Rebalancing... Hormones?

[Gumby]

Agreed. Besides artificial light sources screwing with our natural circadian rhythm, the other major hormone disruptor seems to be plastics, hormones in food and cosmetics. It's fairly easy to avoid plastics most of the time, but most people are oblivious to the fact that their moisturizers, sunscreens, shaving creams, shampoos are full of hormone disruptors.

Perhaps all these hormone disruptors — in addition to sleep and artificial light pollution — don't tend to become a problem until people reach their 40s. My guess is that it has at least something to do with the liver becoming more sluggish as someone ages.

Of course, doctors tell us not to worry or mess around with our hormones — particularly when we don't have major symptoms. And, yes, I totally agree with that. But, curiously, they don't seem to warn us that everyone is already messing around with their hormones every time we heat up dinner in a plastic chinese take-out container or lather up with mainstream cosmetics or stare into an iPad/TV/computer screen late at night.

I guess they figure there's no problem until it's a problem, right?

[Benko]

I've worn a blindfold when sleeping for years.  One way to avoid the llight pollution.

GUmby,

at the risk of being redundant, you're worry, concern, etc messes with your hormones, and is far more unhealthy than the amount of endocrine disrupters you likely encounter on a daily basis.

[Gumby]

I've worn a blindfold when sleeping for years.  One way to avoid the llight pollution.

Interestingly, there is some evidence that the hormones in your body can be switched on/off with very small amounts of light just hitting the skin. It's probably one of the reasons why our skin is so thin and sensitive to light. Activating switches in the circadian rhythm probably does not require the light to hit only your eyes.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/279/5349/396.abstract

at the risk of being redundant, you're worry, concern, etc messes with your hormones, and is far more unhealthy than the amount of endocrine disrupters you likely encounter on a daily basis.

Benko, I'm not sure why you think I'm "worried" or "concerned" about this. I don't see hormones as being a particularly worrisome topic — the solutions are fairly easy (i.e. more sleep, lifting, maybe a cream). I've already eliminated most of my exposure to hormone disruptors in my life (other than lack of sleep). It was relatively easy to do and I feel great about that. Can't an individual have a real conversation about hormones without being accused of "worrying" about them? I find this subject interesting. Nothing more. I realize that you mean well, but you constantly reminding me not to stress about something is actually kind of stressing me out. I thank you for your concern, but please stop.

[MediumTex]

at the risk of being redundant, you're worry, concern, etc messes with your hormones, and is far more unhealthy than the amount of endocrine disrupters you likely encounter on a daily basis.

Benko, I'm not sure why you think I'm "worried" or "concerned" about this. I don't see hormones as being a particularly worrisome topic — the solutions are fairly easy (i.e. more sleep, lifting, maybe a cream). I've already eliminated most of my exposure to hormone disruptors in my life (other than lack of sleep). It was relatively easy to do and I feel great about that. Can't an individual have a real conversation about hormones without being accused of "worrying" about them? I find this subject interesting. Nothing more. I realize that you mean well, but you constantly reminding me not to stress about something is actually kind of stressing me out. I thank you for your concern, but please stop.

I believe that Gumby is just one of those people who has a deep curiosity about almost everything in the world.

While I would probably tell many people the same thing Benko is telling Gumby, I wouldn't tell Gumby to stop what he's doing because I don't think that his curiosity is causing more problems than it is solving.

[Lone Wolf]

But, historians and researchers have uncovered that before there was artificial (blue) light, people used to have two periods of sleep at night. It's known as "Segmented Sleep". People would go to sleep shortly after sundown and wake up around 1-2am and then go back to sleep till the morning. You can find evidence of this in historical texts. When researchers take subjects and remove artificial light from their environments, they tend to revert back to that evolutionary pattern of two sets of sleeps. That would be pretty cool to experience, but I doubt I'll ever try it.

Holy crap, Gumby!  I was just discussing segmented sleep in an entirely different context.

I'm not sure whether you remember this, but back in late April, I had a spontaneous lucid dream (dream where you realize that you're dreaming.)  I posted about it here.  I started pursuing lucid dreaming pretty vigorously over the last several months.  Long story short, I've had a pretty good number of lucid dreams (45 as of today.)  They've been amazing experiences, to say the least, bordering on transformative.

Anyway, one of the most effective ways to induce a lucid dream is to wake up after 5-6 hours of sleep and stay up for 30-60 minutes before going back to sleep.  In other words, if you engage in the "old" practices segmented sleep, you are tremendously more likely to become lucid in a dream.  The vast majority (in fact, all but 2) of my lucid dreams came when I engaged in segmented sleep.

The implication to me is that before the Industrial Revolution, a state of lucid dreaming may have been a far more everyday experience than it is now.  If that's true, it's a great pity for our modern times.  As Henry David Thoreau said, "Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."

By the way, I'm really behind you on your determination to get more sleep!  It's not easy to do (and as a dad I'll tell you that you're not going to succeed every night), but I think you'll be amazed how much better you'll feel once you start banking a few nights of really good sleep.  Once I got serious about sleep I just felt so much better.  If you have the opportunity to go to bed early enough so that you can awaken naturally without an alarm, definitely try it!  It's wonderful.

You have a great diet already dialed in, so sufficient quality sleep may be the only missing ingredient for you.  Good luck!

[Gumby]

at the risk of being redundant, you're worry, concern, etc messes with your hormones, and is far more unhealthy than the amount of endocrine disrupters you likely encounter on a daily basis.

Benko, I'm not sure why you think I'm "worried" or "concerned" about this. I don't see hormones as being a particularly worrisome topic — the solutions are fairly easy (i.e. more sleep, lifting, maybe a cream). I've already eliminated most of my exposure to hormone disruptors in my life (other than lack of sleep). It was relatively easy to do and I feel great about that. Can't an individual have a real conversation about hormones without being accused of "worrying" about them? I find this subject interesting. Nothing more. I realize that you mean well, but you constantly reminding me not to stress about something is actually kind of stressing me out. I thank you for your concern, but please stop.

I believe that Gumby is just one of those people who has a deep curiosity about almost everything in the world.

While I would probably tell many people the same thing Benko is telling Gumby, I wouldn't tell Gumby to stop what he's doing because I don't think that his curiosity is causing more problems than it is solving.

I dunno. I guess hormones don't really scare me. I kind of view them as naturally occurring vitamins. I mean, you wouldn't tell someone to stop worrying about their Vitamin D if someone wanted to learn more about it. I guess you could say that someone in their 30s doesn't need to worry about their Vitamin D status beyond getting some sunshine, but low Vitamin D can of course lead to health issues.

So, to me, hormones are just naturally occurring vitamins that the body creates on its own. Similarly, most animals (besides humans) can synthesize their own Vitamin C. Of course, Vitamin C isn't really a "vitamin" in those animals. It's really more like a hormone to them.

[Gumby]

Holy crap, Gumby!  I was just discussing segmented sleep in an entirely different context.

I'm not sure whether you remember this, but back in late April, I had a spontaneous lucid dream (dream where you realize that you're dreaming.)  I posted about it here.  I started pursuing lucid dreaming pretty vigorously over the last several months.  Long story short, I've had a pretty good number of lucid dreams (45 as of today.)  They've been amazing experiences, to say the least, bordering on transformative.

Anyway, one of the most effective ways to induce a lucid dream is to wake up after 5-6 hours of sleep and stay up for 30-60 minutes before going back to sleep.  In other words, if you engage in the "old" practices segmented sleep, you are tremendously more likely to become lucid in a dream.  The vast majority (in fact, all but 2) of my lucid dreams came when I engaged in segmented sleep.

The implication to me is that before the Industrial Revolution, a state of lucid dreaming may have been a far more everyday experience than it is now.  If that's true, it's a great pity for our modern times.  As Henry David Thoreau said, "Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."

Holy crap is right! I think you may be on to something. There is a very decent chance people were experiencing lucid dreams much more often back then. It almost implies that lucid dreaming is part of our evolutionary circadian rhythm!!

That is really astounding if that's true.

By the way, I'm really behind you on your determination to get more sleep!  It's not easy to do (and as a dad I'll tell you that you're not going to succeed every night), but I think you'll be amazed how much better you'll feel once you start banking a few nights of really good sleep.  Once I got serious about sleep I just felt so much better.  If you have the opportunity to go to bed early enough so that you can awaken naturally without an alarm, definitely try it!  It's wonderful.

You have a great diet already dialed in, so sufficient quality sleep may be the only missing ingredient for you.  Good luck!

Thanks, LW... Maybe one day I'll even experience a lucid dream!

[Lone Wolf]

Holy crap is right! I think you may be right. There is a very decent chance people were experiencing lucid dreams much more often back then. It almost implies that lucid dreaming is part of our evolutionary circadian rhythm!!

That is really astounding if that's true.

I know, man!  It's funny how this notion of segmented sleep occurred to me again in just the last few days.  Had you perhaps mentioned it on the forum in the past??  I am thinking that must be why I knew about it.  As usual, my time spent here keeps paying dividends...

Oh man, I just checked out the old lucid dreaming thread and found this gem from MediumTex.  He describes how engaging in segmented sleep increases his dream vividness. 

Some of my most vivid and bizarre dream experiences occur in those situations when I wake up in the morning and become more or less fully awake and then go back to sleep for perhaps 30-45 minutes.  It is often during this 30-45 minute sleep period that I have the most intense and realistic dreams.  I have always wondered about this because I assumed that a deeper state of sleep than one can achieve in 30-45 minutes was necessary to dream like this.  Has anyone else had this experience of having intense dreams during short periods of sleep?

It's hilarious to look back at this now.  It took me > two months to find my way to a practice that not only had MT mentioned on page one of the thread, but my ancestors had probably been engaged in since time immemorial.  So there you go, segmented sleep independently discovered by one MediumTex.

I've got to hand it to the lean, strong "savages" who were our ancestors.  Walking the Earth and chowing down on animal flesh by day, waking up in the early morning hours to have sex, and then (maybe) lucid dreaming until daybreak.  It beats nervously chewing on a rice cake, popping a Xanax and cowering under fluorescent lights while fretting about celebrity news. 

Thanks, LW... Maybe one day I'll even experience a lucid dream!

Indeed you may!  If you wind up taking an interest and have any questions, hit me up any time.

[Gumby]

It's hilarious to look back at this now.  It took me > two months to find my way to a practice that not only had MT mentioned on page one of the thread, but my ancestors had probably been engaged in since time immemorial.  So there you go, segmented sleep independently discovered by one MediumTex.

I've got to hand it to the lean, strong "savages" who were our ancestors.  Walking the Earth and chowing down on animal flesh by day, waking up in the early morning hours to have sex, and then (maybe) lucid dreaming until daybreak.  It beats nervously chewing on a rice cake, popping a Xanax and cowering under fluorescent lights while fretting about celebrity news. 

CONFIRMED!!!!

Apparently, up until the Industrial Revolution, everyone knew that their second sleep was when they did their best dreaming.

See here, from 1829...

[align=center]

Source: The London encyclopaedia: or, Universal dictionary of Science, Art, Literature, and Practical Mechanics, (1829)[/align]

The author mentions the higher incidence of (lucid) dreaming during the "second sleep" as if it were common knowledge.

Wow. That really is unbelievable. It sounds like we are supposed to dream like that.

[Lone Wolf]

CONFIRMED!!!!

See here...

The author mentions the higher incidence of (lucid) dreaming in the "second sleep" as if it were common knowledge.

Wow.

Holy crap x2!!

Holy crap #1: This confirms that with the "old school" segmented sleep practices you almost certainly got a radically higher incidence of lucid dreaming.  The idea that humans in recent history had such a startlingly different experience of sleep... that just blows my mind!  We really are living very different lives from people just 2-3 centuries back.

Holy crap #2: How are you so good at finding this stuff?  One thing that's cool about this passage is how unambiguous it is.  The text just goes on casually about "first sleep" and "second sleep" like these are concepts that everyone would be familiar with and probably engage in just about every night.

What they're saying in this passage is also quite sound and jibes with our modern understanding of sleep cycles.  The beginning phases of sleep are characterized by lots of physically-restorative delta (deep) sleep, with REM cycles quite brief.  During the late morning, there's far less deep sleep and instead long, rich periods of dream-heavy REM.

Great find, Gumby!  It seems that the world gets more interesting every time I look at it.

[Benko]

So, to me, hormones are just naturally occurring vitamins that the body creates on its own.

There are important differences between vitamins and hormones.  Aside from the fact that the body makes hormones and cannot make vitamins, most hormones are under feedback regulation (perhaps melatonin is an exception).  Many hormones e.g. sex hormones are part of a large inter-related metabolic pathway e.g. DHEA and sex hormones meaning e.g. taking testosterone can elevate your estrogen so one needs to be under intelligent supervision and get periodic bloodwork (I hope you are getting appropriate regular bloodwork MT).

There were people on a board I used to frequent:

http://mindandmuscle.net/forum/

who experimented with what you are talking about, what I believe might have been termed polyphasic sleep.  The threads might still be  there (though the forum has changed A LOT and is not the hotbed of intellectual activity it once was.

Also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

[Gumby]

There are important differences between vitamins and hormones.

Yes, yes. I agree that there are big differences between hormones and vitamins. I just meant that I wouldn't "worry" about hormones any more than I would "worry" about vitamins (which isn't much, since I try to eat well and don't take that many supplements).

Btw, if a ruminant creates its own Vitamin C, is it a hormone or a vitamin to that animal?

who experimented with what you are talking about, what I believe might have been termed polyphasic sleep.

Not exactly. We are talking about "Bi-Phasic sleep" or "segmented sleep" — which occurs naturally when artificial light is removed from one's environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep

Polyphasic sleep refers to more than two phases of sleep:

"Polyphasic sleep, a term coined by early 20th-century psychologist J.S. Szymanski, refers to the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period—usually more than two, in contrast to biphasic sleep (twice per day) or monophasic sleep (once per day)."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

Polyphasic sleep is pretty crazy because you basically have to live like Di-Vinci and Edison did — taking well-timed naps constantly throughout the day. If you miss a nap, you can royally screw your body up.

[Benko]

All I remember is more than 1 phase of sleep.  I might be mistaken about it, perhaps it was bi phasic. 

[doodle]

I know this is going to sound nuts, but do you ever think that maybe modern nutritionists and scientists are so focused on the body as a material object, a biological machine so to speak, that they miss looking for answers and explanations at the subatomic level? I feel in some ways that health and nutrition is stuck back in the era of Newtonian physics and that it hasn't quite progressed to the more modern world of quantum mechanics.  I know a lot of this sounds like pseudo-science, but really at the subatomic level we are just vibrating energy fields. Some Endocrinologists like Deepak Chopra have started to look for more spiritual answers to health and healing. There are miracles that modern medical science cant explain where people have cleared horrible cancers and tumors through faith. In a materialistic world where so much of our science deals with what we can see, I think that there might be a spiritual inner dimension to health that we may be discounting or overlooking. 

[doodle]

CONFIRMED!!!!

See here...

The author mentions the higher incidence of (lucid) dreaming in the "second sleep" as if it were common knowledge.

Wow.

Holy crap x2!!

Holy crap #1: This confirms that with the "old school" segmented sleep practices you almost certainly got a radically higher incidence of lucid dreaming.  The idea that humans in recent history had such a startlingly different experience of sleep... that just blows my mind!  We really are living very different lives from people just 2-3 centuries back.

Holy crap #2: How are you so good at finding this stuff?  One thing that's cool about this passage is how unambiguous it is.  The text just goes on casually about "first sleep" and "second sleep" like these are concepts that everyone would be familiar with and probably engage in just about every night.

What they're saying in this passage is also quite sound and jibes with our modern understanding of sleep cycles.  The beginning phases of sleep are characterized by lots of physically-restorative delta (deep) sleep, with REM cycles quite brief.  During the late morning, there's far less deep sleep and instead long, rich periods of dream-heavy REM.

Great find, Gumby!  It seems that the world gets more interesting every time I look at it.

On a similar subject to lucid dreaming...has anyone ever experienced ASMR? There are a ton of videos on it on youtube. It is a sensation, kind of like a brain orgasm, that is triggered by certain external stimuli like soft whispering voices or tapping your nails on a hard surface. I used to have a teacher who had a particular tone of voice that would put me into a trance. I nearly failed the class because I would literally be sitting in class drooling as my spine and brain were just elluminated with this warm tingly feeling. I should have dropped and gotten another teacher, but the feeling was too addictive to leave! The sensations I get from certain stimuli (mostly from voices and and the sound of pencil on paper) have grown less intense over the years, but some of the videos on youtube still bring out mild effects.

[Gosso]

LW and Gumby,

I'm still journaling my dreams, and have had one or two mildly lucid dreams...I knew I was dreaming but still went with the flow of it.

There are times when I naturally wake up at 4:00am, and when this happens I usually have had a Big Dream (as the Jungians call it) which is full of mythological images and meaning.  When I sleep all the way to 7:00am the dreams are usually stupid and/or boring (not the f-ing airport again!), but sometimes they surprise me.  It's almost as if the 7:00am dreams are slowly easing me out of the depths of the dream world back to consciousness, and does this by making the dreams less fantastical.

Hmmm, maybe I'll experiment with setting an alarm for 4:00am to record my dreams.  Although, I wouldn't do this every night, since I need my beauty sleep.    I'm not sure if it would be healthy to do this every night, since there must be a reason why our bodies have stopped segmented sleep...forcing the issue may cause problems...maybe?

***

By the way, MT, your story motivated me to get back into my workout routine, which I had stopped for the past three months, likely because I had moved to a new place.  Went for a two hour walk/jog/sprint session this morning and I'm feeling good!

[Lone Wolf]

There are times when I naturally wake up at 4:00am, and when this happens I usually have had a Big Dream (as the Jungians call it) which is full of mythological images and meaning.  When I sleep all the way to 7:00am the dreams are usually stupid and/or boring (not the f-ing airport again!), but sometimes they surprise me.  It's almost as if the 7:00am dreams are slowly easing me out of the depths of the dream world back to consciousness, and does this by making the dreams less fantastical.

Hmmm, maybe I'll experiment with setting an alarm for 4:00am to record my dreams.  Although, I wouldn't do this every night, since I need my beauty sleep.    I'm not sure if it would be healthy to do this every night, since there must be a reason why our bodies have stopped segmented sleep...forcing the issue may cause problems...maybe?

Yes, I agree that getting sufficient rest trumps all else!  To that end, I personally don't use an alarm in my practice of segmented sleep (referred to as "wake back to bed" in the lucid dreaming community.)  I just make sure that I'm well-rested.  When I have gotten sufficient sleep, I find myself waking up around 2:30-3:30 in the morning naturally.  I go somewhere else in the house for about 30 minutes of quiet, peaceful study and head back to bed.  (If I wake up at 2:30 am and feel too tired to pursue a lucid dream, I just roll over and fall back to sleep.)

Being excited and motivated about dreaming is a big help here, but I also suspect that consciously exposing myself to less light and stimulation in the hours leading up to bed (and using the Gumby-endorsed f.lux software) have helped me fall into this rhythm on my own.  Initially I had to drink a lot of water before bed to kind of force these awakenings, but I quickly moved past that.

My guess is that before the Industrial Revolution, people were getting plenty of rest and (of course) not exposing themselves to much more than firelight in the evenings.  Anyone who has spent several days without power knows that you tend to go to bed much earlier and wake more refreshed in the morning.  I experienced this myself in the aftermath of a hurricane, although I don't recall what the effect was on dreaming.  (I'm embarrassed to say that I paid no attention to such things until relatively recently.)

I went to the doctor a couple of months ago because I felt poorly overall (no energy, no motivation, no focus, etc).

I'm really glad that the testosterone treatments did the trick!  It's great to have an easily understandable, approachable, and ultimately solvable explanation for what you're going through.

Having said that, it's pretty amazing that the "no energy, no motivation, no focus" version of MT was able to juggle fatherhood, co-authoring of a published book, a full-time job, and the management of all the wild hooligans on this forum. 

[MediumTex]

I went to the doctor a couple of months ago because I felt poorly overall (no energy, no motivation, no focus, etc).

I'm really glad that the testosterone treatments did the trick!  It's great to have an easily understandable, approachable, and ultimately solvable explanation for what you're going through.

Having said that, it's pretty amazing that the "no energy, no motivation, no focus" version of MT was able to juggle fatherhood, co-authoring of a published book, a full-time job, and the management of all the wild hooligans on this forum. 

My condition may have been the result of all of that.

[Benko]

really at the subatomic level we are just vibrating energy fields.

That is true, we are.  Though energy and energy fields have nothing to do with spirituality.

Some Endocrinologists like Deepak Chopra

Chopra was the physician of an old friend of mine.  He is an egomaniac, excessively greedy, and not recommended as a source of reliable info.  It is not likely he is a spiritual person.  He may very well write wonderful sounding feel good new agey pap though.

...where people have cleared horrible cancers and tumors through faith. In a materialistic world where so much of our science deals with what we can see, I think that there might be a spiritual inner dimension to health that we may be discounting or overlooking.

  There very much is.  Google and download (free) "Tales of the Dervishes" and read the story (probably only a coupla pages) "Cure of Human Blood" to read an example of one such cure.  It is not a literally true story but (as do most stories in that book) it illustrates a factually true point very much along the lines that you are talking about.

[Gumby]

Being excited and motivated about dreaming is a big help here, but I also suspect that consciously exposing myself to less light and stimulation in the hours leading up to bed (and using the Gumby-endorsed f.lux software) have helped me fall into this rhythm on my own.

My guess is that before the Industrial Revolution, people were getting plenty of rest and (of course) not exposing themselves to much more than firelight in the evenings.

Have I got a little trick for you...

There's a company called lowbluelights.com and they offer a few products that allow you eliminate the otherwise pervasive blue wavelengths that would raise our cortisol levels and interfere with our melatonin production. There is apparently research that suggests that it only takes a short glimpse of blue wavelength to raise cortisol and interfere with melatonin.

The company offers low-blue bulbs, night lights, and these amber filters that go over your iPad, your TV, your monitors, etc. One can get pretty crazy with these things, and I'm not recommending that people go out and spend hundreds of dollars on this stuff. But, what's interesting is that they also sell low-blue glasses. Basically, you put on these amber glasses at night and you can entirely block out the blue wavelength.

However, instead of spending $80 on these high-end low-blue glasses, I've discovered that hardware stores and Amazon.com sell an $8 pair of glasses that pretty much do the exact same thing...

http://amzn.com/B000USRG90

[align=center][/align]

If you look at the reviews, you'll notice that many of the users of these $8 glasses are experiencing some major melatonin surges. You put those babies on and before long you feel like turning in for the night without the usual cortisol interference.

[Gumby]

It's also worth pointing out that even cavemen were exposed to some blue wavelengths during the evening — at least a few times per month. Moonlight is a particularly bright blue during the full moon. But, of course, moonlight isn't anything like the intensity we expose ourselves today.

[Gumby]

Found a TED Talks that mentions segmented sleep and found this to be interesting...

Well, it turns out that when people are living without any sort of artificial light at all, they sleep twice every night. They go to bed around 8:00 p.m. until midnight and then again, they sleep from about 2:00 a.m. until sunrise. And in-between, they have a couple of hours of sort of meditative quiet in bed. And during this time, there's a surge of prolactin, the likes of which a modern day never sees. The people in these studies report feeling so awake during the daytime, that they realize they're experiencing true wakefulness for the first time in their lives.

Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/jessa_gamble_how_to_sleep.html

I wonder what it must be like to experience "true wakefulness". We must all be half-asleep these days.

[Benko]

I wonder what it must be like to experience "true wakefulness". We must all be half-asleep these days.

Virtually all of us are 99% asleep because we are not present to our lives i.e. :

"the mind is accustomed to indulging itself constantly. You take a walk in some picturesque surroundings, and the mind is not there. It is thinking about work, about meeting so-and-so, about the clever retort you should have made to so-and-so. You are harboring thoughts. You are letting the mind feast on its creations while you miss the beauty of life around you. "

http://thewayofseeing.com/article_harbo ... ughts.html

I've experienced moments where e.g. food tastes amazing good, and it was nothing special, but I was actually more present than usual and actually tasted it  vs eating and being off in my head thinking about whatever.

[Gumby]

Right. But, segmented sleep not only, apparently, creates a pathway to true wakefulness, but it also creates a pathway to more lucid dreaming. That would have to be mind altering on both levels. And the daily hormonal shifts would be unlike anything we see in the modern world.

[Benko]

The mind is what keeps us asleep.  The mind, that clever things which is useful in doing our taxes, and figuring out which way of rebalancing is most profitable acts as a filter between us and reality.  Being enlightened means freedom from slavery of the mind.  All else is just a floorshow (however entertaining) while being imprisoned by the mind.

"the daily hormonal shifts would be unlike anything we see in the modern world."
So?