Iron On

I blamed my genes. It was my minerals.

Every now and then you stumble on something that genuinely changes the quality of your sleep. Usually it takes years of practice. This one took a blood test. And it started with a problem I did not even know was a problem.

I always thought I was some strange mix between an owl and a lark. I love the nights. I love the mornings. But the middle of the day was never mine.

Somewhere between lunch and late afternoon, the volume of everything would turn down a notch. I would feel weak. Sleepy. Not the kind of tired that sleep fixes, the kind that just sits there. For years I half-joked that it was my Spanish DNA, generations of siesta encoded in my bones. It was a nice story. It was also wrong.

A blood test came back with iron levels on the low side. The doctor said it was nothing to worry about. Within range. All good.

But “within range” and “optimal” are not the same thing.

I already eat iron-rich foods in the morning, so I was not starting from zero. But when I looked closer, I found the problem. I was drinking tea with my meals. Tannins in tea block iron absorption. I had been eating the right foods and washing their benefit away in the same sitting.

So I changed three things. I stopped drinking tea around meals. I paired my meals with vitamin C rich foods, which dramatically increases how well the body absorbs iron. And I started supplementing: Spatone Liquid Iron, Iron Bisglycinate, and vitamin C.

The combination was not subtle. Within days, the midday fog lifted. The afternoon slump I had built my identity around quietly disappeared. My energy through the middle of the day went from something I managed to something I barely noticed. That alone would have been enough.

What I did not expect was the sleep.

I am someone who wakes up naturally in the middle of the night. Multiple times. Sometimes four or more. I had always seen it as a feature. I would write my dreams down while they were still vivid. I would do a yoga nidra and let that become the nourishing practice of my night. As long as I had enough hours in bed, it worked. Since the iron, I hardly wake up at all. And I need fewer hours in bed to feel genuinely restored.

For anyone who does dream work or dream yoga, this matters. The quality of your sleep is the quality of your practice ground. You cannot do precise work in a restless body.

And that is what surprised me most. How small the adjustment was and how large the effect. My levels were not dangerously low. The doctor was not wrong to say it was fine. But “fine” left a lot of energy on the table.

Of everything you have tried, what surprised you most in how it changed your sleep?