Give me your tired, your sleepless, your weary minds yearning to think clearly…
And I’ll remove brain fog and all of the icky gross shit that is tied to it.
Although firstly: This isn’t medical advice and if you do attempt to follow this, please do not blame me if you get the runs.
I’m just a guy with a keyboard, not a doctor with a prescription pad.
With all of that said…
Your brain is running on empty, and it’s not just because you stayed up until 4 AM doom scrolling TikTok.
Sleep deprivation literally depletes creatine levels in your brain, which is why you feel like you’re thinking through mental quicksand after a bad night.
Here’s where it gets interesting though…
Researchers took a bunch of sleep deprived meat puppets aka people, and gave half of them creatine, half a placebo…
Then they tortured them with 24 hours of no sleep plus exercise (because apparently scientists are sadists, lol go figure)
The results?
The creatine group performed significantly better on tasks that hammer your prefrontal cortex, you know, that part of your brain responsible for decision making, working memory, and not acting like a complete moron.
While the placebo group’s brains turned to mush, the creatine group maintained better mood, faster reaction times, better balance, and superior cognitive performance.
Even after being awake for 24 straight hours.
These people were functionally zombies, but creatine kept their brains firing on most cylinders while everyone else was operating at potato level intelligence. (Which honestly was me for the last few weeks or so while this illness, virus or megaultracovaids hit me)
The magic dose? Five grams, four times a day for a week in the study.
But most research shows 3/5 grams daily is enough for cognitive benefits once you’re loaded up.
It first saturates the muscles cause muscles are greedy bastards and then your brain snaps up the rest.
Your brain burns through energy like a Ferrari burns through fuel though, especially if you’re doing all that fancy think-y shit like writing or studying.
When you give it premium fuel (creatine), it runs better.
When you don’t, you get the mental equivalent of engine knock.
It’s more that foggy, sluggish, “why can’t I think straight” feeling and we’ve all been there.
I always thought brain fog was normal. But after my lack of sleep and mental activity, It was just my brain begging for better fuel.
Feed it what it needs and then like magic…
You’re a functional human again.
So if you’re feeling like you’ve been run over mentally, even if you’re eating right, sleeping right and doing all the things you’re supposed to.
Maybe try supplement creatine and get the squishy stuff between your ears a little lovin’
Don’t forget to hydrate like a mofo too. Cause for some reason your body absorbs more liquids when you’re supplementing creatine.
Stephen Walker.
P.S. For the nerds who wanna read the study, here’s some cited info and all that good stuff.