"natural" / "herbal" sleep aid. I don't want to go down the road of....

[dannno]

Does LSD make you feel good? If so, you shouldn't like serotonin. LSD suppresses serotonin. LSD is a serotonin antagonist. 5-HTP helps to produce serotonin. Serotonin is high in animals after a period of high stress which they can't escape. Until serotonin is reduced, they stay in a condition of learned helplessness. You'll get more of a state of turpor than good sleep with 5-HTP.

LSD makes me feel great, and so does mdma which floods your brain with seratonin.. I like both,, alot.... in fact, I like both at the same time :o

but I don't take the 5-htp while I'm trippin, it's for after or the next morning.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Valerian root is supposed to work. Meditation before bedtime also helps.

Also, don't watch tv in bed. Go to bed at the same time as often as you can. If you can't sleep, get up and go to another room to read or watch tv.

 

[SouthBeachPrimal]

Magnesium before bed helps me sleep a lot sounder.

 

[opal]

I'm going to have to toss in another thumbs up for valerian.. good stuff

also.. try a turkey roll up for your bed time snack.. tryptophan can't hurt

Hops is a sedative too.. go with the hops tea cuz with beer.. if it gets you to sleep, you're gonna have to get up to pee - which kinda defeats the purpose

Any chance you have sleep apnea? Even with sedatives - natural included, apnea will still disrupt the sleep. My dad has better luck with his apnea sleeping closer to upright in his recliner than laying flat.

*note to self.. if invited to party with Danno, make sure he brings the party favors.

 

[DamianTV]

Hey All,

I am a terrible sleeper. Very hard for me to fall asleep, and when I do - I wake up to the slightest sounds. I need more sleep.
I've been taking AdvilPM and tylenolPM and they work - but the idea of always taking these pain items do not seem like a good idea long term.

I've tried melatonin etc.. and it doesn't do anything. Granted, I've only tried 2 pills at a time... but seems like it does nothing. I've also been using cellucor and I sleep more soundly with it, but still hard to "fall asleep".

Anyone know of REAL natural remedies that actually work?

Stay away from Melatonin, period.

What happens is you start taking it, and your body STOPS producing it. You'll quickly become dependant.

My circadian rhythm is also fucked. I wake up at the crack of NOON. Always been a night owl. But when I do have a stable job, I prefer the day shift. Big problems when I work staggered or weekly rotated schedules. Damn near killed me. Fell asleep on the way to work, car just coasted to a stop. Walked off the job the next day.

Solutions:

It takes about Two Months to reset your bodys circadian rhythm so dont expect magic overnight. This is NOT going to be an easy task, but what I've found screws up my circadian rhythms is LIGHT. Too much light in the evening seems to fool my body into thinking its daylight when it isnt. Do NOT wear sunglasses in the morning, but as soon as you wake up, get some direct sunlight on your skin. Wear sunglassees in the Afternoon. Do your computer and TV stuff during the day, and do whatever you can to avoid excess light at night. About 2 hours before you go to bed, turn off or down the lights in your house. Avoid the bright cell phone screens also. Use it during the day (or when ever you want it to be your daytime). If you take Vitamin D, take it in the moring as soon as you wake up. Its another trigger for your circadian rhythm.

Foods. Turkey contains a substance called Tryptophan, which some studies suggest cause the body to produce more Melatonin. Avoid Alcohol. Not because of the alcohol itself, but because it is a SUGAR. Spikes your insulin levels, which also dick with your Melatonin production. A lot of sleeping disorders can be related to poor diets. My diet at the TV station was probably the worst I've ever had due to the screwed up schedule and flat out refusal of that company to give our department a LUNCH, even with 16 hour shifts or 8 hour turnarounds. I stopped sleeping period at the TV station, yet, I've worked on Film Crews and we were very well fed. You'll have to start examining what kinds of foods and more importantly when you eat them. Bananas are healthy but not good for dinner because they give you a ton of sustained energy. Eat that stuff in the morning, and stuff like broccoli in the evening. Not so much as to totally change your diet, but mostly focused on when you are eating what.

Caffeine: Avoid caffeine about 4 hours before going to bed. It varies from person to person. If I have a cup of coffee at 5PM (on a normal schedule, asleep around 11:30 to 12 midnight), I have big problems falling asleep. But give me a banana and a cup of coffee in the morning and I get verbal diahhrea and just wont shut the fuck up. Its like liquid sarcasm. I open my mouth and shit falls out. Great for getting going in the AM but not when I need to go fall asleep.

Exercise: If you exercise, do it during the day (well, your day, some of us are vampires ). If you have a dog, take it for a walk. They'll appreciate it as much as you do. Get your body moving during the day. Clean house. Vacuum. Run your mouth. You dont need to excessively push yourself as its not a workout regiment, just the normal way that we burn calories. Working. Farming. Moving. Sitting at a desk and talking to angry people about why their computers dont work is not burning calories. I have a callus on my ass from my years at a TV station where I basically babysat a computer, then on occasion, examine the insides of my eyelids closely for extended periods of time. TV is no vacation. Its Isolation. Film on the other hand also had some extreme hours, but I busted my ass on that job and was constantly moving. 12 to 16 hour shift, Id get home and just pass out. But when I woke up, although a bit sore, I was ready to get back at it again. Film offered a minimum of 12 hours off between shifts. TV will offer 24 consecutive hours, rotate your schedule, then tell you "thats your day off". TV is fucked. There were a lot of things that contributed me no longer being able to sleep at all. Bad diet. Shitty vending machine food and sodas. IE, sugar. Fucked schedule. But worst of all was boredom. I didnt do anything. Literally. I just sat there and sort of watched what we were sending out over the air waves. Problem was that not doing anything caused me to become all pent up. Its like a dog thats all wound up because he hasnt been taken for a walk that day. We arent that different. Just need to get the BODY moving.

TV: Try to stay away from those Bright Screens, again. Do you have family? Maybe they'd appreciate it if you spent more time with them instead of vegging in front of the TV? It has to become a routine however. Yeah, Im typing this up at 5am in the morning and plan on waking up at the crack of noon. My RPF theme is dark. The rest of the lights in my house are out, and its dark in this room. No music, just quiet. And Im ready for bed. I've found that when I leave my lights on, I stay up later than I intend. Turning the lights out seems to help me quite a bit. But if the sun comes up, Im pretty much screwed. No, not because I'll catch on fire, but that morning sun wreaks havoc on my sleep schedule. I sleep with a blanket over my head. Its been a habit since Ive been in the Military and found it blocks out both light and sound.

Awareness: I have frequent tension headaches. I know why, and I know how to deal with em. Its literally a muscle in your head that causes the headache. One of the actors was complaining about a headache on the last film I worked on. His scenes were constant smiling and highly expressive facial positions on one of the day sof shooting. It literally gave him a headache. He was asking for asprin or tylenol or something. I told him to just play the part of a stoner who was half awake and about to puke. So he relaxed his face and most of his head, and I even got him to drool a bit to play the part. Then I asked him to smile as bright as he could and when he did, his headache hit maximum pain levels. So I explained the whole muscle thing, and just relax those muscles and the headache damn near goes away immediately. He was blown away, but looked like he was gonna puke for about an hour, which no one else seemed to understand. Thus, once you are aware of that kind of headache coming on, you can nip it in the bud before it ever gets severe. Same thing with your body. If you feel your body is tense somewhere, make it relax. But be aware that the tension comes from multiple places. Its not always stress. Your body gets pent up too. For lack of a better way to phrase it, your body "knows" it needs to go burn off some energy. Thats usually when we get fidgety, when a touch of boredom is added in. But awareness is the key. Listen to your body. Its talking to you. Stop doing this. I need to get laid. I need that. Dont do that, it hurts. That feels good. Thats too much. I need more of this, and less of that. Its like a simple form of meditation. When I was having trouble sleeping when I was working at the TV station, I had a big problem with my brain not shutting the fuck up when I wanted it to. I'd daydream in bed while waiting to fall asleep, but never fell asleep. Brain needs something to challenge it and tire it out too. I do programming as well. Thats one of those jobs that just creates Brain Fry. When I get wrapped up in a project, my brain wont let something go unless I push it and push it and push it until I know exactly what I am going to put into code. But once I get it out and am happy with it, my brain just shuts down. I have energy to move, but none to think with. Thats when I get physical, and go play with the dogs and perform other mindless menial tasks just to get my body moving.

Exhaustion: If you ever hit a level of tiredness that you become truly exhausted, you WONT be able to sleep. You know you need to. You'll have zero energy to move or to think, but you cant fall asleep. When I was at the TV station, I think I was averaging about two hours of sleep every three days. Yet, I'd lay in bed for ten straight hours trying to fall asleep, start to doze off, then be right back awake and daydreaing instead of actually dreaming. Best way to describe this is like an ocean. Oceans have waves that come in cycles. If you go for too long without sleep, those waves disappear. Its like a constant flat surface. Like your body becomes accustomed to being half awake and half asleep for days on end. And it is dangerous. It can KILL you. Exhaustion leads to total fatigue and your brain is going to fall asleep when it wants to, not when you want to. Do that while your driving like I did or doing anything potentially dangerous and its game over. And even if you dont fall asleep while youre driving, your chance of having a heart attack skyrockets by a good 50%. My solution was to walk off the job. It was obvious that they had no intention of fixing my schedule. 7 shifts in six days. Two graveyard shifts followed by an 8 hour turn around to a Night Shift followed by another 8 hour turn around to a Double Day / Night shift, 16 hours off to come back a day later on a Night shift, then 24 consecutive hours (my "day" off) to start on Graveyard again, wash, rinse, repeat. And that was my permanent schedule. I fell asleep on the road, car just drifted over and I woke up going about 10 miles an hour on the freeway three exits late and not in any real danger. I went to work, boss came in, I turned in my security badge and just said "Fuck you, I quit" and walked off. I didnt even bother to explain what happened as there was no point if they refused to do anything about it.

---

I read an article, not sure if I can find it again, but Humans are normally Multi-Phasic Sleepers. When we only have access to Natural Light (IE only sunlight), studies have shown that we wake up about half way through our sleep schedule for about an hour, then go back to sleep. But since we've invented Fire, our sleep schedules have all just been fucked. Candles werent too terribly bad as they arent that bright, and we can turn our backs to Campfires. But in our modern era, everything is Neon Flashing Brightness from every device thats trying to be useful by grabbing our attention. Its those distractions that both screw up our awareness of whats around us, disrupts our ability to focus and concentrate, and throws a monkey wrench into our sleep schedules. Now, if you encounter this multi-phasic sleep pattern, dont freak, its actually very natural and normal.

Lessening our constant attention and dependancy on technology gives us more direct control over our bodies, and helps us to sleep in the way our bodies were built to sleep.

 

[Eagles' Wings]

Preparing for sleep is important, too.

Can you turn off all electronics a couple of hours before sleep?

Night shades that keep all light out.

Cool room and comfy bed.

Mercola has a long list on his site as well - some that we have adopted.

What Gunny mentioned about circadiam rhythms is well worth the time to look into.

Hope you have sweet dreams soon!

 

[evilfunnystuff]

Pot, look for a heavy indica if possible.

 

[Acala]

Unless you are elderly, sleep dysfunction is usually a symptom of chronic stress. Using some herb or drug to put you to sleep isn't going to get at the root of the problem. And if you have enough chronic stress to keep you awake at night, you can be sure it is causing other problems as well, even though they may not yet be evident.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

People have recommended alcohol. It is terrible for sleep. Avoid it.

A someone mentioned hops is a natural sedative. Hops tea. If you have alcohol, an extra hoppy beer might be OK (one). Must drugs have a bounce back effect. Alcohol will put you out for a time (not good sleep though), and then you will be stuck awake again.

 

[donnay]

Unless you are elderly, sleep dysfunction is usually a symptom of chronic stress. Using some herb or drug to put you to sleep isn't going to get at the root of the problem. And if you have enough chronic stress to keep you awake at night, you can be sure it is causing other problems as well, even though they may not yet be evident.

Valerian Root and L-Theanine will help you relax. If your stress levels are high L-Theanine can be taken all day without drossiness.

 

[jj-]

Many health food stores are now selling melatonin, to induce sleep and "prevent cancer." They have taken some information out of context, and don't realize how dangerous melatonin is. It makes the brain sluggish, causes the sex organs to shrink, and damages immunity by shrinking the thymus gland.

Link

 

[jj-]

If you have a circadian rhythm issue, there is new research showing that perceiving blue frequencies of light after sunset is bad for your circadian rhythm. It's good to use incandescent lights, because they have little of the blue frequencies. So does warm white LED. The CFL bulbs have a lot of blue light, and that messes up your circadian rhythm. So does your computer screen, but there is a software called flux that reduces the blue light your computer emits after sunset.

 

[Lord Xar]

Link

Makes the weewee smaller? WTF!!! I can't afford to lose any!!!

I have been using Cellucor which is a ZMA + product... I"ll toss in some valerian root and see what happens!

 

[angelatc]

Makes the weewee smaller? WTF!!! I can't afford to lose any!!!
!

I'm guessing they don't put that on the label!

 

[mad cow]

Makes the weewee smaller? WTF!!! I can't afford to lose any!!!

If you're going to let every little side effect worry you,you'll never get to sleep.

 

[Acala]

Valerian Root and L-Theanine will help you relax. If your stress levels are high L-Theanine can be taken all day without drossiness.

Sedation is a band-aid at best. For most people chronic stress comes from sub-optimal habits relating to the processing of experience. Those habits need to be replaced with healthy habits or the problem just gets worse with time. And sleep dysfunction (and the chronic depression that follows) is just the beginning of the damage caused by chronic stress.