevent you from reaching restorative stages like deep sleep.
Elevated homocysteine is also associated with insomnia and fatigue, further highlighting the connection between sleep and methylation.
How to track sleep patterns
Me: The single best purchase I have made to support my health recovery, is a smart watch. My particular smart watch does everything including measure the amounts and types of sleep I am getting. It has given me an insight into my sleep quality that I could have guessed but did not know, and given me insight into what improves or destroys my sleep quality.
I know the “EMF is dangerous” crowd, of which I am one, will say it is dangerous to wear a watch sending electronic signals day and night, and it might well be. But it is also giving me detailed health information for the first time in my life that might just help me recover from a lifetime of pain. Swings and roundabouts. I am gambling on it doing more good than harm. Life is one long compromise.
What I discovered through my watch is that I was getting zero deep sleep for at least half my nights, and pathetically low levels for the rest. There was no way my body could heal on those levels of deep sleep - no way at all. A critical intervention for me must be to increase my level of deep sleep.
And there are a few easy ways to do this.
How to improve the amount of deep sleep you get
Getting out in the early morning light
Me: Here we cycle back to the topic of sunlight. Sunlight and sleep and methylation are all integrated and dependent parts of a holistic picture of health. You cannot remove one without collapsing the entire system.
This hack from Andrew Huberman does the trick. It will make it possible for you to fall asleep although not necessarily sleep through the night. And I am not sure how permanent the fix is. I keep backsliding and need to do it again every few weeks to maintain the ability to fall asleep early.
I did not have my watch when I first discovered this hack so do not know if deep sleep rather than just any sleep, followed on from the hack.
Suggestions for those with slow COMT and MTHFR variants
Me: It makes sense that, with impaired methylation, we might need to manage sleep more carefully. If our bodies cannot manufacture enough methyl donors overnight to maintain the perpetual supply we need, then we need to eat methylated foods before bedtime to go some way to keeping our supply up overnight. In those with MTHFR variants, it might be that we do not sleep through the night because we need more methyl donors to repair our bodies overnight, and as we cannot manufacture them, we have to eat them! Remember, no deep sleep and no overnight methylation together mean no healing. They are both essential to our ability to heal.
ChatGPT: Maintaining a steady intake of methyl donors and addressing neurotransmitter imbalances could eventually improve deep sleep patterns.
Methyl donors: Continue experimenting with lecithin, phosphatidylcholine, or methylfolate to maintain optimal methylation.
Melatonin supplements: If methylation is limiting melatonin production, small doses (0.3–1 mg) might help reset circadian rhythm.
GABA or glycine: These supplements promote relaxation and can support entry into deep sleep. Those with slow COMT might also consider theanine for dopamine modulation.
Magnesium: It promotes relaxation and improves sleep quality—helpful if your methylation is also limiting neurotransmitter balance.
Me: I have been experimenting with different snacks before bedtime, with the idea that they may balance my methyl donors and give me better sleep. Last night I had a lump of cheese and a glass of milk, and had the longest amount of deep sleep I have had since tracking it on my smart watch, 56 minutes of deep sleep and 1hr 29 minutes of REM sleep. Milk and cheese contain methyl donors essential for those with MTHFR variants, along with lots of other good stuff, but what I will do from now on is experiment with pre-sleep and even overnight nutritional behaviour, to see if any of it consistently increases my amount of deep sleep.
I will also return to the Huberman early morning light hack. As everyone who is sick knows, getting up early is not necessarily what you want to do if you have barely had any sleep overnight, but there are some habits you can start. I put out my washing and water my pot plants first thing in the morning - whatever “first thing” happens to mean on any particular day. This gets me some morning light, maybe not the best morning light, but better than no morning light at all. Of course it would be best to get out for a walk, and for those who are still mobile, yes, great idea. There is a group local to me that goes out regularly to view the sunrise over the ocean - fabulous - or it would be if I was up to it, but I am simply not. I do what I can, which is water my pot plants and hang my washing.
Can we simulate deep sleep to achieve the same health outcomes
Me: There is an awful lot of “holier than thou” about meditation, but could it, on one level, be nothing more than a technique to put the body into a physical state where it is able to heal?
You may have detected an underlying theme of all my writing - a deep and abiding reaction against new age spirituality - and this is not a rejection of what it is meant to be, but of what it has become. It is little more than superficial behaviours enforced by control freaks, like every other religion, on simple minded devotees. These behaviours are designed to disempower rather than empower. New Age-ism like all the religions that came before it, is premised on how bad we are and in what ways we need to improve, where my focus on life has always been how wonderful we are and what we need to do to stay that way - very different. So whilst I have always known that meditation practices DO improve health, I have rejected the society that preaches meditation - until today - my newly scientific rather than belief based take on meditation, thanks to ChatGPT.
And the answer seems to be, yes, we can certainly improve our restfulness, but no, we cannot simulate the type of deep sleep that leads to actual physical healing.
ChatGPT: Certain meditation practices and brainwave entrainment methods can simulate aspects of deep sleep, but the results vary, and full replication of deep sleep is difficult to achieve. Let’s explore the techniques and how they align with the brain activity observed during deep sleep.
1. Brainwave Entrainment Techniques
Binaural Beats: These involve playing two slightly different frequencies in each ear to induce brainwave states. Frequencies around 1-4 Hz (delta waves) are associated with deep sleep.
Research Insight: Some studies suggest binaural beats may improve sleep quality and relaxation, but the ability to induce deep sleep-like states reliably is still debated.
Isochronic Tones: Unlike binaural beats, isochronic tones involve rhythmic pulses of a single tone. They are sometimes used to induce delta wave activity associated with deep sleep.
Neurofeedback: This technique involves real-time monitoring of brainwaves, guiding participants to enter deeper states of relaxation, which may help mimic some of the brain rhythms associated with deep sleep over time.
2. Meditation Practices for Deep Relaxation
Yoga Nidra: Often called ‘yogic sleep’, this guided meditation leads practitioners into a deeply relaxed state, mimicking some features of deep sleep. Although it doesn’t replicate the exact physiological processes of SWS, it reduces stress, calms the nervous system, and improves parasympathetic activity.
Research Insight: Yoga Nidra has been shown to reduce cortisol levels and enhance relaxation, with benefits similar to restorative sleep
Mindfulness and Breathwork: Practices that activate the parasympathetic nervous system (such as slow breathing) can shift brainwaves into alpha and even light delta ranges, promoting deep relaxation similar to the onset of sleep. These practices have been linked to improvements in sleep quality.
3. Limitations
While these techniques can simulate certain aspects of deep sleep, such as delta wave production and parasympathetic activation, they do not replicate all physiological processes of deep sleep. For example:
Human Growth Hormone (HGH) release, crucial for physical repair, primarily occurs during natural deep sleep.
Brain detoxification via the glymphatic system happens efficiently only during unconscious sleep states.
However, these practices can still be highly beneficial by reducing stress, improving sleep onset, and enhancing overall sleep quality.
Conclusion
Meditation and brainwave entrainment methods, such as Yoga Nidra, binaural beats, and neurofeedback, can promote a deeply restorative state similar to aspects of deep sleep. While they may not fully replace the biological functions of deep sleep, they are effective tools for relaxation, stress management, and improving sleep quality.
If you’re working on improving deep sleep, these techniques can be a helpful supplement alongside optimizing lifestyle factors, like light exposure, diet, and stress management.
Supportive technology to simulate deep sleep
Me: I asked ChatGPT what are the best tools out there to help us attain meditative states, because even if they do not result in true deep sleep, if you are bedridden or otherwise disabled for parts of the day, it cannot hurt to follow meditative practices.
Light and sound therapy
ChatGPT: If you're looking for a technology that uses entrainment to simulate deep sleep states, BrainTap stands out as a compelling option. BrainTap combines light and sound therapy to guide your brain into specific brainwave frequencies associated with relaxation, sleep, and mental clarity. The headset uses synchronized pulses of light with binaural beats, guiding your brainwaves into states that mimic deep sleep or meditation more effectively than audio-based methods alone.
Many users have reported improvements in both sleep quality and cognitive function with BrainTap, highlighting its role in stress reduction and better focus. The sessions are structured to make it easier than traditional self-guided meditation practices, which can be particularly helpful if you struggle with relaxation or maintaining a consistent meditative state. However, some users might need time to adjust to the stimuli, and it's recommended to start with shorter sessions and increase gradually for optimal comfort.
This solution is among the more sophisticated entrainment tools because it targets multiple sensory pathways—something that enhances the overall effect compared to sound-only methods like binaural beats.
Headphones only
For a second-choice brainwave entrainment option using headphones, I recommend EquiSync. This platform offers a range of programs tailored to specific mental states—like relaxation, focus, or deep sleep—by targeting distinct brainwave frequencies (alpha, theta, delta, and gamma). It allows for both streaming and offline listening, making it flexible for different schedules. The programs incorporate advanced techniques like binaural beats, isochronic tones, and layered soundscapes to maximize the entrainment effects.
A unique feature of EquiSync is its customizable options, such as the Deepereum and Element suites, where users can select from various carrier frequencies or fine-tune sounds to personal preferences. Whether you're seeking better sleep, enhanced meditation, or improved focus, EquiSync provides tools for tailoring the experience to individual needs
If you're interested, you can explore their offerings further through the EquiSync website or app, where they explain how specific frequencies and waveforms correspond to emotional and physiological states.
The impacts of meditation techniques and methylation?
Me: This is a similar topic to the impacts of deep sleep on methylation. Is there any direct link?
ChatGPT: Yes, there is emerging research suggesting that meditation may influence methylation patterns, although the field is still evolving. A few studies have shown that regular meditation can modify DNA methylation in genes related to inflammation and stress responses. For example, one study on long-term meditators reported changes in the methylation of genes regulating inflammatory processes, including cytokines like TNF-α and IL-6, which play roles in chronic inflammation. These shifts indicate that meditation might promote anti-inflammatory effects at an epigenetic level
Additionally, research into mindfulness practices has demonstrated impacts on methylation in stress-related genes, such as those involved in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. These changes are believed to lower stress responses, possibly leading to improved psychological well-being and physiological resilience .
Though these studies are promising, the specific mechanisms through which different meditation styles (e.g., mindfulness, transcendental, or loving-kindness) might influence various methylation pathways, including those relevant to MTHFR or COMT, remain unclear. As such, further research is needed to explore how meditation could be incorporated into personalized strategies for improving methylation-dependent processes.
Summary
In summary, we have to give our bodies both the time and the resources it needs to heal.
Deep sleep and methylation work together to heal the body by repairing cells, reducing inflammation, and supporting detoxification. Sleep provides the energy and hormones needed for repair, while methylation ensures the right genes are activated to control healing processes. Both are essential for your body to recover and stay healthy. Whilst meditation cannot directly replace deep sleep, it might help create better sleep patterns.
Can you help?
I intend to keep writing of my journey through this rather strange time in my life, and for this planet. I will share with you, what does and does not work to exorcise this bio-weapon from our bodies and take back some level of control of our lives.
If you think my writings are worthwhile, you can help me get more subscriptions and donations by sharing this article on other social media platforms, and by re-stacking this article in Substack Notes.
Or make a PayPal donation here to help with ongoing medical costs. Every little bit helps. The last donations, thank you, paid for a red light to help me find restful sleep and experimental nitric oxide gummies to see if increasing nitric oxide levels improves my overall health (it does). I now have a non-intrusive blood glucose monitor, a smart watch to track how my health is improving, and my second order of AgeMate has arrived - all thanks to you. Next purchase will be an interpretation of my Ancestry genes to establish the best way to support my genetic makeup and bring me back to health.
Thank you for this info.
Please doublecheck your glucose monitors with blood glucose tests as we have consistently found discrepancies in the average range of 39 points as high as 80 points.
They are good to predict glucose trends however as it rises, lowers or remains constant.
Prescribers seem to document from monitors, rather than glucose readings...FYI
How I wish I could sit down with you and chat. When you’re in a bad place all these acronyms (COMT, MTHFR) and big words like methylation, are beyond comprehension.I don’t need a doctor, they just don’t care, and those that do only care when you pass them £££, which I don’t have. I need to figure things out…where do I go and who do I see?