By Todd Lee M.D.

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Sleep Metabolism

In Chapter 1 I discussed in a cursory glance, the grandeur and mystery of dreams as the mind plunges into the unadulterated subconscious.  This chapter will focus on the endocrinology and metabolism of your body while your conscious mind is gone, playing in Arcadia.  

Metabolism While You’re Awake

After about 4 hours without a carbohydrate containing meal, your insulin levels begin to drop and glucagon starts to be released by your alpha cells in your pancreas.  Glucagon will break down glycogen in your liver and this will be used to make carbohydrates for your body and brain to function.  If this supply runs low before more carbohydrates are provided, cortisol will be released from your adrenal cortex and that will eat away at your muscles and protein will be converted to carbohydrates.  The best way to prevent this is to eat every 3 hours.  This keeps your blood sugar and thus your insulin stable, so that there is plenty of fuel available, sparing your muscles.  In the case of carb less meals following carb full meals, the protein that you continue to consume keeps cortisol from being as damaging.

But What About When I Sleep Todd?

While you sleep you’re not eating. I established in Chapter 1 that you should get 8.2 hours of sleep every night.  Obviously it’s clear there is more than 3 hours between your last meal and your first meal on the following day.  This would lend one to believe that you lose muscle while you sleep, but this isn't necessarily true.

Growth Hormone (GH) is released while you're in a deep sleep, particularly stage IV.  About 1-2 hours after you are asleep, but before the dreaming begins, you release GH from your pituitary gland. GH will not be released if carbohydrate levels are high in your blood, but Arginine and Glutamine can facilitate its release. Unfortunately, Arginine and Glutamine use the same transporter and they compete with each other for absorption.  For this reason, I advocate 3 g of Arginine in the form of AAKG because it is the most readily absorbed.  Other ways to boost your GH release are GHRP-6 and CJC-1295, both of these are awesome and but of course, illegal.  Melanotan - II  works in a similar way to melatonin that was described in Chapter 1.  In addition to it helping with sleep, it burns fat for you and protects you from skin cancer.  Click on the blue words to learn more.  These are called “HyperLinks” and will take you to the articles about these products.  For a legal alternative to GHRP-6, use Dragon Dreams!! It is designed for sleep and also assists in natural GH release like the grey market secretogouges!! Also Thor’s Hammer and Fenris’ Fury have legal alternatives to the secretegouges. I designed them to be effective over the counter alternatives which do a plethora of other just as useful things!!

Aside from GH protecting muscle from cortisol, it can also boost your muscle synthesis through the action of IGF 1.  When insulin and GH are present, IGF-1 is made in your liver.  For this reason bodybuilders used to and some still do, wake up at least once to have a mass gaining shake while in a bulking cycle.  This gives you 2 benefits: It allows you to get multiple GH spikes as you hit stage IV sleep more often and these spikes amplify in effect.  You can take your GHRP-6 and CJC-1295 multiple times a night and by consuming whey protein, a muscle building specific version of insulin is released which converts your GH to IGF-1 in your liver. Now that the switch is switched on to grow and you have the protein to grow, you can get in 1 or 2 more anabolic meals a day(night) for increased muscle growth.  A potential side effect of the increase of IGF-1 is you may get organ growth. To avoid this, lift shortly before bed then the circulating IGF-1 will bind to the damaged muscles and initiate satellite cell migration, hypertrophy and hyperplasia (muscle growth).  

If your goal is to burn fat, then simply sleeping through the night after you maximized your GH release is your best bet. You will get more REM sleep and your cortisol release after 4 hours will amplify the fat burning effects of your GH. This is  a way you burn more fat sleeping than you do during the day.  To maintain this fat burning effect after you wake up, in the morning simply do not have carbs until after you lift weights. You don't lift? Simple, then you never deserve carbs. :)

So I’m Confused, What Do I Do?

For Fat Loss:

Eat all your carbs after you lift. 

Use Dragon Dreams before bed

Sleep Ideally 8.2 hours

For Muscle Growth:

Eat all your carbs after you lift

Take a nap

Wake up, eat

Use Dragon Dreams 

Sleep 8.2 hours

If you wake up, have some egg whites or other protein 

Wake up the next morning and use Thor’s Hammer again but don't eat for 30 minutes and don’t have carbs until after you lift.

Disclaimer

Nothing in this article or on this site should be considered medical advice or as an endorsement to violate any law of the country in which you reside.  The information given is for fun and entertainment purposes only.  All claims are 100% dependent upon proper diet and exercise.  Please consult a medical practitioner prior to any diet and exercise program.