Which supplements and lifestyle changes improve sleep, and which cause insomnia?

Lemon balm 400mg. twice daily did help me sleep ....but then it stopped working.

Coconut oil whether internally or on the skin, gives me insomnia. Everything has coconut oil in it...food, detergents, hand soap, make up..you name it.

I wake up every night at 3 a.m. for no reason I can pinpoint. I fall asleep easily, it's staying asleep which is the challenge. I eat dinner at 6 p.m. and fall asleep around 11:30p.m. so I don't think it's dinner timing / digestion related. It's not too much water before bed, either. This only started happening a few months ago.

Great info! Does anyone have any experience or insights from taking lemon balm?

I recommend people with poor sleep quality to try NAD+ IV infusion. A dose of 250mg had an immediate effect on me. After the first infusion, I had a sweet dream for the first time in a long while, felt very energetic all day, and was in a great mood.

Has anyone tried Lysine for sleep? I'm wondering exactly how it affects the cortisol level, which may be off with some people.

I found that 200 mg of magnesium glycinate makes me calm and decreases my anxiety a lot. I take Thorne powder ( no financial interest).

As a lifetime dieter, I have found over and over and over that reduced calories or reduced carbs cause insomnia. Wake up at 2am and it takes hours to get back to sleep. As soon as my calories go back to a normal level and/or I eat a high carbohydrate diet my sleep is great again. This is very common amongst those of us who are always trying to watch our weight.

Melatonin worked great for me at first but by the 3rd day I started to build a tollerance to it and had to take more. After about 5 or 6 days I stopped, and had a harder time than usual falling asleep for the next 2. Which for my body's effects it seemed to build dependence on it very quickly. Now I avoid it.

Have there been any studies on GABA supplements for insomnia? Pros and cons?

This comment by an MD sleep specialist for 40+ years. Expanding on lifestyle modifications that may help with insomnia. First and foremost is the crucial importance of keeping a regular schedule no matter how well you sleep. Regular means regular i.e. at the very same time 7 days a week without exception. Another aspect is bedtime which should also be highly regular. Amount of time spent in bed is also important. Sleep is segmented and comes apart at its' seams if too much time in bed. Hence the regular schedule should limit the time in bed to your estimated average amount of sleep plus 30 minutes. Would not go below 6 hours in bed. Next, sleep in the dark with no TV, radio, cellphone or computer whatsoever. A night light for bathroom visits is OK. As I tell my insomnia patients: the bed is for sleep and sex and nothing else. Never ever look at your clock or watch during the night. Knowing home much time you have left for sleep is totally unnecessary and fosters anxiety which is arousing. Use the clock only as an alarm (set to the chosen time for getting out of bed. Finally, sleep timing is regulated by our body clocks which need to be reset on a daily basis. This is done by light exposure first thing in the morning. If getting up time is before dawn then spend 10 to 15 minutes in the brightest room in the home. If after dawn go outside if you can. Even cloudy days have enough light to reset a body clock. Hope this helps.

A TBSP of Chamomile puts me right to sleep but doesn't help with early waking. 1 mg of melatonin doesn't help my sleep much but I'm groggy until noon the next day! CBD helps with pain so if that's the cause of insomnia it helps, otherwise it doesn't.

Every insomnia article touts melatonin as a sleep enhancer, and 10-20 mg at night did help my primary sleep maintenance insomnia. However, it very distinctly made me fall several times every day for years. I quit it when research showed that supplemental melatonin doesn't enhance mitochondria or fight cancer, and beginning THE NEXT DAY I haven't fallen ONCE in six months. Granted, my vestibular system is independently impaired, but going overnight from falling a few times every day to not once in 6 months is life-changing. Melatonin users who fall should consider going without it for a few days as a trial.

I'm wondering how many people experience vivid dreams or nightmares after drinking chamomile tea. For me this effect became so bothersome that I had to give up my Sleepytime tea habit. I know it's the chamomile because having straight chamomile tea gave me nightmares consistently. I've since spoken with other people who had a similar experience but can't find much online.
I have no financial interest in any sort of sleep product. Exercise during the day and avoiding caffeine have helped me the most.

PREGNANCY & CHAMOMILE: Please note studies that chamomile tea is to be avoided during pregnanct due to an increased potential of miscarrriage and bleeding. I would assume that chamomile in other forms would pose the same or greater potential risks during pregnancy.

Falling asleep has been my issue (until recently). I suspect that once I did finally go to sleep, it was not a deep restorative sleep. I felt tired and sleepy during the day and craved 3-4 hour naps in the afternoon, which I’m sure just compounded my problem at night. I’d tried just about everything (short of sleep medication)… glycine, melatonin, L-Theanine, magnesium, sleepy time tea, sound machine, and the list goes on….nothing helped. Until I found a combination of many of the natural supplements I tried in a product on Amazon called ‘NightRest’ (Source Naturals Sleep Science NightRest With MelatoninMultiNutrient & Herb Complex). Two (2) tablets 30 minutes before bed and I am falling asleep quickly. Finally getting the deep, restful sleep that my body has been craving. The first couple of weeks after starting it I still needed to take those afternoon naps… assuming my body was catching up from being sleep deprived. The 3rd week in, I no longer required 3-4 hour naps during the day. I cannot say enough about this product. I receive no financial remuneration for this recommendation. I am 71 years old and am only reporting my experience with this product. Your results may differ…and of course, always check with your doctor before adding any supplement to your regime.

thank you for sharing your detailed information Robert Yes, we all need help regarding our sleep problems. I will try some of your suggestions and hope my sleep habits will improve.

If wake in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep I drink a cup of organic Chamomile tea and within 10 to 15 minutes I am asleep for the rest of the night. Only thing that works for me.

Over the counter progesterone cream was a life saver for me. I can’t sleep without using it on a regular basis. A doctor recommended it.

I found that taking my magnesium at bedtime and taking my vitamin B in the morning greatly improved my ability to fall asleep and now I dream much more.

Cannabis works best for insomnia for me. 5Mg THC Indica edible containing CBN or CBD works best

I've tried many things. The very best is CBD oil before bed & again if you wake up during the night.

In a quest for a deep, full night of sleep I've tried most of the products mentioned in the article.

Currently I'm having success with glycine (an amino acid in protein) and l-theanine. Glycine helps me fall and stay asleep and l-theanine calms my mind for deep sleep.

My dosage: Glycine 3 mg plus l-theanine 200 mg, both a half hour before bed. If I happen to wake in the middle of night and can't fall back asleep I'll take an additional 1mg of glycine and 100 mg of l-theanine. (If you try these your dosage and success may very of course.)

Other things I do to help my sleep:

I avoid all caffeine, even in the morning. Even decaf coffee has a little bit of caffeine in it. As does chocolate. I take any supplements that might energize me, like my multivitamin or Coq10, in the morning.

In addition I dim all lights an hour or more before bed and try not to use my phone or computer. If I watch TV I dim the backlight it to the lowest setting.

I installed room darkening shades and curtains so my bedroom is very dark. Also for any gadget in the room that has a bright LED on it (like a Roku for example), I covered the LED with black electrical tape.

And although I can't do it everyday, I definitely sleep better on the days in which I work out or do a lot of walking.

My results with other supplements:

Valerian - Gives deeper sleep once sleeping, but doesn't put me to sleep. Doesn't always give me a full nights sleep. If I wake up in the middle of night, more valerian does not put me back to sleep.

5-HTP - Puts me to sleep and gives good sleep but often times I get grogginess in morning. Interestingly, it reduces my sleep apnea incidents (as measured by my CPAP machine.)

L-Tryptophan - Puts me to sleep but sometimes I would wake up in middle of night and had trouble getting get back to sleep.

Melatonin - I've tried regular and timed release versions. It worked well at first but my body quickly built up a tolerance and the pills lose their effectiveness after several days.

Magnesium - Doesn't put me to sleep, but once asleep it helps give deeper sleep. However I assume because it relaxes my muscles, my sleep apnea increases when I take magnesium before bed.

Benadryl / diphenhydramine / ZZZQuil (allergy pill / sleep aid) - Although this helps me sleep it causes grogginess in the morning. Also it is anticholinergic, which is not good for the brain, so I will not use this at all anymore.

Hope all this helps someone!

I get insomnia from most herbal supplements I take. Betaine Hcl taken with my supplements has helped a little bit. Of course I take all supplements in the early am. I am 83 years old . Any help would be appreciated.
Dr John Mohney DO

Vitamin K can cause insomnia. Especially K2. I had to stop taking it as it really made me uptight and anxious.

In the past I read that eating protein later in the day might contribute to sleeplessness, for what it's worth.

Hi, i’ve had terrible insomnia since taking berberine, but everywhere that I have researched it doesn’t say there is any link between insomnia and berberine, can you please let me know if you’ve heard of this before? Thanks

Why is there never any information and warning about the high amounts of glutamate in protein powders and chelated supplements ? Our bodies are getting an overload of glutamate anyway, because it is hidden under so many different names in the food supply. I have ended up in the E.R. several times with severe side-effects like tachycardia, hyper-excitability, digestive problems and sensory changes in my arms and legs. I also can not fall asleep because I am so hyper. But when my diet is void of added sources of concentrated glutamate, I sleep like a baby.
See a listing of all the sources on a site like ' Hidden sources of MSG ,Truth in labeling campaign'. Reading it has changed my life and health for the better dramatically.
We all have a different threshold -I am extremely sensitive to it-, but at a certain level everybody will have a reaction .

S.F.M

What is considered to be a 'high amount''?

For Tim & Joe-
What are the dosages for the 3 items you take and the timing? I too have interrupted sleep and wake at that "witching" hour of 3a. Thank you - Linda

I have had bad insomnia for several years (fall asleep no problem, but wake up at 3-3:30 am every morning). I too take vitamin D as I have an extreme deficiency. It will not hurt for you to try cutting out supplements to try and determine if one of them are affecting your sleep, but understand that our bodies change as we age, and there are side effects of these changes, and the answer may not be as simple as you hope. I have been on my quest for optimal sleep for five years now. I have learned a LOT about sleep, and more importantly all of the different bodily cycles responsible for sleep. It is odd that something so common - that we all MUST do - is so complicated and so heavily regulated by our bodies. Long story short, after trying EVERYTHING, it was determined that my Serotonin / Cortisol cycle was out of whack. For me, my deficiency in Vitamin D exacerbated the problem, and far from causing insomnia in me, I needed vitamin D for sleep. In the end, I take melatonin, tryptophan, and 5-HTP, and I now average 7 hours sleep per night. On those days where I wake at 3 am with the cortisol raging, I pop an additional 100mg 5-HTP and within a half hour I am back to sleep until 7-7:30
I guess what I am saying is that you are looking for a simple answer to a complex problem, and unfortunately, our bodies do not work that way. What works for one person, may not work for you, because the underlying problem may be very different, yet with the exact same result - lack of sleep.

I am unable to sleep when I take a multivitamin pill, even a childrens version, and over the years discovered I was extremely sensitive specifically to Vitamin E. Same for taking a vitamin D supplement. I can take a large dose (5 - 10,000 iu) of D once a week, but even a small dose (1000 iu) daily gives me insomnia. I learned that I am sensitive to all 4 oil soluble vitamins if taken in a dose even approaching 50% of the RDA. I think the problem could have to do with metabolism. Possibly a coincidence but I also have celiac sprue.

interested in comment about insomnia and vitamin d.

i have insomnia and take D3 (1000iu) plus my multi vitamin contains another 500iu.

interested in research on this subject.

can you refer to me this research as i could not locate anything about INSOMNIA / VIT. D

thanks