It's pretty common for people taking the racetams and related noots to not take them past the afternoon because they would otherwise interfere with their sleeping patterns.
I have found this to be true with my phenylpiracetam and noopept, if I take either past 4pm, I will be more alert and 'thinking' than normal around bedtime, which for me is around midnight. It's never interfered with the efficacy of my nightly dose of Ambien, though, nor did my sleep quality seem reduced.
I can give you a quick review of all the sleep aids I've tried over the years, the ones I remember anyway:
Lunesta (rx) - Also known as "lunasties" due to the metallic taste it would cause in your mouth, even into the morning hours after waking up. Did not consistently put me to sleep either. Ditched it after a week.
Valerian root - This was interesting. It did gently encourage me to relax, but I would still have trouble going to sleep before dawn and when I did sleep, I would oversleep and I have disturbing dreams that left me in a near panic. Another one bites the dust.
Bacopa - Relaxing and had gentle nootropic advantages. Made my tummy gurgle a bit but no big deal. Unfortunately I had to quit this because of its tendency to trigger migraines. Sucks.
Melatonin - This made me feel like I had restless leg syndrome. It was torturously annoying and kept me awake. Also made my body feel heavy for a long time which I did not like. Byebye.
Benedryl - Similar to melatonin, and one time I was losing my mind from lack of sleep and kept dosing periodically until my heart started flipping out and my breathing was feeling very depressed. When I went to the hospital because I thought I had stupidly killed myself, the doc laughed at me and said 'people can't overdose on benedryl'. Okay, I deserved that.
5-htp - I hear some people have success with this as a sleep aid. Serotonin keeps me awake but not in a bad way. I use 5-htp for other purposes and I like it, but I take it irregularly as it is unknown whether using it daily is wise.
Theanine - On its own, has effects similar to 5-htp, I'm awale but nicely calmed, not annoyed at being awake. However if paired with Ambien it enhances the effects of Ambien.
Taurine - Very gentle and would be good to stack with some other sleep aid, as it is calming but typically does not sedate people into being sleepy, drowsy and can therefore be taken any time during the day.
Chamomile/lemon balm/lavender - Meh.
Exercising and breathing exercises - Good for many but not quite enough to put me to sleep, so I can't speak to sleep quality. I think the obvious answer here is that these are both good things.
There's others I can't remember right now. Anyways I'm on practically a lifetime supply of Ambien now because it's the most consistent with the least negative side effects. I notice a lot of people giving bad reports on Ambien, but those reports tend to be accompanied with other shit you should not do when taking Ambien, making it very obvious that most people are not reading much about the drug BEFORE taking it.
Never to go bed with food or a bunch of water in your stomach. Ambien is cool for me here because it forces me to have a two hour gap between food and sleep and makes me plan ahead, otherwise the Ambien's efficacy will be compromised. -- It's a good thing for more than one reason: eating closer to sleep times increases the likelihood that your body will store more of the food as fat instead of burning it off, and forcing your body to partition its efforts between restoraton and digestion compromises the quality of your sleep. Many people oversleep or wake up feeling unrested just because they ate too close to bedtime. It also increases the likelihood of needing bathroom trips during the night.
Edit: It may be helpful here to avoid eating carb-rich foods at dinnertime, since those foods have a tendency to give people a nice burst of energy, but then quickly leave them hungry again, increasing the chances that they will go for a nighttime snack. Eat more protein than carbs at dinner so that you won't lay awake feeling that special gnawing carb-induced 'hungry'.
Edited by Duchykins, 13 February 2014 - 08:22 PM.