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Biohacking "Suave" a los 70 años:
Mi experimento de 7 días persiguiendo el Sol de Invierno
Si me han estado leyendo últimamente, saben que ando en un proceso de cambio profundo. He pasado del bullicio a esta paz —a veces demasiado silenciosa— de Ontario. Les he hablado de sanar, del dinero y hasta de la muerte, tristemente, sé que pocos me han leído. Pero hoy quiero bajar de esa nube filosófica y contarles algo mucho más terrenal. Algo que tiene que ver con cómo funciona mi cuerpo ahora que tengo 70 años.
Últimamente, me he topado mucho con una palabrita de moda: “Biohacking”.
Les confieso que al principio me sonaba a película de ciencia ficción, me imaginaba a gente poniéndose chips o tragando veinte pastillas raras. Pero leyendo un poco más como ratón de biblioteca, descubrí el “Biohacking Suave”. Básicamente, es usar trucos modernos para volver a lo natural, a lo que hacían nuestros ancestros. Y ahí sí me llamó la atención.
El enemigo: La oscuridad del norte
Viviendo aquí arriba en el mapa —je, je, je…—, justo antes de Navidad, tenemos un problema serio: la falta de luz natural. Los días se hacen cortos, rapidísimo y el sol se vuelve un lujo. Empecé a notar que mi energía se iba al piso y que mi sueño, que ya es delicado, se estaba volviendo un desastre.
Así que decidí usarme a mí mismo de conejillo de indias. Me propuse un reto de 7 días basado en la cronobiología (el estudio de nuestros ritmos internos) para ver si lograba acomodar mi reloj biológico usando solo una herramienta: la luz del sol mañanero. Tal cual como hicimos el dos de noviembre al ajustar nuestros relojes atrasándolos una hora.
Poniéndoles un poco en contexto
Antes de contarles cómo me fue, les explico de dónde saqué la idea. Leí al Dr. Andrew Huberman (un neurocientífico de Stanford muy popular) explicar algo que parece obvio, pero que olvidamos: ver luz solar directa apenas nos despertamos es clave para la cabeza y el cuerpo.
Ojo, tiene que ser luz directa, nada de verla a través de la ventana. Según entendí, esa luz le manda una señal de alerta al cuerpo, sube el cortisol sano para despertarnos y, lo más importante, activa un “temporizador” para que nos dé sueño unas 12 o 14 horas después.
En criollo latino: para dormir bien de noche, hay que asolearse en la mañana. A mi edad el sueño es sagrado, así que decidí probar suerte y desafiar el frío canadiense.
Mi semana de “Baño de Luz”
El plan era sencillo, pero requiere fuerza de voluntad, pues, salir al porche o caminar por la cuadra entre 15 y 20 minutos, sin lentes de sol, apenas me levantara (aquí el sol sale tímido entre 7:30 y 8:00 AM) y amanece bajo cero.
El inicio, como todo, mucho frío y pocas ganas. Los primeros dos días fueron duros. En Ontario ya estamos rozando los grados bajo cero. Salir de las cobijas calientes para que te pegue el viento helado en la cara se siente como una locura, pues hay que evitar resfriarse.
Mi mente racional —esa que pasó 53 años metida en las cajas de concreto— me decía: “entra a la casa, viejo, que te vas a resfriar”. Pero aguanté. Me quedé ahí, mirando esa luz grisácea del amanecer reflejada en la nieve. ¿Sentí un cambio mágico al instante? Para nada. Solo frío.
Pues bien, a mitad del camino, podría afirmarse que sentí un sutil cambio. Hacia el tercer y cuarto día pasó algo curioso, yo suelo tener un “bajón energético” a las 15:00 (3 de la tarde), esas ganas de la siesta o de tomarme otro café. Pero al cuarto día de recibir mi dosis de sol, me di cuenta de que a las 4:00 PM yo seguía decorando la casa, subiendo y bajando las cajas de los adornos de Navidad, sin esa fatiga pesada de la semana pasada.
Era como si mi cuerpo finalmente hubiese entendido el mensaje: “¡ah!, es de día, hay que estar pilas”, —sonrío—.
El resultado final, dormir literalmente “como un bebé”, je, je, je. A menudo me despierto a las 3:00 de la madrugada (el famoso “insomnio del abuelo”) y doy vueltas en la cama. Para el sexto día del experimento, dormí corrido hasta las 6:30, a tiempo para continuar la rutina.
La teoría para mí fue acertada, al decirle a mi cerebro cuándo empezaba el día con luz real, él calculó solito cuándo soltar la melatonina para dormir. Es fascinante pensar que, aunque tengo buena salud, un ajuste tan tonto como salir al porche puede mejorar tanto la calidad de vida.
Mi reflexión navideña final
Terminé la semana sintiéndome mucho más vital. Y ojo, no tomé vitaminas extra ni nada raro; solo luz y caminata. Y aún lo sigo haciendo…
El sol es información para nuestro cuerpo, cuando vivimos encerrados con luces LED y pantallas hasta la medianoche, le estamos mintiendo a nuestra biología. Le decimos que siempre es de día, y se arma un caos hormonal que estoy seguro de que si superas las 50, lo habrás notado.
Es irónico, ¿no? Pasé años trabajando bajo luz artificial, y ahora que estoy “jubilado”, es cuando realmente estoy trabajando en sincronía con el planeta, con mi cuerpo.
Si se animan a probarlo (aunque estén en el trópico):
- Nada de lentes de sol: Al menos por esos 10 minutos de la mañana. Ojo, nunca miren al sol directamente si molesta, solo miren al cielo claro.
- Tempranito: La luz de la tarde no sirve igual, tiene que ser la de la mañana.
- Paciencia: Un solo día no hace milagros, yo empecé a sentirlo al cuarto día.
Ahora sí, con las pilas recargadas, tengo la energía para terminar de armar el arbolito y esperar a la familia. A mi hijo Matthew, que siempre está a full carga.
¿Y ustedes? ¿Cómo andan de sueño? ¿Se atreven a probar este “biohacking” natural o prefieren quedarse en la camita? ¡Los leo en los comentarios!
Creciendo como persona, busca y encuentra lo que necesitas para ser un mejor humano en la Comunidad Holos&Lotus. De seguro, hay un tema que te llamará la atención.
Infografía propia de la Comunidad Holos&Lotus
Dedicado a todos aquellos que, día a día, hacen del mundo un lugar mejor.
"Gentle" Biohacking at 70:
My 7-Day Experiment Chasing the Winter Sun
If you've been following me lately, you know I'm going through a profound transformation. I've gone from the hustle and bustle to this peace —sometimes almost too quiet— of Ontario. I've talked to you about healing, money, and even death; sadly, I know few of you have actually read it. But today I want to come down from that philosophical cloud and tell you something much more down-to-earth. Something that has to do with how my body works now that I'm 70 years old.
Lately, I've been coming across a buzzword a lot: "Biohacking."
I confess that at first it sounded like something out of a science fiction movie; I imagined people getting chips implanted or swallowing twenty strange pills. But after doing some more reading, like a bookworm, I discovered "Soft Biohacking." Basically, it's using modern tricks to return to what's natural, to what our ancestors did. And that's what really caught my attention.
The Enemy: The Darkness of the North
Living up here on the map —ha, ha, ha…— just before Christmas, we have a serious problem: the lack of natural light. The days get shorter, incredibly fast, and the sun becomes a luxury. I started noticing my energy plummeting and my sleep, already fragile, was becoming a disaster.
So I decided to use myself as a guinea pig. I set myself a 7-day challenge based on chronobiology (the study of our internal rhythms) to see if I could adjust my biological clock using only one tool: the morning sunlight. Just like we did on November 2nd when we set our clocks back an hour.
Some Context
Before I tell you how it went, let me explain where I got the idea. I read Dr. Andrew Huberman (a very popular neuroscientist from Stanford) explaining something that seems obvious but that we often forget: seeing direct sunlight first thing in the morning is key for our mind and body.
Note: it has to be direct sunlight, not just looking at it through a window. As I understand it, this light sends an alert signal to the body, raises healthy cortisol levels to wake us up, and, most importantly, activates a "timer" that makes us sleepy about 12 to 14 hours later.
In simpler terms: to sleep well at night, you have to get some sun in the morning. At my age, sleep is sacred, so I decided to try my luck and brave the Canadian cold.
My Week of “Light Bathing”
The plan was simple, but it required willpower, because going out onto the porch or walking around the block for 15 to 20 minutes, without sunglasses, as soon as I woke up (here the sun peeks out shyly between 7:30 and 8:00 AM) and it was below freezing.
The beginning, like everything, was very cold and I had little desire to go out. The first two days were tough. In Ontario, we're already approaching sub-zero temperatures. Getting out of the warm blankets to have the icy wind hit your face feels like madness, because you have to avoid catching a cold.
My rational mind —the one that spent 53 years inside concrete boxes— was telling me: “Go inside, man, you're going to catch a cold.” But I held out. I stayed there, watching that grayish light of dawn reflected on the snow. Did I feel a magical change instantly? Not at all. Just cold.
Well, halfway through, I could say I felt a subtle change. Around the third and fourth day, something curious happened. I usually have an "energy dip" around 3:00 PM, that urge to take a nap or have another coffee. But on the fourth day of getting my dose of sunshine, I realized that at 4:00 PM I was still decorating the house, carrying boxes of Christmas decorations up and down, without that heavy fatigue from the previous week.
It was as if my body had finally understood the message: "Ah! It's daytime, time to be alert," —I smiled—.
The end result: sleeping literally "like a baby," ha, ha, ha. I often wake up at 3:00 AM (the famous "grandpa's insomnia") and toss and turn in bed. By the sixth day of the experiment, I slept straight through until 6:30, in time to continue my routine.
The theory worked for me. By telling my brain when the day began with real light, it automatically calculated when to release melatonin for sleep. It's fascinating to think that, even though I'm in good health, such a simple adjustment as going out onto the porch can improve my quality of life so much.
My final holiday reflection
I ended the week feeling much more energetic. And mind you, I didn't take extra vitamins or anything like that; just light and walking. And I'm still doing it…
The sun is information for our bodies. When we live indoors with LED lights and screens until midnight, we're lying to our biology. We tell it that it's always daytime, and a hormonal chaos ensues that I'm sure you've noticed if you're over 50.
It's ironic, isn't it? I spent years working under artificial light, and now that I'm "retired," I'm finally working in sync with the planet, with my body.
If you're up for trying it (even if you're in the tropics):
- No sunglasses: At least for those 10 minutes in the morning. Remember, never look directly at the sun; if it bothers you, just look at the clear sky.
- Early in the morning: Afternoon light doesn't work as well; it has to be morning light.
- Patience: One day won't work miracles; I started to feel the difference on the fourth day.
Now, with my batteries recharged, I have the energy to finish decorating the tree and wait for my family. Especially my son Matthew, who's always full of energy.
And you? How's your sleep? Are you brave enough to try this natural "biohacking" or do you prefer to stay in bed? Let me know in the comments!
Growing as a person, seek and find what you need to be a better person in the Holos&Lotus Community. Surely, there's a topic that will catch your attention.
Community's own infographic Holos&Lotus
🔆+++🔆+++🔆+++🔆+++🔆+++🔆+++🔆+++🔆+++🔆+++🔆
Dedicated to all those who, day after day, make the world a better place.
Dedicado a todos aquellos que, día a día, hacen del mundo un lugar mejor.
"Gentle" Biohacking at 70:
My 7-Day Experiment Chasing the Winter Sun
If you've been following me lately, you know I'm going through a profound transformation. I've gone from the hustle and bustle to this peace —sometimes almost too quiet— of Ontario. I've talked to you about healing, money, and even death; sadly, I know few of you have actually read it. But today I want to come down from that philosophical cloud and tell you something much more down-to-earth. Something that has to do with how my body works now that I'm 70 years old.
Lately, I've been coming across a buzzword a lot: "Biohacking."
I confess that at first it sounded like something out of a science fiction movie; I imagined people getting chips implanted or swallowing twenty strange pills. But after doing some more reading, like a bookworm, I discovered "Soft Biohacking." Basically, it's using modern tricks to return to what's natural, to what our ancestors did. And that's what really caught my attention.
The Enemy: The Darkness of the North
Living up here on the map —ha, ha, ha…— just before Christmas, we have a serious problem: the lack of natural light. The days get shorter, incredibly fast, and the sun becomes a luxury. I started noticing my energy plummeting and my sleep, already fragile, was becoming a disaster.
So I decided to use myself as a guinea pig. I set myself a 7-day challenge based on chronobiology (the study of our internal rhythms) to see if I could adjust my biological clock using only one tool: the morning sunlight. Just like we did on November 2nd when we set our clocks back an hour.
Some Context
Before I tell you how it went, let me explain where I got the idea. I read Dr. Andrew Huberman (a very popular neuroscientist from Stanford) explaining something that seems obvious but that we often forget: seeing direct sunlight first thing in the morning is key for our mind and body.
Note: it has to be direct sunlight, not just looking at it through a window. As I understand it, this light sends an alert signal to the body, raises healthy cortisol levels to wake us up, and, most importantly, activates a "timer" that makes us sleepy about 12 to 14 hours later.
In simpler terms: to sleep well at night, you have to get some sun in the morning. At my age, sleep is sacred, so I decided to try my luck and brave the Canadian cold.
My Week of “Light Bathing”
The plan was simple, but it required willpower, because going out onto the porch or walking around the block for 15 to 20 minutes, without sunglasses, as soon as I woke up (here the sun peeks out shyly between 7:30 and 8:00 AM) and it was below freezing.
The beginning, like everything, was very cold and I had little desire to go out. The first two days were tough. In Ontario, we're already approaching sub-zero temperatures. Getting out of the warm blankets to have the icy wind hit your face feels like madness, because you have to avoid catching a cold.
My rational mind —the one that spent 53 years inside concrete boxes— was telling me: “Go inside, man, you're going to catch a cold.” But I held out. I stayed there, watching that grayish light of dawn reflected on the snow. Did I feel a magical change instantly? Not at all. Just cold.
Well, halfway through, I could say I felt a subtle change. Around the third and fourth day, something curious happened. I usually have an "energy dip" around 3:00 PM, that urge to take a nap or have another coffee. But on the fourth day of getting my dose of sunshine, I realized that at 4:00 PM I was still decorating the house, carrying boxes of Christmas decorations up and down, without that heavy fatigue from the previous week.
It was as if my body had finally understood the message: "Ah! It's daytime, time to be alert," —I smiled—.
The end result: sleeping literally "like a baby," ha, ha, ha. I often wake up at 3:00 AM (the famous "grandpa's insomnia") and toss and turn in bed. By the sixth day of the experiment, I slept straight through until 6:30, in time to continue my routine.
The theory worked for me. By telling my brain when the day began with real light, it automatically calculated when to release melatonin for sleep. It's fascinating to think that, even though I'm in good health, such a simple adjustment as going out onto the porch can improve my quality of life so much.
My final holiday reflection
I ended the week feeling much more energetic. And mind you, I didn't take extra vitamins or anything like that; just light and walking. And I'm still doing it…
The sun is information for our bodies. When we live indoors with LED lights and screens until midnight, we're lying to our biology. We tell it that it's always daytime, and a hormonal chaos ensues that I'm sure you've noticed if you're over 50.
It's ironic, isn't it? I spent years working under artificial light, and now that I'm "retired," I'm finally working in sync with the planet, with my body.
If you're up for trying it (even if you're in the tropics):
- No sunglasses: At least for those 10 minutes in the morning. Remember, never look directly at the sun; if it bothers you, just look at the clear sky.
- Early in the morning: Afternoon light doesn't work as well; it has to be morning light.
- Patience: One day won't work miracles; I started to feel the difference on the fourth day.
Now, with my batteries recharged, I have the energy to finish decorating the tree and wait for my family. Especially my son Matthew, who's always full of energy.
And you? How's your sleep? Are you brave enough to try this natural "biohacking" or do you prefer to stay in bed? Let me know in the comments!
If you've been following me lately, you know I'm going through a profound transformation. I've gone from the hustle and bustle to this peace —sometimes almost too quiet— of Ontario. I've talked to you about healing, money, and even death; sadly, I know few of you have actually read it. But today I want to come down from that philosophical cloud and tell you something much more down-to-earth. Something that has to do with how my body works now that I'm 70 years old.
Lately, I've been coming across a buzzword a lot: "Biohacking."
I confess that at first it sounded like something out of a science fiction movie; I imagined people getting chips implanted or swallowing twenty strange pills. But after doing some more reading, like a bookworm, I discovered "Soft Biohacking." Basically, it's using modern tricks to return to what's natural, to what our ancestors did. And that's what really caught my attention.
The Enemy: The Darkness of the North
Living up here on the map —ha, ha, ha…— just before Christmas, we have a serious problem: the lack of natural light. The days get shorter, incredibly fast, and the sun becomes a luxury. I started noticing my energy plummeting and my sleep, already fragile, was becoming a disaster.
So I decided to use myself as a guinea pig. I set myself a 7-day challenge based on chronobiology (the study of our internal rhythms) to see if I could adjust my biological clock using only one tool: the morning sunlight. Just like we did on November 2nd when we set our clocks back an hour.
Some Context
Before I tell you how it went, let me explain where I got the idea. I read Dr. Andrew Huberman (a very popular neuroscientist from Stanford) explaining something that seems obvious but that we often forget: seeing direct sunlight first thing in the morning is key for our mind and body.
Note: it has to be direct sunlight, not just looking at it through a window. As I understand it, this light sends an alert signal to the body, raises healthy cortisol levels to wake us up, and, most importantly, activates a "timer" that makes us sleepy about 12 to 14 hours later.
In simpler terms: to sleep well at night, you have to get some sun in the morning. At my age, sleep is sacred, so I decided to try my luck and brave the Canadian cold.
My Week of “Light Bathing”
The plan was simple, but it required willpower, because going out onto the porch or walking around the block for 15 to 20 minutes, without sunglasses, as soon as I woke up (here the sun peeks out shyly between 7:30 and 8:00 AM) and it was below freezing.
The beginning, like everything, was very cold and I had little desire to go out. The first two days were tough. In Ontario, we're already approaching sub-zero temperatures. Getting out of the warm blankets to have the icy wind hit your face feels like madness, because you have to avoid catching a cold.
My rational mind —the one that spent 53 years inside concrete boxes— was telling me: “Go inside, man, you're going to catch a cold.” But I held out. I stayed there, watching that grayish light of dawn reflected on the snow. Did I feel a magical change instantly? Not at all. Just cold.
Well, halfway through, I could say I felt a subtle change. Around the third and fourth day, something curious happened. I usually have an "energy dip" around 3:00 PM, that urge to take a nap or have another coffee. But on the fourth day of getting my dose of sunshine, I realized that at 4:00 PM I was still decorating the house, carrying boxes of Christmas decorations up and down, without that heavy fatigue from the previous week.
It was as if my body had finally understood the message: "Ah! It's daytime, time to be alert," —I smiled—.
The end result: sleeping literally "like a baby," ha, ha, ha. I often wake up at 3:00 AM (the famous "grandpa's insomnia") and toss and turn in bed. By the sixth day of the experiment, I slept straight through until 6:30, in time to continue my routine.
The theory worked for me. By telling my brain when the day began with real light, it automatically calculated when to release melatonin for sleep. It's fascinating to think that, even though I'm in good health, such a simple adjustment as going out onto the porch can improve my quality of life so much.
My final holiday reflection
I ended the week feeling much more energetic. And mind you, I didn't take extra vitamins or anything like that; just light and walking. And I'm still doing it…
The sun is information for our bodies. When we live indoors with LED lights and screens until midnight, we're lying to our biology. We tell it that it's always daytime, and a hormonal chaos ensues that I'm sure you've noticed if you're over 50.
It's ironic, isn't it? I spent years working under artificial light, and now that I'm "retired," I'm finally working in sync with the planet, with my body.
If you're up for trying it (even if you're in the tropics):
- No sunglasses: At least for those 10 minutes in the morning. Remember, never look directly at the sun; if it bothers you, just look at the clear sky.
- Early in the morning: Afternoon light doesn't work as well; it has to be morning light.
- Patience: One day won't work miracles; I started to feel the difference on the fourth day.
Now, with my batteries recharged, I have the energy to finish decorating the tree and wait for my family. Especially my son Matthew, who's always full of energy.
And you? How's your sleep? Are you brave enough to try this natural "biohacking" or do you prefer to stay in bed? Let me know in the comments!
Growing as a person, seek and find what you need to be a better person in the Holos&Lotus Community. Surely, there's a topic that will catch your attention.
Community's own infographic Holos&Lotus
Dedicated to all those who, day after day, make the world a better place.
Dedicated to all those who, day after day, make the world a better place.
Desconocía que en Canadá también cambiaran la hora, acá en Chile también se hace, en invierno se retrasa una hora (se agradace por que hay una hora más de sueño aquella noche), en verano es al revés, ahí se adelanta, nos quitan una hora de sueño, el reloj biológico anda acelerado, el hambre llega antes y bueno, el humor anda raro, pero todo es cosa de adaptarse a la nueva realidad que nos toca.
El ejercicio que planteas se ve muy bueno, no aseguro hacerlo mañana mismo, pero si es algo que iré haciendo en la semana.
Fue un gusto leerte.
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