For this #TestimonialTuesday, I wanted to share my own results from the first two nights of using the Sleep Cycle App on my iPhone.

I go into airplane mode to keep the EM to a minimum next to my noggin then the phone can infer what kind of sleep I’m getting based on the motion detected. Only 99 cents on the iTunes store- such a bargain!

First background about how sleep “fixes” your mind,  watch this part of my podcast on dreams.

The basic gist of it is that in deep, delta sleep, the brain waves are slow and the body is paralyzed. Those are the deep cycles.  Later in the night, the sleep cycles spend more time in the lighter, REM sleep.

My testimonial? Well the first night, I took 4 capsules of TA-65 and it looks like I experienced 4 cycles into deep, stage 4 sleep (physical repair).  Then, I had three cycles of dream-rich R.E.M. sleep, followed by one more deep dive.  What dreams came? Well, I had some very vivid recollection of wondering what to bid while playing bridge against my son’s friend while at a ski lodge. I can recall not only thoughts, context, but intuition about my opponents cards…

The following night, I intentionally took no TA-65 and what a difference! 

I had just 6 deep and languid cycles and no memorable dreams.  Sure it’s just anecdotal but if you purchase the app, you can definitely start your own series of experiments.  This qualitative difference in dreams, as subjective as it seems, is the most reliable indicator of telomerase activation in my clinical experience.

In summary, my Friday, TA-65-enhanced sleep appeared “faster” or more efficient because the cycles come quicker.  And the declarative memory was more vivid (the etch-a-sketch phenomenon).

I look forward to hearing your stories using this very interesting tool.  The alarm sounds are all wonderful and it it has snooze! Best of all, it will wake you at the perfect time in a 30 minute window so no more rude awakenings!!

P.S. – I’m finding that another really great thing to do is instead of counting sheep before sleep, is to count your blessings and the lessons learned. Upon awakening, visualize an awesome day and all the things you will manifest.

Let’s close with the world’s greatest soliloquy from Hamlet. How many movie titles, song lyrics, and plot devices have been born from this magical text?  Good luck with improving on this, you typing Monkeys!!

To be, or not to be, that is the question—
Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

To die, to sleep—
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.

There’s the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
The Oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s Contumely,
The pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,
The insolence of Office, and the Spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare Bodkin?

Who would these Fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn
No Traveler returns, Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.

Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all,
And thus the Native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o’er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia. Nymph, in all thy Orisons
Be thou all my sins remembered.