SelfCare Saturday: Sleep

A new periodic feature.

One of the things I write about here, which is a little unusual in the world of conflict focused sites, is SelfCare. I got into this field in March of 2009 and I mostly managed to wiggle out of it by March of 2025, after just sixteen short years. During that time I and the people around me were periodically savaged, emotionally, financially, and sometimes physically. I saw terrible things during Iran’s Green Revolution(2009), Arab Spring(2011), BLM(2014), the ISIS Hunt(2015), and Ukraine has produced endless horror since 2022.

One of the things I had to learn the hard way was the hazards of burnout, back in 2012. I was told that serious, long term harm was going to happen if I didn’t back off. I didn’t listen, I couldn’t even hear, so I Found Out for myself, and lived to tell the tale.

I’ve been writing about this when it mattered to me, intentionally modeling what to do for those of you who find yourselves compelled to act. Now that I am retired, more or less, I am going to write about this regularly and neatly label it so those who are interested can find them as they appear.

Attention Conservation Notice:

You are not a tough guy (or girl) if you keep going despite warning signs. First you are a hazard to yourself, and then a hazard to everyone around you. Some of you will listen. Some of you will not. Some of you will survive. Some of you will not. There is only some correlation between listening and survival, because things are like that.

Sleep(less):

Part of the reason I was active so long is a combination of being good at it, and due to health problems I attributed to post-Lyme sequelae, I wasn’t able to fit into a traditional office job.

This chart is from my Garmin Fenix 6S and it shows sleep duration and time period for the last twelve months. I had literally no control over my wake/sleep cycle for over a decade. When I was asleep is was fragmented, restless, and that’s why you can see weeks were the machine registered no sleep at all. The overall symptoms matched type 2 narcolepsy for years, but it was always triggered by digestion.

Recovery:

The downtime after the surgery I had in early July afforded me the time to play with Claude Desktop and MCP servers. I built a health diary application, feeding it food, meds, supplements, and data I extracted from my Fenix 6S. The AI said “Maybe you have MCAS” often enough that I Googled it … then I started following the recommendations … and then this happened.

Quercetin and luteolin are herbal supplements that keep your mast cells from acting like a litter of startled chihuahuas every time the wind blows. I learned that glycine is a pretty good sleep aid thanks to Dr. Brad Stanfield, and in well nigh miraculous fashion, I have mostly slept like a normal adult the last two weeks.

Despite that first week being the most trying times I have experienced in a couple years.

Things are not perfect, last Saturday was the final encore of Stupid Human Tricks. Once that Sunday sleep falls off, I am very nearly sleeping seven hours at the same time as the grownups here on the west coast.

Activity:

Thanks to the surgery, which unshackled me from my hut, and getting into fasting, I managed to shed 10% of my body mass over the last two months. I now weigh what I did between age twenty and forty, and it shows. Previously a ten mile day would have been followed by some mandatory rest. The only reason there’s a break is the smoke plume that blew through on Wednesday.

Wearing myself out has some effect on sleep, but I don’t think it’s the primary driver. The glycine and L-theanine produce some pronounced changes.

Conclusion:

I preach keeping a timeline for those of you who are studying influence operations, that’s been true since the very start of this Substack. You need to be aware of the deception gambits so helpfully described in the JTRIG documents liberated by Edward Snowden. See the ones highlighted in purple?

I released my first MCP server, Parabeagle, two weeks ago. I don’t yet have a name for the health diary system and it needs a LOT more work before it’s ready, so don’t wait for it. I am going to suggest that if are compelled to get out there and poke around in what’s happening, you should do some personal tracking and start immediately.

As a low cost absolute minimum effort, get yourself a fitness monitor that tracks sleep. A Fitbit Inspire 3 is just $100. Learn what your normal sleep is like before you put yourself into stressful situations. After that, some sort of calendar where you track anything you do that is driven by stress is the next step.

And I shouldn’t have to say this, but neither alcohol nor marijuana are good for your judgment. If you start using them, or your use increases, that’s a big warning sign.