Niacin for sleep

[Mary]

I recently started taking niacin - 500 mg. twice a day, and was very surprised to find my sleep improving, falling asleep easier, sleeping deeper, and going back to sleep more quickly when I wake up in the middle of the night. I had been taking niacinamide for quite awhile which didn't seem to affect me at all, good or bad, but when I switched to straight niacin, the effect was almost immediate. It also has lowered my blood pressure (which was already okay) some 10 points or so.

I take the morning dose after breakfast and evening dose about an hour before bed.

I read that niacin or niacinamide, or maybe both, affect the GABA receptors in the brain. I also read they affect the benzo receptors (if there is such a thing!). It's been used to help with benzo withdrawal. One study I read stressed very strongly that only niacinamide was helpful here but my experience was the opposite. It's also possible I had a crappy brand of niacinamide. In any event, I'm sticking with what's working - plain niacin - for now.

I do get the flushing but it's less than when I first started.

High doses of niacin can hurt the liver but my doctor said he's never had any problems with the above dose. Also, don't take extended release or time release or long-acting niacin - that's where problems arose with the liver. Also, don't take small doses throughout the day. Constant bathing of the liver in niacin seems to be a factor in liver damage.

Niacin is also supposed to very good for anxiety.

Mary

 

[Beyond]

Awesome that you improved sleep, that is a major breaktrough in healing! However,1000 mgs of Niacin aren´t an awful lot? If your doctor says is good then I understand is probably not something to be worried about.

What brand was the niacinamide and which brand is the niacin you take now?

I know of a woman in the adrenal fatigue forum that posted a significant improvement in all sleep parameters with large doses of niacin, like you. I gotta try it!! Today I have a slight headache all along that gets worse with activity thanks to crappy crappy sleep.

Here! http://curezone.org/forums/am.asp?i=2159249#i

 

[Mary]

I did read a fair amount about niacin and dosages, and 1,000 mg. a day isn't that high, and I did check with my doctor re liver issues as he is one of the very few doctors who knows anything about nutrition.

The niacinamide I was taking was Swanson brand. I don't know if it was the brand, or what, but it did nothing for me.

I've been taking GNC niacin, also took Nature's Way brand, both were good and helped with sleep.

Also, I would not get the no-flush niacin - in the past it did nothing for me. I don't like the flush, but it seems to be necessary.

If you google "niacin sleep" you can find more. I'm just surprised that in years of researching sleep issues, I've never come across niacin before. I know what crappy crappy sleep is like, and hope you get some help soon!

 

[Tiger Lily 813]

Hi @Mary thanks for posting this!!
I have been thinking so much about Niacin. I did test low in it after doing the active b12/methylfolate regimen for awhile, which I am no longer taking the methyfolate- anyways, I feel, by symptoms and the testing, that my body wants more B1,B2 & B3 right now.
Dr. Klinghardt has written about Niacin for lyme and candida. He says to work up to 3000 mg/day, but I never have. He also seems to think niacinamide is ok, but I know others do not.
I've been taking niacinamide & am planning to switch tomorrow to the flushing type.
Can you please let me know what happens with the flush? I'm scared. I have looked online but I am having a hard time finding out what symptoms the "flush," actually causes...
I have been a little scared to take any extra B's lately since taking more of the B12/methylfolate caused me to end up imbalanced. Don't want to do the same thing only different : ) !

 

[Mary]

Hi Tiger Lily - The flush just means your skin will flush, temporarily turn red - niacin dilates the capillaries, but it doesn't hurt, it's not dangerous. It might last half an hour. Your skin can also feel a little warm or even itchy but again nothing serious. If I were you I would start with 100 mg. twice a day, you will experience the flush but probably not that severe and then maybe work up to 500. Or 100 may be all you need. If you take it with food it's supposed to ease the flushing. I also read that taking an aspirin at the same time will stop the flushing although I have never tried this.

I also recently started taking B1 - 100 mg. (in addition to a B complex, and I still take extra methylfolate and methylcobalamin). I think the B1 is helping with energy, though it's too soon to tell. I've had a lot going on and have been sick so not a good time to tell exactly what is happening. I've read that B1 is supposed to help with the utilization of magnesium and if it is helping with energy, that is probably why.

For what it's worth, I don't do well with extra B2 so for that am just sticking with what is in the B complex.

Did you take extra potassium with the B12/methlfolate regimen? I found this was crucial for me. My potassium levels dropped with the extra methylfolate as my body started to use more, as Freddd pointed out would happen. If I had not taken extra potassium (which I am still taking), I could not have tolerated it. But am so glad I knew about the potassium because overall the methylfolate and extra potassium have given me more energy.

Mary

 

[perchance dreamer]

Thanks for posting this, Mary. I had never heard of niacin for sleep. It's worth a shot.

 

[Mary]

perchance dreamer - I stumbled across niacin for sleep by accident. I've done a TON of research and reading about sleep over the past 12 years, and never read about this before, and it is helping me very much. I also take l-theanine, lots of magnesium and Natrol brand sublingual melatonin, but this just seems to make everything work better. I am so pleasantly surprised and just hope it keeps working!

 

[TigerLilea]

Hi @
Can you please let me know what happens with the flush? I'm scared. I have looked online but I am having a hard time finding out what symptoms the "flush," actually causes...
I have been a little scared to take any extra B's lately since taking more of the B12/methylfolate caused me to end up imbalanced. Don't want to do the same thing only different : ) !

Hi Tiger Lily - Another TigerLilea here. :) I get the flushing from niacin. It starts off with my face getting itchy. Eventually it goes down my neck and my arms. My hands get very swollen and I can barely move my fingers. It only lasts maybe 45 minutes, but it's a very uncomfortable 45 minutes. I can't remember now what dosage I was taking when this would happen, but I think it was probably on the high side. I'm considering trying Niacin again but would start low at about 25 or 50 mg at the most.

 

[Tiger Lily 813]

Hi @TigerLilea : ) thank you- I was worried because I have low blood pressure- I will try it at a super low dose. Thanks!!

 

[Tiger Lily 813]

Did you take extra potassium with the B12/methlfolate regimen? I found this was crucial for me. My potassium levels dropped with the extra methylfolate as my body started to use more, as Freddd pointed out would happen. If I had not taken extra potassium (which I am still taking), I could not have tolerated it. But am so glad I knew about the potassium because overall the methylfolate and extra potassium have given me more energy.

Mary

Hi @Mary thanks for the info!! I'm not doing the methyfolate anymore; it caused severe immune dysfunction for me after 1.5 months. But I also have lyme, bartonella and adrenal fatigue, so I'm seeing a good lyme doctor (for the first time & tomorrow!) to try and see how to best resolve. I didn't take potassium at that time- I was tested for it and didn't test low at all.

 

[Tiger Lily 813]

Just following up - I got the flush & I seem to like it : ) haha unexpected! Maybe because I'm always chilly. Anyways, thanks again for this info, I can feel it doing more than the Niacinamide.

 

[Beyond]

If it helps sleep please report back!

 

[Tiger Lily 813]

Sorry @Beyond -- in my gaba-like haze I forgot to report, that it did indeed cause a gaba-like haze : ))) @Mary is absolutely right- at least for me - and granted I was super low in Niacin, but I did not realize that the flushing type would effect me so much differently from the Niacinamide. Dr. Klinghardt had written that they are both good, but that is not my experience. Flushing niacin made me relaxed and crash at bedtime when usually I have a strong urge to tinker around on the internet. Last night sleep def. won over internet : )
I thought I should also share this relevant Mercola article about niacin & detox that @slayadragon put on her facebook pages. Really good info : ) !

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...social&utm_content=lead&utm_campaign=20140504

 

[Beyond]

Ahhh http://files-cdn.formspring.me/photos/20120319/n4f678dd3d219b.jpg hopefully soon I will bed-crash as well!

 

[Mary]

Tiger Lily - I'm so glad the niacin helped you! Like you, it was much different for me than niacinamide, which did nothing for me. I also read another article about niacin helping with detox - it's still amazing to me that after all I've read about sleep and detoxing for so many years, have never seen anything about niacin helping before!

Mary

 

[Rita1979]

A google search for "niacin sleeping aid" brought me to this thread

I experienced exactly the same. Nicotinamide for a long time now didn't do anything. For ten days I am now taking somewhere between 500mg and 1000mg of niacin.

I take it diluted over the day. In our bodies niacin is converted to niacinamide, which is basically niacin plus ammonia. I am not sure if this might not be part of the reason why niacinamide in the long term harms the liver. It adds axctra ammonia to the body, while there is no more ammonia needed to form niacinamide if it is already given in that form.

I have found this
"The increase of breath ammonia induced by niacin ingestion quantified by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16603796

My nightsweats smell less bad since I take the niacin. I sleep much better and it helps falling asleep and sleeping again after waking up.

I love the flush, it creates so much relaxation in me and so much calm. But I don't dare to take a higher dose at once.

I also noted that apparently I also need to take a bit of L-Tryptophan. So I add 1 g several times a day to whatever I am drinking. I didn't do it the last two days and was much more unstable. Now I added L-Tryptophan to my coffee together with L-Tyrosine and my mind became again clear and calm.

Niacin can be created by the body by the kynurenine pathway, where Tryptophan is converted (using e.g. other cofactors such as B6) into niacin. That means that a too little niacin might also result in too little serotonine. By providing the body with Niacin it can convert more tryptophan into serotonine and that might also explain the sleep enhancing and calming effect it can have on the brain. OCDs and obsessive thinking, also the circling thoughts when love sick , are associated with low Serotonine.

 

[Crash Davis]

I was having severe brain fog the past 2 days... worst in years. I have been supplementing big time with lots of heavy hitters on various pathways.
I am still able to work and I was repeatedly finding I could put on thing down for a second and then spend the next five minutes looking for it....or walk into a room and forget what I was going to get.
Lots of internal dialogue, lots of catching myself staring off into space. It was like being trapped inside my body. Everything was internal and I had a whole bunch of EXTERNAL things I needed to be better at to not get in trouble.....

I reached into my grocery sack (I kid you not, I have a sack full of supplements value probably 500 us dollars lol). I remember following Ben Lynch (methylation, etc.) and then a suggestion on here and I decided to try 200 mg of Niacin. I felt like I needed a big jolt, cold shower...something to snap me out of it and thought about the flush.

So, I took 200 mg, went through the flush. Felt better. Took 200 more after that, went through another flush. Felt better. Got all my work done at work and got home and did another 200 mg. When that wore off I had this nice feeling that was very similar to the feeling I would have when I was healthy and had just returned from the gym in the evening.....a satisfied, relaxed feeling and felt like a could go right to sleep if I wanted to and eventually did.

Needless to say, today at work I'm popping Niacin right off the bat. I work alone so I am timing it to where the flushes (so far) have happened when nobody is likely to show up to the lab wanting something.

I have a runny nose right now!!!!!!!!!! Why is this exciting for me? It is exciting because my nose NEVER runs just always obstructed, congested, with thick rubbery snot that does not like to come out at all when blowing nose and when it does it just replaces itself almost instantly. A runny nose is a really big thing for me and all I've taken today is Niacin!!!
B3, Niacin, Nicotonic Acid----Not Niacinamide, Not Niacin Inositol, but just plain NIACIN.
What a fantastic vitamin.

 

[Mary]

@14yearsandcounting - Wow- it sounds like you were deficient in niacin, glad to hear it helped so much! You should be aware that niacin is also used to slow down methylation. I can no longer take it during the day, it makes me tired then, but I do well with it at night still. It also lowered my cholesterol (!) an unintended side effect.

 

[jodiesattva]

@Mary I came to the sleep discussion and who did I find??? LOL. I'm interested in niacin now, but I'm curious what you say about slowing down methylation. What if you have a methylation genetic defect? I have the heterozygous MTHFR defect, so would slowing down methylation cause problems for me? Or would that actually like really help put me to sleep??? I'm so sleep-deprived

 

[Mary]

@jodiesattva - hi again! Good question about methylation. I'm also heterozygous for a MTHFR defect - I believe there are several and I don't know which one off-hand.

In any event, niacin is used to slow down methylation. If someone takes too much methylcobalamin or methylfolate niacin will help slow down the methylation reaction. I take both methylcobalamin and methylfolate. and I don't take niacin during the day - it makes me tired then, but I do fine taking it before bed and in the middle of the night.

Some people react strongly to a small dose but I can tolerate a relatively high dose at night (500 mg before bed and 500 mg middle of the night). So we're all different. I would suggest you start with a small dose and see how you do and then work your way up. The 1500 mg. dose of niacinamide recommended for the protocol you posted about is fairly high and I would not start with that.

Here's a thread from this board about this issue:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/methyl-consumption-by-niacine-niacinamide.36454/

So sorry, I don't have a definite answer for you - many if not most of us here are DIY lab experiment s. The doctors just don't know much of this stuff and the ones who do are very few and far between. I would give niacin or niacinamide a try, but start low and go slow (a rule of thumb I use for every new thing I try except for when I'm impatient and want results NOW, which I sometimes regret ...)