What has helped you with sleep/insomnia - post links

[Crux]

After taking calcium chelate for over a year now, I can also take magnesium glycinate. It's hard to believe.
This has further improved sleep, anxiety, and irritability.

Both calcium chelate and magnesium glycinate bind and remove phosphorus, which disturbs my sleep among other things.

This is great.

 

[Mary]

Hi @Mary -- Was wondering if you're aware of some of the books written on niacin which outline how it's good for so many things, including mental health disorders such as schizophrenia.

I have read about high dose niacin helping with schizophrenia. There are so many things that can be helped by specific nutrients (e.g., thiamin for congestive heart failure), benfotiamine or plain thiamin for diabetic neuropathy, and so on. It's just none of this is taught in medical school!

But I don't think hot water bottles would help me sleep - I can literally feel how my brain gets revved up, but the NAG is helping with that as well as the Delta 8 CBD - at least for now!

 

[Tammy]

Believe it nor not B12 helps my insomnia. I take a liquid blend of methylcobalamin with adenosylcobalamin. If I don't take it for a day or two I notice a difference in sleep

Magnesium Glycinate helps

 

[keenly]

Codeine makes me me sleepy but wide awake.

I am using dl-phenylalanine to combat the effects of long term 5htp and l trytophan but 8 weeks in I am now having sever insomnia. It has just started 1 week after switching to SOlGAR's brand. Last 2 nights I have been wide awake after taking what I normally do. It is a shame becase the DLPA does help with pain and heavy legs.

 

[perchance dreamer]

@keenly, DLPA gave me insomnia and anxiety.

 

[GreenMachineX]

It may well be all those things but it kicked my @ss badly, and I gave up on any form of green tea for several years. Am startng to add back small amounts of matcha, we'll see how it goes.

Therapeutic doses are generally at least 2 to 3 times too strong for me so I hear 'ya .... I have a special pair of small wire clippers that I use to cut tablets down, and capsules are easy to titrate ....

One of my objections to almost all medications is exactly what you said .... they're ONE active ingredient, minus all co-factors, synergists, co-enzymes, and ride-alongs, and probably substances that may not even have registered on the radar yet ....

What did theanine do to you exactly?

I think it's worsening my sleep, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm back to sleeping 5-6 broken ineffective hours, like I'm unconscious with 4 cups of coffee on board.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

What did theanine do to you exactly?

It was like I'd chugged 2 or 3 gallons of expresso .... jittery, anxious, racing heart rate, chest pressure, strobby eyes, and generally all-over miserable.

I think it's worsening my sleep, but I'm not 100% sure.

My sleep was so bad then that it's had to tell if theanine worsened it, but based on my other reactions to it, I doubt that it helped, and may have made it worse.

So not sure, but you might try dropping the theanine for a bit and see if your sleep gets better.

Hope this helps, poor sleep is torturous and sucks any hope right straight out of life ....

 

[Wayne]

I've been meaning to mention that one thing that sometimes helps me sleep is to massage my feet. Sends nerve energy to all parts of the body, and for me, feels like it harmonizes a lot of my body energy. I try to do ten or more minutes on each foot, which is fairly easy to do if you're doing something else like watching a movie or something.

Thankfully, my sleep has been better than average lately. Though it's sometimes hard to tell, I think it's from supplementing with 1,200 mg. NAC daily, 600 mg. first thing in the morning, 600 mg last thing before going to bed. It also feels like the NAC is giving me a little more overall energy.

 

[lyran]

Codeine makes me me sleepy but wide awake.

I am using dl-phenylalanine to combat the effects of long term 5htp and l trytophan but 8 weeks in I am now having sever insomnia. It has just started 1 week after switching to SOlGAR's brand. Last 2 nights I have been wide awake after taking what I normally do. It is a shame becase the DLPA does help with pain and heavy legs.

That is because DLPA increases dopamine levels. Everything that increases dopamine (phenylalanine, tyrosine, LDN, theanine) gives me calm energy during daytime but insomnia during nighttime. If you take DLPA, don't take it close to bedtime.

 

[GreenMachineX]

It was like I'd chugged 2 or 3 gallons of expresso .... jittery, anxious, racing heart rate, chest pressure, strobby eyes, and generally all-over miserable.

My sleep was so bad then that it's had to tell if theanine worsened it, but based on my other reactions to it, I doubt that it helped, and may have made it worse.

So not sure, but you might try dropping the theanine for a bit and see if your sleep gets better.

Hope this helps, poor sleep is torturous and sucks any hope right straight out of life ....

Definitely dropping it. Today has felt like I didn't sleep at all. And since niacin has helped bring me back to reality, I guess it was the theanine.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Definitely dropping it. Today has felt like I didn't sleep at all. And since niacin has helped bring me back to reality, I guess it was the theanine.

If you can. please come on back and lemme know how that worked, yes? Really really hoping that it helps .....

EDIT .... for usual spate of typos/ Only three, a record low .....

 

[GreenMachineX]

If you can. please come on back and leme know how that worked, yes? Really really hoping that it helps .....

Will do!

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Will do!

 

[Judee]

It is a shame becase the DLPA does help with pain and heavy legs.

There is one brand of D-Phenylalanine. Julia Ross in her Mood Cure book mentioned that DL may be over stimulating to some people and instead recommends the D-form for those people.

 

[GreenMachineX]

If you can. please come on back and lemme know how that worked, yes? Really really hoping that it helps .....

EDIT .... for usual spate of typos/ Only three, a record low .....

Made 2 changes...dropped theanine and also switched to magnesium glycinate. Slept so much better. 7.5 hours with only 1 wake up in between. Yay

 

[Mary]

Made 2 changes...dropped theanine and also switched to magnesium glycinate. Slept so much better. 7.5 hours with only 1 wake up in between. Yay

Wow - so glad to hear that for you - 7.5 hours sounds like heaven!

I've been taking mag glycinate for many years and do well with it, but still struggle with insomnia. @YippeeKi YOW !! I know you've written about l-theanine before and how it can cause insomnia - I never thought it did with me, but who knows? I'll try cutting it out too . . . . (you never know!) and will report back -

I am having some good results lately with taurine. I'm now taking 5 grams a day - a gram morning, noon, and before dinner (an on empty stomach) and then a gram before bed and another middle of the night - and with the newly added daytime doses, my sleep is becoming semi-manageable again, after quite a rough patch!

I first stumbled onto taurine and its help with neuroexcitotoxicity some years ago in connection with extreme MSG sensitivity. I learned that pantothenic acid (I'd taken for my adrenals) depletes taurine, and taurine helps the brain calm down. At that time I stopped the pantothenic acid, added 2 grams of taurine to my night time regimen and over a period of 6 months or a year, I can't remember, my extreme msg sensitivity disappeared. The sensitivity caused severe insomnia - unable to go to sleep before 3:00 a.m. if I ingested anything at dinner that had MSG in any of its iterations (see Names of ingredients that contain Manufactured free Glutamate (MfG) (truthinlabeling.org) ) I eat very little processed food, but who knew that a handful of olives would keep me up most of the night? I think the culprit that time was guar gum - why add guar gum to olives???

And then it (msg sensitivity) reared its ugly head again a few months ago. I don't know why and it took way too long for me to recognize it. I just started having nightmare insomnia, being awake most of the night, maybe sleeping 1 or 2 hours. I spent a lot of money, saw a few practitioners, no one could really help. It's a long boring depressing story, but I think I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. I've been doing the full day dosing of taurine for maybe 10 days? anyways, it is really helping and I don't seem to develop a tolerance for amino acids that I do with everything else, so I'm hoping it'll keep working. I know someone who takes this much taurine, maybe even a little more, and she does well with it - she's taking it for cardiac issues.

Also, fwiw, the taurine is helping lower my BP, which needed lowering (!) and no bad side effects that I can note - whew!

btw, the Delta 8 I wrote about above became ineffective very quickly, I developed a tolerance within a week. It was maddening!

 

[GreenMachineX]

Wow - so glad to hear that for you - 7.5 hours sounds like heaven!

I've been taking mag glycinate for many years and do well with it, but still struggle with insomnia. @YippeeKi YOW !! I know you've written about l-theanine before and how it can cause insomnia - I never thought it did with me, but who knows? I'll try cutting it out too . . . . (you never know!) and will report back -

I am having some good results lately with taurine. I'm now taking 5 grams a day - a gram morning, noon, and before dinner (an on empty stomach) and then a gram before bed and another middle of the night - and with the newly added daytime doses, my sleep is becoming semi-manageable again, after quite a rough patch!

I first stumbled onto taurine and its help with neuroexcitotoxicity some years ago in connection with extreme MSG sensitivity. I learned that pantothenic acid (I'd taken for my adrenals) depletes taurine, and taurine helps the brain calm down. At that time I stopped the pantothenic acid, added 2 grams of taurine to my night time regimen and over a period of 6 months or a year, I can't remember, my extreme msg sensitivity disappeared. The sensitivity caused severe insomnia - unable to go to sleep before 3:00 a.m. if I ingested anything at dinner that had MSG in any of its iterations (see Names of ingredients that contain Manufactured free Glutamate (MfG) (truthinlabeling.org) ) I eat very little processed food, but who knew that a handful of olives would keep me up most of the night? I think the culprit that time was guar gum - why add guar gum to olives???

And then it (msg sensitivity) reared its ugly head again a few months ago. I don't know why and it took way too long for me to recognize it. I just started having nightmare insomnia, being awake most of the night, maybe sleeping 1 or 2 hours. I spent a lot of money, saw a few practitioners, no one could really help. It's a long boring depressing story, but I think I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. I've been doing the full day dosing of taurine for maybe 10 days? anyways, it is really helping and I don't seem to develop a tolerance for amino acids that I do with everything else, so I'm hoping it'll keep working. I know someone who takes this much taurine, maybe even a little more, and she does well with it - she's taking it for cardiac issues.

Also, fwiw, the taurine is helping lower my BP, which needed lowering (!) and no bad side effects that I can note - whew!

btw, the Delta 8 I wrote about above became ineffective very quickly, I developed a tolerance within a week. It was maddening!

Have you tried increasing the taurine dose to like 3g at one shot? There was one a time I used 5g twice per day on empty stomach. Very relaxing.

 

[Mary]

Have you tried increasing the taurine dose to like 3g at one shot? There was one a time I used 5g twice per day on empty stomach. Very relaxing.

No, I'm still experimenting with it. Right now this is working for me, taking one gram at a time in five separate doses, So I'm afraid to mess with success!

I do need to do more reading about it though and I probably will try a higher dose at some point, particularly at night. I'll keep this in mind and it's good to hear that 5 g was very relaxing for you!

 

[GreenMachineX]

No, I'm still experimenting with it. Right now this is working for me, taking one gram at a time in five separate doses, So I'm afraid to mess with success!

I do need to do more reading about it though and I probably will try a higher dose at some point, particularly at night. I'll keep this in mind and it's good to hear that 5 g was very relaxing for you!

I have some taurine here. Maybe I should start it up again!

 

[Mary]

I have some taurine here. Maybe I should start it up again!

You did so well without it, 7.5 hours (!), I think I would wait a bit before adding anything else in ... Good sleep is priceless! Although, on the other hand, I haven't seen anything negative from the taurine ... How's that for being helpful?