225 – Magic Mushrooms and Insomnia

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Hey welcome back to Microdose U. Today Dr. Dave talks about how psilocybin has helped his insomnia.

Microdosing Resource Page: https://davidmadow.com/your-microdosing-resource-page/

Here is the complete transcript to today’s show:

Dr. Dave: (00:00)
Hey, who wants to sleep with me? Well, hold, hold that. You might think that’s click bait, but it’s really not because this video I’m gonna do today, I’m gonna share with you how to get your best night’s sleep ever. So many people have shared with me, either in the comments section or emailing me that they’re having a tough time sleeping insomnia, whether it means they can’t get to sleep or you wake up in the middle of the night, you can’t get back to sleep. I’ll tell you something. Sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your health. And if you’re not sleeping well, it is going to chip away your health, perhaps more than anything else out there. So, um, in this video today, I’ll share with you how I dealt with my insomnia, how I finally, um, I think cured it because I’m sleeping through the night, every night now sleeping through the night.

Dr. Dave: (00:48)
That means not even getting up to go to the bathroom, which is very unusual for somebody my age. I used to get up two to three times every night to use the bathroom. Now I sleep like a baby through the night. So here’s what I have done. First of all, I got tested for obstructive sleep apnea. And as it turned out, I have obstructive sleep apnea, which means, um, I use a C P a P every night to sleep. And it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done other than magic mushrooms. Of course, um, the best thing I’ve ever done in my life to get a good night’s sleep and to sleep healthy and to, to make sure that I’m, I’m getting the right amount of oxygen every night, um, obstructive sleep apnea or any type of sleep apnea is potentially very, very serious. And a lot of cases, many CA most cases go undiagnosed.

Dr. Dave: (01:42)
Now I’m not telling you that you have obstructive sleep apnea. I have no way of knowing, but I will tell you this, if you don’t sleep well, if you’re tired during the day, if you fall asleep easily during the day, sometimes if you have high blood pressure, if you’ve experienced, um, anxiety, depression, if you snore, these could be signs that you have obstructive sleep at me. Now, again, I, there’s no way I can diagnose this over a video, but, um, if there’s a chance, um, especially if you are on the heavier side and you’ve got like a thicker neck, but that’s, again, people that are very thin have obstructive sleep ABNE as well. Um, I would recommend at, at the very least bringing it up to your doctor, make sure your doctor is well versed on this type of stuff. And perhaps having a sleep test, it absolutely could save your life. So that’s the first thing again, I wanted to throw that out there because it’s, it’s, it is very possible. Many of you watching have sleep apnea that just don’t know about it. And that’s, that’s a very dangerous thing. So let’s go on with, how do you sleep better through the night? How do you, how do you sleep go sleep right away and how do you sleep like a baby through the night? Well, first of all, I’m assuming that you’re doing all the things that everybody knows about

Dr. Dave: (02:58)
The proper sleep hygiene, things. In other words, don’t drink anything with, uh, caffeine AFF caffeinated beverages, um, past, I would say 1:00 PM, something like that, maybe even noon, 1:00 PM stay away from the caffeine. If you’re having a tough time sleeping, don’t take in caffeine in any way I would recommend if possible, not taking a nap during the day, or if you take a nap, time it to no more than 30 minutes. Because if you’re napping during the day, it’s going to be more difficult for you to sleep at night. I would also recommend that you move your body, maybe move your body more than you’re moving it. Now, the more exercise you get, and that could just mean a really nice several mile walk every day or almost every day, the more you’re moving your body, the more you’re exercising your body, the more your body is going to want to naturally sleep in the evening.

Dr. Dave: (03:52)
When it’s getting close to bedtime, I would start a wind down, uh, process generally after dinner, my wife and I just kind of hang around the house. We relax, we watch some TV or could listen to some music, but, uh, meditation is good. A little bit of light yoga is very good, but do something that’s gonna kind of wind your body down and get it in the right state for sleep your body. You know, if you’re, if you’re doing things, if you’re, um, watching news, that’s bad news. If you’re, if you’re, um, participating in something that’s maybe stressful, stressing your body out, um, it’s not going to be good for your sleep. So I I’m gonna highly recommend wind it down, calm down, listen to some relaxing music, listen to some psychedelic music, uh, whatever kind of music you wanna listen to, um, make it more on the relaxing side though, while you’re trying to go to sleep.

Dr. Dave: (04:51)
And even if you wake up in the middle of the night to not, I stress this, this is super, super important. Do not go onto your iPhone, iPad, Android phone, whatever device, computer don’t go onto your screen because ringing, because there are a few things that happen. First of all, it will give you a certain amount of light into your, into your pupils. And, and it’s going to, um, your body’s gonna think it’s time to wake up because you’re because when you start to go to sleep, um, you should be in a dark room. You should be in a cold, a cool dark room. Um, if you’re looking at a device that is absolutely the opposite of what your body thinks at once, when you’re trying to go to sleep. If you, again, if you wake up in the middle of the night, do not check to see who texted. You do not check Instagram, do not check the news. It is almost a 100% formula for disaster that you will not be able to get back to sleep, or you won’t be to sleep. You won’t be able to sleep well, lastly, but very, very important. At least for me

Dr. Dave: (05:58)
Is I do use a little bit of help before I go to sleep. Now I’ve tried melatonin that really didn’t do anything for me. And also I’m just relying on my body’s natural production of melatonin. But what I do, um, generally, generally, most nights is either take a little bit when I say a little bit, I say about, uh, what is it comes to about, um, 37 to 40 milligrams of something called hydroxyzine. That is an antihistamine. That also is a anti-anxiety agent as well. Um, since I started using that over time, again, don’t expect a quick fix. Nothing you do. I’ll tell you nothing you do is gonna help you sleep better in 24 hours or forward. It’s, it’s gonna take time for your body to get adjusted to your new lifestyle. So don’t give up on anything guys. It’s, it’s taken me. It’s taken me literally a couple years now with what I’m doing, the habits I’m into.

Dr. Dave: (06:52)
Now, it would be much shorter, but, um, realizing what was wrong and getting into better habits absolutely took me a couple years and your, and your body goes along with it. So again, your body, if your body’s used to something bad, then it’s not gonna say just right away. Okay, you’re doing things right. I’m gonna sleep perfectly. No, it, it takes time. Please be patient. I cannot stress that enough. So I either take, uh, about it’s about a tablet at a half of, uh, 25 milligram hydroxy. So do the math, whatever that’s on 25 to let’s, let’s just say 25 to 40 milligrams of hydroxyzine. I will either do that. Or, and I do that about probably two hours before I’m getting ready to go to sleep, or I will eat a, um, uh, th a cannabis edible and the cannabis edible could be anywhere from 10 to 20 milligrams of THC.

Dr. Dave: (07:45)
Um, either of those, I have not been able to show that one works better than the other. I will never do both at the same time, but one or the other of those helps me again, sleep comfortably through the night without weight, generally, without waking up. Sometimes I wake up one time, but my, the rule now is I generally don’t wake up at all, sleep through the night. Um, seven and a half hours is like the ideal amount of sleep. An adult wants to sleep. The, if you, you think you might think that nine, nine and a half hours is better, it’s not, um, if sleeping longer than seven, longer than seven and a half to eight hours is actually worse for your body. It’s as bad as sleeping four or five hours. So don’t think that, oh, I’m, I’m going to sleep so long.

Dr. Dave: (08:32)
I’m gonna be help. No, it’s not like that. Seven and a half to eight is really the sweet spot. You don’t wanna do any more than eight. If you practice what I’ve just shared with you in this video, again, uh, let me back up because the microdosing microdosing of magic mushrooms has been a tremendous help because, because what it does, it decreases your anxiety. It decreases your depression. It gets your brain to stop being all over the place and worrying and thinking, and, and it, it can help your, it can help you turn your brain off at night, which is really, really important. So I don’t wanna minimize the, um, magic mushrooms, the psilocybin microdosing that has helped me an incredible amount for getting sleep the way it should be. So, along with everything I spoke about, including the magic mushrooms, um, the things that could help you in the evening, such as THC cannabis or, um, hydroxyzine, if you do everything I told you, this is not medical advice though, but if you do everything I told you, there’s a very, very good chance.

Dr. Dave: (09:39)
Your sleep problems will be a thing of the past. And once you’re sleeping through the night, really, really comfortably and really deeply, and really well, you will feel like a new person every single day. I do promise you that, give it a try, work with it again, it’s not an overnight fix. You gotta be patient and work with it. If you think you could possibly even slightly possibly have a problem with sleep apnea, go see your doctor and get tested. The test is easy. You could generally, a lot of times do it at home. Now it’s simple, but I would really recommend that, especially if you’re, uh, you know, if you’ve got some of those signs and symptoms of sleep apnea, it’s could be very, very dangerous. Anyway, hope this helps you. Um, Dr. Dave, keep those questions and comments coming is that keeps my brain going and thinking about what can I talk about? What can I help people with next? It really does help me quite a bit. Um, I can’t promise I get to every single topic, but this is a really good one. Timely is just so many people we’re having this issue. So I hope this helps you till next time.