It’s great to know how you are and what you can expect from yourself! For many people your technique works well (like me). For others they find different results where these suggestions are very safe and suitable. It’s good to know there are other’s out there that can adjust quickly to a new sleep/awake schedule. I usually find beginning the shift the night before my flight helps by moving the schedule more slowly over a few days rather than quickly in one jump.

Thomas

Wow! Thanks for the professional medical advice! It’s great to hear how some ‘factual’ data can actually be somewhat misleading or even incorrect. As a graduate and professor of science at UIC Brent takes great care to check his data and provide accurate references. Since science has a way of changing from time to time the suggestion to read ‘Safe Uses of Cortisol’ (among other excellent reads) and to also check in with a personal medical doctor before use. As such it seems as if the precautionary aspects are all taken care of.

Please also note that Brent is suggesting only that this is what has worked for him. Each of us are very different even through our seemingly similar physiologies may make it appear as if we can all get away having the same diet or response to medications.

Feel free to respond with any references you think are pertinent to the information now posted in the article and comments below. It would be great to have more information on those blue LED lights.

Thomas

The curve of cortisol secretion is a MARKER of circadian rhythms, and not (at all!) the generator of the rhythms themselves. Manipulating cortisol levels will have no effect on subjective (or objective for that matter) indicators of jet lag. Once one has adjusted to the new time zone, the cortisol secretion curve will normalise; exogenous normalisation of cortisol levels will have no effect on rhythms. The subjective effects of exogenous cortisol may make one FEEL better, but will not alter adjustment to a new time zone. Importantly, I think it’s rather irresponsible to suggest ANY form of self treatment with cortisol, especially based only on a book that has not at all been subjected to scientific peer review. For example, under normal conditions, the daily secretion of cortisol is about 20 mg. The 7.5 mg you are planning to take will, if anything, SLOW your endogenous secretion by inhibiting ACTH secretion by your pituitary.

I think your idea of using melatonin sublingually is a VERY good idea for this use. Indeed, melatonin is one of the 3 or 4 confirmed “zeitgebers” (literally “time givers”, the word used for substances and techniques that actually reset the circadian clock). For this to happen (as opposed to it being simply a mild sleeping pill), the blood levels of melatonin have to rise abruptly, rather than, say, a slow time-release curve.

The MOST important zeitgeber is light, specifically BLUE light. Relatively inexpensive LED-based tools are available for this purpose, and hints as to the timing of light exposure can be found in reliable, validated articles.

The roles of exercise and diet are very controversial in terms of manipulating the day-night cycle.
Because your article provides advise and recommendations for a health-related problem, I suggest that each time you mention a fact, you should provide a reference, to allow the reader to assess the quality of the data leading to your conclusion. You might also consider providing links to a certain number of links to validated, scientifically accurate (sorry I can’t say that that’s the case with your regimen) articles that are readable and understandable by non-experts.
Keep up the great work with Language 101!
-Gary

Thanks for your kind words. Dr. Bernstein was and still IS ahead of his time. I talked to him briefly on the phone a couple of months ago and he was healthy as a horse and still practicing medicine.

I need to write another article on sleepiness and blood sugar. I’m not diabetic, but I find that I get very sleepy with blood sugar readings above 95 mg/dl and below 75 mg/d. High blood sugar sleepy does not feel the same as low blood sugar sleepy. Both of them will totally destroy the value of a language study session because you can’t learn very well when you are sleepy.

Brent Van Arsdell