Insomnia Rant Part Two/Phosphatidylserine

[maddietod]

Great. My PS comes in 100mg capsules. So start with 100, or 200?

 

[heapsreal]

Great. My PS comes in 100mg capsules. So start with 100, or 200?

start with half of the 100mg cap, so 50mg. dont expect much from this dose though, just start slow incase u get a bad reaction. work your way up to 400mg or stop if u find a lower dose helps.

 

[Little Bluestem]

You convinced me to resume taking PS 100 mg, which I had stopped on Christine's instruction. I had been taking it in the morning, but moved it to bedtime. That seemed to make my dreams worse, so I am now taking it in the evening about 3 hours before bed. I think it is OK. (There is too much going on in my life right now to know what is effecting what.)

 

[heapsreal]

You convinced me to resume taking PS 100 mg, which I had stopped on Christine's instruction. I had been taking it in the morning, but moved it to bedtime. That seemed to make my dreams worse, so I am now taking it in the evening about 3 hours before bed. I think it is OK. (There is too much going on in my life right now to know what is effecting what.)

PS can be stimulating for some but is also known to be calming if one has high cortisol levels, trial and error again.
Some PS products also contain phosphatidyl choline which can also be stimulating, the product madie used awhile ago that made her sleep bad was high in choline, so i will be interested to see how she goes this time. The PS i use doesnt say it contains choline, so it could be something to watch out for??

 

[maddietod]

Yeah, this one is pure PS. My cortisol is high at night, so I'm going to take it at bedtime.

 

[Little Bluestem]

Mine (Jarrow) doesn't list any choline either, just vitamin E and pill components.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Hey @heapsreal

What are you taking for sleep these days? I'll try to find the message you sent me with it in as well.

 

[heapsreal]

Hey @heapsreal

What are you taking for sleep these days? I'll try to find the message you sent me with it in as well.

Wow, this is an old thread, brought back memories.

Currently I take zopiclone, zolpidem and valium one pill each and an antihistamine either diphenhydramine 50mg or doxylamine 25mg and 20mg melatonin.

But I have been experimenting some nights with high dose melatonin 80mg and 1 zolpidem which seems to work but have the occasional night usually after about 3 nights on this regime and I have a bad night.

But I think alternating these protocols has brought my tolerance to benzo's down??

If I happen to have a crap night where nothing is helping, maybe once every 10 days, I will take either 25mg of seroquel or 150mg of lyrica with my sleep stack.

I am hoping to reduce the benzo's I'm on and sleep with just the melatonin and then maybe wean the melatonin, but that's a long way down the track. The high dose melatonin does seem quite good but need zolpidem to help me fall asleep. I'm getting around 6hrs sleep on the melatonin. If I need abit more sleep after 6hrs, I can squeeze another hr or so by listening to a boring pod cast, more of a light dreamy type of sleep.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Wow that is a combo

Thanks for replying. The valium really helps huh?

I've got valerian root 800mg extract (allows me to get back to sleep), melatonin 1mg but I've been reading about higher doses (gets me to sleep). Then diphenhydramine 25mg for sleep but that stuff builds tolerance very fast. I tried mirtazapine and even at lower doses I was a zombie for 48 hours. Cortisol and work stress aee my main issues rn.

If I wake up I normally find the only thing that gets me back to sleep is 4 reishi life extension capsules takes about 20mins to relax my entire body. Which makes me almost certain it's a cortisol issue.

Do you still believe your issues are all cortisol?

 

[heapsreal]

Wow that is a combo

Thanks for replying. The valium really helps huh?

I've got valerian root 800mg extract (allows me to get back to sleep), melatonin 1mg but I've been reading about higher doses (gets me to sleep). Then diphenhydramine 25mg for sleep but that stuff builds tolerance very fast. I tried mirtazapine and even at lower doses I was a zombie for 48 hours. Cortisol and work stress aee my main issues rn.

If I wake up I normally find the only thing that gets me back to sleep is 4 reishi life extension capsules takes about 20mins to relax my entire body. Which makes me almost certain it's a cortisol issue.

Do you still believe your issues are all cortisol?

Valium is really an add on just to top up the other 2 meds. Zopiclone and zolpidem are good meds to help you fall asleep quicker. I would have a good tolerance for sleep meds, I've had cfs since 2002 and probably started using sleep meds 12 months later after all the alternative treatments didn't help me.

I don't think cortisol is an issue for me anymore. I replace alot of my hormones like testosterone, dhea and pregnenolone. My hormones are all within a good range.

Occasionally my sleep cycle can go astray, so I start going to bed later and slowly over time go back to bed earlier. So my normal bed time now, I fall asleep around 10pm. If my sleep cycle goes off the rails, I will go to bed at midnight or 1am and over time slowly move my bed time to 9pm so I can fall asleep by 10pm.

I find if I run out of melatonin, within a few days my sleep cycle gets destroyed and I fall back to a bed time of 4 or 5am type of schedule and I sleep to maybe 9am and sleep quality isn't good.

Cheers