If you’re a night owl then that’s your chronotype and it’s largely genetic. You may be miserable if you try to adjust it, but it can be done.
Here’s some good tips
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Thanks so much! That is a very interesting site that I will certainly want to get back to, to try to apply their recommendations.
"For simplicity, we often group chronotypes into early birds and night owls. But the reality is that science measures chronotypes on a continuous scale, with 351 genetic variations associated with being a morning person alone," I had no idea.
I’ve tried to change my circadian rhythm many times. I’ve managed for periods - even waking up at 4AM for a few months so that I could exercise before traffic. But somehow each time my circadian rhythm starts to shift again, and I end up awake most of the night. Somehow I feel more productive at night. Since my professional schedule is flexible, I can get away with this. But I’m worried about the longterm health implications. Even when I traveled a lot to very different time zones and figured this was ‘the moment’ to adjust my circadian rhythm, I would have the exact same issue in a different time zone 
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I was certain that the night hunger would stop me from being able to do this… but it’s amazing how your gut… or your gut/brain axis works. You adapt to it really quickly.
I used to wake up 5-7 times a night. Now I wake-up once, or twice at the most. And I rarely take more than 20 minutes to fall asleep. The main disadvantage is socially going out to eat at night… but as long as I keep the calories really low… I can manage, and it doesn’t throw anything off.
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What amazed me most about Glycine and NAC is that in the rat study, the rats lived over 20% longer. These are similar results to Rapamycin! However the study was done at Baylor and not the ITP. However the ITP did show that Glycine by itself increased life expectancy. Probably due to GSH replenishment and methionine+ homocysteine reduction. It’s a completely different pathway than Rapamycin!
Now are they additive or synergistic with Rapamycin? It would be amazing if they were.
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OK I just bought some glycine. It would be great if it helps with sleep. I was already buying L-Carnosine so I figured that one more could not hurt.
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It works well for sleep. 
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I remember reading an article wherein it was quite convincingly explained how methionine is in fact is not reduced by consuming Glycine (albeit I know there is some research claiming it does reduce methionine). Will see if I can still find it.
In light of positive confirmation bias that is a common problem in research, I wish the ITP would run a study with glycine.
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@hamtaro Thanks, that sounds great. I may try to slowly adjust my eating window then. I know that when I still fasted regularly the hunger would keep me up at night, but these were longer fasts.
The ITP did run a study with Glycine. It increased life expectancy by 5%. It was one of the more successful therapies trialed by the ITP. They did not do NAC + Glycine though. That would be more useful.
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Thanks. I did not realise that. Do you happen to have a link to that study? Was it indicated in this ITP-study also that Glycine decreased methionine-levels?
Here’s the ITP paper on Glycine. It starts by stating the effect on methionine.
Diets low in methionine extend lifespan of rodents, though through unknown mechanisms. Glycine can mitigate methionine toxicity, and a small prior study has suggested that supplemental glycine could extend lifespan of Fischer 344 rats. We therefore evaluated the effects of an 8% glycine diet on lifespan and pathology of genetically heterogeneous mice in the context of the Interventions Testing Program. Elevated glycine led to a small (4%–6%) but statistically significant lifespan increase, as well as an increase in maximum lifespan, in both males (p = 0.002) and females (p < 0.001).
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Thank you for sharing.
That’s an 8% glycine diet. It would hardly be possible to replicate that.
I mean to remember that that article I read that discussed why it is unlikely that glycine would result in a decrease of methionine-levels in humans, referred to exactly that aspect: that it would require such a high intake of glycine that it’s not feasible. But I’m still searching to retrieve that article.
I think in the Baylor study on the elderly, they were able to achieve fantastic results on 3-8 g of Glycine and NAC a day. Very doable. Glycine is a precursor to glutathione.
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Is this the study you are referring to? Supplementing Glycine and N-Acetylcysteine (GlyNAC) in Older Adults Improves Glutathione Deficiency, Oxidative Stress, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Inflammation, Physical Function, and Aging Hallmarks: A Randomized Clinical Trial - PubMed
I will look up the full article, but you don’t happen to know how much NAC they used? I thought to remember they used high doses of NAC, but correct me if I’m wrong. Since NAC has been linked to an increased incidence of lung adenocarcinoma and accelerated lung cancer progression in rodents, personally I’ve been hesitant to try out high doses of NAC.
https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/127647
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.3007653
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There were 3 studies done on NAC and lung cancer. One said it promotes lung cancer (10% chance), one said it had no effect, and another said it prevents lung cancer. Which one is the truth?
I think the general consensus is that antioxidants may promote cancer due to the fact that they reduce ROS which the body uses to kill cancer cells. They protect both the good and the bad cells. It’s a double edged sword with antioxidants.
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Absolutely true, and I’m still not sure what route to follow when it comes to supplements that also have antioxidant-activity.
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Exactly. What about Astaxanthin and Vitamin C? What about all the antioxidants ingested in my diet? A lot of very healthy foods are high in antioxidants especially fruit, nuts and fish.
As the Japanese say, ‘Fiod is medicine.’
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But then we have studies that show anti-oxidants from food may positively impact health and cancer incidence - such as the Okinawan studies. Supplements with antioxidant-activity appear to be a different story though. As you rightfully said: " a double edged sword".
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The problem for me is the conflicting studies. I am not sure why antioxidants through food would be any different from supplements unless it is the dosage. The rodents that were cancer prone had a fairly high dosage, but not too high that you couldn’t get it from supplements.
I want the benefits of Glycine + NAC but don’t want cancer. To be on the completely safe side, I should just take Glycine.
Are there any other studies about cancer incidence with other antioxidants besides vitamin E? Also NAC reduces breast, prostate and colon cancer so it appears to have only a negative effect on the lungs.
NAC reduced colon polyps to 0 in one study. Polyps are the precursor to cancer and I have had precancerous colon polyps removed before. So this has kept me in the NAC game.
I just wish there was more well conducted research so we could make better decisions.
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Yes, the conflicting studies are problematic indeed. “I am not sure why antioxidants through food would be any different from supplements unless it is the dosage.” The high dose, enhanced bioavailability, perhaps the fact that supplements regularly consist of certain extracted bioactive compounds in isolation - or potentially a combination of the three? Who would be able to tell.
But you are definitely right, one day you will run into a study that claims a compound reduces cancer incidence; the next day a paper that claims the opposite. There does appear to be a difference when it comes to the effects of antioxidants on the growth of already established tumors versus the risk of developing cancer.
As to more studies about cancer incidence/tumor growth, besides Vitamin C, E, NAC: out of the top of my head I only remember this Thiamine study. Thiamine also has strong antioxidant properties, albeit I have no clue at all whether these antioxidant activities may play a role in the effects on tumour proliferation noted in this study: The effect of thiamine supplementation on tumour proliferation. A metabolic control analysis study - PubMed
With regard to glycine there is also some conflicting research - I guess we could drive ourselves mad with this if we’d want to 
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" Serine and Glycine Metabolism
Like glucose, amino acids are also important for the synthesis of building blocks, including proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids, that are crucial to cancer cell proliferation (Murugan, 2019; Sivanand and Vander Heiden, 2020; Vettore et al., 2020). Serine, as a one-carbon source in nucleotide synthesis and DNA methylation, plays an important role in cancer progression. Many tumors depend on the availability of extracellular serine for rapid proliferation. Serine starvation inhibits the proliferation of colorectal cancer cells in in vitro (Labuschagne et al., 2014; Maddocks et al., 2016) and tumor growth in in vivo (Maddocks et al., 2013). Moreover, restriction of serine and glycine intake can inhibit tumor growth and extend the survival time of tumor-bearing mice (Maddocks et al., 2017). More interestingly, this effect is more pronounced in tumor cells with a p53 deficiency (Maddocks et al., 2013). Serine is a small, neutral amino acid and can be imported into the cell by Na±dependent transporters like ASCT1 (SLC1A4), which is upregulated in both breast cancer (Pollari et al., 2011) and lung cancer (Riscal et al., 2016), system A transporters like SNAT1 (SLC38A1), and the ASC system (El-Hattab, 2016). However, whether the exogenous serine or glycine supports the proliferation of cancer cells is still highly debatable. Jain et al. (2012) identified glycine as a key metabolite for rapid cancer cell proliferation, but Labuschagne et al. (2014) theorized that nucleotide synthesis and cancer cell proliferation are supported by serine rather than glycine consumption. Thus, it is possible that different cancer types have specific nutrition addictions (Altman et al., 2016; Bernfeld and Foster, 2019; Maggi and Scotti, 2019; Vettore et al., 2020)."
Frontiers | Metabolism of Amino Acids in Cancer
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