Finding Your "Just Right": From Caffeine Crashes to Paraxanthine and Sleeping Through Orthosomnia

WELCOME TO EPISODE 213

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT 

Freddie Kimmel (00:01.28)
All right, team, let's go. Welcome to the beautifully broken podcast. Friends, it is no secret. I've dropped some Easter eggs on some of the recent shows. I've had a rough couple of months. So what does that look like? Two wicked viral infections, lots of change in my life, a new detox regime. I was experimenting with a new longevity drug called rapimmune.

And then this is a big one. The internal voice that says, I'm not enough got really loud. Now I could find more reasons, but I think that is sufficient to confirm my bias. Why it feels like the wind has been sucked out of my sails. This is part of life. I've said this a lot lately that life is the great simulation. You can go and grow and learn and journey as far as you want to.

There's a never ending myriad of experiences available to us. How do you want to take the journey? So for me, this recent trough, the tip to trough, the wave, the low wave led to some really low heart rate variability or HRV scores, the lowest since 2021 after getting my pandemic gift. And while my sleep from an objective standpoint was decent, I felt whipped.

I still feel the lingering pains of fatigue, but I am on an uptrend. believe it or not, I'm on the other side of this, right? I see steady improvement in the time between successive heartbeats. That's improving. I'm getting good deep sleep. And I wanted to offer everybody out there two simple life adjustments that not only improved my quality of life,

helped me get through the day in glorious fashion when I don't get objective good night's sleep. But it also gave me some divine insight on where my nervous system tends to ride. So number one is three nights went to four, went to two weeks, went to a month. The waking practice of looking at my bio strap, which is this device to track sleep quality, recovery quality, sleep latency, sleep onset.

Freddie Kimmel (02:26.522)
My bio strap kept giving me these really low recovery scores. And what it was doing is was it was doubling down on the subjective storytelling that I was failing, that I was doing bad as a wellness aficionado. I'm supposed to be able to get a good night's sleep. One thing that shifted this profoundly, and this is my experience, how I felt in the day was waiting till 2 PM.

waiting, just waiting to look at the watch, the app on my phone. So once I had a true sense of my life force, the quality of energy that I was feeling in my tissues, the quality of conversations, regardless of what my 21st century tracker was telling me, that was pivotal. I just made up a new word. I'm going to estimate a 50 % improvement in symptoms and I could feel

the stress drain from my body the minute I stopped using the score as a confirmation bias. Because what does the number really tell us on the app, right? If it says, Freddy, out of zero to a hundred, you're a 32. What does it really tell me? It doesn't really tell me anything. Aside from the fact that if I'm eating late, if I'm consuming too much chocolate for me after 2 p if I'm allowing for

excess light from my phone or computer if I'm watching a really intense episodic show like the boys. If I'm doing that.

Freddie Kimmel (04:05.196)
I know those behaviors are bad. know they need to change. So what is the benefit of the little ring or the wrist computer telling you that you suck? There's probably a strong use case for a monthly report versus a day -to -day compulsive behavior of confirming with my watch that it's okay to have a good day because the score says so. And there's actually a term that's floating around the intro web right now called orthosomnia.

which is being used to describe the anxiety or stress that develops from the results of sleep trackers. The term is coined in 2017 and refers to a condition where individuals become overly fixated on achieving, air quote, perfect, a perfect night's sleep. So paradoxically, this also leads to anxiety and poor sleep quality and the cycle continues. So.

That's my advice. Just wait, see how you feel, tap back into the body. Because for me, I was giving, I was giving the data too much power and what a great reminder at the power of the brain. And we talk a lot about the placebo effect, what we believe, you know, or, or the diet wars, what, what diet we believe is best for us is probably the one. so just let's.

Put a little check on that on a number two. Number two is caffeine, which if you've listened to the podcast for a long time, I've went on and off of caffeine, but caffeine, even when consumed early in the day can in fact impact patterns of sleep. can reduce the quality of our sleep. It can lead to less restorative rest. So without caffeine for a whole month, I did a whole month. I found that I was falling asleep faster.

and waking up feeling more refreshed. wasn't a profound percentage, but I did notice, I noticed a difference. I know I've gone on and off caffeine in the past. So I really want to say this out loud. We can mark it here, put a thumbnail on it.

Freddie Kimmel (06:24.614)
I do not label single chemical structures as good or bad. And it's something that I was willing to experiment with to see how I felt because most times caffeine or even nicotine, which is a smart drug, I could go on and on and on a carbohydrate. Is it good or is it bad? It's contextual. We got to put it on the body. So I want to keep talking about a few more attributes of caffeine.

Caffeine stimulates the release of cortisol, our body's primary stress hormone. And over time, this can lead to increased anxiety and stress levels. By cutting back on caffeine, I personally noticed a significant reduction in my overall stress and anxiety, much more even keeled, leading to a calmer, more balanced state of mind. Now I miss, as a type A dopamine addict, I miss that coffee high.

really do. However, I noticed the peaks and valleys were less. So there's a trade off there. Again, this is my one month experiment. We can talk a little bit about adrenal support or adrenal function. So it is true that our adrenal glands play a crucial role in managing stress and constant caffeine consumption can overwork that organ leading to what some may call adrenal fatigue. So funny thing about that term.

I have an adverse reaction to it because if you search the intro web, if you search Amazon, you'll see cures for adrenal fatigue. However, somebody I respect in the space, Andy Galpin has stated that adrenal fatigue is not a scientifically recognized condition. In fact, while people may feel symptoms related to stress and fatigue, the idea that the, just the, just the adrenal glands fatigue or become unable to.

produce necessary hormones is not supported by endocrinology research. So, I did dig into a lot of this. It is hard to say that is a gland. is a collection of systems. could be the HPA axis. There's so much going on there. but again, one of my favorite coaches in the world, Christine Dainese C.

Freddie Kimmel (08:46.424)
She is the coach where you go to forget your disease or your disease label. We don't need more labels. If there's anything that this episode speaks to me, it's the power of the brain to lock onto a label or a disease or a malady and amplify it by focusing on it. And it becomes all consuming. So I do want to say this. If you are waking and you're using caffeine before the body's natural cycles of transition from sleep to awake to kickstart the engine.

then there is science to support energy crashes and you're going to get a cycle interruption. And since we find that when we follow the rhythms defined by nature, we talk about this a lot, right? We trend in a better energetic flowing state. just like the waves of the ocean, the highs and lows of life, the highs and lows of energy within a day, within a 24 hour period, within a calendar, within a seasonal calendar. I think it's smart.

to at least delay your single cup, single cup. And subjectively, I can tell you I had an 80 % improvement in energy curve that sustains throughout the day. Now, I did take a month off. I do believe that resets my sensitivity to caffeine. I have one black cup of coffee, oftentimes using a quarter cup of the coffee. And it's plenty. If not, sometimes I can feel now after the break that it's too much.

I want to be real honest here. It is so hard for me to get off caffeine. I like the ritual. I like the memory. My limbic system is hardwired with so many great times of my life when I've got that warm cup of Joe in my hand and I'm starting off the morning. It's tough. So let's explore some alternatives. number one is, paroxanthine. So one alternative to caffeine that has caught my attention and many others is paroxanthine.

If you haven't heard of it, you're not alone. Parazanthine is the primary metabolite of caffeine, responsible for most of the benefits we get from caffeine, but fewer of the side effects. So parazanthine offers a cleaner form of the stimulation compared to caffeine, and it's less likely to cause jitters, anxiety, an energy crash, those that are associated with caffeine. This makes it a great option for those of us who love the benefits of

Freddie Kimmel (11:15.77)
but could do without that downside. Interestingly, if I'm going to tack on to that, there are health and performance benefits to do with paraxanthine. It's been shown to enhance cognitive function like memory, attention, reaction time, and more. It's also been linked to improved athletic performance, increasing energy levels and muscle strength while aiding in a quicker recovery. I think one of the most compelling cases is the reduction of side effects though.

And what sets paroxanthine apart is exactly this. So unlike caffeine, which can disrupt sleep and elevate stress hormones, paroxanthine provides a smoother, more consistent experience, making it compelling as an alternative use. Now I've used paroxanthine late night. I've taken one, a capsule, a supplement at 7 PM and I was fine and I slept fine.

And so it's really interesting if you feel like you're going out late and you're like, man, I could just totally herm it up on the couch and dig into my Netflix, where your blue blockers. This has been really helpful for me. I'll just pop one of these. So cognitive function. Here's another benefit in 2021. A study found that paroxanthine significantly improved cognitive functions, such as memory, reasoning, and attention. Oftentimes caffeine will show a reduced rate of attention or attention span.

And in this study, participants reported better mental performance, fewer mistakes, making it an exciting option for those of us looking to still have that good feeling of a stimulant, but without the drawbacks. And I want to talk about why I took a break for a month, a full month from caffeine. I wanted to explore a healthier way to maintain my energy and focus without the side effects that come with

Disrupted sleep was the big one. It was really driven by, I was just struggling. And even though I've not come full circle, I have now adjusted my time for caffeine, my caffeine window. was allowed, I was allowed, I was allowed a window back into my body's nervous system tone. So I can feel how much I want a cup of coffee in the morning.

Freddie Kimmel (13:34.436)
But what I'm trying to do through breath and red light, maybe a cold plunge, maybe a walk outside is let that engine start internally. So it's been an eye -opening experiment for me. And I don't have adrenal fatigue. I think discovering paroxanthine as an alternative has been just a bonus of this great two months of feeling off, if you will.

If you're considering a break from caffeine or you're curious about alternatives, would have you check it out. Explore the journey. I actually just saw a brand of coffee that's out. I think it's called PX coffee. That's obviously they've taken out all the negatives of caffeine. It's just got paroxanthine in there. So people are onto it, right? There's definitely a trend. So your body and your mind might thank you for this.

I want to say thank you for joining me on this episode of the Beautifully Broken Podcast. If you liked it, if you resonated with it, if you feel, yes, Freddie, I feel like I need to do a little examining of my relationship with caffeine as well, I implore you to. There is also, I'll just, the other thing that I've been doing is the drink that Sean Wells brought on, this was like three episodes ago, called Drink Update. You can get it anywhere.

But if you go to the website, you can use code beautifully broken. And that is a sparkly water drink with paris anthene. Those more honestly, for me more than the supplement, I get a better instant shift of mental clarity. And what I'll say is like the hurt in the morning when your brain just doesn't feel on yet that totally, I'm totally go to baseline with just one drink update. So that's really worked out well for me. So I want to thank.

Drink Update and Sean Wells. Ladies and gentlemen, beautifully broken podcasts. Love you so much. Namaste.