28 replies to this topic

[Stanfoo]

Anyone here taken Glycine prior to bed for it's effects on sleep? I'm interested in hearing your experiences with it whether or not it made you sleep better (sleep onset, sleep quality, etc).

[stephen_b]

I take it. I find it a great help with falling asleep fast.

[deeptrance]

I take 3 grams at bedtime every night, based on having read one study that showed it improves sleep quality. I haven't noticed a subjectively detectable difference in sleep, but I have faithfully stuck to the routine for a couple years. On those nights when I forget to take it, I don't notice any difference. Seems like a harmless way to spend a very small amount of money, so wtf. And maybe it's doing some good that I just don't notice because of all the other things I put in my body.

Edited by deeptrance, 04 February 2015 - 04:38 PM.

[david ellis]

I take at least 15 grams during the day.   Good sleep, neighbor's dog barks at 5:30 am yesterday, I woke up and went back to sleep, quickly.  My wife says plenty of deep breathing.

[rarefried]

I started taking a gram at bedtime about 6 months ago.  It's improved my sleep significantly, effect has remained constant. 

[pro-v]

I had high hopes for this one but it had zero effects for me. 

[zaratoo]

I believe I had a good results taking 6g orally before bed. Better than 1-1,5g subbuccally. In sleep quality and duration department.

[Stanfoo]

So I've been experimenting with 3-5g doses before bed, didn't have any noticeable effects on sleep. Definitely doesn't make you fall asleep faster, and I don't feel "refreshed" upon wakeing like you're supposed to with this.

 

Had high hopes.

[Logic]

http://www.longecity...-obesity-amino/
http://www.longecity...n-for-sleeping/
http://www.longecity...after-stopping/

Also Glycine is a major constituent of Gelatine, so you may find some date points amongst those taking it before bed for cartilage repair and HGH increases.
http://www.longecity...en-supplements/

There may be a link between HGH and better sleep
http://www.longecity...mone-releasers/

[Strelok]

Glycine @ ~3g right before bed never noticeably affected my sleep.  I used it for a couple months to no avail.  I gave the rest of it to my friend who said they 'thought' it helped their sleep. 

[VastEmptiness]

My sleep stack consists right now of:
 

- 3g Glycine

- 1,5g Inositol

- 3mg Melatonin (6h Time-Release)
- 600mg NAC

- 0,5g GABA
- 2 capsules Magnesium

When i wake up (after 4-6h usually), I get another 0.5mg of Melatonin, 3g Glycine and 1,5g Inositol when I'm going for a full 9 hours of sleep. No hangover this way.

Of those I felt Time-Release Melatonin and Glycine had the most noticable effect. While I don't yet experience much better rest the next day, it makes me wake up less often and fall asleep quicker which is very desirable. Also all of those function as nutrients and are neuroprotective. Since they're cheap, I can recommend trying. Right now I'm waiting for Glutamic Acid (precursor to GABA) and some better quality Magnesium to add to the stack. What else does have a good calming effect is Passionflower (600mg), I use it mostly in situation of social anxiety or strong pain, but I would recommend trying it for sleep as well.

 

Maintaining healthy/natural sleep cycles without napping mid-day (and if, just 20 minutes) and doing exercise however had the strongest effect so far with supplements coming in 2nd.

Edited by VastEmptiness, 24 February 2015 - 03:30 PM.

[deeptrance]

Right now I'm waiting for Glutamic Acid (precursor to GABA) 

 

It's also a precursor of glutamate. Glutamic acid is very stimulating for me, not even remotely calming. I discovered this when I was eating a lot of nutritional yeast at night. I love the taste of that stuff, and I figured it was probably an easy thing to digest so I'd eat like a tablespoon late at night. Around that time I started having problems when I would lie down to sleep; my pulse was rapid and loud in my head like a bass drum playing on my eardrums, and I'd feel restless and agitated. I take a lot of different supplements and I dabble in RCs so I went through a number of experiments trying to figure out what was wrong. Finally I did some reading about nutritional yeast and learned that it's very high in free glutamic acid, and it's pretty common for people to be stimulated by it.

 

So anyway... if the glutamic acid helps with your sleep then more power to you, but I just wanted to let you know that if you feel racing mind and pulse after you start using it, then you should probably only use it in the morning.

 

By the way, I dig your user name. 

Edited by deeptrance, 01 March 2015 - 05:33 AM.

[VastEmptiness]

By the way, I dig your user name. 

 

funny, i just saw reply by "deeptrance" popping up and thought "thats an interesting name, should read". (: thanks.

 

some supplements have a bell curve effect like say rhodiola will stimulate at some dosages and be calming at less/more afaik. thats really good to know either way, because the least you wanna do is hook a stimulant for sleep or different way around lol

thanks for the info. after just trying it for 3 days now i can say it has definitely a calming effect. however i can't say how much it helps as i'm doing neurofeeback training everyday now and theres alot of changes any way. what i can say that at the moment it seems that i sleep deeper (time release melatonin seems to work much better than regular), wake up less often at night and still feel like shit in the morning.  days are pretty good as my sensitivity to stimulants has increased alot and i both take less and feel more energetic (oh sweet ketosis).

[xls]

I take this: http://www.amazon.co...SH03PMY7TNJR43G

Before sleep and everytime I do I get better sleep.

[smithx]

 when I'm going for a full 9 hours of sleep. 

 

Sleeping more than 8 hours a day is associated with a bunch of problems, including increased risk of stroke. 

[Logic]

I take this: http://www.amazon.co...SH03PMY7TNJR43G

Before sleep and everytime I do I get better sleep.

 

@ the ...person who voted this off topic:

Have you checked the amount of Glycine in Gelatine..?

Are you aware that Gelatine can raise HGH levels up to 6X and that HGH seems to be improve sleep?
 

[VastEmptiness]

 

I take this: http://www.amazon.co...SH03PMY7TNJR43G

Before sleep and everytime I do I get better sleep.

 

@ the ...person who voted this off topic:

Have you checked the amount of Glycine in Gelatine..?

Are you aware that Gelatine can raise HGH levels up to 6X and that HGH seems to be improve sleep?
 

 

very interesting. can you link to a source? i only know that asprey goes nuts for collagen sources at night.

 

 

 

Sleeping more than 8 hours a day is associated with a bunch of problems, including increased risk of stroke. 

the first thing that pops to my mind is a 3rd variable correllation: that sleepiness correlates to sickness which of course correlates to stroke or whatever. however, i'd love to find out more about this. can you link to a source?

 

when keeping a strict diet, etc. i feel fully energetic after 7.5 hours of sleep. when i can i add in one more cycle (9h). if i don't set an alarm clock etc. however the first moment i will wake up is after pretty much exact 10 hours and it has been like this for years. after that i feel the need to go up (which i usually dont) but i'm kind of brainfogged anyway. either way this is a territory of investigation for me, so any input is highly welcome.

 

when i'm coming back from my travels i'll get a better magnesium source and add collagen/gelatine to my sleepstack and report back.

also the neurofeedback training that i'll be continuing then is especially aimed at improving sleep so we'll see.

[Logic]

Plain old unsweetened gelatine from any store.
The hydrolysed collagen type 1 through 99 or whatever is all marketing hype to add 2 zeros to the price of what is just plain old Gelatine in the end.
You can find a big debate on this starting roundabout here:
http://www.longecity...ndpost&p=710608

I find stirring it into warm water is the best way to take it:
Too cold and you get a gritty mix that sticks to your teeth.
Too hot and it forms a goo stuck in the bottom of the glass.

IIRC the average person need about 50 grams to get the 6X increase in HGH.
Your HGH levels spike about 2 hours into sleep, and after exercise.
Vit C helps if you are taking it for cartilage growth.
http://www.longecity...ndpost&p=711410

Its good for the skin too.

[deeptrance]

when keeping a strict diet, etc. i feel fully energetic after 7.5 hours of sleep. when i can i add in one more cycle (9h). if i don't set an alarm clock etc. however the first moment i will wake up is after pretty much exact 10 hours and it has been like this for years. after that i feel the need to go up (which i usually dont) but i'm kind of brainfogged anyway. either way this is a territory of investigation for me, so any input is highly welcome.

 

 

I wouldn't worry about the "too much sleep" issue. Studies that correlate diseases to behavior are often very limited in their ability to be useful as a guide for individuals, since we're all unique and the studies pertain to averages while failing to control for countless other variables. You're being so conscientious about taking care of your health that you're an extreme outlier with respect to studies of the general population. When you have a high level of awareness about the state of your body and mind, you're probably better off following your natural inclinations rather than trying to conform to the latest version of "optimum" as proclaimed by data-mining researchers.

[Gerrans]

I always scratch my head about the information that more than a certain amount of sleep correlates with some worse health outcomes, such as stroke. I suspect confounders come into play, such as the drugs people are taking for health issues. Because I have noticed that my mum, who is in her eighties, sleeps rather a lot, considering all her well life she was up at the crack of dawn. Now you are unlikely to see her before 9. I wonder if this is caused by the bucket of drugs she has to take each day for various problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney issues, and to protect her from having further strokes.

 

I believe strokes are most common in the late hours of sleep, when one can become dehydrated, etc., and so the longer one sleeps perhaps the more likely the sleep and the stroke are to coincide?

 

I am a great believer in taking as much sleep as your body seems to require. Being in good health and not on drugs, that seems to work well for me. I can vary between five and ten hours sleep and am a big fan of the recuperative Sunday lie in.

Edited by Gerrans, 04 March 2015 - 02:37 PM.

[HoldingTheFaith]

It doesnt work, and it doesn´t matter how much you eat. Another worthless supplement.

[VastEmptiness]

It doesnt work, and it doesn´t matter how much you eat. Another worthless supplement.

science disagress. http://examine.com/supplements/Glycine


Btw. due to access i have been reducing some of my sleep supplements and what works pretty well right now is just 6h time-release melatonin (much better than regular!, i use LE), 500mg of magnesium and a vitamin c.

 

i got specificially off of glutamic acid because it 'seems' to interact with some of the medication i'm doing. had a positive effect on sleep though.

Edited by VastEmptiness, 30 March 2015 - 01:46 PM.

[HoldingTheFaith]

LoL at you guys. I actually am very well experienced with Google Scholar, and of course I read at least 6 studies proving that Glycine deepens/improves sleep in humans. But my experience, which non-arguably is much more important than what scientists may or may not write down, was that it doesnt help sleep at all. 10 grams nightly for weeks, no effect.

 

Ill informed.... haha. Stuipid scientologists. 

 

Or do you think it mattered when I read a gazillion studies "proving" that Hyperforin or St. John´s Wort improves sleep or depression and THEN I bought two supposedly very strong products from different brands that had NO effect? Face it, supplements usually don´t work, and medication tends to work, but to make you feel worse.

 

Roughly 15% of the 100´s supplements I have tried had any positive effect. Yes, my iHerb story shows that I have in fact tried around 100 different supplements in my desperation. Magnesium did nothing, Taurine did nothing, Aswagandha in huge quantities did nothing for my sleep.

 

Whole foods and such are the way to go usually. I blend and boil Japanese Green Tea and eat it all and that way I feel the benefits, taking a pill cannot outmatch that. Or you can eat raw cocoa for flavanols and stimulating compounds. Etc.

Edited by HoldingTheFaith, 30 March 2015 - 04:27 PM.

[platypus]

HTF if St. John's Wort or glycine are shown to work in a study, it does not follow that hey will work on everyone, and that includes you. 

[HoldingTheFaith]

HTF if St. John's Wort or glycine are shown to work in a study, it does not follow that hey will work on everyone, and that includes you. 

 

I get that, but why downvote my comment when I was just sharing my experience with the supplement? I find it very valuable when someone that has tried a lot of stuff tells you his experience. People with real sleep issues cannot really rely on studies but on individuals like them IMO. Insomnia is such a multifactorial issue and unrefreshing sleep in particular often spawns from underlying hormonal or inflammatory disorders.

[VastEmptiness]

LoL at you guys. I actually am very well experienced with Google Scholar, and of course I read at least 6 studies proving that Glycine deepens/improves sleep in humans. But my experience, which non-arguably is much more important than what scientists may or may not write down, was that it doesnt help sleep at all. 10 grams nightly for weeks, no effect.

 

Ill informed.... haha. Stuipid scientologists. 

 

Or do you think it mattered when I read a gazillion studies "proving" that Hyperforin or St. John´s Wort improves sleep or depression and THEN I bought two supposedly very strong products from different brands that had NO effect? Face it, supplements usually don´t work, and medication tends to work, but to make you feel worse.

 

Roughly 15% of the 100´s supplements I have tried had any positive effect. Yes, my iHerb story shows that I have in fact tried around 100 different supplements in my desperation. Magnesium did nothing, Taurine did nothing, Aswagandha in huge quantities did nothing for my sleep.

 

Whole foods and such are the way to go usually. I blend and boil Japanese Green Tea and eat it all and that way I feel the benefits, taking a pill cannot outmatch that. Or you can eat raw cocoa for flavanols and stimulating compounds. Etc.

Man, nobody was trying to start a fight. I can see that your experience is frustrating but that's not the supplements fault but rather that either you're not responding or the reason to your symptoms lie somewhere else. If everybody was responding in the same way to treatments, the human health problem would be solved by now. However saying that supplements don't work because of your experience is plain wrong. Also I feel if you get 15% supplements that subjectively really help you then this is probably a big gain already, no? I tried alot of stuff too but what helps me is worth alot more than the investment of research/buying imo. Also the only reason I could think of a pill won't do the job when compared to a tea etc. would be the absense of co-factors. Easy solution is combining a natural source with the supplement (which i usually do).

 

Have you tried approaching your problem from the psychodynamic side? It sounds to me like you're trying to solve a problem on the physical side that might have it roots somewhere else. Medicine tries to fix everything by shooting a physical symptoms, Psychotherapists are trying to heal everything from the inside; what worked for me is the combination of both. 

[HoldingTheFaith]

Wow, thank you for being so considerate. I guess I was a bit of an asshole. My life is pretty frustrating and its getting the best of me. My sleep is restless since I was 19 (23 now) and I seem to have less libido every year, plus I barely digest food without digestive enzymes. Its like being the undead, really, very very sad.

 

Yes you are right, I realised like last year that apart from healing my leaky gut and adrenal fatigue I will need a meaningful and satisfying occupation and human relationships to heal. Aka the psycho-emotional side. Thanks for reinforcing my ideas regarding that.

Edited by HoldingTheFaith, 30 March 2015 - 04:52 PM.

[VastEmptiness]

Wow, thank you for being so considerate. I guess I was a bit of an asshole. My life is pretty frustrating and its getting the best of me. My sleep is restless since I was 19 (23 now) and I seem to have less libido every year, plus I barely digest food without digestive enzymes. Its like being the undead, really, very very sad.

 

Yes you are right, I realised like last year that apart from healing my leaky gut and adrenal fatigue I will need a meaningful and satisfying occupation and human relationships to heal. Aka the psycho-emotional side. Thanks for reinforcing my ideas regarding that.

fucked up digestion and chronic fatigue is fucking living hell. been there. i can highly recommend reading up on the neurofeedback threads. don't know how much it can affect your colon (i mean lower stress always helps), but the fatigue stuff is highly controlled by the brain (and i believe more likely than by the adrenals) and gets better for me with every session. i had several similar symptoms and what helped me the most was:

 

- cutting out gluten for good, adding fiber

- going on a ketogenic diet (changed my fatigue like night/day difference, so probably my insulin response is fucked)

- starting neurofeedback training

 

psychotherapy helped me mainly build a personality that will allow itself all that medical attention without stopping to search for an answer. it improved most every aspect of my life however i simply kept some of the bodily symptoms until i got into said practices. after doing all that my brain still showed really fucked up/reversed patterns in the brain-trainer.com assesment. i'm fixing that now day by day which might be the treatment for good. will report back in the threads.

[HoldingTheFaith]

You know what that sounds like out there to me but I will look it up since it helped you so much. I know my brain is fucked, I have depression and that is a brain syndrome. I especially would appreciate that my brain starts making me feel drowsy at night like its supposed to do instead of more energetic, that would be nice lol

 

I also recently had scheduled a psych that is specialized in Asperger´s which is what gives me social anxiety and the origin of a lot of my problems, so I hope this time psychology helps (have been treated by various shrinks already to no avail). That reactivity you guys witnessed from me in this thread is just a small glimpse at what my "mental problems" have gave me all my life. Constant seeking of conflict, but funnily enough with a very sensitive psyche and low selfesteem that make me ridiculously vulnerable. Yeah, I am fodder for psychotherapists!

Edited by HoldingTheFaith, 31 March 2015 - 10:44 PM.