👋 ASB Partners Nuggets 4.11.25
This is a short weekly email that covers a few things I’ve found interesting during the week.
Interesting Links/Reads
Many links are sourced from Marginal Revolution
The bottom line
Creatine’s low risk-to-benefit ratio makes it an intriguing option to consider alongside standard treatments for depression, such as SSRIs or CBT. Already readily available as a muscle-boosting supplement, it may be an easy addition to mental health interventions under proper medical guidance. However, it’s crucial to maintain realistic expectations. While evidence so far is positive, it remains largely preliminary, and what works in small, specialized studies may not hold true for everyone
The “Trump Thump” will go down alongside 1987’s Black Monday, 1929’s Black Thursday, the dotcom crash and the pandemic as one of the worst times ever to be in the stock market.
The two-day fall of 10.5% makes it into fourth place in the worst two-day drops since the S&P 500 was created in 1957. Worse were the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, the aftermath of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and the 1987 crash.
Go back further, and the drop after President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement stands out because it’s so rare that stocks put in back-to-back drops of close to 5%. Usually a really bad day for the markets is followed by a reassessment and partial rebound as traders buy the dip.
4.The science of making coffee stronger.
Podcast/Videos
This is a favorite from my childhood
Ben Shapiro on the All-In Podcast
From the Show Notes
⇒ Your body is supposed to be its coolest at night and its warmest during the day
Ashley’s favorite people to talk with about this are actually anesthesiologists
They know more about body temperature than anyone (it’s remarkable)
She’s had the great good fortune of learning that your body temperature is supposed to be the warmest during the day and the coolest during the night
When we do things like trap heat with down comforters
Quilted nonsense, even cotton replacement [comforters]
If the word duvet or comforter is in it ‒ it’s a “no”
Ashley gives people a handout of the definition of a cotton blanket
If you are cold, use 2 or 3
It’s made a huge difference for a lot of people
In particular, women with night sweats
Cotton blankets that Ashley recommends (Ashley has no affiliation with these brands, nor does Peter):
Utopia: Ashley has these; She layers several of them; They look flimsy but they are terrific
Process S and Process C: the science of sleep pressure and circadian rhythms [1:45:15]
Process S is sleep homeostasis, and that’s this sleep pressure idea that we are working on
Every day, we build up sleep pressure until its bedtime
And then, we capitulate; we fall asleep
Then, our sleep pressure drains throughout the night while we sleep
In the morning, we build it up again the next day
Peter asks, “This is just adenosine building up?”
Yeah, and that’s why caffeine is problematic
Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors
The caffeine crash (when it wears off) occurs and then all the adenosine floods the receptors, and we experience sleepiness
Why taking a nap is so difficult
What napping does is it basically kind of deflates your balloon a little bit of your sleep pressure
It robs you of some of that sleep pressure
By the time you get around to your normal bedtime, if you’ve taken a long nap, you’ve reduced how much sleep pressure you would ordinarily have at that time, and that’s why napping could be dangerous
Then, we have Process C, which is the circadian process
And process C just marches on, it doesn’t really care about your sleep pressure or how much you’ve slept
I hope you enjoyed it.
Adam