Chaucer
Kava Curious
Hey guys, I'm reengaging with Kava after mostly not having it for several years now. After hearing several different podcasts (Tim Ferris, Sam Harris, etc.) regarding the importance of the Deep sleep stage, I thought I would enable the sleep tracking features on my Apple Watch to see how I was doing. Turns out I was only getting about 40 min on average of Deep sleep a night while getting about 7.5 hours of overall sleep. So I've been experimenting with what and when I consume during the day (alcohol, caffeine, and now Kava) to see if it makes a difference.
Here are some initial results (the Kava was a Squanch variety in an Aluball - I'll check when I get home on the variety.) The number of minutes is how much Deep sleep I recorded. For these dates I've tried to have no caffeine after about 1pm. All Kava was consumed just before bed. Last meal was approx 3 hours prior. # of drinks refers to alcohol. A couple entries are missing because I forgot the watch.
3/27 3 drinks, no kava, 37 min
3/29 no alcohol, no kava, 23 min
3/30 no alcohol, 2 TSB, 63 min
3/31 no alcohol, 2 TSB, 49 min
4/1 3 drinks, no kava, 36 min
4/3 3 drinks, no kava 35 min
4/4 no alcohol, 1 TSB, 39 min
4/5 no alcohol, no kava 36 min
It's hard to say definitively whether the two best nights were because of the Kava or from other factors. I'll keep collecting data to get more samples. Interestingly the worst night was when I had neither Kava nor alcohol. After hearing the podcasts, I fully expected to see that drinking alcohol was destroying my deep sleep but it doesn't really seem to show that (at least in whatever the Apple Watch is recording). From what I gather, I'm getting less than the ideal amount of Deep sleep though it's very difficult to find a definitive recommended number of hours. As you get older it also goes down. I'm 50.
Anyway, I thought I would put this out there and was wondering if anyone else has been doing anything similar, or if anyone has any suggested practices in this regard.
My first night of doing a half Alluball of Squanch (no alcohol) yielded just over an hour of Deep sleep (the most I've had over the course of the week and a half that I have been monitoring). The next night, a half ball (again no alcohol) yielded around 50 min. Two nights ago, a half ball yielded only 39 min. Last night, no alcohol, no Kava, 36 min.
Here are some initial results (the Kava was a Squanch variety in an Aluball - I'll check when I get home on the variety.) The number of minutes is how much Deep sleep I recorded. For these dates I've tried to have no caffeine after about 1pm. All Kava was consumed just before bed. Last meal was approx 3 hours prior. # of drinks refers to alcohol. A couple entries are missing because I forgot the watch.
3/27 3 drinks, no kava, 37 min
3/29 no alcohol, no kava, 23 min
3/30 no alcohol, 2 TSB, 63 min
3/31 no alcohol, 2 TSB, 49 min
4/1 3 drinks, no kava, 36 min
4/3 3 drinks, no kava 35 min
4/4 no alcohol, 1 TSB, 39 min
4/5 no alcohol, no kava 36 min
It's hard to say definitively whether the two best nights were because of the Kava or from other factors. I'll keep collecting data to get more samples. Interestingly the worst night was when I had neither Kava nor alcohol. After hearing the podcasts, I fully expected to see that drinking alcohol was destroying my deep sleep but it doesn't really seem to show that (at least in whatever the Apple Watch is recording). From what I gather, I'm getting less than the ideal amount of Deep sleep though it's very difficult to find a definitive recommended number of hours. As you get older it also goes down. I'm 50.
Anyway, I thought I would put this out there and was wondering if anyone else has been doing anything similar, or if anyone has any suggested practices in this regard.
My first night of doing a half Alluball of Squanch (no alcohol) yielded just over an hour of Deep sleep (the most I've had over the course of the week and a half that I have been monitoring). The next night, a half ball (again no alcohol) yielded around 50 min. Two nights ago, a half ball yielded only 39 min. Last night, no alcohol, no Kava, 36 min.
