If you’ve ever owned a dog you’re probably aware of the phenomenon of “zoomies”. One second they’re sleeping on the couch and then suddenly some switch flips inside of them, some primal urge, and they’re sprinting full speed in circles around the house, maybe chasing their tail or spinning around in place.

I’ve occasionally been the victim of middle-of-the-night mental zoomies. I’ll wake up at some godly hour with my mind running non-stop, usually focused on some single topic.

This last night it was all about bread which is doubly frustrating because I both couldn’t sleep and was salivating over the thought of shoving sweet sweet gluten down my gullet. I had pizza dough rising in the fridge and plans to try a new technique for making loaves of sourdough. My brain just felt the need to re-iterate these plans to me, somehow filling a couple of hours like this.

I don’t confess in any way to be special — I’m sure this is a minor example of what it’s like to have insomnia. Still, I’m left wondering why there are certain nights it’s so pronounced.

I was recently experimenting with drinking an electrolyte mix every day for hydration that consists of salt, magnesium, potassium, iron, and some other crap. The couple of days I tried this were always followed by some nighttime mental zoomies so I fairly quickly stopped.

In the past, I’ve experimented with taking a magnesium supplement before bed which would result in quick sleep and very vivid dreams to the point where I occasionally had night terrors. I don’t recall whether there were any restless nights.

Yesterday I consumed quite a bit of salt right before bed in the form of a bunch of salty snacks so maybe it’s the salt intake?

I fully expect it to take an entire lifetime to understand this body I’m in.

#100DaysToOffload #3