Starting from December 2022, I stopped taking rapamycin because I live in China and the policy towards COVID-19 has changed since then. I was expected to get a COVID-19 infection very soon. I’m unsure about rapamycin’s effects on COVID so I stopped taking it.
On 20/12/2022 I started to show COVID symptoms - a fever with a mild to moderate headache. On the next day, my acute symptoms were all gone. Then I started to have “chronic” symptoms" - runny nose, coughing up phlegm, angular cheilitis; and my seborrheic dermatitis worsened a lot.
After around a bit more than a week, I tested negative for the antigen test.
However, my symptoms remained until today:
A few days later I basically recovered from the first 2 symptoms (runny nose, coughing up phlegm) but I then immediately had something new - red and pain in my eyes, brain fog; A few days later my eyes would recover and I would have something else - diarrhea;
I would continue to recover and develop something new… My other symptoms include heel pain, temporomandibular joint pain, dry and itchy throat, insulin resistance (I guess it’s insulin resistance because I would feel very hungry at night before I fall asleep which before the COVID infection I didn’t).
Finally on 11/1/2023, after I basically recovered from all the above symptoms, plus undergoing a somewhat stressful (and exciting) event, my insomnia problem came back.
I would like to do a self-experiment so I didn’t use NSDR. It took me about 2 hours to fall asleep - during that 2 hours, I felt extremely tired and was yawning on my bed, while still unable to fall asleep. This was the exact kind of feeling before I solve my insomnia problem last year by a series of behavioural protocols and later (probably) by rapamycin.
(On the second day I still had trouble falling asleep but I used NSDR to solve it.)
I feel like this is an exciting moment for me because I can retest the effect of rapamycin on me - now I’ve induced my insomnia again.
a side note - my medication for COVID: I took nothing (prescription or OTC) in the beginning,
when I got diarrhea, I took berberine 0.3g/d, along with 1L yogurt per day that I made by myself. (very effective)
Additional Supplement: melatonin; 10mg/d, gradually reduced to 3mg/d, then to 0mg/d. CoQ10 200mg/d.
Another thing I discovered: my fitness tracker is extremely accurate at “predicting” whether I will get symptoms during the day: every day when I wake up I would look at my HRV/stress data during sleep (last night) and if it’s not normal, I know I will get some symptoms during the days. (but of course, I don’t know what the symptoms will be.)
During immediate post-Covid period my sleep also changed: less deep sleep, wake up in the middle of night, etc., but now (3 weeks post Covid) it returned back to normal. I continue with 3 mg melatonin and 1000mg glycine 1 h before going to bed. I also started taking Valeriane and L-Theanine. Sauna later at night, around 8 pm, also helps to relax. NAC helps with head congestion. Continue exercising every day (walking, swimming, stretching, vibration platform for better circulation). It’s a real work to come back to normal!
I find the larger the dose of Rapamycin I take, the more trouble I have sleeping. The issue I’m having is waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to fall back asleep. I never used to have this issue.
It knocks me out during the day and I feel fatigued up until it’s time for bed and then I can sleep. But then 1:30 am I wake up. Going back to sleep is then tough. Doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s happening more at my current dose.
Just ran into this article - and it makes me wonder if part of the benefits provided by rapamycin is similar to that provided by caloric restriction, with regard to sleep and metabolism and temperature:
The calorie-restricted regime seemed to cause some interesting effects. In the second year of the study, those eating fewer calories showed a dramatic drop in their night-time metabolic rates, and a small but significant drop in their night-time body temperature. “Metabolism measured during sleep was reduced by 10 per cent,” says Redman.
Less cell stress
Analysing blood samples revealed that these people also experienced a 20 per cent drop in cellular oxidative stress – damage to cells caused by the byproducts of metabolism. DNA and cell damage caused by oxidative stress are thought to be key hallmarks of ageing.
Redman thinks that a low-calorie diet may push the body to have a lower resting metabolic rate. This may be an evolutionary mechanism to save energy when food is scarce, as is seen in animals that hibernate.
Interesting article, but if you look into the study they only measure energy expenditure during sleep due to calorie restriction… which one would expect to see less energy expenditure in general in a CR group.
Also in the paper it states
“The goal for the intervention was adherence to a mathematically predicted weight loss trajectory that reached 15.5% below baseline weight after one year of intervention followed by maintenance of this weight over the second year”.
“The food provision was used to educate on portion size, energy content and anticipated diet changes necessary to maintain 25% CR with different types of dietary patterns. The behavioral intervention included delivery of a structured curriculum in regular group and individual meetings with interventionists (clinical psychologists and nutritionists) from a standardized treatment manual developed specifically for the study”
When I hear this. I immediately think that the reason we see the changes in the metabolic rate in sleepEE and in 24hr EE is because the individuals are just eating less and living a healthier lifestyle in general. They also dont measure Sleep EEG in general, so they may see a decrease in night time metabolic rates, but who knows what their actual sleep patterns looked like or if they were even in sleep and just resting being sedentary on a diet that is already calorie restricted…
Also I do not understand how we see such a great discrepancy in sleep EE but no significance in differences for 24hr EE groups.
Also when they measure at Y1, is it before they do the calorie restriction or after? Because you never get a baseline sleep EE since they do it after calorie restriction is achieved…
Lots of issues with the actual study.
I am not currently taking trazodone, but when I did I took 50mg ~1/2hr before sleep. This shortens the time it takes you to go to sleep. More than 50mg is not required IMO.
Since I have been taking rapamycin my weight has been quite steady. The trazodone had no effect my weight.
I am 45 and I always have difficulty sleeping more than 6.5 hours per night on average. But for several nights after a dose of Rapamycin, I can’t sleep more than 5 hours a night. It’s brutal.
I was taking 6mg weekly, stopped. Now my plan is to work my way up to 6mg every 9-10 days. However, on Monday morning I took only 1mg and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep for three nights. With sleep issues though, you never know the real cause.
Also when I took 6mg/week I had aphthous ulcers a few times, zits, and even a zit or something in my ear canal that was very unpleasant. I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth it.
Wow - thats a really extreme reaction. Is it possible that something you are eating, supplementing with, or drinking, is increasing the bioavailability?
I’ve had more trouble sleeping when doing “extended” fasts, than when on rapamycin. My extended fasts are not that long, they usually last 36-40 hours.
I don’t think there are any drug or supplement interactions, but it is very likely that my sleep issues are related to stress, grief and other factors. But when I was taking 6mg it did feel like there was a correlation between the dose and a few difficult nights.
I put a link in another thread to the idea that autophagy interferes with circadian proteins. Hence when rapa is doing its job of encouraging autophagy it is likely to cause difficulties with sleep.
What surprised me is that those who take Rapamycin often blame any diviation from “normal” on Rapamycin without taking into consideration very many other molecules that they ingest every day. Each new pimple or rash, headache or insomnia, leg cramps, etc. , all blamed on Rapamycin. Millions of people suffer from insomnia and they are not on Rapamycin. We need to keep in mind that the right dose, which is very individual, is the key. The right dose is the dose that does not produce negative side effects. Rapa is not one size fits all. I do not have negative side effects if I take the right (for me) dose.
Out of curiosity I just checked my sleep log the night of my last rapa dose, estimated at 30mg. My sleep score was evaluated as “optimal” by my Oura app, and was much better than my normal sleep score.
Of course that doesnt mean anything more than for me rapa doesnt seem to interfere with sleep.
