Episode Details

One Creatine Dose Kept Sleep-Deprived Brains 12% Sharper 

A randomized, double-blind crossover trial kept 29 healthy adults awake for 21 hours straight ... half the time on a single moderate dose of creatine (~14g), half the time on placebo ... and found the creatine group held on to up to 12% more cognitive performance across logic, reaction time, and language processing. Host Dave Asprey breaks down why sleep deprivation is just another form of brain energy stress, how creatine's phosphate-buffering mechanism stabilizes ATP in the prefrontal cortex under pressure, and why this changes how he thinks about red-eye flights and all-nighters. Vegetarians and women showed the largest effects ... your baseline diet sets your ceiling. 

Sources: 

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42075005/ 
• https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2026/04/21/single-dose-creatine-may-support-cognition-in-sleep-deprivation-study/ 
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10902318/ 
• https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-creatine-cognitive-deprivation.html 

Your Gum Is Dosing You With Thousands of Microplastics 

A pilot study tested 10 commercial gums ... five synthetic, five marketed as natural or plastic-free ... and found every single one shed hundreds to roughly 3,000 microplastic fragments per stick into saliva, with no meaningful difference between synthetic and "natural" varieties. Host Dave Asprey connects this to total toxic load management, explains why "natural" label claims mean nothing without polymer-free verification, and makes the case that even innocent daily habits contribute to the cumulative plastic burden most people aren't tracking. The takeaway isn't panic ... it's precision. 

Sources: 

• https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2025/march/chewing-gum-can-shed-microplastics-into-saliva-pilot-study-finds.html 
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666911025000243 
• https://samueli.ucla.edu/bursting-your-bubble-chewing-gum-releases-microplastics-into-your-saliva-ucla-research-shows/ 
• https://www.food-safety.com/articles/10285-study-shows-chewing-gum-releases-thousands-of-microplastics-whether-gum-is-synthetic-or-natural 

Irregular Bedtimes in Your 40s May Double Heart Attack Risk 

Finnish researchers followed 3,231 people from age 46 using objective accelerometer data and tracked cardiovascular outcomes for a decade ... finding that people with highly irregular bedtimes, especially combined with short sleep, had roughly double the risk of major cardiovascular events compared to those with consistent sleep ti