Inability to go back to sleep
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Hello
I am 61 years old post menopausal. I have issues with staying asleep in the last couple of months. I go to bed around 11pm and usually wake up at around 2:30am not necessarily to go to the loo but I go anyway and have difficulty going back to sleep no matter how tired I was during the day. I can hear my heart pounding before but not lately. I also started getting something (boiled white sweet potatoes with butter or homemade Peat-inspired cheesecake) to eat and almost always fall back asleep within 15 minutes.
In the last week, I started taking 300mg niacinamide, 500mg taurine, 1.5grams glycine, 200mg magnesium malate with glycinate, 1500mg calcium 30 minutes before bed which I think helped with falling asleep and pounding heart but not much in terms of getting back to sleep. I wake up around 6:30am on a work day still feeling sleepy.
My diet is mostly skimmed milk, rice, beef, white/light yellow sweet potatoes, seasonal fruits, squashes, squid/shrimp (1 to 2x a week) and lately, chicken liver. I take 10,000 Vit D topically, 10-15mg of Vitamin K2 (diagnosed with osteopoenia 8 years ago) and 50mg niacinamide after breakfast and lunch and 200mg magnesium malate with glycinate 30 minutes after taking niacinamide. I also take 5 drops methylene blue 2 to 3 times a week and pee is bluish after 2 to 3 hours. I tried 70mg aspirin but made tinnitus worse. I have tried 1 drop of progest-E for a few days but it doesn't seem to help.
My exercise is walking and weight training 1-2x a week for about 20 minutes. I don’t take any medication.
Thank you!
JP
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@JP When I used niacinamide I couldn't sleep through the night properly if I used any after noon, and pounding heart was a common occurrence. Glycine was odd for me, as sometimes it made sleep much better, and others much worse. Those are the two that come to mind for me, based on personal experience.
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@NotShanalotte I was hesitant at first but niacinamide worked for me (to a certain degree) and my son (seems to be working quite well). 500mg did not seem to do anything but 1.5 to 2g did it. Thank you very much for sharing your experience.
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@JP You're welcome! I was using upwards of 3g throughout a day, and for awhile that worked, so I reduced it as needed when the sleep issues started.
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@NotShanalotte Sorry, I meant 500mg glycine did not seem to do anything but 1.5 to 2.0 did it. We are taking 300mg niacinamide lately.
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@JP said in Inability to go back to sleep:
Hello
I am 61 years old post menopausal. I have issues with staying asleep in the last couple of months. I go to bed around 11pm and usually wake up at around 2:30am not necessarily to go to the loo but I go anyway and have difficulty going back to sleep no matter how tired I was during the day. I can hear my heart pounding before but not lately. I also started getting something (boiled white sweet potatoes with butter or homemade Peat-inspired cheesecake) to eat and almost always fall back asleep within 15 minutes.
In the last week, I started taking 300mg niacinamide, 500mg taurine, 1.5grams glycine, 200mg magnesium malate with glycinate, 1500mg calcium 30 minutes before bed which I think helped with falling asleep and pounding heart but not much in terms of getting back to sleep. I wake up around 6:30am on a work day still feeling sleepy.
My diet is mostly skimmed milk, rice, beef, white/light yellow sweet potatoes, seasonal fruits, squashes, squid/shrimp (1 to 2x a week) and lately, chicken liver. I take 10,000 Vit D topically, 10-15mg of Vitamin K2 (diagnosed with osteopoenia 8 years ago) and 50mg niacinamide after breakfast and lunch and 200mg magnesium malate with glycinate 30 minutes after taking niacinamide. I also take 5 drops methylene blue 2 to 3 times a week and pee is bluish after 2 to 3 hours. I tried 70mg aspirin but made tinnitus worse. I have tried 1 drop of progest-E for a few days but it doesn't seem to help.
My exercise is walking and weight training 1-2x a week for about 20 minutes. I don’t take any medication.
Thank you!
JP
Hello.
You answered your own question already
Stated clearly in your first paragraphSpoiler:
this is a blood sugar issue. Or bs handling issue
This is usually caused by simply being hypothyroid and or not meeting your metabolic needs- niacinamide messed with my blood sugar. Lowered it.
- why take only glycine. Peat liked more complete AA.
- supplements can irritate your gut. That causes sleep issues.
- where is your coke or cheesecake during the day? Your jam? Honey? Maple syrup? Etc
For me:
I would eat more sugar during the day to support my thyroid and fill my liver with glycogen so to speak
And stay off all those supplements until my sleep was right -
@JP No worries. Everyone is different, for me glycine would sometimes have completely opposite effects. If it's working for you, no worries there. I would agree with Peatful about niacinamide lowering blood sugar, in my experience taking it before bed was a surefire way to wake up at 2am seeking food. Also I agree with the propensity for supplements in general to irritate the gut which can also cause sleep issues.
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I'm your age and also post menopausal.
I have problems with going back to sleep when I have taurine before bed. Even though it states it's relaxing but for me it's the opposite. I cannot take taurine everyday because it will interfere with my sleep. If I take it every other day in the morning I sleep much better.
I have milk with honey before bed and if I wake up at night I drink a few sips which helps.
It's trial and error.
Coffee doesn't wake me up at all, it's actually relaxing so I guess each one has to try things out. -
"I think the main thing that causes that age-related interrupted sleep is that things like decreased thyroid function slow your digestive processes and as your blood sugar falls in darkness and when you're sleeping, the falling blood sugar lets you experience a toxic reaction to the whatever is in your intestine and the irritation, inflammation, and absorption of endotoxin and surges of serotonin from the intestine, those get into the bloodstream, finish off your stored glycogen and wake you up with a stress reaction. And so trying to have the calmest, cleanest intestine possible at bedtime..."
"Having a carrot salad or a good bowl of cooked mushrooms or some slightly antiseptic fiber like that in the early afternoon and then having a fairly low protein, high carbohydrate supper right before bed like ice cream or a chicken broth that's very salty. A combination of salt and sugar right at bedtime helps to relax the intestine for a longer period."
- Ray Peat
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Thank you very much to all for responding. I resorted to supplements because sleep has been really challenging for a period of time. With the information you all have provided above and from listening to Jay Feldman and Mike Fave's podcast re sleep, I'm back to the drawing board to tweak my food intake specially in the evenings going for more carbs. Thanks a lot everyone! The experimentation continues....
