Health & Fitness

Sleep — Why You Need It and 50 Ways to Improve It

This article was previously published March 29, 2018, and has been updated with new information.

While sleep is still a largely neglected area of health, research soundly refutes the idea that sleep is "a waste of time" and can be omitted without major repercussions. On the contrary, without proper sleep, every aspect of your health will suffer adverse consequences. Estimates suggest 1 in 3 Americans gets less than seven hours of sleep a night and more than 83 million adults in the U.S. are sleep-deprived.¹

Here, I'll review some of the most important findings that have emerged in more recent years, answering key questions such as: What happens during sleep that makes it so crucial for optimal health? What are the consequences of sleeping too little or getting poor-quality sleep? How much sleep do you actually need? And, how can you improve sleep quality and quantity?

What Happens During Sleep?

Why do we sleep? For many ambitious and driven individuals, sleep can seem like an annoyance without clear purpose. Far from being a waste of time, sleep serves many important functions, and without it, your body (and mind) starts to fall apart at the proverbial seams.

In the video above, professor Matthew Walker, Ph.D., founder and director of the University of California Berkeley's Center for Human Sleep Science and author of the book, "Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams," shares the latest discoveries about sleep and how it impacts virtually every area of your physical and mental health. For example, sleep is required for:

• Maintaining metabolic homeostasis in your brain — Wakefulness is associated with mitochondrial stress and without sufficient sleep, neuron degeneration sets in, which can lead to dementia.^2,^3,⁴ Animal research reveals inconsistent, intermittent sleep results in considerable and irreversible brain damage.

In one study, mice lost 25% of the neurons located in their locus coeruleus,⁵ a nucleus in the brainstem associated with arousal, wakefulness and certain cognitive processes. In a similar vein, research published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging suggests people with chronic sleep problems develop Alzheimer's disease sooner than those who sleep well.⁶

• Maintaining biological homeostasis — Your body contains an array of body clocks that regulate everything from metabolism to psychological functioning.

When you upset your circadian rhythm by not getting enough sleep, the results cascade through your system, raising blood pressure, dysregulating hunger hormones and blood sugar, increasing the expression of genes associated with inflammation, immune excitability, diabetes, cancer risk and stress,⁷ and much more.

While the master clock in your brain synchronizes your bodily functions to match the 24-hour light and dark cycle, each and every organ, indeed each cell, has its own biological clock. The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2017⁸ was actually awarded for the discovery of these body clocks.

Even half your genes have been shown to be under circadian control, turning on and off in cyclical waves. All of these clocks, while having slightly different rhythms, are synchronized to the master clock in your brain. Needless to say, when these clocks become desynchronized, a wide array of health problems can ensue.

• Removal of toxic waste from your brain through the glymphatic system — This system ramps up its activity during deep sleep, thereby allowing your brain to clear out toxins, including harmful proteins linked to brain disorders such as Alzheimer's.

By pumping cerebral spinal fluid through your brain's tissues, the glymphatic system flushes the waste from your brain, back into your body's circulatory system. From there, the waste eventually reaches your liver, where it can be eliminated.^9,^10,^11,^12, ¹³

• Memory formation, extracting meaning from life events and improving daytime performance — During sleep, your brain pulls together and extracts meaning from the day's events, thereby fostering insight into the workings of your life.

Dreams play important roles as well. In addition to helping you gain insight into what's going on in your life, tests reveal dreaming about performing an activity increases actual physical performance tenfold.¹⁴ In the dream state, your brain is actually processing information at multiple levels. Your whole brain is engaged.

Part of your brain is busy stabilizing, enhancing and integrating new memories. It's also extracting rules and the gist of what's going on. Then, during dreaming, old and new memories are integrated to form a new whole, and possible futures are imagined. (This is what you actually perceive as "the action" of your dream.) The sum total of these processes then allows you to see the meaning of your life.

The Consequences of Insufficient Sleep

The list above should alert you to many of the possible ramifications associated with insufficient sleep. Considering the fact that sleep plays a key role in everything from gene expression and hormone regulation to brain detoxification and cognition, it becomes clear that there aren't many facets of your being that can skate by unscathed when you skimp on sleep. Here are some examples of the health problems linked to insufficient sleep:

Impaired memory and reduced ability to learn new things¹⁵ — Due to your hippocampus shutting down, you will experience a 40% deficit in your brain with respect to its ability to make new memories when you're sleep-deprived.

Reduced productivity at work and poor grades in school

Reduced ability to perform tasks

Reduced athletic performance

Reduced creativity at work or in other activities

Slowed reaction time, increasing your risk of accidents on the road and at work — Getting less than six hours of sleep leaves you cognitively impaired. In 2013, drowsy drivers caused 72,000 car accidents in which 800 Americans were killed and 44,000 were injured.¹⁶ This is more than died from those texting and drunk drivers combined. Sadly, drowsy driving continues to be a major cause of car accidents, with more than 90,000 in 2017.¹⁷

In 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates there will be 100,000 drowsy-driving accidents. Even a single night of sleeping only four to six hours can impact your ability to think clearly the next day.

Increased risk of neurological problems, ranging from depression to dementia and Alzheimer's disease¹⁸ — Your blood-brain barrier becomes more permeable with age, allowing more toxins to enter.¹⁹ This, in conjunction with reduced efficiency of the glymphatic system due to lack of sleep, allows for more rapid damage to occur in your brain and this deterioration is thought to play a significant role in the development of Alzheimer's.

Increased risk of Type 2 diabetes — In one study,²⁰ excessive daytime sleepiness increased the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 56%.

Decreased immune function — Research²¹ suggests deep sleep strengthens immunological memories of previously encountered pathogens. In this way, your immune system is able to mount a much faster and more effective response when an antigen is encountered a second time.

Increased risk of obesity

Increased risk of cancer — Tumors grew faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions.²² The primary mechanism thought to be responsible for this effect is disrupted melatonin production, a hormone with both antioxidant and anticancer activity.

Melatonin both inhibits the proliferation of cancer cells and triggers cancer cell apoptosis (self-destruction). It also interferes with the new blood supply tumors required for their rapid growth (angiogenesis).

Increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and cardiovascular disease — As noted by Walker in the video above, "In the spring when we lose one hour of sleep, we see a subsequent 24% increase in heart attacks. In the fall, when we gain one hour of sleep, we see a 21% decrease in heart attacks. That is how fragile your body is with even the smallest perturbations of sleep …"

In his book, Walker also cites Japanese research showing male workers who average six hours of sleep per night or less are 400 to 500% more likely to suffer one or more cardiac arrests than those getting more than six hours of sleep each night.

Other research has demonstrated that women who get less than four hours of shut-eye per night increase their risk of dying from heart disease by 82%. Conversely, getting too much sleep increased their risk of heart disease by 95%, showing that it's important to make sure you get enough sleep, but not too much.²³

In another study,²⁴ adults who slept less than five hours a night had 50% more coronary calcium, a sign of oncoming heart disease, than those who regularly got seven hours.

Increased risk of osteoporosis

Increased risk of pain and pain-related conditions such as fibromyalgia — In one study, poor or insufficient sleep was the strongest predictor for pain in adults over 50.²⁵

Increased susceptibility to stomach ulcers

Impaired sexual function^26,²⁷

Impaired regulation of emotions and emotional perception — Your amygdala, one of your brain's centerpiece regions for generating strong emotional reactions, including negative ones, becomes more reactive than usual when you've slept poorly or insufficiently, resulting in increased emotional intensity and volatility.²⁸

Increased risk of depression and anxiety (including post-traumatic stress disorder), schizophrenia and suicide — According to a study in Neurologic Clinics, "there is growing experimental evidence that the relationship between psychiatric disorders and sleep is complex," and can greatly influence bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia and other psychological disorders.²⁹

Premature aging by interfering with growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep.

Increased risk of dying from any cause³⁰ — Compared to people without insomnia, the adjusted hazard ratio for all-cause mortality among those with chronic insomnia was 300% higher.

General Sleep Guidelines

So, how much sleep do you need to avoid this avalanche of ill effects? According to a scientific review of more than 300 studies published between 2004 and 2014 to ascertain how many hours of sleep most people need in order to maintain their health, a panel of experts came up with the following recommendations.³¹ Keep in mind that if you're sick, injured or pregnant, you may need a bit more than normal.

Age Group	Hours of sleep needed for health
Newborns (0 to 3 months)	14 to 17 hours
Infants (4 to 11 months)	12 to 15 hours
Toddlers (1 to 2 years)	11 to 14 hours
Preschoolers (3 to 5)	10 to 13 hours
School-age children (6 to 13)	9 to 11 hours
Teenagers (14 to 17)	8 to 10 hours
Adults (18 to 64)	7 to 9 hours
Seniors (65 and older)	7 to 8 hours

How to Diagnose Sleep Deprivation

The following three factors, in combination, influence how restorative your sleep is:

Duration — This is the number of hours you sleep. Sleep requirements are highly individual and can change from one day to the next, depending on factors like stress, physical exertion, illness and pregnancy, just to name a few. But, on average, most people need about eight hours of sleep per night.
Timing — This is the habit of going to bed at approximately the same time each night. When you go to bed and wake up at the same times, your body becomes accustomed to the routine. This helps regulate your circadian clock so you fall asleep and stay asleep all night. Keep this routine, even on the weekends,³² because even if the duration of sleep is the same, when the timing of your sleep is shifted, it's not going to be as restorative.
Intensity — This has to do with the different stages your brain and body go through over the course of the night; the sequence of them, and how those stages are linked. Some medications will suppress certain phases of sleep, and certain conditions like sleep apnea will lead to fragmented sleep. With these scenarios, even if you're sleeping for an adequate duration and have consistent timing, your sleep will not be as restorative.

One of the easiest ways to gauge whether you've slept enough is to assess your level of sleepiness the next day. For example, if you had the opportunity, would you be able to take a nap? Do you need caffeine to keep you going?

Answering yes to these two questions would indicate you need more and/or better sleep. Sometimes, however, signs of sleep deprivation can be less obvious. The late Nathaniel Kleitman, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus in physiology at the University of Chicago and a well-recognized pioneer in sleep research,³³ developed a "sleep onset latency test," to determine if you're sleep-deprived. Here's how it works:³⁴

1. In the early afternoon, grab a spoon and head off to your darkened bedroom to take a nap. Place a metal tray on the floor beside your bed and hold the spoon over the tray as you attempt to fall asleep. Be sure to check the time as you lie down. (If you don't have a spoon and metal tray handy, you can still take this test by setting an alarm for 15 minutes to see if you fall asleep before it goes off.)

2. When you fall asleep and the spoon crashes down onto the tray, waking you up, immediately check the time again and note how much time has passed.

a. If you fell asleep within five minutes, it means you're severely sleep-deprived.

b. If it took you 10 minutes to fall asleep, you could still use more sleep.

c. If you managed to stay awake for 15 minutes or more before falling asleep, you're probably well rested.

The Best Position for Sleep

In the video above, chiropractor and exercise physiologist Dr. Peter Martone discusses the benefits of adopting a neutral sleeping position. If you're a side or stomach sleeper and find yourself frequently tossing and turning at night and/or wake up with aches and pains, your sleeping position may be a primary culprit. As noted by Martone, for sound, healthy sleep, you need to sleep on your back, with your neck and spine in a neutral position.

The key to achieving this is to prop a pillow under your neck, not your head, as this allows you to maintain a proper spinal curve. For a demonstration on how to use your pillow to support your neck rather than simply elevating your head, please see the video. In Martone's experience, it takes an average of three to four months to convert from a side sleeper to a back sleeper, and even longer if you're used to sleeping on your stomach.

Inclined Bed Therapy

Another posture-related change that might help improve your sleep is to raise the head of your bed so that you're sleeping on an incline. Inclined bed therapy — which simply involves raising the head of your bed 6 to 8 inches so you're sleeping on a 5-degree incline — may have a number of benefits, including:

Improving blood circulation

Boosting metabolism

Improving glymphatic drainage from the brain

Improving immune system function

Improving respiratory function

Easing symptoms associated with Alzheimer's, diabetes, glaucoma, migraines, multiple sclerosis, sleep apnea, acid reflux, edema, varicose veins and more

Please note that sleeping on an incline is not the same as sleeping on an adjustable bed that allows you to raise the head while the lower portion remains horizontal. Your body should be straight, but on an incline. You're not looking to sleep in a sitting position where only your torso is lifted.

The alignment of your body is important, as you want your blood to circulate freely throughout your whole body and avoid stress on your hip joint. For tips on how to create an inclined bed, see InclinedBedTherapy.com.³⁵ For example, you can build your own wooden bed frame, or use leg risers or full-length foam wedges.

Clean Up Your Sleep Hygiene to Optimize Your Health

There's simply no doubt that sleep needs to be a priority in your life if you intend to live a long and healthy life. Anyone struggling with chronic disease — which is at least half of the American adult population — would be wise to take sleep seriously, as it can have a significant impact, not only contributing to the problem but also counteracting any other healthy lifestyle strategies you're using to address it.

As a general guideline, seek to get right around eight hours of sleep every night. Anything under seven hours really starts to impact your health (if you're an adult). For many, this means forgoing night-owl tendencies and getting to bed at a reasonable time. If you need to be up at 6 a.m., you have to have a lights-out deadline of 9:30 or 10 p.m., depending on how quickly you tend to fall asleep.

The good news is there are many ways to improve your odds of sleeping well, even if you're currently struggling. Following are 50 of my top sleep tips. Go through this list and assess where your weaknesses might be, and start addressing the most obvious culprits. You may have to experiment a bit to find a combination that works best for you, but it'll be well worth the effort.

50 Other Ways to Improve Your Sleep

1. Sleep in complete darkness, or as close to it as possible — Even the tiniest bit of light can disrupt your pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin, thereby disrupting your sleep cycle. Even the tiniest glow from your clock radio has the potential to interfere with your sleep.

So, close your bedroom door, get rid of night lights and use blackout shades or thick drapes. If shades are out of your budget, use a well-fitting eye mask. Refrain from turning on any light at all during the night, even when getting up to go to the bathroom. If you absolutely have to have some sort of night light, use a red bulb.

2. Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70 degrees F — Studies show the optimal room temperature for sleep is between 60 to 68 degrees F.

Keeping your room cooler or hotter can lead to restless sleep. When you sleep, your body's internal temperature drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body's natural temperature drop.

3. Sleep naked — Something as simple as sleeping naked may do the trick if you don't want to crank down the temperature on your air conditioning. One of the established benefits of sleeping in the buff is improved sleep quality, in part by preventing overheating.

One study showed a surface skin temperature difference of as little as 0.08 degrees F (or 0.4 degrees C) led to sounder sleep.^36,^37,³⁸ Studies have also found sleeping in the nude has several other health benefits, including improved metabolism and blood circulation.

4. Conquer sound pollution — Like temperature and light, sound can be a disruptive factor that's keeping you awake. An inexpensive pair of earplugs can eliminate most noise.

5. Eliminate electric and electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in your bedroom — These can disrupt your pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin, and are a significant contributor to mitochondrial damage and dysfunction, which is at the heart of virtually all chronic disease.

EMF exposure has also been linked to neuronal changes that affect memory and your ability to learn.^39,⁴⁰ EMFs harm your body's mitochondria by producing excessive oxidative damage, so "marinating" in EMFs all night, every night, can cause or contribute to chronic ailments, including premature aging.

Ideally, shut down the electricity to your bedroom by pulling your circuit breaker before bed. If you have neighbors on the other side of the wall, floor or ceiling, consider installing a Faraday cage (copper- and/or silver-threaded fabric) around your bed. If you live in a high-rise and have neighbors beneath you, place the Faraday fabric on the floor beneath your bed as well. This may significantly improve your sleep quality.

However, even if you completely shut off the electricity in your bedroom 2 out of 3 people will still have electrified rooms. This is what happened to me, and when I used sophisticated body voltage measurements I was able to detect this.

This is a result of electrical fields (not electricity) transferred into your home by the electric utility and spreading in your home. This can be remediated with some effective types of paint shielding that is then grounded to form a Faraday cage, which stops the fields from entering your bedroom.

6. Shut down your Wi-Fi at night — Another really important step is to turn off your Wi-Fi at night. It would be best to hard wire your home so you have no Wi-Fi 24/7 in your home, but I realize many are unwilling or unable to take this step. It's important to realize that the Wi-Fi in your home is nearly always more of a danger to you than what's coming from outside your home.

You can confirm this by measuring the microwave signals with a meter, and seeing what your exposure is. The fact is, you don't need Wi-Fi while sleeping, so this is a wholly unnecessary exposure that is easily remedied by turning it off.

7. Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your bed — If these devices must be used, keep them as far away from your bed as possible, preferably at least 3 feet. Keep your cellphone as far away from your bedroom as possible if it must be on. If you keep it in your bedroom, either shut it down or put it in airplane mode.

8. Avoid using loud alarm clocks — It is very stressful on your body to be suddenly jolted awake. If you are regularly getting enough sleep, an alarm may even be unnecessary.

Alternatives include a sun alarm clock, which wakes you up by gradually increasing the intensity of light, thereby simulating sunrise, or a talking alarm clock, designed for the visually impaired. I use the talking clock, as it allows me to sleep in complete darkness. If I need to know the time, I just press a large button, and the clock audibly tells me the time.

9. 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) — One of my absolute favorite sleep aids is 5-HTP. 5-HTP is the hydroxylated form of tryptophan and easily passes your blood brain barrier when it is converted to serotonin, thereby giving mood a boost and enhancing sleep and then to melatonin.

I believe this is a superior approach to using melatonin. In one study, an amino acid preparation containing both GABA (a calming neurotransmitter) and 5-HTP reduced time to fall asleep, increased the duration of sleep and improved sleep quality.⁴¹

10. Take magnesium malate or glycinate before bed to increase body relaxation.

11. Reserve your bed for sleeping — If you are used to watching TV or doing work in bed, you may find it harder to relax and drift off to sleep, so avoid doing these activities in bed.

12. Consider separate bedrooms — Recent studies suggest that, for many people, sharing a bed with a partner can significantly impair sleep, especially if the partner is a restless sleeper or snores. If bedfellows are consistently interfering with your sleep, you may want to consider a separate bedroom. Pets may also need to be banished if their presence impair your sleep.

13. Get to bed as early as possible, ideally between 9 and 10 p.m. — Prior to the widespread use of electricity, people would go to bed shortly after sundown, as most animals do, and which nature intended for humans as well. My personal target is to actually be asleep by 9 p.m. Your body does a majority of its recharging between the hours of 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.

14. Don't change your bedtime — Go to bed and wake up at the same times each day, even on the weekends. This will help your body to get into a sleep rhythm and make it easier to fall asleep and get up in the morning.

15. Consider taking cannabidiol (CBD) oil — By bringing tissues back into balance, CBD oil helps reduce pain, nerve stimulation and muscle spasm. It also promotes relaxation and has been shown to improve sleep.

16. Establish a relaxing bedtime routine — This could include meditating, deep breathing, using aromatherapy or essential oils or indulging in a massage from your partner. The key is to find something that makes you feel relaxed, then repeat it each night to help you release the tensions of the day.

17. Avoid drinking fluids within two hours of going to bed — This will reduce the likelihood of needing to get up and go to the bathroom, or at least minimize the frequency.

18. Go to the bathroom right before bed — This will reduce the chances that you'll wake up to go in the middle of the night.

19. Avoid eating at least three hours before bedtime, particularly grains and sugars — These will raise your blood sugar, delay sleep and raise your risk of acid reflux. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you may wake up and be unable to fall back asleep.

Aside from that, eating too close to bedtime can harm your health in other ways. If you consume more calories than your body can immediately use, there will be an excess of free electrons, which back up inside your mitochondria.

These electrons are highly reactive and start to leak out of the electron transport chain in the mitochondria. These excess electrons wind up prematurely killing the mitochondria, and then wreak further havoc by damaging your cell membranes and contributing to DNA mutations. There's compelling evidence to suggest this type of mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the keys to accelerated aging.

20. Take a hot bath or shower before bed — When your body temperature is raised in the late evening, it will fall at bedtime, facilitating slumber. The temperature drop from getting out of the bath signals your body it's time for bed. It will also help if you finish your shower with a cold rinse.

21. Take a sauna followed by cold immersion in an unheated pool or shower, two to three hours before bed — This combination helps activate your parasympatethic nervous system to induce relaxation, allowing for sounder, deeper sleep.

22. Wear socks to bed — Feet often feel cold before the rest of the body because they have the poorest circulation. At least one study has shown that wearing socks to bed reduces night waking. As an alternative, you could place a hot water bottle near your feet at night.

23. Put your work away at least one hour before bed (preferably two hours or more) — This will give your mind a chance to unwind so you can go to sleep feeling calm, not hyped up or anxious about tomorrow's deadlines.

24. Avoid watching TV right before bed — Even better, get the TV out of the bedroom or even completely out of the house. It's too stimulating to the brain, preventing you from falling asleep quickly. TV disrupts your pineal gland function.

25. Minimize use of electronics, both during the day and in the evening — Electronic screens are major sleep thieves, robbing you of the ability to fall asleep quickly. Research has shown that the more time you spend on electronic devices during the day, and especially at night, the longer it takes to fall asleep and the less sleep you get overall.^42,⁴³

Teenagers who used electronic devices such as MP3 players, video games, tablets, smartphones and/or computers for more than five hours a day were 3.5 times more likely to get fewer than five hours of sleep per night. They were also 49% more likely to need more than an hour to actually fall asleep.

26. Swap out LEDs and fluorescent light bulbs in your home for incandescents — LEDs and fluorescent lights emit blue light that is not balanced by red and near infrared frequencies.⁴⁴ Incandescent lights emit red and near infrared wavelengths and very little in the blue wavelengths, making them a far healthier type of lighting in general.

Once the sun has set, the lower the light in your home the better. Candlelight is ideal. Salt lamps are another option that will not have an adverse impact on your health and sleep quality.

27. Use blue-blocking glasses after sunset — While amber lenses work, glasses with red lenses actually work even better, as they not only block blue light, but also yellow and green. You can get inexpensive amber glasses and red glasses on Amazon.

28. Install blue-blocking software on your electronic screen devices — Iris is the absolute best one and I have used it for many years. If you use Iris at night, you won't need blue blocking glasses.

29. Reset your circadian clock — Expose yourself to bright sunlight in the morning and/or around solar noon to "set" your master clock, and to avoid blue light exposure after sunset for the same reason.⁴⁵

30. Listen to relaxation CDs — Some people find the sound of white noise or nature sounds, such as the ocean or forest, to be soothing for sleep. An excellent relaxation/meditation option to listen to before bed is the Insight audio CD.

31. Read something spiritual or uplifting — This may help you relax. Don't read anything stimulating, such as a mystery or suspense novel, which has the opposite effect. In addition, if you are really enjoying a suspenseful book, you might be tempted to go on reading for hours, instead of going to sleep.

32. Start journaling, if you're not already — If you often lie in bed with your mind racing, it might be helpful to keep a journal and write down your thoughts before bed.

33. Short-circuit worry with creative distractions — If worry has you in its grip, try thinking of something else that interests you but is of no importance. Sleep expert Neil Stanley, Ph.D., said, "I fly a lot, so I imagine I have my own private jet and how would I arrange the furniture on it. If you're someone who likes going to music festivals, what would your lineup be?"

34. Reduce or avoid as many drugs as possible — Many drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, may adversely affect sleep. In most cases, the condition causing the drugs to be taken in the first place can be addressed by following guidelines elsewhere on my website.

35. Avoid caffeine — At least one study has shown that, in some people, caffeine is not metabolized efficiently, leaving you feeling its effects long after consumption. So, an afternoon cup of coffee or tea will keep some people from falling asleep at night. Be aware that some medications also contain caffeine (for example, some over-the-counter pain relievers and cold and decongestion products may contain caffeine).

36. Avoid alcohol — Although alcohol will make you drowsy, the effect is short-lived and you will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol will also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep, where your body does most of its healing.

37. Avoid foods you may be sensitive to — This is particularly true for sugar, grains and pasteurized dairy. Sensitivity reactions can cause excess congestion, gastrointestinal upset, gas and other problems.

38. Exercise regularly, but not within three hours of bedtime — Exercising for at least 30 minutes per day can improve your sleep. However, don't exercise too close to bedtime or it may keep you awake. Studies show exercising in the morning is the best if you can manage it.

39. Lose excess weight — Being overweight can increase your risk of sleep apnea, which can seriously impair your sleep.

40. Have your adrenals checked by a good natural medicine clinician — Scientists have found that insomnia may be caused by adrenal stress.

41. If you are menopausal or perimenopausal, get checked out by a good natural medicine physician — The hormonal changes at this time may cause sleep problems if not properly addressed.

42. Get out of bed — Rather than tossing and turning, allowing frustration to grow, get out of bed. Try writing your thoughts down; just be sure to keep the lights dim. Telling yourself you're going to try to stay awake instead may also have the paradoxical effect of making you sleepy. The reason for this is because once you're OK with being awake, your frustration and arousal level drops, making it easier to fall asleep.

43. Do some controlled breathing exercises — Breathing is both an involuntary and a voluntary process. You can alter the speed and the depth of your breathing, and you can choose to breathe through your mouth or your nose. These choices lead to physical changes in your body.

Slow, deep and steady breathing activates your parasympathetic response while rapid, shallow breathing activates your sympathetic response, involved in releasing cortisol and other stress hormones.

The combination of controlled breathing with counting can be particularly effective when your mind refuses to shut down at night, as it gives your mind something to focus on. One breathing exercise involving counting that you could try is the 4-7-8 breathing technique taught by Dr. Andrew Weil. It's a potent remedy for anxiety, as it acts as a natural tranquilizer for your nervous system.

44. Tape your mouth to prevent mouth breathing — While this may sound bizarre, it's quite effective and not at all painful or risky. Simply place a small piece of medical tape (please do not use industrial types of tape which can damage your skin) across your lips. This will encourage breathing through your nose throughout the night, which has a number of health benefits aside from regulating sleep disordered breathing that can progress to sleep apnea.

45. Boost your melatonin — Ideally it is best to increase levels naturally with exposure to bright sunlight in the daytime (along with full spectrum fluorescent bulbs in the winter) and absolute complete darkness at night. If that fails or isn't possible, you may want to consider a melatonin supplement.

In scientific studies, melatonin has been shown to increase sleepiness, help you fall asleep more quickly and stay asleep, decrease restlessness and reverse daytime fatigue.

Melatonin is a completely natural substance, made by your body, and has many health benefits in addition to sleep. Start with as little as 0.25 milligrams (mg) and work your way up in quarter-gram increments until you get the desired effect.

46. Use a natural sleep aid such as valerian root — Studies have found valerian root helps improve the speed at which you fall asleep, depth of sleep (achieving deep sleep 36% faster⁴⁶) and overall quality of sleep.

Start with a minimal dose and use the lowest dose needed to achieve the desired effect, as higher dosages can have an energizing effect in some people. Typical dosages used in studies range between 400 mg and 900 mg, taken anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours before bed.

47. Drink chamomile tea — This herb is typically used in the form of infusions, teas, liquid extracts or essential oils made from the plant's fresh or dried flower heads. It has sedative effects that may help with sleep, which is why chamomile tea is often sipped before bed.

48. Tap for insomnia — One of my favorite remedies for insomnia is the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). Most people can learn the basics of this gentle tapping technique in a few minutes. EFT can help balance your body's bioenergy system and resolve some of the emotional stresses that are contributing to your insomnia at a very deep level. The results are typically long lasting and improvement is remarkably rapid.

49. Limit daytime naps, and avoid napping after 5 p.m. — If you're tired during the day, you may be tempted to take naps. This, however, can make it more difficult to fall asleep later in the evening, so limit naps to 15 or 20 minutes, and don't nap too late in the afternoon.

50. Use a sleep tracker — Many fitness trackers now include sleep tracking software that can be quite useful, allowing you to evaluate the effects of different strategies. For example, did that afternoon coffee disrupt your sleep? Did morning exercise make it better but evening exercise made it worse? How long does it take you to actually fall asleep, and how much earlier must you go to bed to get a full eight hours of sleep?

from Articles https://ift.tt/We2sF4z
via IFTTT

Can Bitcoin Circumvent Economic Tyranny?

Today, I’m pleased to bring you two guests — finance guru Catherine Austin Fitts, whom I’ve interviewed before, and Aleks Svetski, editor of The Bitcoin Times magazine and host of “The Wake Up Podcast.” During dinner at an event in Miami, Florida, Svetski helped me understand why Bitcoin not only stands out head and neck above all the other cryptocurrencies, but is in direct opposition to them all.

I’ve strongly believed Bitcoin will be an important tool to get out from under the financial tyranny we’re in, where central banks are essentially robbing everyone blind.

Fitts, president of the Solari Report, disagrees. She knows the financial system inside and out, having spent decades exposing corruption and fraud, both within the banking industry and government, and she believes there are far better ways than investing our hard-earned money in cryptocurrencies, as the globalists have already inserted a number of control mechanisms within the cryptocurrency system.

Regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, you’re bound to learn something from this conversation. If you’ve dismissed Bitcoin as a passing fad, Svetski’s expertise may assuage your concerns. On the other hand, if you’ve been banking on Bitcoin being the answer to the impending financial crash, Fitts may inspire you to rethink how you protect your wealth.

Our Only Choice: Being Controlled or Being Free

If you want to understand what’s happening to our financial system, I encourage you to listen to this three-hour interview. I cannot cover all the details covered in this article, so to get the whole story, please set aside the time to listen to the whole interview, or read through the 95-page transcript.

In summary, Austin Fitts explains how the globalists — “Mr. Global” is her nickname for this secret system of governance — and the central bankers of the world in particular, have since 1998 siphoned out and stolen $21 trillion or more from the U.S. government in a financial coup d’état.^1,²

Thanks to this theft by the central bankers, the American retirement (including health care benefits) and social welfare system are not adequately funded, leaving millions of aging Americans with diminished or no Social Security or Medicaid/Medicare benefits.

The primary reason for the theft, however, is to reengineer the U.S. government and political system as a whole. In short, the globalists’ plan is to take over the government by centrally controlling our economy, and then declare everyone who was promised health care and retirement as expendable.

According to Fitts, if we allow this financial coup to continue and consolidate, Bitcoin and the Bitcoin community may help pull that coup off. As explained by Fitts, slavery is the most profitable business in investment history. Digital technology now allows Mr. Global to return to a legalized form of slavery on a global scale. The theft that is underway is ultimately intended to control people.

“Mr. Global wants a culled, reengineered population,” she says. “He is going for the people because that is what has the most value, along with the other living things on the planet — including the planet itself. All value begins and ends with living intelligence and life whether it is expressed in financial and transaction tools or not.

Mr. Global has created scores of mechanisms to persuade people to sell out [other] people using fiat currency — pump and dump, pump and dump. Dealing with it is sufficiently frustrating and has us all trying to create workarounds.”

A Different Kind of ‘Reset’ Is Required

Fitts is convinced that the best, and perhaps only way out, of this situation is to deal with the secret governance system that is impacting and frustrating all of us and take action to ensure that we do not allow an all-digital financial system to go into place. If we believe Bitcoin is the optimal form of digital system, the problem is not Bitcoin: The problem is if it is part of an only-digital system.

Fitts also underscores that currencies cannot work without the underlying economy being in balance. That means we need to invest in the real assets we need to stay alive and free, things like local food production, local businesses or a personal water well.

She stresses that keeping cash is important — that we mustn’t enter into a wholly digital financial system, especially one monopolized by central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and private crypto, which are in combination designed to strip us of both national and individual sovereignty.³

While Svetski agrees on some points, he still believes Bitcoin can be part of the answer,⁴ and that the focus should be on building a new financial system in such a way that it cannot be co-opted by anyone. The question, of course, is how.

As explained by Fitts, addressing taxation⁵ is perhaps the most important part of the puzzle. We also need to a) prevent vaccine passports and digital ID wallets and related blockchains from being implemented, as they are an integral part of the control system Mr. Global is trying to erect, and b) figure out how to get the money back that was stolen.

“There is $21 trillion missing from the U.S. government — we have no way of knowing what the real number is in terms of cash and credit. It could be smaller or bigger,” she says.

“I believe a successful transition requires both preventing the control grid from coming into place, and clawing back the money that has been illegally taken. A ‘reset’ in which the takers get to keep their winnings is a different world than one in which the equivalent value is returned.”

Can Bitcoin Safeguard Our Freedom?

Part of the globalists’ plan is to gain control of ALL resources, and they’ve made great strides toward that during the last two years. The question is, how do we get out of this situation and reclaim those resources?

As mentioned, while I’ve been convinced that Bitcoin, a decentralized digital currency, was a major part of that answer, Fitts has some very pertinent concerns that we need to digest and fully understand. We also need to understand what money actually is, and what an ideal currency would actually look like and how it would function. All of these issues are reviewed in this discussion.

“In 2017, I did a very long and serious due diligence into Bitcoin,” Fitts says, “and I had two baskets of concerns, one related to whether or not the Bitcoin exchanges in the industry were doing a responsible job of communicating with potential investors.

I'm an investment adviser and there's a world of regulation about how you make sure that an investor has full and fair disclosure. It's the equivalent of informed consent, in financial terms. You want to make sure the investor knows what it is, and what their risks are, and that they are prepared to manage both the risks and the investment, the custodian issues, before they buy.”

The cryptocurrency market is currently a nonregulated space, which can give rise to the absence of best practices in education and disclosure as well as fraud. Another concern is whether or not Bitcoin will increase our freedom or simply facilitate our enslavement by a secret system of governance by “Mr. Global.” Fitts continues:

“What I've said is that it is absolutely important that we have a financial system and a currency system that is not 100% digital. So, where I think the current leadership and central bankers are going with the ‘Going Direct Reset’ is they’re trying to get a 100% digital control grid and literally end currencies as we know it.

They want to move us to, on the smart grid, a transaction system where they have 100% control. I call it the covert social credit system. They've been building that control system for centuries. But since the advent of digital technology, they've been building it much more intensively, and much more invasively.

They have three primary lines of control. One is financial carrots and sticks. One is the telecommunications and media alignment, it's surveillance, mind control, propaganda and education. And then the third line is covert operations, which can be regulatory enforcement, taxation or it can be, literally, covert physical intervention.

So, you have these three lines and they're coordinated. But whether they say they're controlling assets or they're controlling currencies, they really control people. They control everything through people. And if you look at some of the regulatory proposals now for crypto, that's how they're going to do it. They're going to do it by controlling the people in their businesses.

Anybody who wants freedom wants transparency in and around what's really going on in our world, and they want to be not controlled. If we permit a 100% digital controlled transaction system of any kind, we will concede control. Literally, it's the end of human liberty in the West.

For everyone who's interested in building a better digital transaction system — and I would argue that the current digital transaction system could be made infinitely better than it is now — it's inherent ... to address how we are going to get this technology working for us, but not allow it to control us.

And again, I don't think the control will be controlling the technology. I think the control will be of the people using the technology. It will come through the people, because that's how the control grid has been built.

So, I don't see how we permit an all-digital transaction system and continue to have freedom, as long as the primary hardware and energy in and around the system, as well as the people, are controlled by a secret central governance system.”

‘Holy Grails’ of Technological Invention to Ensure Freedom

Svetski replies:

“Yes, I agree with you, wholeheartedly. Did you ever read the ‘Cypherpunk‘s Manifesto’⁶ written by Tim May in the ‘90s? The basic summation of that is, as the world becomes more technologically adept, technology trends toward concentration.

In that trend, we could end up with a world in which we have total panopticon surveillance and control of people's money. So ... we need to use encryption to maintain private communication. If you don't have private communication, you can't speak freely. Right? First Amendment.

That was sort of holy grail No. 1. Holy grail No. 2 was an independent monetary system. We need a money that is independent of a state, and unable to be censored, controlled, et cetera. Because if we end up with that, then who cares if we have free speech? You don't have free action.

I mean, you see it in Australia. The government makes up a fake law so they can fine you for not wearing a fake mask. And then if you don't pay your fake fine, they just take the fake money out of your fake bank account, without your consent. So, whoever issues and controls the money basically has the ultimate power. If I'm the issuer of the money, I can do whatever I want, basically.”

The Central Banking Warfare Model

A caveat to that, Fitts says, is the central banking warfare model. On the one hand, they can print money. On the other, they can also force people to use that money through military intervention. “That’s part of where the liquidity comes from, so you have to have both,” she says. In other words, they must be able to print with impunity and kill with impunity in order to maintain complete control of the system.

Svetski agrees, pointing out that these two control powers feed on and strengthen each other. He believes the monopoly on money is the easier of the two to defeat, though, “because what ends up happening is that when the monopoly on money can't fund the monopoly on violence, things start to fall apart relatively quickly. So, if we had to pull a thread somewhere so that the shit-show unravels, that's where we may have the strategic opportunity.”

Svetski also agrees that the Bitcoin exchanges are a disaster. “We all say that you should take your money off exchanges as soon as possible and hold your Bitcoin in your own custody, as soon as possible,” he says, “because then that moves supply out of these casinos, basically.”

“We're totally aligned with this idea that the last thing we want is issued money from any authority who has the capacity to build up enough economic power such that they can deploy political power, or violent power, in order to maintain economic power and create this situation we have today, which is, ‘I can print all the money I want and you can't do anything about it, because if you do, then I'm throwing you in jail.’”

Systematic Corruption Is a Core Problem

Fitts points out that the root problem isn’t necessarily the ability to create fiat currency. At its core, it’s the corruption of governance and the rule of law. And while we could create a well-functioning regulatory system for any currency, creating a government and judicial system free of corruption is far more difficult.

Because it’s believed to be too difficult, people focus on workarounds, such as using distributive ledger technology to prevent counterfeiting and fraud, or a money system based on commodities like gold and silver.

“Those are both workarounds to avoid the issue of how do we create a great governance system, and then a culture and a covenant that we'll enforce?” she says.

“Traditionally, it's never been a good idea to make a commodity the backbone of your currency, because then your currency can swing around and get hiccupped for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with its role as a currency. So, there's risk in that, but it's a workaround.

One of the things I think is the most important unanswered question before us is that we live on a planet where the governance system is secret ... How do we stay free in the face of a secret governance system, and can a digital currency make a difference?”

Svetski argued that Bitcoin is not merely another ‘technology’, but actually a model of voluntary consensus that anybody in the world can participate in, whose rules are entirely transparent.

He called it a form of “constitution in code” which, like math, cannot be changed or distorted like constitutions of the past that depend on the protection of man have been changed. Bitcoin’s integrity is rooted in the laws of math and thermodynamics, while all previous models of governance have their Achilles heel in the ‘word of man’.

Defining Money

Svetski defines money as the “language of value.” It’s a way to encode or assign and communicate value to the product of our labor. Fitts points out that one of the most critical ingredients that makes this communication of value work is having an integrity-based pricing mechanism.

“Civilization is basically a story of discovering better objects and better mechanisms for exchanging the product of our labor,” Svetski says. “Humanity is a story of finding better money, basically.

The thing that organically becomes money is the tool, the object that is fungible. As many of the units as possible should be the same. It is divisible. A cow, for example, is not a great form of money because if you only need a banana, what are you going to do, chop the cow's head off? It's not going to work.

It needs to be recognizable ... it needs to be portable and it needs to have some element of scarcity. You can't just create it out of thin air. It's the property of scarcity and unforgeable costliness that gives us debasement protection.”

In many cultures, gold was a cherished currency for the simple fact that there’s a limited supply and it’s not easily forged. Gold is not very portable or divisible, however, so as societies became more complex, fiat currencies (that governments declare as legal tender) like printed coins and paper bills emerged. With good governance, the fiat currency was still scarce, and it was protected from debasement by being difficult to forge.

The problem arises when governance becomes corrupt and the issuers of the currency start printing more, thereby diluting the value of the currency (i.e. inflation). As noted by Svetski, “No matter how excellent whatever money we're proposing to use, that is secondary to who controls it and who decides.”

You can have a perfect money system, but if the people who operate the system and those who use it are separate and independently controlled, it won't solve anything because corruption by the controllers of the currency is a root problem. As noted by Fitts, a sound currency would serve an economy where the people and the real assets are in balance.

Two Sources of Currency Debasement

Debasement of the currency occurs when the real economy gets out of balance and you try and make up for it by debasing or diluting the currency. That’s what we’re seeing right now. Corruption isn’t the sole problem here. “Debasement can come from the governance system trying to cheat, but it can also come from a real problem in the real asset economy,” Fitts says. And those are two different problems.

One is based on trying to please constituents (or fraud), and the other is a structural issue that needs to be resolved. The manifestation and the deterioration of the integrity of the money ends up the same, though, so they’re frequently assumed to have the same root cause.

Fitts believes that our current problem is not so much a currency problem but a secret governance system that is harvesting the planet of extraordinary amounts of resources. By doing so, they’re creating a massive drain on the real economy.

Creating a crypto asset outside the system to protect ourselves from that drain can only work for so long, because it doesn’t solve the problem that there’s a drain on the whole economy. The question is, can we bring transparency to what is happening and prevent a secret governance system from draining the economy of resources?

Transparency Is Key

Svetski argues that currency issued by any form of entity, be it a monarch, a state or a hidden Mr. Global will simply bring any system back to where we are now. Fitts believes the solution lies in creating a decentralised market economy based on aligning living and financial capital and incentivising peace rather than war, and a requirement for that is transparency.

To get to transparency, we must first break down the system of mind control set in place by the secret controllers through the use of modern technology. She believes the entrainment technologies, subliminal programming and various mind control influences are an effort to protect themselves from transparency.

And just how do we break through the mind control that keeps us dumbed down and unaware of how the system works and how it’s being drained? Fitts believes it will require us to identify how the mind control works, and then set ourselves free, one by one. “Control happens one person at a time. Financial harvesting happens one person at a time. And freedom happens one person at a time,” she says. Svetski agrees, adding:

“I did a post the other day on Twitter. It said, ‘You're very hard to control when you're healthy. You're very hard to manipulate when you're clear. And you're very hard to influence when you're sovereign.’ So I think we definitely agree in that case.

I think it’s very difficult to control the minds of sovereign individuals because not only do they fundamentally have a disdain for what I call fiat authority, which is nonorganic authority, but they are interested in living as individuals, not as a component in some homogenous collective, which is basically how the world wants us to live at the moment, which is ridiculous.”

How to Foment Resilient Communities

But how do we inspire the others to follow suit and become sovereign individuals? First, we need a critical mass of sovereign individuals in a place. Fitts notes:

“The currency needs to be in balance with the real assets — food, energy and shelter. Let’s pretend for a second, to make this simple, we're doing a community currency. How do we get the food, energy and shelter sufficiently independent and resilient in that place so that the currency can function?

You'd need a critical mass of people who are willing to do that so that they could outwit what satellites are going to do to stop them. So, I'll just talk for myself because I can't talk for everybody, but I think if you see where Mr. Global wants to take the system, you would do anything [to not go along].

We are better dead than going to where Mr. Global intends to go. So that means there's nothing I will not do to stay out of Mr. Global's trap. It’s clear you have to rebuild a healthy, responsible economy, and you can't do it one person at a time.

Occasionally you'll see a phenomenal person who can go do it themselves, but, generally, our civilization depends on cooperation and specialization — community.

Ten percent of people are what I call Net Energy Plus; 80% are going to follow whoever's in charge, and then you've got 10% who are Net Energy Minus. The idea is that you keep the 10% Net Energy Minus in the corner, you get the 10% Net Energy Plus running things, and you get the 80% following them.

I think part of the key to a successful human society is that we have respect and love for all humans, but the Net Energy Minus has got to stay in the corner. When the 80% follow the 10% Net Energy Plus, the speed at which you can turn a company around [is tremendous]. It takes no time to turn it around, but you’ve got to get the 10% Minus in the corner. Put the 10% Plus in charge and it changes overnight.

The challenge that we have, and the problem I ran into when I was trying to do community development, is Mr. Global is great at finding the Net Energy Minus guys and having them do crazy things. So, the question is: How do we protect ourselves from that sabotage?

The Net Energy Minuses can be handled. The problem is handling them with Mr. Global's minions, who are very capable and very professional at recruiting them, managing them, financing them.

I grew up in a very poor neighborhood, and it didn't take long for Net Energy Plus people to find each other. Those leaders would just magically find each other, and they could control the neighborhood because if anybody misbehaved, they could cut off their money.

And then the government came in and made sure, whether by dealing the drugs or bringing in HUD subsidy, that they could subsidize the slugs. And then suddenly the Net Energy Plus people couldn't do slug management because they couldn’t stop the drug dealing and HUD subsidies.

Predator evasion for not just ourselves but the whole community, whether it's a network or a place, is where I've never seen us excel, and that's where I'd like to see us excel ... Good governance has to emerge from a covenant which is codified in formal law, but is embraced in a culture which does the primary enforcement.”

In Svetski’s model, the Net Energy Minus people are “the parasites, the jealous members of the masses or the failed remnants that instead of adding value to society try to extract whatever they can instead,” and the Net Energy Pluses are leaders and entrepreneurs. He weighs in:

“You mentioned, first of all, that transparency is important to counteract control. We need to build sovereign individuals in order to counteract mind control. We need to then take these sovereign individuals, enable them to build communities in order to become sovereign communities, such that they can better manage the delinquents and lead the 80% towards a better world.

You mentioned Mr. Global comes in like a wrecking ball and [destroys] it every single time, because that's what he's good at. He's a parasite. He just wants something for nothing, basically. ‘You guys work and I'll benefit.’

That's the version of the world that Mr. Global lives in, which doesn't align with the physical laws of the universe. That's just not how reality works, although Mr. Global thinks we can somehow structure the world in that way so that we can suck from the productive people and get something for nothing. Unfortunately, that sends the world on a path to hell, which is where we are now.”

Why We Must Refuse Vaccine Passports

One solution that is very clear is that we must do everything in our power to resist vaccine passports and other forms of patent systems’ control, as they are a foundational piece of the digital control grid being erected around us. Fitts explains:

“I'm watching a control grid snap into place. The Russians and Americans have made announcements about regulating crypto. In the EU, they're trying to morph the vaccine passport and now they're calling it a ‘private digital identity wallet,’ and the tax authorities are adding biometrics.

So, you're watching the financial system getting closer and closer to building a control grid, but that control grid is not so much control of the technology, money or cryptos as controlling the people. And it works right now. For the last 30 years, it works like a covert social credit system, but it's invisible; it's covert.

The covert operation lines are integrated and connected, but it hasn't been made overt. And one of the reasons it hasn't been made overt is they haven't been able to bring the U.S. Constitutions down, although they're trying. But at some point, they're making enough progress with the vaccine passports and the QR codes, that they're going to start snapping this thing into place, and that to me is what has to be stopped.”

Svetski, on the other hand, believes an incorruptible money like Bitcoin can play a central role in preventing or circumventing this control grid, because if the globalists can control your finances, they can dictate your actions:

“If your bank account is completely owned by me as an authority, and that same authority owns or controls what you say online ... and if you say something I don't like, and then I just turn off your money so then you can't travel anywhere, you can't eat, then I have the ultimate control over you ...

The most important part in the control grid is: If I can just turn off your money based on what you said, or who you hung around with, or who you're associated with, you have zero power as an individual. Zero. That's the holy grail of what they want. They want to introduce the CBDC, tie it to your vaccine passport, to your movement passport, and then it's game over.”

Reengineering Our Economy

Again, for all the details of this discussion, please listen to the interview in its entirety. In closing, Fitts argues that what we ultimately need is a complete reengineering of our economy into one that is built on health rather than disease, peace rather than war and transparency rather than secrecy, and the people must be in control of that economy. Economy built on disease, war and secrecy, controlled by a hidden cabal, is what leads us into a downward spiral in the first place.

“We have an economy that has a negative return on investment,” she says. “But if you reengineer the financial system, you align living capital and financial capital, and you run the economy to build health, the speed at which we could start to generate fantastic amounts of wealth that could begin to deal with some of our liabilities and obligations is fantastic.

They see that opportunity, too. And if you see what they're moving to do, they're just moving to do it with a very different framework that you and I might use to do it. But the wealth is there to be created ...

My tactic has been to bring transparency and find out how to prototype decentralized economics that creates explosive new wealth. Where I keep falling down is I'm not able to get a critical mass of people to figure out how to protect themselves from the mind control and the sabotage ...

The challenge I've had with many people who are enthusiastic about Bitcoin and crypto is they don't see the control grid, and they don't see the danger of the control grid. And that results in them trying to talk individual and retail investors into doing things, oblivious to the dangers of the control grid.”

Svetski agrees about the roots of the problem, but he is still convinced Bitcoin is a central part of the answer:

“The problem is waste. The problem is secrecy. The antidote is some sort of transparency, a covenant amongst people ... I'm extraordinarily enthusiastic about Bitcoin and I'm extraordinarily pessimistic about crypto.

There is a universe of difference between the two for me. Crypto is exactly how we walk into the control group problem. Every single one of them is Mr. Global's attempt to discredit Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the only way to walk out of it. And I'll explain why.

Crypto is the most effective attack by Mr. Global on Bitcoin. All these monkeys running around screaming about crypto, all they're doing is they're walking right into the trap, which is the creation of a new currency that is controlled by a foundation, an institution, a group, a company, and creates a central point of leverage that Mr. Global can get access to.

And mark my words, I said this two years ago on a podcast and people thought I was crazy and it's happening right now with the World Economic Forum partnering with Ethereum Foundation.

I said, ‘Ethereum is going to be the best way for globalists to enact the central bank digital currency because they're going to do it under the guise of innovation.’ Every single coin other than Bitcoin is run or operated or issued or controlled by some single group. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a constitution enforced by the individual. I'll explain it like this.

What makes Bitcoin special is that it's not a program, and it's not a technology. It is actually a set of rules, a constitution that we voluntarily opt into. When I'm a node operator of Bitcoin, for example, all I'm doing is I'm just running the software that is Bitcoin. And the software that is Bitcoin is just a series of rules: 21 million coins, divisible to eight decimal places, blocks every 10 minutes.

It's this set of transparent rules ... I can change the rules of Bitcoin if I want to. But what happens is that I'm immediately out of sync with everybody else, and I'm no longer on the Bitcoin network. I'm on something else. I'm on Bitcoin Aleks version, and then I have to convince everybody to move their economic mass, or their economic gravity off to me.

In doing that, I'm then going right back to the original problem that Bitcoin is solving, which is Bitcoin says, ‘Hey, money is the tool that we use to encode time and energy. Let's place it outside of anybody's potential control. Let's put it with the laws of gravity, thermodynamics, the speed of light. None of us can control those. They apply equally to all of us. Let's place money in that realm, then let's go and do other stuff.’

Bitcoin is not digital. Bitcoin is information. This is another layer that I wanted to illuminate. I could take a Bitcoin transaction, and I could write it on a piece of paper. I could write it in emojis, and I could post it to the other side of the world. And you could then broadcast the transaction. The only thing that makes Bitcoin digital is that the internet is just a useful communication medium.

Bitcoin transcends that because Bitcoin is purely just math and information. That's all it is. Bitcoin is the law of large numbers being used to associate private and public keys in a way that the public key cannot be reversed. And the holder of the private key is the private property owner of the Bitcoin associated with that key.”

Fitts counters, “Right, but you still come back to the same problem I said about if the control grid controls people, no matter how perfect you can make something like Bitcoin, it's simply not enough.” Svetski replies:

“It's not enough on its own, but it's the one thing that makes 99% of the difference. Because what it does is it does a couple of things simultaneously. No. 1, it gives us some money. I call Bitcoin free banking in gold in information form that anyone can run on a $100 piece of hardware at home.

Picture a world in which every bank is just a $100 node operating at home, running the Bitcoin network. And every single one of those nodes around the world are in sync.”

Fitts notes, “Right, but you need those people who can maintain themselves outside of the control grid. And they need to have the real assets to be able to do that and do that together.” Svetski replies:

“Totally, and this is why we need something like Bitcoin, because what it does is in its appreciation, it gives us the economic means to acquire the real assets; energy and food. Primarily, they're the two that we need in order to start to make ourselves sovereign across every other dimension.

Bitcoin's kind of the linchpin. If you can't do that, you'll never catch up to the other ones. But in doing so, we have the economic capacity to do so, and simultaneously. And this is where Bitcoin is simultaneously a defense mechanism and an attack mechanism.

Every dollar you put into Bitcoin is a dollar that is not in the existing system. And what happens is it starts to create a drain on the existing globalist form of money, which is predicated on the capacity of an institution to control it.”

Fitts disagrees, saying that’s not what she’s seen happening. What she’s noticed is that someone, likely the central bankers themselves, “primed the pump on Bitcoin,” basically, someone invested heavily into it to drive up the price. Where did that money come from? According to Svetski, the money came from millions of regular people who decided to swap their fiat currency for Bitcoin.

Fitts, however, is convinced that someone is artificially pumping up Bitcoin. She believes the central bankers or their owners are pumping Bitcoin in order to prototype options for their control grid and to attract retail investors into digital assets out of precious metals and real assets, making it easier and cheaper to establish centralized monopolies of real assets.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide how you feel about Bitcoin. It certainly has strengths, but Fitts makes a good argument for understanding the control mechanisms and the risks of an all-digital financial system. Again, for more, please listen to the whole interview, as I’ve only skimmed over some of the highlights in this article. You can follow more of Svetski’s work at:

Twitter: @GhostOfSvetski
Podcast: anchor.fm/WakeUpPod
The Bitcoin Times: bitcointimes.news
Blog: svetski.medium.com

To see more of Fitts’ work, go to her website at The Solari Report.

from Articles https://ift.tt/6UhkEPL
via IFTTT

Scientists characterize the imbalanced gut bacteria of patients with myocardial infarction, angina and heart failure

Researchers show how major disturbances occur in the gut microbiome of patients suffering from heart disease. Given this latest evidence from microbiome research, researchers now call for stronger and more focused public health initiatives to prevent or delay these common diseases that are a leading cause of premature death worldwide through encouraging a plant-based and energy-controlled diet, avoidance of smoking and compliance with daily exercise.

from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/PODv1bH