Products to Help With Sleep
Not getting good sleep? Thousands of studies will back you up in stating how important sleep is to your mental and overall health. If sleep has been a problem of yours for a time, you have probably experimented with some pharmaceutical solutions but now are reading this blog because those didn't work like the flashy ads said they would. This is because sleep is a healthy, natural state and can't be induced by any drug. A drug can only alter your consciousness so you don't know you aren't asleep. Case in point, Michael Jackson.
This Is Not a One Size Fits All Situation
Getting good sleep can be as complicated as health itself so in some of our consulting cases we spend a lot of time trying to sort out the changes that have to be made to improve the health to the point that decent sleep is again possible.
Sometimes it is easier than that though and supporting some of the pathways involved in switching the brain into a sleep state work very nicely. Sleep often involves support of serotonin and GABA pathways and inhibiting things like glutamate.
What Works for You CanChange
Over the years we have come to rely on a few products that can be helpful in most cases. What works this week might not work next week for many. Good sleep can be a moving target. We don't have a choice but to keep working on it.
Since I personally have had sleeping issues since I was my late elementary school years, I have tried many, many things over the years. This past 20 years or so I have relied on different strategies and supplements to make sleeping less of a battle.
We Have To Consider Diet
The first thing is to pay attention to food items that may be a factor. For me, gluten is a big issue. I went gluten free for other reasons but being gluten free had some sleep benefits. This is probably due to the problems converting glutatmate into GABA, that is a stimulating vs inhibitory neuron.
In our house we still occasionally use phenibut when we can find it. At the time of this writing (2013), this product was easy to find but as I update this blog (2023), it is not easy to find in the U.S. Versions of it are available in other countries.
Products We Commonly Recommend
One product we are currently recommending is Somno-Pro by Bioclinic. This is a nice combination of L-theanine, 5-HTP and Melatonin in a chewable wafer. Rarely does anything work for my wife and me but this has been a pleasant exception. Chew up one or two these at sleepy time and this should help.
Our go-to product that contained phenibut was Kavinace by NeuroScience. NeuroScience has added a product for sleep without phenibut that some have found helpful, Alpha GABA PM.This is similar in formulation to Somno-Pro and is in a capsule form instead of chewable wafers.
Another product that we routinely recommend is Formula 303 by Dee Cee Labs. We have been using this for over 40 years. This is a type of homeopathic valerian formula. It is marketed as a natural muscle relaxer but we mostly find it helpful for sleep.
Another couple of products we keep around are:
Karuna Sleep
Progressive Labs Melatonin
What will work best for you? You will have to experiment to see what is best. Many people have to add an adrenal support product like BetterGenix AdrenalGenix or NeuroScience AdreCor. This is especially true if you fall asleep but can't stay asleep.
Those are some ideas of products to help. Here's to a great night's sleep!
