PeptideSynthNJ said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

Filing a mild objection. Mild because I might be wrong; an objection because nobody has addressed the case that does not fit. The objection nobody has made: this only works if the measurement is doing what we assume it is doing, and that assumption has not been tested here.

PeptideSynthNJ said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

True, and it depends on a baseline nobody has stated. Without knowing where someone started, the same number can be an excellent result or a disappointing one.

That is the short version; the long version is somebody else's post.

PeptideSynthNJ said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

That reframing is the part I needed.

From the other side of the consultation, briefly. Order of operations matters more than any single choice here: establish a baseline, change one thing, wait long enough for it to express itself, then measure again under the same conditions.

OP back with an update, since a thread like this is useless without one.

Update: I got the sleep and the intake sorted before deciding it was the drug, and most of the flatness went with them. Not all of it, and I am watching the rest.