Typically there’s two problems:
To get to sleep you need to create an environment:
You’re in bed, your brain is racing, and you can’t stop thinking about things. That’s the result of dopamine. It’s preventing you from falling asleep. The reason you can’t fall asleep is because of your inability to clear (metabolize) dopamine. In order to create this high serotonin environment, you have to eat foods that contain the amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan gets converted into 5-HTP via the enzyme Tryptophan hydroxalase. 5-HTP (which stands for 5-hydroxy-tryptophan) needs the enzyme DDC (decarboxalse enzyme), which is dependent on Vitamin B6 [1] (perodoxin) to decarboxaliate 5-HTP over to serotonin. That B6 is vital for that enzyme to work. If you have low B6 the conversion will happen very slowly.
[1] Vitamin B6: also known as perodoxin needs to be in the active phosphorolated form (Perodoxin 5 phosphate) to push 5-HTP to serotonin. The serotonin, will help you relax. It’s then convered into melatonin while you’re sleeping. When you run out of melatonin? You wake up.
The first part in the conversion of serotonin to melotonin involves the AANAT enzyme. Which is a circadian clock enzyme that works at night when we're sleeping. It’s dependent on vitamin B5 (panthathonic acid). The second part, is you need methylation to occur. (which just means you need to turn on or off certain genes) This process is dependent on having adequate amounts of methyl donors. (which is a substance in your body that can "methylate") It donates and “gives-away methyl-groups” to activate certain genes. Now the last step to convert serotonin into melatonin uses the enzyme (ASMT) which needs SAM. (a methyl donor) SAM stands for S-Andenlseen monomethionine. SAM is created from the amino acid Methionine. The other side of the story is Dopamine – The amino acid Tyrosine is converted into L-Dopa, and L-Dopa makes Dopamine. Which is a neurotrasmitter that increases in your brain. Dopamine is what keeps you awake, it's a stimulatory reward enhancing neurotransmitter. So when you're in bed and can't fall asleep because your mind is racing, it's the excitatory neurotransmitters from dopamine keeping you awake. You need sleep to get these dopamine neurotransmitters out of your brain. We’re talking detoxification! That's where COMT comes in. COMT is responsible for clearing, or detoxifing a lot of horomones and neurotransmitters. (like estrogen and dopamine) COMT stands for = Catechol-O-methyltransferase. It methylates catachols such as dopamine, adrenelin, nor adrenelin, and estrogen. Dopamine needs to be converted to the byproduct VMA (the end product of dopamine-clearance for detox) which gets excreteted out through our urine. This process requires magnesium. (You can actually follow the excretion of dopamine by tracking VMA levels in the urine) COMT also needs a methyldonor SAM for methylation. If you don't get enough methionine in your diet COMT slows down. As for magnesium - The inner core of COMT has a magnesium ion, which stablizes the COMT enzyme. If you run out of magnesium COMT simply doesn't work and you won't clear dopamine from the brain and it will keep you awake. The same thing happens with your other brain neurotransmitters. If COMT slows down? Dopamine has nowhere to go. COMT also clears estrogen. So if you don't have enough magnesium, COMT is stuck trying to detox both dopamine and estrogen.
This is why I supplement with Magnesium Bis-glycinate before I go to bed. It's a magnesium ion chelated to glycine molecules – which (glycine) feeds into the making of gaba in the body. So you're also providing the body with glycine in order to support the production of gaba. (an inhibitory transmitter) Gaba absorbtion occurs in our gut and then feeds into our brain. (it’s too large to cross the blood brain barrier by itself)
Now to address the other side of the coin. At the end of the day, serotonin converts to melatonin and you need melatonin to fall asleep. (cortisol wakes us up) Now anything that effects the retna like blue light from your cell-phone will effect the conversion of melatonin in the brain. So you need serotonin and some melatonin to fall alseep. As serotonin goes up, your dopamine goes down. It's the opposite when you wake up. You essentially wake up when you run out of melatonin. So the other side of the problem is running out of melatonin. You’ll have difficulty staying asleep because your sleep is dependent on this process. The serotonin in your brain is being converted over to melatonin as you sleep. (remember Enzyme AANAT - works when we sleep) Which was dependent on vitamin B5. If you don’t have enough B5? You guessed it, this could be one of the three bottle necks that causes you to wake up in the middle of the night.
It’s fairly easy to see why so many people are having trouble with their sleep. One dominoe hits another and it creates a nasty negative feedback loop. What can you do? The easy fix, is to simply change your diet and make sure you get the necessary co-factors to not only fall asleep but to stay asleep. You want your body to produce it’s own natural endogenous melatonin. My other recommendation would be to read Dr. Satchin Panda’s book “The Circadian Code.” Something as simple as getting sunlight the moment you wake up can be a major game changer. Re-set your circadian clock and plug the nutritional difficiencies by eating real whole foods.
Magnesium is the one exception to the rule. I truly believe it’s impossible for anyone to get enough magnesium from dietary means alone. (Jarrow Formulas MagMind: L-Threonate – 1 or 2 capsule/day)
I’d also like to shine a light on tik-tok. Those short videos are designed to over stimulate dopamine. They’re going to cause the younger generation major issues down the line. If you’re a parent and care about your childs health, have them avoid tik-tok and youtube-shorts like the plague. Those videos are going to cause both physical and mental health problems in the near future. The sky high dopamine will overwelm COMT.
The outside of a muscle belly is a collagen layer of deep fascia called the epimysium. Just below that layer of fascia is a sheath of connective tissue termed the perimysium. The perimysium is what houses all of the fasciculus. (fuh-sik-you-luhs) A fascicle is essentially just a complex bundle of muscle fibers. The fibers themselves are hair sized cylindrical cells with it’s nuclei on the outside. Up to 150 muscle fibers can be bundled together like electrical wires. Each and every individual muscle fiber is surrounded by a layer of connective tissue known as the endomysium. This individual seperation is what provides nerve and blood capillary access to each of these fibers. Whilst simultanously furnishing room for the exchange of calcium, sodium, and potassium ions, which are electrolytes necessary for a muscle to contract. It’s the sarcolemma right underneath this endomysium layer that provides the fiber with it’s plasma membrane. This is the fiber’s permeable storage unit that holds it’s cellular components, and allows for calcium ion exchange. It’s unique in that it’s made out of a phospholipid bilayer, with a polysaccharide protective glycocalyx. Below this plasma membrane is where the fiber’s nuclei is located. The nuclei are evenly spaced along the fiber, which ensures protein synthesis can efficiently meet the metabolic needs of the cell. To sum it all up, the terms epi, peri, and endo are prefixes that signify “outer, surrounding, and inside.” The endo-mysium connects to the perimysium and, through it, to the epi-mysium, and then to the tendon. So when tension is developed in one muscle fiber, its then transmitted to the tendon, which is attached to the perio-steum. (A membrane that covers the surface of all bones) So when a muscle contracts? It pulls on the network of mysiums which are attached to the tendon, and in turn moves the bone.
When referenced, the origin refers to the limb attachment site closer to the torso. Likewise, the insertion is the site furthest away from the torso. Traditionally, they’re defined Proximal and Distal. For example, The short head of the bicep brachii originates on the anterior portion of the scapula called the coracoid process, it then converges with the long head of the bicep to form a single muscle belly, and inserts into the radial tuberosity, along with the long head, where both heads of the bicep meet to form a single tendon. That’s why your forearm moves when your bicep is flexed. It’s pulling on your radius bone of the forearm. If you supinate your wrist the radius bone is in line with your thumb. An easy way to remember the function of the radius is to think “triple-R.” The radius being responsible for rotation. The Ulna, is the other bone in your forearm that coincides with your pinky and plays more of a structural role allowing for flexion and extension. So the next time you’re doing a bicep curl, you’ll understand exactly why you’re rotating (or not rotating) your wrist and moving the radius toward your scapula. In contrast, when in reference relative to the torso the terms superior, inferior, anterior, and posterior are used. These are the positions closer to your head, closer to your feet, front of the body, and the back of the body. (Respectively)
The space between a motor neuron (which is a nerve cell) and the muscle fiber it innervates is called the neuromuscular junction. Each muscle fiber has one neuromuscular junction, a single motor neuron can innervate multiple muscle fibers, sometimes several hundred. A motor neuron and the muscle fiber’ it innervates are called motor units. Each and every fiber in a motor unit contracts in a “all or none” fashion.
To clarify, a muscle fiber’s first outside layer is the endomysium. These muscle fiber’s are cylindrical in shape, and have a plasma membrane under the endomysium called the sarcolemma. Just below the surface of this membrane is where you’ll find the cell’s nuclei which are conveniently spaced out evenly along the fiber to efficiently service it’s metabolic needs. The interior of the fiber is where we find the cytoplasm of the muscle fiber called the sarcoplasm. This area is reminicient of the stereotypical jello-science project that Mrs. Melnick conjoured up with your child in elementary school. If you reference the key or legend, you could delineate a visual of the muscle’s glycogen, mitochondria, sarcoplasmic reticulum, fat particals, and myofibrils. Hundreds, to thousands of myofibrils about 1/100th in diameter of a hair dominate the sarcoplasm. These myofibrils are what contain the actual machinery responsible for contracting the muscle. Specifically, the myofilaments (contractile proteins) actin and myosin. The myosin (thick) filaminents, which are about 1/10,000 the diameter of a hair, contain up to 200 myosin molecules. Sticking out of these myosin filaments at regular intervals are golf club shaped globular heads called cross-bridges. The actin (thin) fillaments on the other hand are two strands woven together to form a double helix rope like structure. Now, picture in your mind a bicycle chain and how it transfers power from the pedals to the wheels. It’s the chain’s links (actin) that are being guided above the sproket (myosin) that facilitates movement. That’s exactly how actin and myosin work together in concert. These contractile protein filaments are arranged so that each myosin filament is surrounded by six actin filaments, which form a hexagonal structure around it. (trust me, read that sentence again) Conversely, each actin filament is surrounded by three myosin filaments. This complex and unique structure allows the filaments to slide past each other and enable the muscle to shorten and contract. When muscles contract, those myosin cross bridges bind to actin and pull the filaments inward. This process is known as the sliding filament model of muscle contraction. It’s a bit confusing at first, but it’s this dynamic arrangement of overlapping filaments that give’s skeletal muscle it’s striated appearance. Now to the complex part. The actual smallest contractile unit of skeletal muscle is known as a sarcomere. These basic contractile units are essentially actin and myosin filaments anchored to different sub-sections of the myofibril which allows them to shorten. First off, we have what’s known as Z-lines that anchor actin filaments into place. There’s two Z-lines in a sarcomere which spans about 2.2 micrometers in length. Also tied to the Z-line is the protein molecule titin, which is an elastic filament that holds myosin into place. Titin is what gives a spring like re-action that allows for myosin to lengthen after the sliding filaments contract. These Z-lines are repeated throughout the entire myofibril. We’re talking 4,500 sarcomeres per centimeter of muscle. The sub-sections where actin and myosin overlap, will appear darker, and the areas where only actin filaments exist, will apear lighter giving the contrast that creates it’s straited appeaerance. I guess depending on your age, you may remember those long calf high tube socks that basketball players like Julius “Dr J” Erving use to wear. Those retro socks had three dark colored bands which created an area of two white stripes. Those dark stripes would correlate with the sub-sections of a sarcomere where actin and myosin overlap. Those areas are called the A-Band, and the lighter areas are where only thin actin filaments exist, and would be termed the I-Band. The two ends of the sock represent the Z-lines, and the area right in the middle of the A-Band is known as the M-line. The thick myosin filaments are anchored at the M-line in the middle of the sarcomere and are tied down at the Z-lines with titin. Actin filaments span from the Z-line and are then interlaced with the thicker myosin filament and overlap in the area of the A-band. The M-bridge is what connects the myosin filaments to the M-Line and is located in what’s knowns as the H-zone. The H-zone is in the central region of the A-Band of the sarcomere where only myosin filaments are present. When a muscle contracts the H-zone decreases as the actin slides over the mysosin filaments toward the center of the sarcomere. The I-band also decreases as the Z-lines are pulled toward the center of the sarcomere. Actin slides over myosin, the myofibril shortens, which causes the muscle fiber to shorten, the fascicle, and ultimately the whole skeletal muscle to shorten... and because skeletal muscles cross at least one joint in the body?! Tada… We have movement of the skeleton.