There’s nothing worse than being physically exhausted and when you go to bed, your mind starts racing.
It’s like a cruel game isn’t it?
I want to share how to turn your brain off if you have the COMT genetic mutation that keeps your mind racing when you go to bed.
I used to have this issue back around the year 2000. I was working in a data center for a nation wide mortgage company from 3pm to 11pm. The drive home was 40 minutes.
At 12am or so I’d have something to eat and drink, watch a little TV, take a shower and then try to “wind down” for bed.
Usually it was about 2:30am or 3:00am when I’d slip into bed. I was exhausted yet my mind started racing thinking fragmented thoughts and then the stress would start to sink in.
I’d think “If I can be a sleep by 4am and wake up by 10am I could at least get 6 hours.” Then I’d try really hard to fall asleep but my mind just wouldn’t turn off.
I’d be thinking about the most random things that were totally disconnected. And I’d think about them for 5 or 10 seconds and then switch to another insignificant thought that I also had zero control over.
My mind would bounce around all over the place even though I was physically exhausted.
The more my mind would bounce from thought to thought, the more I’d think I really need to get to sleep yet my stress levels and cortisol would rise taxing my adrenal glands without me even knowing it. It was like a vicious cycle.
As my stress rose so did my heartbeat, and each time I noticed it, it would become harder and harder to fall asleep.
Working swing shift or nightshift is one of the worst thing you can to your sleep and your overall health. It’s just not what we’re designed for biologically. We were never meant to stay up that late after the sun set.
There are many things you can and should do from a circadian rhythm perspective but that’s another whole article.
In this article, I want to share with you some supplements that you may want to consider if you simply cannot turn your mind off when you turn off the lights and lay your head down on your pillow.
The first thing to consider is that you may have a genetic mutation in the Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme. This particular enzyme is involved in metabolizing various catecholamine neurotransmitters, including dopamine and epinephrine.
If there’s a genetic mutation (either from mom or dad) this enzyme is not producing enough L-Methionine for your brain to break down and deconstruct thought.
If you constantly run into the issue of not being able to turn your brain off, you may have a genetic mutation of the COMT enzyme.
You can easily test for this here if you’d like. It’s a $500 cheek swab test but before you go spending $500 on a test, I personally (this is not medical advice, always check with your medical doctor before taking any supplements or changing your diet) would try the supplements first. If they work, then you probably have that genetic mutation.
If $500 dollars is too much you can also get a genetic test done here.
What does L-Methionine do you ask?
Good question. Here’s what L-Methionine does and why it matters.
Methionine is an exogenously obtained sulfur-containing essential amino acid used in the production of protein. It reacts with adenosine triphosphate in the body to produce S-adenosyl methionine (SAMe), a potent donor of methyl groups in the synthesis of norepinephrine. Methylation is the process by which enzymes are catalyzed to regulate protein functions, and it results in the conversion of cytosine to 5-methylcytosine, a methyl group contributor. Methionine helps clear the brain of metabolic wastes and prevents the accumulation of heavy metals (cadmium and mercury) in the brain.
So let’s keep this as short and sweet as possible.
Here are a list of foods or substances I would avoid for a few weeks to test this out.
- Elderberry
- Quercetin
- Green Tea
- MSG
- Glyphosate
- Glutamine
- Gluten
- Wheat
- Dairy
- Processed sugars
Ideally eat only organic foods to prevent nerve damage from cytotoxins that impact the central nervous system.
Remember, don’t turn this into the sleep hygiene religion. Try your hardest to avoid the foods above. If you happen to eat something processed or that has MSG in it, don’t sweat it. There’s always tomorrow.
Now let’s get to the supplements that will help turn your mind off when you close your eyes tonight.
If you can afford to get all 6 of these I would do that. If you can only afford one start with L-Methionine and then work your way down the list. I put them in order of importance.
I want to encourage you that getting deep sleep is not the result of not taking these supplements. When you were 8 and slept like a log each night, you were most likely not taking these supplements.
What happened?
Something has changed in our environment, habits, or lifestyle that has manifested in your inability to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Look at these supplements as one of many things you need to do to restore homeostasis to your daily health.
Even more important than taking these supplements to allow us to break down thought and essentially “let go” of thought so we can drift into deep sleep is our relationship to light and nature.
This relationship to nature is “orders of magnitude” more important than supplements.
But like I mentioned our relationship to nature is an entire article all by itself. 🙂
Let me know if you’ve tried these supplements (not one of them but all of them together for at least 30 days) and what the result has been.
