Kids these days are a fucking joke.
They pop random nootropics to boost focus, and shovel down melatonin and theanine just to get some sleep.
If problems could be solved with those pathetic little supplements, there wouldn’t be a single failure in this game.
You’re just pissing your money away like a dumbass.
The real problem is that the brain’s operating system, the foundational root—the cholinergic system—is already fucked.
This article is a war manual that shows you how the command center inside your skull operates, and how every stack and effort gets thrown in the trash when this system collapses.
For those who want to dig deeper, check out the papers attached below.
I’ll shove only the core concepts into you, tailored to your level.
Get your shit together and focus.
Every system in our body follows the circadian rhythm, its 24-hour cycle.
It’s a biological clock that oscillates on a daily cycle, synchronized by signals like light and food.
And the master clock controlling it all is a thing in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).
Stationed right in this command center are cholinergic neurons—the soldiers of the cholinergic system.
These fuckers are responsible for stamping time onto memories.
In short, even remembering what you did yesterday is thanks to this system.
The key neurotransmitter commanding our body’s parasympathetic nervous system, Acetylcholine (ACh), is of course made from choline.
These acetylcholine levels ride a rollercoaster all day long.
They peak during waking states when you’re wide-eyed and focused on training, dip slightly when you’re sitting around spaced out,
and hit rock bottom during the deepest sleep, Non-REM sleep, specifically slow-wave sleep, when brain activity is minimal.
Then, when you transition into REM sleep, where dreams happen, they surge back up like crazy.
Still don’t get what this means?
Sleep isn’t just about lying the fuck down.
It’s post-combat maintenance time.
During Non-REM sleep, when acetylcholine levels are low, the brain organizes and stores the combat logs (memories) from the day.
Conversely, during REM sleep, when acetylcholine levels are high, the brain runs virtual reality simulations called dreams to prepare for the next battle.
In fact, animals without cholinergic neurons have almost no REM sleep at all.
That means they can’t even dream.
The reason those clowns who brag about lucid dreaming use drugs that manipulate acetylcholine levels is all because of this principle.
Your sleep quality is fucked?
That’s a signal that the commander in your brain’s command center isn’t in his right mind.
So what the hell are these cholinergic neurons?
They’re special forces deployed throughout the nervous system, equipped with two types of receptors—two types of communication channels.
Both respond to the code word ‘acetylcholine,’ but one additionally reacts to a mushroom toxin called muscarine, and the other reacts to nicotine found in tobacco.
So the scientist fucks named them muscarinic receptors and nicotinic receptors.
Just think of them as two different antennas receiving acetylcholine.
How critical this system is was already revealed back in the 1950s.
When they gave women giving birth anticholinergic drugs under the guise of painkillers, the women collectively lost their memories like they had dementia.
In the 1970s, even clearer evidence emerged.
When people were given a drug (scopolamine) that paralyzes muscarinic receptors, they developed amnesia; this couldn’t be fixed with stimulants like amphetamine, but only recovered with a drug that blocks the breakdown of acetylcholine.
From these incidents, the scientists realized the truth.
If the acetylcholine system is destroyed, human cognitive ability becomes pure garbage.
Later, observing that people who quit smoking experienced a decline in cognitive function, it was discovered that nicotinic receptors are also directly involved in this war.
Here’s the most important part.
Acetylcholine isn’t a lone wolf.
It’s a neuromodulator that commands the better-known neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.
Simply put, those guys are the infantry, artillery, and armored units fighting on the front lines, while acetylcholine is the operations commander overseeing all these forces.
If this commander is fucked, no matter how much powerful weaponry (steroids, growth hormone) you pour in, the battlefield will just be a mess.
So listen the fuck up.
No matter how many state-of-the-art stealth fighters (Trenbolone) and tanks (Testosterone) you deploy, if the control tower (cholinergic system) is broken, they’re just scrap metal.
If you cannot dominate your brain, your body will never truly be yours.
Reference Papers
1. Kametani, H., & Kawamura, H. (1991)
Circadian rhythm of cortical acetylcholine release as measured by in vivo microdialysis in freely moving rats
Neuroscience Letters
https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3940(91)90715-W
2. Hut, R. A., & Van der Zee, E. A. (2011)
The cholinergic system, circadian rhythmicity, and time memory
Behavioural Brain Research
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166432811000556?via%3Dihub
3. Gais, S., & Born, J. (2004)
Low acetylcholine during slow-wave sleep is critical for declarative memory consolidation
PNAS
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0306774101
4. Inayat, S. et al. (2019)
Low acetylcholine during early sleep is important for motor memory consolidation
bioRxiv
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/494351v3
5. Singh, A., & Gupta, D. (2019)
Can acetylcholine make you dream?
Sleep Science
https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/abstract/10.5935/1984-0063.20190087
6. Niwa, Y. et al. (2018)
Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptors Chrm1 and Chrm3 Are Essential for REM Sleep
Cell Reports
7. Li, X. et al. (2018)
Generation of a whole-brain atlas for the cholinergic system and mesoscopic projectome analysis of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons
PNAS
https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1985.tb37600.x
8. Bartus, R. T. et al. (1985)
The cholinergic hypothesis: A historical overview, current perspective, and future directions
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1985.tb37600.x
9. Drachman, D. A., & Leavitt, J. (1974)
Human memory and the cholinergic system: A relationship to aging?
Archives of Neurology
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/article-abstract/572706
10.1001/archneur.1974.00490320098012
10. Frankenhaeuser, M. et al. (1971)
Effects of smoking on behavior and physiological effects in monotonous situations
Psychopharmacologia
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00421376
11. Heimstra, N. W. et al. (1967)
Effects of smoking upon sustained performance in a simulated driving task
Psychopharmacologia
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00404734
10.1007/BF00404734
12. Collins, A. L. et al. (2016)
Nucleus Accumbens Cholinergic Interneurons Oppose Cue-Motivated Behavior
Neuropsychopharmacology
https://www.nature.com/articles/npp201693
13. Bontempi, L. et al. (2017)
Dopamine D3 and Acetylcholine Nicotinic Receptor Heteromerization in Midbrain Dopamine Neurons
European Neuropsychopharmacology
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924977X17300160?via%3Dihub
14. Filip, M. et al. (2020)
The role of serotonin in nicotine abuse and addiction
Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780444641250000426?via%3Dihub
15. Bombardi, C. et al. (2020)
Acute and Chronic Nicotine Exposures Differentially Affect Central Serotonin 2A Receptor Function
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/5/1873
16. Hernández-López, S. et al. (2016)
Nicotine and the Stimulation of 5-HT Dorsal Raphe Nucleus (DRN) Neurons
Neuropathology of Drug Addictions and Substance Misuse
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25231613/
17. Jensen, A. A. et al. (2005)
Neuronal Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors: Structural Revelations, Target Identifications, and Therapeutic Inspirations
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jm040219e?utm_source=chatgpt.com&
