5-HTP...Help With Sleep??

tsavorite · ‎03-09-2010

anyone take this supplement for sleep? I fall asleep but wake up thur out the night and was hoping this might help. If you do use it how much? only at bedtime or thur out the day?

I read it helps with seritonin levels and also some are using it for weight loss....don't know much about that...more interested in sleeping better!

Also it may help with mood/calm...that would be a big benefit for me too.

PhatCat · ‎03-10-2010

After taking melatonin for a couple of months and it not working, my ND had me try the 5-HTP, didn't work for me at all either. What I find works for me is first thing in the morning (especially now that the weather is nicer) I go outside for at least 10 minutes to get sunlight into my eyes, this tells my brain that it is morning. I get off my computer by 7:00 pm as the backlight mimics sunshine to the brain and throws off your circadian rhythm. If I watch TV at night I try to use the old tube TV as it is not backlit. I then take 2 magnesium before bed which is a relaxer.

good luck, not sleeping is the worst!

hckynut · ‎03-10-2010

On 5/11/2014 tsavorite said:
anyone take this supplement for sleep? I fall asleep but wake up thur out the night and was hoping this might help. If you do use it how much? only at bedtime or thur out the day?

I read it helps with seritonin levels and also some are using it for weight loss....don't know much about that...more interested in sleeping better!

Also it may help with mood/calm...that would be a big benefit for me too.

That has been my pattern of sleeping ever since I had to be some place at a particular time. Didn't matter if it was a job/a race or a hockey game. Sleep a couple hours/wake up and go back to sleep. When working my max sleeping time was 5-6 hours as any more than that and I was not even close to feeling my best.

Because someone has this type of sleeping pattern does not mean something is wrong and they need some sort of "sleep aid". Everyone is different but to me if someone is interested enough in what is going on during the time they are trying to sleep?

Get your doc to order a Sleep Study Test and see what might be going on. I've had 6 of them, but for totally different reasons than "sleeping a couple hours and waking up". I won't bore anyone that has read this far with the what and why of my sleep studies once again.

hckynut(john)